(St Petersburg, FL)- This year's Sperry Topsider St Petersburg NOOD
Regatta promised to have good racing on the water on the basic
assumption that Tampa Bay's infamous winter weather patterns
cooperated. They didn't. Unfortunately. Light, shifty, drizzly day
was the order of the day on Friday. Then, Saturday dawned with fog and
no wind in the morning giving way to glorious sunshine and no wind in
the afternoon-- at least the parties were fun! Then, after nearly two
days of no wind, the weather Gods tossed the fleet a huge curve ball as a
massive trans-continental Low frontal system passed from the West to
East across America. With gusts into the mid-20s, the fleets were
challenged with short steep chop and shifty breezes making for some
tough beating upwind and fast rides off-the-wind.
The
biggest one-design keelboat class at this year's STSPNR were the fleet
of nineteen J/24s, easily eclipsing any other fleet at the event!
Returning champion from the local Davis Island YC, Todd Fedyszyn, had
his hands full on his boat SPOONY TACTICS, managing to accumulate an
11-3-2-3 for 19 pts, good enough for just fourth place. The winner of
the class in a "runaway" was Travis Odenbach from Rochester YC on HONEY
BADGER, garnering a very fast 5-1-1-1 for 8 pts to win not just the J/24
class but also the coveted St Pete NOOD Overall Champion of the largest
and most competitive class at the regatta-- earning himself a trip to
sail in the NOOD Championship Regatta in the British Virgin Islands 2012
later in the year on giant, air-conditioned cruising bath-tubs equipped
with air-powered weed-whacker blenders- renowned for making killer
"umbrella rum drinks"! Just behind Travis and crew were Chris Stone
from Atlantic Highlands YC sailing VELOCIDAD to a 3-4-3-2 record for 12
pts to secure 2nd overall. Also flying the AHYC flag and lying third
sailing a very solid series was John Surguy on VANISHING ACT, adding up a
4-2-5-5 score for 16 pts. Rounding out the top five behind Todd on
SPOONY was Steve Wood from SailNewport sailing TASMANIAN DEVIL.
In
the J/80s, a competitive contingent of eight boats rocked and rolled in
the breezy conditions on Sunday. Many found it to their liking and had
some fun planing around on some good puffs and decent waves. The fleet
had a good cross section of teams from across the country, from Texas
to Wisconsin, Florida to New England. Winning was Fort Worth Boat
Club's Ramon Torres sailing 80 PROOF, managing to sail a very consistent
4-1-2-2-1 score for 10 pts and easily win their class. Behind Ramon
was a very tough race for the balance of the podium, if not the top
five. Second was Gary Panariello hailing from North Shore YC racing
COURAGEOUS to a 2-2-3-3-7 for 17 pts. Just one point back in third was
local Randy St James sailing for Davis Island YC onboard CLAIRE,
managing to sail super-fast on the last day to snag a 6-5-4-1-2 tally
for 18 pts. Yet one more point back was Tod Patton from Milwaukee YC
sailing BLONDIE to a 7-3-1-4-4 score for 19 pts. And one more point
back from him was Ian Torrie from Nepean Sailing Club racing BLIND FAITH
to a 3-4-5-5-3 record for 20 pts. Whew! That was a close finish for
these four boats on the last day!
Sailing photo credits- Allen and Daniela Clark/ Photoboat.com For
more St Pete NOOD Regatta sailing information
