CIRCE’s CUP Crowned Marblehead NOOD Champ!

(Marblehead, MA)- With a storm front moving through Massachusetts Bay Sunday afternoon, the conditions between Saturday and Sunday of the Sperry Top-Sider NOOD Regatta in Marblehead could not have been more different. As the first guns sounded, the rain started to fall and by the third leg of the J/105 fleet's first race the combination of light air and building chop kept many of the lead boats from making significant gains up the course.

"It made the course very challenging going upwind," said J/105 overall winner Rick Dexter, skipper of CIRCE’S CUP. "Our fleet was extremely close, all three top boats were within one point of each other. Fred deNapoli in the second place boat, and TWO FEATHERS [third place] from Dallas are all fantastic competition and inspirational sailors." Dexter and his crew aboard CIRCE’S CUP not only won the J/105 class but also the Wilmington Trust leader spinnaker, a new award added to this year's Marblehead NOOD.

The racing all started on Friday under postponement.  Light air early on made for a slow start to the regatta. With the left side of the course favored heavily, it was tactical decisions over routine local knowledge that produced the best results in the J/105 class.

Rick Dexter, skipper aboard Circe’s Cup, favored the left side and finished the day second in the fleet. “Very recently, the pattern has been a strong sea breeze on that side,” he said. “The first race we tried the right side, and it didn’t pay, so we read the course carefully and changed our tactics over to the left-hand side in the second race to improve.”  And improve they did, going from a fourth to first place finish by the end of the day.

“Basically the strategy is clean air,” explained Dexter, “That’s what we’re going to focus on tomorrow. The breeze should fill in and we should have better conditions. The fleet is strong, we have a great showing at this regatta, and the level of competition is great.”

Ahead of Circe’s Cup in the overall standings was Chris Lund and his crew aboard WHOMPER, who snagged two second place finishes, placing them at the head of the fleet with four overall points.

“Everything really came together for us today,” said Lund. “We work really well together, we have a lot of great voices on the boat. Collaboration was key in order to read everything that was going on out there. We just trust each other, we’re a more confident team.” The crew has taken a full year off from sailing together, and today’s success was their first foray back onto the water together.

“It came together so quickly, and that first race was almost flawless,” said WHOMPER tactician Caleb Sloan. “We recovered from any mistakes we made in the second race quickly, and worked together really well on recovery. Tactically, we paid attention to each other and whoever had the most confident voice made the call.”

Thanks to their tactical teamwork, WHOMPER had to fly the Wilmington Trust leader spinnaker, awarded each night to the J/105 class leader and finally to the overall winner to keep at the end of the weekend. All eyes were on WHOMPER to see if they would hold on to their class lead— you simply could not miss them on the race course in the middle of the 17 boat fleet.

On Saturday, the Westerly winds filled in slightly in Massachusetts Bay, staying shifty and in the low teens. The funky wind patterns made for a livelier day of competition. It also proved to be the undoing of the might WHOMPER, posting a 13-6 for the day and by Sunday adding in a 13-12 to drop them down to 5th place.  CIRCE’s CUP had a bad day as well Saturday, adding a 10-15 to their scoreline to drop them from contention after Saturday’s racing. However, their 1-3 on the last day was enough to just claw back into first place by one point over long-time local hotshot- Fred deNapoli sailing ALLEGRO SEMPLICITA.  Third for the weekend was Mark & Jolene Masur’s TWO FEATHERS only two points off the lead, suffering a 2-8 to drop them into at least a podium position.  Rounding out the J/105 top five was Jon and Stuart Wales sailing BANTRY to fourth place.

The J/24 class had a nice turnout with eight boats. Leading that fleet home was John Denham’s AIRODOODLE, a past regatta winner; their four 1sts in eight races proved insurmountable to Chris Clancy’s crew sailing LITTLE MARTHA, settling for second overall.  Third was Mike Taber on XING, winning at least one race from the top two boats.  Fourth was Mike Lachmayr on BLACKFIN and fifth was Martin Gallagher on SHIFTY.

The seventeen boat J/70 class had a combination of class veterans as well as new faces in the crowd amongst the top five.  It was Jud and Cindy Smith’s first significant regatta win, taking four 1st and two 2nds in nine races to win by a convincing 12 points.  Class newcomer Stein Skaane sailed SHRED to second overall with 27 pts.  He was followed by Bill Lynn & Matt Hooks sailing the great yacht SCAMP, taking third with 30 pts.  Fourth was Will Welles on RASCAL, winning two races but also suffering two bombers in a row for 313 pts.  Fifth was Tyler Doyle on USA 245 with 40 pts.  Sailing photo credits- Leighton O’Connor 
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