Sailors Lovin’ Blue skies, Hot Comp!(San Diego, California)- The three day Helly Hansen NOOD Regatta in San Diego, sailed from March 13th to 15th, couldn’t have had nicer weather, with record heat and enough wind to fill the scorecards for the 89 competing teams. Racing was held for 12 one-design classes, with the larger keelboats racing on the ocean course off Point Loma and the smaller sportboat and dinghy fleets on San Diego’s South Bay course. The event also included the North Sails Rally, a low-key random race on Saturday within the Bay.
The Overall HH NOOD Regatta Champion was John Laun and the crew of the J/120 CAPER, they were the winning team in the largest offshore keelboat class in the regatta. Winning the J/105s was Dennis Case and his crew on WINGS and taking it all in the huge J/70 class was Vince Brun’s BLISS.
Day One
The Helly Hansen NOOD Regatta kicked off its second stop of the season in San Diego with teams vying for individual class trophies and the regatta’s overall prize — a trip to the British Virgin Islands in the Helly Hansen NOOD Regatta Championship, hosted by Sunsail.
Five
one-design classes raced on San Diego’s South San Diego Bay Friday,
greeted with bright sunshine and winds that built from 5 knots to 17
knots, making for what local sailors said were perfect conditions.
Winds, however, were fickle earlier in the day, which lead to a
challenging for race for the J/70 class leaders, Jeff Janov and his team
on MINOR THREAT.“The starting lines were pretty square most of the day but we were starting near for the [race committee] boat because we wanted the right side of the racecourse, for a bit of current advantage, and the wind was coming from that way,” said Janov. “They were first around in the first race, jibed, and seemed ready to escape clean, but the wind died momentarily, allowing trailing boats to close the gap and sneak past.
“We kept telling each other to relax. It was one of those situations where you just had to wait and see how it played out,” said Janov. “We won that race, but we were sailing alongside Dave Ullman most of the downwind leg, so that was exciting to be doing that. He passed us pretty easy, but we stayed focused, tried hard and got back into it.”
Janov later said, “I would have been happy to be in the top eight given the talent in this fleet, but there is no mincing words, Willem [Van Way] and Victor [Diaz de Leon], the way they do tactics and strategy is impressive. They bounce ideas off each other and I just drive.”
After the first day’s racing Janov led the seventeen boat J/70 class with a 1-2-4 tally followed by Brun’s BLISS sitting on an 11-1-1 score and Scott Deardorff’s CAKE from Santa Barbara, California taking a 4-3-10.
Day Two
Favorable conditions continued on Saturday, giving nearly 700 competitors a full day of racing, with winds peaking into the high teens.
Saturday’s races featured 12 one-design classes with the larger keelboats like the J/105s and J/120s on the ocean course off Point Loma. The regatta’s smaller sportboat and dinghy fleets continued their respective series on San Diego’s South Bay.
Gary Mozer’s J/105 CURRENT OBSESSION 2 returned to defend its class win (which also earned them the regatta’s overall title in 2014). They were right back into the groove, winning the first two races and finishing third in the day’s final race.
“This was a strange forecast that had the breeze maxing out at 8 knots so we had our rig set up for the light stuff,” says Mozer. “The headstay was wrong so when the breeze came on we had to rally to tighten the rig, double-block the backstay, and find any way to open the leech.”
Mozer
says despite the team not racing together since last year, their
maneuvers were good and they got around the racecourse without incident.
“Everyone’s back: same crew, and it was all good,” he says. “We came
back to support the event and defend what could be our last year with
the boat. We want to go to the Caribbean again.”Behind the proverbial blitzkrieg by their Hollywood, California colleagues, Case’s WINGS with a 4-2-1 held tight to second and Stewart Cannon’s J-OK sailed steadily to a 3-3-2 for third on the day.
The popular J/120 class saw ten entries dueling offshore and after the dust cleared a trio of teams were sitting atop the podium with just 2 pts separating them. In first with a 1-4-1 was Chuck Nichols’ CC RIDER followed by Laun’s CAPER with a 4-1-2 and then a “new kid on the block”, Ernie Pennell’s MAD MEN, sailing steadily with a 2-2-4 to hang onto third for the day.
The J/70s on South Bay had a bit of a drama taking place with fickle winds dominating the course most of the day with an offshore breeze fighting the building on-shore sea breeze. After just two races, the top two scores for the day were Eric Kownacki & Tom Jenkins’ DFZ and Deardorff’s crew on CAKE horse-trading 1-3 scores! As a result, a new leader emerged in the J/70 class with Kownacki/ Jenkin’s DFZ sitting on top of this talented fleet with a 3-7-3-1-3 record for 17 pts followed by Brun’s BLISS in second with an 11-1-1-5-2 for 20 pts and in third was Deardorff’s CAKE with a 4-3-10-3-1 record for 21 pts.
Day Three
The last day of racing brought more prime sailing conditions off San Diego. Reveling in the conditions were the winners in the big boat classes offshore. Taking home two bullets to seal the deal for not just the J/120 class but also the Overall Champion of the HH San Diego NOOD was John Laun’s CAPER, posting a 4-1-2-1-1 for just 9 pts to eclipse their classmates. Just climbing into second by a hair-breadth was Nichols’ CC RIDER with a 1-4-1-5-2 record for 13 pts. Just one point back was Pennell’s MAD MEN with a 2-2-4-3-3 tally for 14 pts. The balance of the top five included John Snook’s JIM in fourth and Gary Winton’s SHENANIGANS in fifth.
Though they started off very strong, Mozer’s CO2 team faltered a bit towards the end while Case’s WINGS took off. After firing off three straight bullets, the WINGS crew won by 1 pt with a 4-2-1-1-1 record for 9 pts. Second was Mozer’s CO2 with a 1-1-3-3-2 for 10 pts. Sitting in a somewhat “frustrating” third place was Cannon’s J-OK with a 3-3-2-2-7 for 17 pts (if only he’d won the last race!). Taking fourth was Tom Hurlburt & Chuck Driscoll’s BLOW BOAT and fifth was Steve & Lucy Howell’s BLINK!.
The
J/70s saw some dramatic changes on the last day of racing with the
fleet standings looking like a game of “snakes & ladders”. Closing
with a very consistent 2-2 to win the J/70 class for the second regatta
in a row was Vince Brun’s BLISS, posting an 11-1-1-5-2-2-2 for 24 pts.
Hanging in for second with a very steady performance and his best J/70
regatta to date was Scott Deardorff’s CAKE with a 4-3-10-3-1-5-3 for 29
pts. Early regatta leader, Jeff Janov’s MINOR THREAT climbed back into
contention to take third place with a 1-2-4-2-13-1-9 for 32 pts. Just
one point back in 4th place was multiple World Champion Dave Ullman on
USA 32 and dropping back down to 5th place after a mediocre performance
on the last day was the Kownacki/ Jenkins team on DFZ. The J/70s
enjoyed very close racing and one puff, one wind streak or one badly
executed mark-rounding would result in many gains and losses for most of
the top teams. Sailing photo credits- Paul Todd/ Outside Images and Bronny Daniels/ JoySailing.com. For more Helly Hansen San Diego NOOD Regatta sailing information
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