Hutchinson Wins Annapolis NOOD Regatta

(Annapolis, Maryland)- The three day Helly Hansen Annapolis NOOD Regatta (May 1-3) was light on winds as the sailors competed for the regatta’s overall prize – a trip to the British Virgin Islands in the Helly Hansen NOOD Regatta Championship. That honor would go to Terry Hutchinson (J/24 World Champion & Rolex Yachtsman of the Year) with crew Taylor Canfield, Nick Turney, Morgane Renoir, and Katherine Hutchinson who won the 57-boat J/70 fleet- it was appropriately a friends and family affair. The same could’ve been said for many of the winners in the nine J/Classes that were represented at the event (J/22s, J/24s, J/70s, J/80s, J/30s, J/35s, J/105s, J/109s, J/111s).

The regatta’s biggest fleet, the J/70s, was a highly competitive class, which was packed with both professional and amateur sailors. In light conditions and strong current, the fleet completed four races over three days.

“Day one we made a couple of small mistakes, but we had good speed and the team was doing well,” said Taylor Canfield, Hutchinson’s tactician (Canfield was also World Match Race Champion). “The beginning was tricky for us because we were over early in the last race, but we had a great comeback. The conditions were supposed to be windy, but we predicted it would be lighter than the forecast. We have been training since last Sunday and expected to have a decent first race with pressure, but it was lighter.”

Canfield later added, “We sailed conservatively to keep ourselves in the hunt for the rest of the weekend. We put in more fight when we needed to.”

As the regatta continued into its second day, no races were completed for any of the regatta’s buoy-racing fleets, including the J/70s. Considering the light-wind forecast for the remainder of the weekend, Hutchinson said he’d told his team on Friday that they’d “better be in the lead, because there might not be any racing after.”

The final race on Sunday was delayed once, but with a light southerly sea breeze finally filing, the race committee started the day’s one and only race. “We tried to get off the line clean and sail fast. We started a little bit late, and went left with the tide,” said Hutchinson. “A big right-shift filled in halfway up the first beat, and we sat in 20th place initially. We passed boats in the first run down, and beat most of the teams around the mark the second time.”

Hutchinson said Canfield wanted to go left and they went for it, but ultimately it didn’t feel like a Hail Mary. “It was smart sailing,” he said. Hutchinson gave credit to his new team of sailors, which included his 13-year-old daughter Katherine, Canfield, Nick Turney, and Morgane Renoir.

“Last weekend my son was on board sailing, and this week my daughter is,” said Hutchinson. “Katherine helped tack, pull the ropes and trim the jib. She was worried we would lose after Friday and I told her that it’s not in the start— it’s the finish that counts, and we did well.”

The start of racing on Friday offered the best sailing of the entire weekend.  Most all divisions enjoyed the partly cloudy skies and 8-13 kt wind that started in the NE and ultimately swung into the NW by the end of the day.  It was tricky sailing and there were enormous shifts and wind-streaks to contend with over the three races.

Fast out-of-the-box in the J/70 class were two top local boats. JOINT CUSTODY, skippered by Jenn and Ray Wulff, took the lead with 13 points, and Peter McChesney’s BANG DING OW stood on second trailing with 17 points.  Third was Mauricio Santa Cruz on BRUSCHETTA from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

“I told my team to keep your head out of the boat and ignore local knowledge. People say follow local knowledge, which is staying to the left and avoiding the current because the left side is closer to land,” said Wulff. “Today that wasn’t the case, and we did the opposite. Jenn did a great job driving as always, and we stayed away from the larger group of boats at the start, which gave us great starts.”

Wulff later added that the team switched over to Quantum sails this year, and had great boat speed all day to keep momentum going. Pro sailor Taylor Canfield, a sailor on Terry Hutchinson’s USA 419 of the J/70s class, noted that the team had a couple small mistakes, but had a great last race. The wind conditions were forecasted to be higher, but the team sailed conservatively to keep themselves in the hunt for tomorrow.

The J/80 class had 25 boats competing and two boats, MELTEMI and R80, tied for first place with 18 points. VAYU, skippered by David Andril, lags in third place by one point.

Mike Hobson, skipper of MELTEMI, said it was a good day first day of sailing and got four races in. “There was breeze and the first two races were effective with good starts. The last two we had more choices of which way to go and local knowledge went out the window because wind shifts.” He added, “The fleet is competitive – with lots of boats and no consistent winner it mixes it up. We are pretty happy, the race is tight and we will start again tomorrow to see if great racing holds up.”

“The crew would say don’t screw the start up,” Hobson said. We need to stay in the game and had to dig hard to get out of the last two starts today. Tomorrow, we just have to try and stay in the game.”

On Saturday, the Chesapeake Bay sported one of its “summer-time” glass-outs, a bit early in the season for it.  Nevertheless, the weather forecast from Chris Bedford at Sailing Weather Services was uncannily accurate.  A light northerly in the morning died and the PRO’s for every course hoisted AP’s to keep the sailors on-shore out of the sun.  What appeared to be a promising seabreeze coming from the ESE down the Bay never fully materialized.  Some fleets got off just one race, but most did not.  The approaching frontal system of broken clouds simply over-ran the race-course areas and killed off the vestigial sea-breeze thermal activity.  Consequently, with all races canceled by 3pm, the evening festivities at the HELLY HANSEN/ MT GAY tent was extremely well attended!

Sunday’s racing dawned with a bit better forecast, but just about all fleets could only manage one race just a half-hour before the Sunday break-off at 2:30 pm.  Again, for all fleets it was a bit of a tactical/ strategic bust for many as the winds were not only atypical, but full of massive, unruly holes and helicopter puffs that would fall out of nowhere to cherry pick the lucky few.

For the J/70s, a solid conservative game-plan kept Hutchinson and crew in the hunt to take the win.  Behind them, it was complete chaos as many top boats took a tumble in the crazy conditions on the last day.  Sailing well was Tom Bowen and Marty Kullman on REACH AROUND, posting a 4th in the last race to snag 2nd overall.  McChesney’s crew on BANG DING OW wished they could’ve hung in there but popped a 14th onto their scoreline to hang onto 3rd.  Also managing to stay out of a lot of trouble was Santa Cruz’s BRUSCHETTA team, notching a 13th on the last day to grab 4th overall. Early regatta leaders Jen & Ray Wulff on JOINT CUSTODY got stuck going left after a massive right shift in the first leg, having to eat a 30th to drop into 5th overall.  What was remarkable about the J/70s were that an average of 6th is what it took to win, an average of 11th to place top five and an average of 13th to get a top ten.

Corinthians winners in the J/70s were McChesney’s BANG DING OW 1st, followed by the Wulff’s JOINT CUSTODY in 2nd and Joe Bardenheier’s MUSE team from Boston, MA in 3rd place.

Over in the J/22 circle, it was a battle royale for the top five, but it was a class veteran, Chris Doyle’s THE JUG 4 1 from Youngstown, New York that climbed atop the heap to take class honors.  After trading 1-3 scores in the first two races, Jeff Todd’s HOT TODDY could not keep up the heat on Doyle’s gang and closed with a riveting 12-9-7 to just hold on to 2nd place.  Brad Julian on JULIAN ASSOCIATES sailed a solid series to secure third on the podium.  Fourth was Vic Snyder’s MO’MONEY and fifth was a fast-closing Mike Marshall on the amazingly BAD NEWS!  Top woman skipper was Sandy Adzick’s HOT TICKET.

RUSH HOUR skippered by Pat Fitzgerald topped the J/24s after six races with just 13 pts and not ONE race out of the top three and NEVER winning a race!  Howz’about’that!  Cool.  Talk about conservative sailing.  The balance of the podium was determined by a tie-breaker between Ron Medlin’s BASH and Mark Rivera’s THE J-TEAM, with most 1sts tipping the balance to BASH.

With a great turnout, the 25 boat J/80 fleet saw a “newbie” winner on the top of the podium after their six races, overcoming overwhelming odds to grab the big prize from some excellent teams.  Les Beckwith’s crew on FKA won on a cliff-hanging tie-breaker over local famous hero Mike Hobson on MELTEMI.  And, just one point back was Team R80 comprised of Will & Marie Crump and Thomas Klok from Annapolis!  To say the last race was “make or break” time would be a massive understatement for the leaders in this class.  Rounding out the top five was David Andril’s VAYU in 4th and Derick Lynch’s OUTLAW in 5th.

In the “big boat” world, the classic J/30 cruiser-racer class saw a “runaway” take place in their fun-loving ten boat fleet. Bob Rutsch & Mike Costello’s BEPOP forgot the protocol to have the blenders (or beers) going by the second windward leg!  Soooo, after winning five straight races it appears they finally got that “weed whacker blender” going in the last race and gave up a 1st for a 2nd!  While they horizon-jobbed the fleet, it was insanely close for 2nd place, and the top six only had 5 pts separating them after six races!  Incredibly, the last race run for the roses (like the weekend’s Kentucky Derby horse race) really did determine the outcome for the class.  After posting a 3rd on the last day, Phil Hedrich’s CHAOS grabbed the silver while George Watson’s AVITA posted a 6th to drop into the bronze.  Fourth was determined by a tie-breaker on 31 pts each, with Mike & Kathleen McGill’s MARY LOU taking it over Rob Lundahl’s RAG DOLL.

A familiar team topped the incredibly tight eight boat J/35 fleet, with AUNT JEAN led by the duo of Jim Sagerholm and Jerry Christofel topping the charts with an emphatic scoreline of three 1sts and two 2nds for 7 pts total.  Second was Peter Schiedt’s MAGGIE with 10 pts followed by Charles Kohlerman’s MEDICINE MAN.  Bruce Artman’s T-BONE was 4th and Benjamin Travis & Scott Steele on BZING took 5th.

As they have over time, the famous local duo of Carl & Scott Gitchell pointed the amazingly fast J/105 TENACIOUS in the right direction more than once to win the J/105 class by a rather significant margin of 10 pts in just five races, never posting a race below 4th!  Jim Konigsberg’s INIGO started slowly, closed fast, but not fast enough to take 2nd overall.  Third was Jim Macdonald’s DISTANT PASSION from the Royal Bermuda YC in Bermuda. Fourth was MIRAGE (Lewis/ Salvesen) and fifth was Hugh Bethell’s JESTER.

The compact, talented J/109 fleet saw North American Champion Bill Sweetser sailing the famous RUSH with an Annapolis YC team win with straight bullets.  Their chief battle with Bob Schwartz’s NORDLYS visiting from Manhasset Bay YC from Long Island, New York saw them take straight 2nds!  Third was Rick Hanson’s ROSALITA.

Demonstrating why their Key West and Charleston wins were no fluke, George Gamble’s MY SHARONA from Pensacola YC in Florida started off with a 2nd in the first race and closed with four straight bullets to win the J/111 class.  Local hotshots Marty Roesch on VELOCITY from Annapolis YC won the first race and nearly ran the table with straight 2nds to take second in the regatta.  Dave McCreight’s appropriately named DARK HORSE from Annapolis YC grabbed a third, much to the amazement of their classmates.   Watch the Dave Reed/ Sailing World interview Overall Regatta Winner Terry Hutchison here.   For more HELLY HANSEN Annapolis NOOD Regatta sailing information here