Earlier this summer, Geoff wrote about racing Butler 2987 in a Columbus regatta, his first ever 505 event. Since then, he has grown the Indiana U 505 fleet by 100 percent, and is rumored to be close to getting some more boats there.
This past weekend I attended the Sandusky Open Regatta at Sandusky, Ohio. I actually thought I wasn't going, but I received a call from Jim Tuten at 5pm my time on Friday evening..."hi geoff, can you crew for me" tomorrow?". "Sure Jim, it's only a 5+ hour drive on short notice!" :-)"
Well, the short notice wasn't his fault. But I opted to do the regatta anyways, and fast-packed my car, ran around town doing errands (and left my wallet in the middle of a major road in the process, got it back thank God), and headed down the highway to a tune that had the lyric "when i clear a path you can kiss my a** goodbye". I was psyched!
Arrived at Sandusky at 2:00am local time...The next hour was filled with getting lost in town, finding two hotels, one with a room, one without, both in the $90 range...heck with that... "hey bud, my car's out of gas and i need money to get my kids " home. Can you give me a couple of bucks?" sure kid, that's" why you're on a mountain bike, right? Eh well. So I slept in my car at the club. 4 hours of restless sleep later I awoke with my head underneath a cold shower with the outside temperature at 8am topping 90. I volunteered for this? Can't be, I must have signed a contract with the government again. Uhg.
Stuff breakfast down the gullet at a local hole in the wall called "the depot, whistle stop service!" whatever that means, but the omlette was good. I rush back to the club to make sure I'm in time to help Jim, who's driving in from Columbus, Ohio, rig the boat. Still like the military...hurry up and wait. Jim was running on his own clock as usual (so I found out). I cool my heels on pavement that's topping 110 easy and wait...and wait...Jim finally pulls in with 1.5 hours before the first race :-)
So, off to the races. There were 2 races on Saturday. There were a few other one design classes were out there as well, but we were thankfully first in the starting sequence. In the first race, the winds were light at the start and slowly built towards the finish. The last beat saw a fair amount of trapeze time. Dave Stetson got caught in a quandary heading towards the finish. He was ahead by a fair margin, but looking back he saw our boat and Ki Kaiser's boat splitting tacks with less than a boat length between us. Who to cover??? Dave ended up winning the first race fairly easily, but 2nd place was nearly a photo finish with Ki taking it.
The second race ended up being shortened to do a severe storm warning. Dave managed to pull this one out as well. Ki took second again, and we were in third again. On one of the beats on this race I told Jim that Ki (who was in front of us) was getting a lift. Jim said, "no, he's not". I protested and said "but look at him!". Jim said, "ki makes his own lifts." We don't know how he does it, he just does". :-)"
Editor's Note - I can verify the assertion that Kai makes him own lifts, having seen this phenomenon on several occasions. He rakes further forward than anyone else, both skipper and crew sit as low as possible in light air to reduce windage, and he points 10 degrees higher than anyone else. In more breeze and waves, I have seen him go head to wind going up every wave. To my knowledge, no-one else has been able to duplicate this; we just hope we are going faster through the water!
Sunday started early, with breakfast at the club at 7:30, first race at 9:30. The course was switched to the main bay which made the sail out to the course longer, but we had fun on a three sail reach with me in the trap for about 10 minutes. Phil and his son were sleepy headed and reported in after the first race had started.
In the first race, Ki managed to keep Dave behind him this time And we came in a distant third, again. It would have been much closer had my water logged brain not screwed the last gybe. Eh well, live and learn.
The last race was not sponsored by the race commitee. We used the pin end of the finish line, and had a gate start. Dave called out the course to all of us...we were going to use two day markers and another race bouy way up the bay. Dave played rabbit, and Jim and I managed to have a great start. We kept everyone behind us for a good long while, but we aimed for the wrong marker. Dave headed away from us on the run and we didn't figure out where he was going until it was too late.
Still, we managed to catch up to him and at the 2nd marker, we were not very far behind, maybe 5-6 boat lengths. The last run up the course was very close going, but Dave managed to pull it out by about 20 seconds after an hour of sailing. Ki came in third, and Phil brought up the rear.
For me it was a great weekend. The winds weren't very heavy, but I learned a bunch more about 505ing, especially spinnaker launches, take downs, and other more subtle aspects of flying the chute on a 505...like two cleating it, which I'd never understood/really seen before. I was a little disappointed that there weren't more boats present, but the oppressive heat of the weekend probably kept a few boats away. I also learned more about how a 505 handles in heavier chop. Our lake just doesn't have the kind of chop we faced.
I also managed to potentially recruit someone into the class. He's a foredeck crew on a J-24, and is looking for something a bit more exciting.
Other points of interest: Phil's son was in town and sailed with him for one of the first times on a 505. Ki's wife crewed with him for one of the first times ever also. Gris (sp?), (Dave's crew) was recently married! The threatened storm of Saturday did hit about an hour after we had our boats put away. Winds were in the 50kts range, and the lightning displays were tremendous. The Tuten's have a new baby boy, and as Mrs. Tuten put it, "jim, why are we" blessed with two loud babies?" :-)"
Quote of the weekend: Jim's wife recalling one of their first sailing experiences together on a 505...Jim: "don't worry, you are" far more important to me than the boat!" aww, such romance :-)"
The Sandusky Sailing Club were outstanding hosts! They did a great job of cooking for multiple meals, ran good races, had good courses, and did an outstanding job in general. Many kudos to them for a fine regatta, despite the terrible heat. Many thanks to the person who allowed Dave, Gris, and I to sleep on his yacht (saving us all a bunch of money). Onions to the monster fish from hell that jumped next to the yacht with me sleeping in the cockpit, at the ripe hour of 5:30am. Someone should invent an alarm clock that makes large fish jumping noises. Uhg.
I was also once again impressed by the hospitality of the 505 people who were there. I've met all of these people exactly once before, and when seeing them again I felt like I was in a family. Absolutely the best bunch of people I've had the pleasure of sailing with.
Dave: Thanks for the advice on sleep disorders :-)
Dave: "...it can cause oxygen deprivation and even brain damage"
Me: "maybe that's why i sail 505s!"
Gris: I think you should just pour your beer directly into the harbor. It'd be more efficient :-)
Ki: Thanks again for the big help on the Ballenger purchase. After seeing other 505s again, I appreciate even more the deal we got.
Phil: I'll send you copies of the pictures, or bring them to Chicago.
Jarrod: Honest, we really wouldn't have told your dad if you drank that beer :-)