More 505 teams were arriving during the day, with three teams from Vancouver, two from Edmonton, and ten from the US East Coast. A fleet in the high thirties is expected for the North American Championship; racing starts on Tuesday.
A number of competitors helped long time 505 crew John Fry celebrate his 44th birthday this evening. Since Monday is measurement and a speed clinic, no one is worried about partying too hard...
Measurement was followed by a "speed clinic", where several of the top crews and then top skippers talked about how they sail their 505s on different legs and different wind conditions. Then, standing around a rigged 505, went over how the rigs were set up for different conditions, looking at a 505 using Ullman sails, and one using North sails. This took much of the afternoon, but was very informative.
It appears that there will be 36 teams racing in the North American Championship. The first race starts at 1:30PM on July 8th.
Midnight.... Another sunny day in Long Beach. Lighter air for the first race, but the breeze built up to trapezing and planing during the second. Nick Trotman/Mike Mills of Rhode Island had a great day, with a 1st and a 3rd, to lead the 505 NA championship after two races.
In the first race, early gaters were able to tack and cross later starters to lead the race. The fleet was quite close at the windward mark, though in the non planing conditions it was hard to pass boats. Despite the early left shift favouring the early gaters, the trend was right for both races, with the RC shifting the weather mark further right for almost every beat. Courses are unique, being a 505 worlds course minus the last beat... we finish at the end of the second reach of the second triangle.
The second race started in about the same breeze as the first. Long time 505 team Jeff Miller/Bruce Heckman gated late, ducking the gate launch just as it started to drift. With the boats to windward all having to bear off to round the gate launch, Miller and Heckman were able to tack immediately and head right. They crossed behind the rabbit on the layline, overstood slightly, but were able to foot over the rabbit on the layline to take the lead. Most of the other leaders were early gaters who fought there way across early to get right.
The breeze started to build for the final beat, the first solid trapezing and planing upwind since we arrived in Long Beach. Miller/Heckman were comfortably in front, and with the wind shifting right, and most teams going hard right, positions did not change much.
The locals are suggesting that we are back in a typical Long Beach weather pattern that should see more breeze for the next few days...
The Rhode Island team of Nick Trotman and Mike Mills won race 3, working their way into the lead part way through the race, by making effective use of shifts up one of the beats. They were 11th in similar conditions in the 4th race. The Long Beach team of Howard Hamlin and Mike Martin were 3rd in race 3, and won race 4, pulling them into 3rd overall.
Another Rhode Island team, Mike Zani and Peter Alarie, were 2nd and 3rd today, which was good enough to put them in the lead overall, counting all four races. There finishes of 4, 2, 2, 3, give them 19.7 points (bonus scoring), 3 points ahead of Trotman/Mills, and 4 points ahead of Hamlin/Martin. Both the 2nd and 3rd place teams will gain when a drop race is factored in, as their worst race is worse than the Zani/Alarie team's worst race. Jeff Miller/Bruce Heckman and Tyler Moore/Scott Ikle are close behind, with 26.4 points and 33 points respectively.
Every day, the race winners and the team that exceeds their handicap (calculated using a very complex formula) by the greatest amount, are asked how they sailed the race. In addition to the Trotman/Mills and Hamlin/Martin teams, Ellen Ablow/Alan Norman (who were 8th in race 3) and Bryan Largay/Matt Sanders (who were 7th in race 4) answered questions from other competitors after being given their daily prizes. Largay/Sanders were the rabbit, and went hard right every beat, staying in the top three until they broke an end fitting on their spinnaker pole, and were forced to sail some reaching legs without a spinnaker. They were able to use the pole on the last reach to the finish by tying it to the mast fitting using the croakies of a pair of sunglasses...
Thursday morning much of the fleet is going surfing before racing..
Conditions were very slightly windier than the earlier days of racing, with some planing upwind, as the breeze got up to 13-14 knots.
In the first race, there was a significant shift to the right, favouring late gaters. Defending NA champions Howard Hamlin and Mike Martin were behind the rabbit and a couple of other late gaters early on, but pulled through for the win. Nick Trotman/Mike Mills passed Hamlin/Martin down the run, but lost them on the final two reaches, to finish 2nd. Long time 505 sailors Jeff Miller/Bruce Heckman were 3rd, while the rabbit - Thad Lieb/Rob Waterman - were 4th.
Despite the obvious shift to the right on the first beat, the expected right shift did not occur on the first beat of the second race. Early gaters found a shift to get back across and lead at the weather mark. Mike Zani/Peter Alarie and Henry Amthor/John Fry led at the first mark. Zani/Alarie went on to win, with Miller/Heckman second and Trotman/Mills 3rd. Amthor/Fry hung on to finish 4th, with Hamlin/Martin 5th.
The debriefing after the race was interesting, with race winners and the teams (Amthor/Fry and Lovshin/Lovshin) who beat their handicap by the greatest amount explaining how they raced the race, and why.
This leaves Trotman/Mills leading the North America Championship after drop with 14.4 points, with Alarie/Zani second at 9.7 points, Miller/Heckman 3rd with 23.4 points, Hamlin/Martin 4th at 23.7 points and Tyler Moore/Scott Ikle 5th with 53 points. With only two races left, it should be an interesting battle for the 505 NA championship.
The first race - another marginal trapezing with large chop event - saw an early gater, Tim Collins/Bill Smith cross over on port already ahead of later gaters. They led at every mark, though Howard Hamlin/Mike Martin closed to within a couple of boatlengths several times during the race. The Hamlin/Martin team were 2nd, with Zani/Alarie 3rd, Tyler Moore/Scott Ikle 4th, inches in front of Nick Trotman/Mike Mills in 5th. This left the standings very close, with Nick Trotman/Mike Mills leading Mike Zani/Peter Alarie by 1 point (bonus scoring), and Howard Hamlin/Mike Martin another 1.3 points further back, and Jeff Miller/Bruce Heckman a further 8.4 points back. Under bonus point scoring, this was extremely close, with any of the top three teams able to win with a first place, and Miller/Heckman able to catch them all if they faltered, and fell out of the top finishes.
With the expected Long Beach sea breeze and right shift not in evidence - conditions were atypical all week - teams had to decide if the right shifts were simply oscillations, or the start of a progressive shift right. The beat started square, with neither early nor late gaters looking favored. Hamlin/Martin drove hard left, while Zani/Alarie bailed out slightly to the right, tacking back into a lane in the middle, just below Jeff Miller/Bruce Heckman. Some small puffs caused localized starboard tack lifts, and one of these was perfectly placed to lift Heckman/Miller and Zani/Alarie over the boats on their lee bow, without lifting the bulk of the fleet that was to the right of them. At the windward mark, Miller/Heckman were first, with Zani/Alarie second. Hamlin/Martin came in fast from the left and were very close behind, with Trotman/Mills rounding outside the top five.
Hamlin/Martin fought to get by Zani/Alarie for the entire race, but could not pull it off. Miller/Heckman had the ideal vantage point for the race long duel, as they were ahead and pulling away. Trotman/Mills fought their way into the top five, rounding the final windward mark 5th after passing several boats on the run and final beat. However, with just the two reaches to the finish, the results were almost secured, barring a bad gybe... Miller/Heckman won easily, with Zani/Alarie crossing second and clinching the 1997 SeaLand 505 North American Championship, with 28.4 points. Hamlin/Martin's 3rd place in the race, gave them 32.4 points and second overall, while Nick Trotman/Mike Mills had to count both their 5ths on the last day (they had an 11th as a drop race), giving them 34.4 points and 3rd place. Miller/Heckman's first place in the race made it close, as they ended up with 35.1 points and 4th overall. Further back with 69 points and 5th place was the Tyler Moore/Scott Ikle team, well ahead of Ali Meller/Allan Johnson at 93.8 points and 6th place. A 1,8 in the final two races pulled Tim Collins/Bill Smith up into 7th, with 97 points, just ahead of Robin Brown/Rich Mundell in 8th, with 97.7 points. Nick Adamson (US Olympic Laser representative in Savannah) and Bruce Tilley were 9th, with 107.7 points, while Dan Thompson/Uli Coblenz were 10th, with 117 points.
Peter Alarie has won the 505 NAs twice before, in 1993 and 1994, crewing for Macy Nelson. It was the first win for Mike Zani.
Probably the best looking 505 in the event was Tom Cook's INCREDIBLE 505. 3246 is a Moore 505, built in 1970 for Paul Tara. It raced the 1971 World Championship in Santa Cruz. Paul would not recognize the boat now. Tom extensively rebuilt and re-rigged the boat. Though heavy, the boat seemed competitive, and Tom and driver Andy Wisner sailed away from much newer boats.
The 35 team fleet was a combination of younger rockstars (three recent Olympians, several Olympic trialists, a college sailor of the year, numerous all-americans) who have gotten into the 5o5 class in the past few years, other recent converts from other classes, a number of older, long time 505 sailors, and several teams that had people who had been out of 505s for 10, 15, or 20 years, but were getting back into the 505 class. There were two female drivers, and there was also a female crew in the warmup regatta (they could not take the time off for the NAs). Some of the competitors were top 505 sailors twenty years ago, while Kirk Wilson and Ted Nordquist arrived in a late model used Rondar 505 they had purchased the week before the North American Championships (Ted was 3rd in the 1964 US Olympic Finn trials). A Laser and Melges 24 sailor came out to watch the 505 NAs for a day, and was so taken with the 505 and the fleet, he came back to shore, learned that one of the boats - Bill Beardslee's recently refinished 18 year old Lindsay - was for sale, and bought it on the spot.
Tim Collins, a long time 470 racer, past 470 North American Champion, and US Olympic trialist, described the regatta as the most fun regatta he had ever been to.
The wind never exceeded 15 knots, as the classic Long Beach weather pattern was probably disturbed by a storm near Baja. Several days saw short steep chop that made sailing the boats very challenging. Though the fleet tended to go right in expectation of the classic southern California right side shift, the left worked very well (perhaps about half the time....).
Gate starts were used for all North American Chamionship races as well as the warm up regatta. There was one general recall in 14 races, caused by the pathfinder being ten seconds late at the starting pin.
As expected in a 505 regatta, there were no protests. I expect this was appreciated as much by the jury as by the competitors.
Every day after racing, the race winners and the team that had beaten their "handicap" by the greatest amount were debriefed by the competitors; this was greatly appreciated by the rest of the fleet, as they were able to ask questions like, "why did you go left on the first beat?", and "How did you set up the rig for the conditions?".
Event organizers Mike Martin and Howard Hamlin did an outstanding job with this NA championship, which was enjoyed by all. Ten East Coast 505s were shipped to Long Beach and back; this was the largest cross continent contingent in some years. In addition to the ten East Coast 505s, there were teams from Vancouver, Edmonton, Texas, and individuals from Arizona, Idaho,and Colorado, besides a strong California contingent. SeaLand was the major sponsor; their support is very much appreciated. Mocean, West Marine, Team McLube, Ronstan and Ullman Sails were also event sponsors, and very much helped make this event as successful as it was.