East Coast Championship News
What a great event!
Bottles of Mount Gay Rum were presented to selected competitors on Friday and Sunday. Dennis Burroughs (who chartered a 505 for this event and is probably buying it) won for capsizing the most in Friday's breeze (3 times). Not bad considering the windy conditions and that Dennis was racing with a pick-up, first-time-in-a-505, driver. Another bottle of Mount Gay Rum went to Fiona Lockwood who managed to lose one of her sailing shoes when she fell out of the boat at the last gybe mark of Friday's 2nd race, and completed that race and the entire third race sailing with one bare foot. A third bottle went to Tim Collins/Bill Smith for losing a 42 second lead (and ultimately the race) on the run, by sailing too high doing The Wild Thing (going down the run at a fast hot angle with the crew on the wire).
Top Five Reasons Tim/Bill Went so High Doing the Wild Thing
5. Have heard the Eastern Shore is really nice and wanted to check it out
4. Could not see that Amthor/Amthor and several other boats were going lower and almost as fast due to the spray from the bow wave
3. Couldn't figure out the modified 505 worlds course, and thought it was three triangles
2. Their Kulmar 505 was built in the southern hemisphere and tends to turn clockwise in the northern hemisphere
1. They hoisted the kite at the windward mark, sheeted in and went for it, and decided that reaching fast in a 505 was more fun than racing down the run.
Two bottles were presented Sunday, the first going to the most bruised competitor, deemed to be Bill Ball (Bill, what was Lauren doing to you?). Welcome back to 505s, Bill! You've been gone too long! The second bottle went to the reunited "Let's get the band back together" team of Tom Kivney/Todd Johnson. Todd moved to Annapolis from New England, breaking up this strong team, but they got back together for this East Coast Championships.
Water Bottles
Those really cool "East Coast Championship
505
SSA -- Annapolis -- MD
9.99"
water bottles are not just for water. It turns out that they work really well for Mount Gay Rum and coke.. just ask Fiona.
We MEAN 11:00AM
PRO John Potter believes in starting on time! A number of competitors dawdled Saturday morning and were late leaving and slow to get out to the racing area (which for those of you who know Annapolis, was about two miles past the spider buoy on a bearing of 110 degrees), and discovered that the start had been on time (11:00AM warning) with the teams present at the time. For reasons that were not entirely clear, the start had to be recalled (the only recall of the entire series), and the restart (which was succesfull) took place 15 minutes later, with all teams present. Sunday morning's first race warning signal was scheduled for 10:00AM (which meant leaving by 8:30). Everyone was there well ahead of time!
Crew Sizes
Who says you have to be tall and heavy to be a 505 crew? The shortest, lightest, and probably hardest working crew in the event was Fiona Lockwood. Lockwood dragged driver Ali Meller around the course in Friday's windy races for finishes of 8,7,4, flying on the tight reaches (their tally for the day was something in the order of ten plus boats passed off the wind) and flying upwind at near maximum depower settings. A lot of heavier rockstar teams found themselves behind Meller/Lockwood half way up the first beat. For those six foot, 190 pound crews, think you're tough? Fiona used 3/16" spinnaker sheets without problem and raced part of race two and all of race three with a bare left foot after losing her shoe at the last gybe mark of race 2.
Isn't billeting great
Billeting is one of the great aspects of racing dinghy events. Ideally you are in a nice place, close to the sailing venue. A few lucky competitors were able to stay on Dustin Romey (billeting coordinator) parent's J40, which was tied up to the SSA dock. Talk about being close! They didn't have to drive anywhere, and were close enough to crawl if they couldn't walk.
Check out the entry list. We still have people looking for boats and/or someone to sail with. We also have some really lame excuses from some, for not showing up for the ECC.
As of this morning, we have 20 boats preregistered for the ECCs next week. But there are at least seven to nine boats that we still expect to make the event. Given current projections, we look to have a strong showing in the mid to late twenties. That would make it one of the strongest turnouts in recent years, and make a great statement about the strength of the class. Just a few more surprise boats and we could actually get to 30. It's not too late to come on down. Event kicks off Friday, 10:30 skipper's meeting. Peter Alarie Racing Clinic Thursday. Still some drivers and crews looking for rides. Call me at w 703-998-2104 or h301-589-6738 for any help hooking up with housing, crews etc.
Allan Freedman
703-998-2104