505 Chesapeake Championship

Severn Sailing Association
October 23-24, 2004

The SSA 505 fleet hosted 17 505s for the first of the two annual fall regattas at SSA, this past weekend. Apart from eight of the ten-or-so SSA 505s racing, the visiting teams were:

Henry Amthor from HYC, VA, who raced with Dustin Romey from SSA
Sol Marini from New England in his shiny old Waterat, with Alon Finkelstein from SSA driving
Mike Breton and Don MacDonnell from Raritan, NJ in Mike's shiny old Lindsay
Nick Place and Mark Lynch from RockHall YC
Richard and Andrew Moakes from PA, in their shiny new Rondar
Doug and Chris Watson from WRSC
John Wyles and Riccardo Cugini from AYC, NY
Barney Harris from WRSC, with Dylan Breton from Raritan, NJ crewing
Mike Coe, a U of M sailor who practices out of SSA, sailing Jahn Tihansky/Dustin Romey's boat with Trevor Eddy
Steve Lieberman and Carlos Linares racing Cardiac Arrest

Several of the SSA 505s were racing with newcomers too. Katrin Wiggins raced her second 505 regatta, this time with J Bergquist. Richmond native and Melges 24 sailor Travis Weisleder drove for Alexander Meller, Ken Jacobs crewed for Bob O'Brien and Parry Barclay crewed Saturday for John Hauser. Parry and John raced Ali's Rondar, as John's Waterat is still being repaired. Parry had some prior 505 crewing experience, and very recently he and a friend bought Lindsay 7100.

Photos by Ted Morgan

Saturday's forecast was for 10-15 knots, a little more civilized than the 16-23 or so we had at this event last year. Though puffs to 15 were reported, it was more like 8-13 while we were racing, though sunny and a beautiful day for sailing. We were racing with Solings, and expecting planing upwind conditions, we went along with the course length of 1.5 miles. This turned out to be not a great idea, as we never did get planing upwind breezes, and a 505 worlds course with 1.5 mile legs (race 1) turned out to be a little long for a local regatta. The RC ran a shorter course for race 2, but the breeze was picking up and teams were raking and spilling so we went back to a 505worlds course for race 3 only to have the breeze die off to sitting-on-the-tanks-except-for-the-tight-reaches for most of the race. But we filled the day with racing, as there was little waiting for a start, and we were racing from 11:00 until shortly before 4:00. All races had modified rabbit starts.

The fleet enjoyed Chef Kieran's jambalaya and a keg of beer after racing. We had planned a pub crawl after we finished the keg, but the keg was still going strong at 10:00PM, so the pub crawl was postponed to a later date.

Sunday morning arrived soon enough with overcast skies, almost no wind, and a light drizzle. Despite some attrition, the fleet launched, slowly sailed out to the course, and after a postponement, got in one shorter four leg race. Fortunately the rain stopped, but the breeze stayed light.

Racing was close (though in race 3 several team sailed the wrong course and were scored DNF) with places changing around the course.

Vanguard 15 sailor Alon Finkelstein (who, it must be admitted, has some prior 505 experience) and Sol Marini worked the left upwind to lead the first race wire to wire and take the win. Henry Amthor/Dustin Romey were 2nd and Travis Weisleder/Alexander Meller 3rd, Mike Breton/Don MacDonnell 4th and John Hauser/Perry Barclay 5th.

The second race was very close, and came down to the leaders wire running to the finish. The race was won by Amthor/Romey, with Harris/Breton second, Stergios Papadakis/Mike Renda third, Alon Finkelstein fourth, Wiesleder/Meller fifth, and Hauser/Barclay sixth, all crossing the downwind finish lin in less time than it takes to read this sentence.

The third race saw Amthor/Romey find a sheer on the last beat to the finish and lift of Weisleder/Meller to take first. Weisleder/Meller were second, Finkelstein/Marini third. Several teams took themselves out by racing the wrong course in this race. But Doug and Chris Watson got it right to finish 4th, with Nick Place/Mark Lynch 5th.

Sunday's single race did not change the top three positions. The right was looking great early in the first beat, with Breton/MacDonnell and Papadakis/Renda looking LAUNCHED, but the last shift was a leftie which left Breton/MacDonnell second-last at the weather mark. Meller/Carlos Linares led at the first windward mark, but were passed by Amthor/Romey on the run, got them back on a right shift early in the second beat, but then lost Finkelstein/Marini, Bergquist/Wiggins and Papadakis/Renda as the breeze continued to go hard right on the second beat. Finkelstein/Marini won the race to clinch second, Meller/Linares ground back through to second on the run to the finish, with Bergquist/Wiggins third and Papadakis/Renda fourth. Conditions were not exciting enough for everyone to want a fifth race, so that was it.

Henry/Dustin won the event, clinching the Region II Championship for Henry, who normally races with his brother Douglas.

Results are at http://www.severnsailing.org/results/2004/1024505.shtml

Thanks to SSA 505 fleet captain Bob Patterson for leading the charge on this event. J Bergquist for organizing food with Kieran, and for organizing and providing accomodation for several visitors, and to Barney Harris for putting up more visiting sailors.

Bob Daniels and his RC team did a great job for the 505s and Solings.

Chef Kieran's dinner was outstanding as always. And the lucky ones were able to take leftovers away.

Prizes were terrific embroidered pile vests, with draw prizes courtesy of APS and John Wyles.

Other Thoughts

For a long time I've been a proponent of leveling Kent Island to make space for a large farm of wind generating fans. Anyone else want to support it? It is an election year, so we might even be able to get some politician to sign up to it.

Just think, a steady 15 knots out of the east. We might need a really big version of those oscillating fans so there can be random wind shifts.

Dustin Romey

I thought that the SSA event was great. the food was great, as was the beer. The Sunday lack of breeze was unfortunate, but you can't help that. Had I gotton away from WRSC a bit earlier I might have made that first race - the 12 mile sail was really nice in any event; something about the angle of the sun really made the houses and trees stand out early in the morning.

Barn