Strategery wins 2nd place for the 2007 Round The Island regatta
By Craig Wilusz,
Sunday racing was canceled as you all know by now. It was howling around 30 knots, good call by the race committee, however the Melges 24 from England went out to play, and one of the Melges 32 went out as well. Both survived, but the 24 guys did say that the race committe did a good job calling the race.
It was a strange race committe on Course C, 28Rs. The first race of the
series, WLW, .9 mile legs (2.7 total) went in the blink of an eye. We finished
on Strategery at the weather mark as the comittee did not have a finish
line set up. We did not know this as we thought we were still going around
the course 4 more times. However after seting the chute, going downwind,
preping for a gybe, we saw that the second place boat passed the weather
mark and finished on a newly made line. We dropped, went back up wind,
passed a boat, and crossed the line in fifth. The committe, unknown to
us, had already got the judges involved and gave us a redress for first.
We were two hundred yards ahead of the second place boat and finished the
2.7 mile race in just under 20 minutes. We knew we were cruising between
14 and sixteen knots upwind and hitting 22-23 downwind. But wow, that was
a fast race.
The RC continued to have difficulty the enitre series. At one point, dropping the notion of a fourth race one day due to communication issues with the chase, markset, and finish boats. In one race, the RC called three boats over early on the VHF, then sounded an all clear and dropped the flag, the pin boat then called us over early after the all clear, and the flag went back up again. As we sailed back to the line, the flag dropped and went back up again. When we went to the RC after the race to ask if they had called us over, they said "no, but they did" while pointing at the pin boat.
We found out later that Course C had numerous first time volunteers for RC duty, which we should have been able to figure out when they didn't know what course they were on day one when asked. So kudos to the RC volunteers, they had a rough first regatta with rigs crashing down, boats flipping over, sailors swimming.
It should have been tough for the PRO to call it quits on Sunday. If you look at the fleet scores on sailingworld.com, you will see that MANY of the fleets top finishes could have been decided with one more race, ie Olson 30's. The WL24 class had a great battle for 1st. Props to Choate for a great series. I guess that the RC saw enough rigs in the water and thought of the owners wallets. Overall the NOODs were a blast, hopefully down the road, one can be arranged in NOLA.
Ya'll have a nice day!
Craig
Strategery3
Wins 2007 National Amateur Championship title at Key West Race Week
After months of hard training, the crew of Strategery3 walks away from Key West Race Week with a strong showing - winning the National Championship for the Presidents (Amateur) fleet. Taking a 4th overall for Race Week, we were the top Amateur boat, with the pro finishers in 2nd and 3rd place within 2 and 4 points respectively. It was incredibly tight racing throughout the week, with light air the standard offering.
Quite a few people have been asking how this could happen since we’d never actually competed against any 28R’s before in an OD or other event. Well, truth be told, there was a bit of Strategery involved…
The Nationals at
Time on the Water:
This came in 2 flavors – One, individual practice time working on boat speed, mechanics of boat handling and getting an overall feel for the boat. Two, boat on boat racing to get more exposure to how the boat handled in tight quarters and the tactical differences in racing choices you would make. Racing out of the Fort Walton Yacht Club was great on the tactical front, as we now have between 4 and 5 tri's on the line for racing every Wednesday night, and the competition includes Don Wigston and Randy Smyth! Unfortunately, in all the racing we did, we were never able to test vs. a 28R, so while we thought we were pretty fast, we just didn't know for sure. (As an aside, Rocketeer 2 is now owned by Brian Harrison, a club member and racing phenom - will be great to have an ongoing sparring partner to play with every week).
Leading up to the race, we were on
the water every day possible in the month prior to
Boat Overhaul:
Strategery 3 was originally “Dealer's
Choice”, and then was sold to an owner in SC. When we got her, she had a thick
bottom paint, gouged centerboard, ground out rudder (where it had rubbed
against the outboard propeller), roller furling jib, a blown out screecher, and
older sail handling systems. Initially, we lived with the bottom, had the sails
recut (Calvert cruising sails), switched back to the original 2002 Smyth sails
(oldies but goodies) and bought a used screecher from Randy while we learned
how to sail the boat. Learning what to replace, how to rig sail controls and
installing new electronics took most of the summer. We then had the bottom
stripped by Donnie Brennan (will be the Boatwright for the
Randy Smyth sold us a new set of racing sails - beautiful and crinkly. Finally, we polished the boat with Teflon before heading South. Once at the race, we were able to look at other boats and see how they were set up - got a couple of good ideas there. Of course, we also brought along “Chewie”, a small stuffed toy my daughter assured me would look after us. My son Cole also gave us a pirate bandanna which found a spot near Chewie for good luck.
Professional Coaching:
Probably the best dollar spend of anything we did on the boat was to hire Randy to coach us. If patience is a virtue, then Randy must be a saint. We had several half day sessions with him, going over the mechanics of both sail trim and boat handling to achieve the goal...speed. General consensus is that we covered about 6 years of experience in 6 months with his help. I HIGHLY suggest people consider doing this to improve their game on the boat. If we hadn't done this, there is no way we would have been in the top half of the fleet, let alone atop the amateur fleet.
Diet and Exercise:
For those of us keelboaters on the crew, we found that racing a multihull can be a very physical experience. For the helm - you've got to cover a 20' beam on a surface that heels to a point and then accelerates beneath you. In addition, you are walking from a hard hull to a springy trampoline then down into the cockpit and up to the other side. For me, footwork and crew placement (as handhold) for that journey in heavy air/seas was a major focal point in making sure the mechanics of tacking and gibing worked well. Every crew member can talk about a similar transition.
In addition, this boat has NO weight requirements - Max or Min. On a multi, minimizing weight is good to help induce planning earlier. Soooooo...we all went on a diet and workout plan. Good news is that we're all stronger and healthier...bad news is that none of my clothes fit any more! I'm pleased to say that we had minimal aches and pains as a crew due to the conditioning and light air conditions.
GETTING TO KEY WEST
We got into
Was a hell of a lot better racing/tighter racing than we expected.
THE RACING
For anyone who thinks that racing these boats isn't as tactical as regular keelboat OD, you've got another thing coming. If you look at the overall week, other than Dealer's Choice, 6 boats were in the hunt for the top 2 spots in the overall Key West, and different class titles all the way to the last day. In every race, position at roundings shifted radically. I can't tell you how many times we were 3rd at the top mark, 7th at the bottom, 4th at the top, etc... Just wild. - Finishes were seconds apart. As I told anyone who talked with me at the event, no one was giving anything away. While I haven’t been able to make it work, we all had GPS transponders on our boats for the final day’s racing. You can see the data at www.kattack.com and look at tacking angles, frequency of tacks, relative boat speed, etc. It would be really interesting to compare the number of tacks in our fleet over the given course vs. other fleets on the same day. I’ll bet we tacked damn near as often as the monohulls with similar angles.
Starts were typically pin end favored to spread the boats away from the committee boat. For most starts we decided to stay on the committee end with starboard rights - Brian did a good job keeping us on the line at the right time. A couple of races we used the screecher with mixed results. Maneuverability is traded off for speed and pointing, which if you are in front is great...if not, then you tend to prove the axiom, “rubbing is racing”. Sorry about that Bruce.
Everyone was fast - we expected much more separation from the fleet at roundings, but it just didn't happen. Both upwind (where there was no offset mark,) and downwind (where we shared a gate with PHRF boats) - we were pushing the limits of the crew on the mechanics of sail-handling due to the tactical requirements. Scott sprouted extra arms to wrestle the sails down in tight roundings, Craig used his strength to give us tactical advantage when possible on chute trim (unless we were getting rolled), and the entire team did a good job communicating what was happening on the course. The final scoring for the entire series was as follows:
|
Place |
# |
Boat Name |
Owner |
R 1 |
R 2 |
R 3 |
R 4 |
R 5 |
R 6 |
R 7 |
R 8 |
R 9 |
Total |
1 |
186 |
Dealers Choice(c) |
S Marsh/T Hudgins |
- 3 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
8 |
2 |
156 |
Bad Boys(c) |
Bob Harkrider |
1 |
7 |
2 |
2 |
2 |
- 8 |
4 |
6 |
6 |
30 |
3 |
175 |
Relentless(c) |
Peter Katcha |
4 |
- 8 |
3 |
3 |
8 |
6 |
3 |
3 |
2 |
32 |
4 |
132 |
Strategery 3(p) |
Cliff Farrah |
5 |
2 |
5 |
4 |
3 |
5 |
7 |
- 9 |
3 |
34 |
5 |
64 |
Flight Simulator(p) |
Tom Reese |
2 |
3 |
- 7 |
6 |
7 |
4 |
5 |
2 |
7 |
36 |
6 |
185 |
Paparazzi(c) |
Kathryn Garlick |
- 9 |
4 |
8 |
5 |
5 |
3 |
2 |
5 |
9 |
41 |
7 |
158 |
Hot Flash(c) |
David Calvert |
6 |
6 |
4 |
7 |
4 |
2 |
- 15 dnc |
15 dnc |
8 |
52 |
8 |
164 |
Ranger(p) |
Bruce Jenevein |
- 10 |
5 |
6 |
8 |
9 |
9 |
6 |
8 |
5 |
56 |
9 |
157 |
Hi Five(p) |
Valdek Kwasniewski |
11 p20 |
9 |
- 15 dsq |
11 |
6 |
7 |
8 |
4 |
4 |
60 |
10 |
83 |
Condor(p) |
Richard Bokkerink |
- 14 |
12 |
10 |
9 |
12 |
12 |
9 |
7 |
10 |
81 |
11 |
118 |
Overdo(p) |
John Novak |
11 |
10 |
12 |
12 |
- 13 |
13 |
10 |
10 |
11 |
89 |
12 |
210 |
Rapture(p) |
John Kremski |
12 |
11 |
11 |
- 13 |
10 |
10 |
12 |
11 |
12 |
89 |
13 |
125 |
Endorphine(p) |
John Laughlin |
- 13 |
13 |
9 |
10 |
11 |
11 |
11 |
12 |
13 |
90 |
14 |
193 |
Fifty-Fifty(c) |
Onsgard\Remmers |
7 |
- 15 dnf |
15 dnc |
15 dnc |
15 dnc |
15 dnc |
15 dnc |
15 dnc |
15 dnc |
112 |
As you can see be the tight scoring, nothing was decided in this regatta until the last day.
FINAL DAY
On Friday, in addition to our crew, we had Susie
Leech Nairn (former
After a rough start, we rounded the top mark in 7th. Sounds
worse than it was, as the fleet was packed pretty tightly. Downwind we were
able to get clear air and work back into 3rd at the downwind mark. At that
point, we were only one ahead of “
Pete sailed a great race, and ended up finishing 2nd. Tom hit the weather mark on the very first weather mark rounding, and was right behind us the entire downwind and gate leg... as well as rounding through the gate on both downwind legs. He was like glue and played a very smart (and fast) game. We finally were able to put 2 boats in between him by going left when he split off to the right, which allowed two boats to slide in there before Flight Simulator finished. Had we not kept to the left (favored side of the course), we stood a very good chance of allowing Tom to ride our tails right into the finish line. That said, it was a nail biter, and it wasn't decided until the very last leg of the very last race.
ESPN
One thing of note is that on March 11th, there
will be a special on ESPN at 1:30PM that covers Key West Race week. Gary Jobson produces the show –
COMING HOME
We were greeted upon our return with a surprise party at Scott’s house. Each crewmembers family was there. Can’t tell you how great it was to see my wife and kids after a week away. The party was a treat, and we walked across the street to the yacht club where we were welcomed by the board and asked to make a speech. What a great way to finish off the trip. Thanks to everyonenfor making that happen.
Kudos to the crew for sticking together and coming back from a tough day
on Thursday.
Craig the soul of the crew, Mr. Irreverent and the owner of the best shirts of the fleet.
Scott the guy who got us out of trouble every time - no matter what we asked of him
Brian who called some tough tactics and kept us in the hunt.
All of us want to thank our families for putting up with us as we got ready to go on this wild ride. I especially have to thank my bride for giving me this trip as my 40th birthday present. Kim, you ROCK!!!
Now our sights are set on St. Pete and the NOODs. Look forward to seeing
those of you who can make it there.
Cliff.
This year’s Round the Island Race
turned out to be a twenty four hour roller coaster ride moving in slow motion.
A fleet of nine Corsairs sailing PHRF competed in the Trimaran Division this
year. Russ Kincaid on his F27 took overall honors with team Strategery III
coming in second place. The race started at 7:00 am in a morning land breeze
that varied form four to eight knots depending on when and where you were at.
Strategery had a good start right next to National Champion, Don Wigston sailing
his Sport 7500 and ahead of most of the fleet. We were able to carry spinnakers
at the start and our team’s photo made the paper twice the following
morning.
We reached across the bay and sailed
out of the pass at Destin
This resulted in a restart of our little group around noon on Saturday.
Seeing as we had only sailed about 25 miles, we knew it was going to be
long race, in fact it appeared that it was going to be a miserable 100
miles to the finish. In fact, when I mentioned that I sure was glad
that I wasn’t on a Flying Scot trying to sail this race, Scot Mitchell
who also races GYA for FWYC said that Tommy’s version of Purgatory would
be God making me sail the Round the Island race in a Flying Scot.
I soon as I would finish he would make me sail it again and again, nothing
short of pure hell.
The sea breeze finally filled in for
awhile and we close reached down the beach until will approached
As you can probably guess, the wind
followed the sun and disappeared into the night as the land cooled to equal the
temperature of the Gulf. Strategery III and the modified F27 swapped positions
about 30 times on the close reach up the inter-coastal waterway. We heard
reports from the club that the first boat had finished and we were thirty miles
from home and moving at about 1.5 knots. Mike Kelley and Leisha made
arrangements for hamburgers to be cooked for boats as they finished up until
midnight, when the race committee packed up leaving the remaining thirty five
boats to take their own finish time. I failed to mention earlier that thirty
eight boats were registered and started the race. So yes, sixteen hours into
the race only three boats had finished. We all hoped they enjoyed their
hamburgers, but wondered where the rest of the fleet was parked. Not a single
boat other than the three finishers was spotted on
Strategery III cut a dogleg out of the course at Mary Esther and carried
a wind line that reached out about fifty feet from the shore. I don’t
usually call two knots of breeze a wind line but compared to mirror slick
finish on the rest of the Sound; it was indeed. We left Wigston and
the modified 27 out of sight behind us and carried the wind all the way
to downtown
We finished the race at 4:38 in the morning, making our time on Wigston and the modified 27. Scott and I left for the house after parking the boat and seeing those boats finish. The happiest crew in the world as we thought we had won the Round the Island Race. This was the first time around for each member of the crew and we were elated. We woke up early Saturday morning, which was really later Saturday morning as most people go to sleep before 5:30 which is when I usually wake up each day to head off to work. Craig had the disappointing news for the team. Russ Kincaid slipped in during the night finishing only forty two minutes behind us. We had to beat him by forty eight minutes. During a three hour nap we went from champions to also ran. Congratulations to Russ, the Bastard!
One thing was for certain, Cliff,
Craig and Scot have invested much, time, money and effort in making Strategery
II a force to be reckoned with. The boat sailed faster than ever and the crew
work was spectacular. We actually sailed a great race, had fun. The
competition was fierce. No one on the boat took a nap the entire twenty-one
hours. We brought tons of food and drinks but were too busy to enjoy any of
that. Thanks to Cliff for allowing us to race his boat, while celebrating his
mothers 80th birthday at home with her. We spoke with him often
throughout the race and his encouragement kept us gong strong all night long.
Being smart sailors like we are, we
all said we would never sail another Round the Island race again. So smart in
fact, that next year we’re going to kick some ass!
Tom R.
Garner
One Tired
SOB
The race started at 11:20 and we
finished in less than three hours. Not bad for a twenty eight mile race. There
was a cookout at the Gazebo after the race and friendships with the multihull
crowd renewed. There is not a bunch of multihull racing that has been going on
in our local area. Most of the sailors are hot shots and sailing Volvo Extreme
40’s, Tybee Long Distance Races, Hog’s Breath 100’s, Mug Races and national
championships around the country. It was a great Great Bay Race and a very
satisfying day for Strategery Team South. Oh, by the way, the winds ranged from
ten to eighteen knots with no clouds and ninety two degree temperatures. We
certainly wish our owner and team leader Cliff was here to enjoy the fantastic
conditions. The whole team is convinced that the sail modifications and new
running rigging made a huge difference in our performance. A little sanding on
the hulls and a little more aggressive sailing on soon we will make that leap
from second to first. Of course in sailing is like baseball and percentages are
everything. We can continue to improve with each race and eventually beat him,
our one day he may just not show up. Our goal once again is to rise to his
level and leave the other boats wondering what happened.
I agree with putting another winch on the cabin top. Cross sheeting the
jib forces the lead forward upwind and really upsets the sailplan.
We caught up with most of the fleet
at the far end of the
Our team all believe that is not a
fair race to pit multihulls against monohulls, but it sure was fun showing off
the boat to these other sailors and making it clear to everyone, that maybe
sailing a Trimaran was what the doctor ordered. As one design racers, the
team’s first year goal is to build a one design fleet on the
With a tall rig main, spinnaker, screecher and jib, our two man crew was worn out by the end of the race, but our faces beamed with the rush we had just experienced. The next Wednesday night race is expected to have four Corsairs on the line. Two of the boats will be sailed by former National Champions in the class so interest is quickly building for the fleet. Unlike many sailors, the crew of Strategery is not intimidated by this fact but instead looks forward to the challenge as we prepare for next years Nationals at Key West Race Week.
Tom R.
Garner