Friday, 6 September (day 1)

Excerpts from SailingWorld.com by Tony Bessinger (Link to SailingWorld article)

A dying northerly warring with a weak seabreeze that never really kicked in, a scene familiar to anybody that's spent time racing in Long Island Sound, were the conditions that greeted sailors for the first day of the Sailing World Larchmont NOOD regatta.

In the 11-boat Soverel 33 class, Whacko's navigator, Patrick Jackson of Brooklyn, N.Y., enjoyed the challenging conditions. "It was light, but fun," he said. "It required people to think and assess all the conditions." Owner Norm Dean, agreed. "You have to be able to sail in all conditions," he said. "When it's this light, it can be frustrating, especially because everybody in this class is so good, the level of competition is very high. In our first race we got a seventh, but it was a hard-fought seventh, we were a lot deeper than that and fought back hard to get there." After getting a second in the next race, Whacko ended the day in fourth, but is only four points behind class leader, Team Lake Norman."

The first race had a 120° wind shift midway up the first weather leg, with some boats setting spinnakers to the windward mark and a close reach to the finish at the leeward mark.

Race 1: 1-Bushwacker, 2-Yankee, 3-Deviation

The second race had a 90° wind shift at the beginning of the first leeward leg with a course change there to complete the next two legs, Outrageous took the lead on the second leg and continued to extend their lead to the finish.

Race 2: 1-Outrageous, 2-Whacko, 3-Yankee

Points after Friday's Racing: Outrageous 5, Yankee 5, Bushwacker 7, Whacko 9, Saucy Girl 10, Santana 10, Deviation 11, 2-Thirsty 15, Slàinte 19, Adrenaline 19.

Saturday, 7 September (day 2)

Excerpt from SailingWorld.com by Tony Bessinger (Link to SailingWorld article)

For sailors participating in the Sailing World Larchmont NOOD regatta, Saturday was another tricky day of racing in light air. Shifts, lots of powerboat wakes, and a breeze that maxed out at six and a half knots meant that luck was as much a determining factor as skill.

The third and forth races, held on Saturday, were very close competition, with no boats taking off from the pack.

Race 3: 1-Bushwacker, 2-Outrageous, 3-Yankee

The forth race had a more persistent shift to the left up the leg that favored boats that went right of the fleet on the beats.

Race 4: 1-Bushwacker, 2-Outrageous, 3-2-Thirsty

Points after Saturday's Racing: Outrageous 10, Yankee 13, Bushwacker 9, Whacko 9, Saucy Girl 10, Santana 10, Deviation 11, 2-Thirsty 15, Slàinte 19, Adrenaline 19.

Sunday, 8 September (day 3)

Excerpt from SailingWorld.com by Cynthia Goss  (Link to SailingWorld article)

Larchmont (N.Y.) September 8, 2002 -- Sailors who collected trophies at the Larchmont Sailing World NOOD regatta--hosted September 6-8 by the Larchmont Yacht Club--had their light-air skills down. During three days of racing on Long Island Sound, knotmeters never pegged above two digits. But even though the racing at the NOOD was played out in slow motion--in light winds that ranged four to eight knots--there were down-to-the-wire moments when inches made the different between victory and defeat.

"We won this regatta on the last puff," said Soverel 33 crew member Paul Beaudin. Beaudin and his crew mates onboard Outrageous (Matthews, NC) entered the final day of racing with high hopes, only one point out of first place. But as this crew sailed the final quarter-mile to the finish line, gaining enough points for a class win looked impossible. Until the final puff.

Outrageous, with Jim Bost at the helm, used the last breath of wind to gain a winning position, finishing 5th in the final race to capture the class win and the 2002 Soverel 33 National Championships. According to skipper Richard Jones, this crew sails on North Carolina's Lake Norman--and they came to Long Island Sound armed with plenty of light-air practice.

Erik Will [Bushwacker] of Sodus Point, NY, was named the Hall Spars & Rigging Boat of the Day after logging a perfect 1-1 record on Saturday in the Soverel 33 class. Support sponsor Hall Spars & Rigging recognizes the top performing boat in the fleet at each stop on the NOOD circuit.

The fifth race, held on Sunday, started out with much of the fleet crossing tacks. By the upper third of the windward leg, the boats that were left got a sizable header sending them well behind the few to the right, which never got the same header. On the run the lead boats gibed starboard to catch the tail end of the old breeze. The trailing boats picked up the new breeze at the weather mark, a port tack reach to the finish. By the time the new breeze reached the lead boats, much of their "comfortable" lead was lost.

Race 5: 1-Slàinte, 2-Deviation, 3-2-Thirsty

Final Points: Outrageous 15, Bushwacker 17, Yankee 22, Deviation 25, Whacko 26, 2-Thirsty 26, Santana 27, Slàinte 34, Saucy Girl 38, Adrenaline 45.

[note: the point spread between 2nd and 6th!]

(click here for complete results)

Bill Heintz
(9/9/02)