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The close racing between the C&C115 proved to be a great weekend.
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NOOD needed to replace an ailing regatta and thought Seattle could offer an excellent venue – they were not disappointed. Created in 1988, the Sperry Top-Sider National Offshore One-Design, or NOOD, regatta features three days of one-design racing around the United States; Annapolis, Chicago, Detroit, Houston, Larchmont, Marblehead, San Diego and St. Petersburg.
Since the NOOD replaced the SOCKs one-design regatta on the area racing calendar, organizers relaxed regatta guidelines to include one-design dinghy classes actively campaigned by Seattle racers. Race organizers were pleasantly surprised that twice as many boats as expected registered for the regatta. A total of 231 boats competed. Representatives from Seattle Yacht Club and Corinthian Yacht Club worked effectively together to organize top notch race committee work, as well as refreshments and entertainment to keep thousands of sailors happy. A hospitality tent in front of the CYC clubhouse provided a large venue for sailors to gather and event sponsors Sailing World, Sperry Top-Sider and Fisheries Supply could sell their wares. The event brought sailors and boats from throughout the Pacific Northwest and farther afield. Eleven San Juan 21s, nine Santana 20's (District Championships), six Pocket Rockets, eight 6 Metres and five Ultimate 20s raced. The C&C 115s and Beneteau 36s each had enough entries to get their own starts for the first time in a NOOD regatta. The weather forecast looked promising earlier in the week, and ideal wind and sunny skies fueled the excitement as the first day of racing began. A cool breeze from the north met keelboat racers on Friday morning turning to a consistent 8-15 knots, and they were able to get in three races. The race committee for the keelboats on the south course completed four races on Friday Dinghies joined the racing Saturday morning, expanding the number of boats on the water by a third, with three race committees running the show. A convergence zone caused a short delay on the north course on Saturday but racers enjoyed socializing in the warm sunshine until the wind filled in to a fairly steady 12-15 knots. Uncharacteristic puffs of warm, southwest air kept many in shorts throughout the day. The south course finished four races for most fleets Saturday while the north course race committee finished three. On Sunday, winds were light and variable on the north course, where the bigger boats were sailing. A start in 8-10 knots gradually diminished until boats were unable to counter the current sweeping them north past the leeward mark. Eventually the race committee abandoned that race and winds were too fluky to attempt another start. On the south courses, a pocket of wind, affectionately called the "Meadow Point Hurricane" made it possible to finish at least a couple of races for all the fleets. The development 6 Metre class brought eight competitors to the line, some freshly relaunched and some that have not sailed since the fleet was active in the early 80's. More modern boats raced against recently restored classics, including Goose, a four time Scandinavian Gold Cup winner. The ever competitive Andy Parker took time away from other boat campaigns to race his modern 6 Metre with impressive results. He dueled with Roger Philips to dominate the class, with both finishing more than 24 points ahead of third place finisher Matt Cockburn on Buzzy III. The active Moore 24 fleet (NW Fleet Championships) sent seven representatives to the NOOD. Kathryn Meyer on More Cowbell, beat out her frequent rival More Uff Da, ending her streak of recent wins. The once mighty Thunderbird class, which celebrates its 50th anniversary in Tacoma this summer, produced 13 competitors for their Regional Championships which they incorporated into this event. The venerable Marty Godsil, who has campaigned his Thunderbird Invader, for over 25 years is again the Pacific Northwest regional champion. Predator, sailed by Craig Burnell, led the Thunderbird fleet as of Saturday morning, but poor finishes Saturday afternoon and Sunday put her behind Invader in the final scoring and only a few points ahead of third place finisher Water Torture, helmed by Dale Dunning. J-Boats were well represented in this regatta. Seventeen J-24s (PNW Championships), came out from Lake Washington to fight for the prize. Eric Sanderson held the lead on Suspence for the first three races of the series, but by the end of the first day, Harry Dursch had taken over first place which he held until the end of the regatta. Pete Sauer of Kalispell, Montana pushed Suspence out of second place after two tenth place finishes. Ten J-105s, seven J-109s and eight J-29s also came out on the race course. Mike Schiltz was in fine form on his J-105 Money Shot and won the regatta handily with five bullets and a third place finish that he utltimately dropped. The next closest competitor was Erik Kristen in Jubilee, who trailed Money Shot by seven points, then Bifrost with 18. The J-109 Tantivy was leading her class by one point after six races at the start of Sunday's racing, and leading the last race when it was abandoned. J-Tripper beat out Canadian visitors Astral Plane on a tie breaker. During the first race of the regatta, Astral Plane got inside room at the leeward mark by holding onto her spinnaker, giving her some extra speed. The Melges 24 fleet showed up in force with 17 boats and T-shirts which joked “We race in the NOOD except for our Sperrys.” Starts were hotly contested as were mark roundings. Dave Brede said a boat from another fleet screwed up a great start and left him buried in his fleet, but he still managed to finish third for the regatta behind winner Bob Pistay and second place Matt McGregor. Brenda Stuntz was relieved that winds were less than 15 knots for this regatta so her all female crew on Cool Beans didn't have to muscle a heavy wind spinnaker without winches. With 11 registrants, the San Juan 21 fleet was surprisingly large. Where has this fleet of local sailors been hiding out Wooglin, skippered by Chris Popich, won with 11 points. Stephen Jenson's Charmed Juan took second with 20, only 6 points ahead of Alan Buck's Bullseye. Andy McGregor's For Sail won the Pocket Rocket fleet and Chris Chambers Black Sheep took the trophy in the Ultimate 20 fleet. John Hoag dominated the four boat ID35 class (Pacific Coast Championships). Their starts became pretty exciting to watch as Minor Threat and Gunsmoke fought hard to keep them from finishing the regatta with all bullets. Veloce ruled the Beneteau 36 fleet with all bullets as well. Chuck Skewes of Ullman Sails San Diego, returned to Seattle to race on a C&C115 with dealer Dan Krier, but it was Jeff Whitney on Elusive that took home not only the NOOD class trophey, but a nice half-hull model of the C&C as well. Chris Winnard of North Sails won the J-29 fleet on Dangerous When Wet by three points over Pat Denny's Here and Now. In the Performance 30 class, Mark Hood's Shattered beat Flying Circus by a single point. Rubicon was third. On the dinghy course, 18 Lasers made for some very exciting racing. Many sailors who started in the junior racing programs still fill the ranks of this fleet. Anthony Boscolo finished six points ahead of second place Lindsay Bergan. In the hot 505 class, Dalton Bergan beat out Carol Buchan for first. Angus Brackett missed the first start on Saturday as he mistakenly waited for someone to pick up a repaired spinnaker, giving him 11 points. Otherwise he was consistently amongst the top six finishers. Jay and Lisa Renehan dominated the nine boat Tasar fleet, winning five of the nine races. Their son John finished fifth. Cathy Sherwood and Kent Powley finished in third, just a single point behind second place finisher, Andy Schmidt. Twelve Formula 18 catamarans zoomed around the course. Vancouver sailor Scott Macdonald dominated the fleet with nearly all bullets counting his throwout race. Local Sailor Paul Andrepont sailed consistently to take second for the regatta. In the A-Cat class, Ken and Eric Marshack competed against one another, with Ken winning the series by only four points. Eleven Thistles competed with Gretchen Kaiser dominating the fleet with a score of 22 points. Dwaine Trummert had the next best score with 34 points. In addition to the action at Shilshole Bay, eight Mini 12s raced on Lake Union. Stacy Wilson, won a large percentage of the twelve races to take home the trophy in the mini 12s class. After losing track of the point spread, Stephen Orsini of Anacortes thought he hadn't even won his class in the tight Santana 20 leet. But to his delight, he discovered that not only had he topped his fleet of nine boats, he was first overall, earning him a trip to the British Virgin Islands in November to compete against the overall winners from the nine NOOD venues. To the cheers of the crowd gathered at Seattle Yacht Club Sunday night for the prize giving, Sailing World announced that, because of the overwhelming success of the Seattle event, they planned to produce another Seattle NOOD regatta again next year. For full results go to Sailing World's NOOD site at sailingworld.com/nood_regatta.jsp ...back to 48° North title page.
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