IC24'S PLUS JAMES AND MARTY BRAVED 30 KNOT WINDS--BONNIE WINS SOUP COOK-OFF

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Read more of the Cat Fight, the skin show at the costune party and the disappearing mark.

COMMODOR van HOUTEN GOT OUT OF HIS HAMMOCK LONG ENOUGH TO DELIVER THE CASE OF RUM FOR THE BADDEST CAT AWARD AS THE PARTY GOT UNDER WAY.

Torrential rain on Friday night at the Jolly Roger made sign-up for the 15th running of the West End Yacht Club Firecracker 500 (and Chili Cook-off) a very wet affair. But with two visiting boats from St Thomas and two dedicated KATS IC24’s using this as their readiness race for the Chief Ministers Cup next week, there was no doubt that the race was on!

A new “crazy eights” course was set around the “Thatches”, thereby avoiding the inclusion of the green navigation buoy in Great Harbour used in previous years. Saturday winds obliged with 15 -18 knots ready to drive the fleet around a 17 miles course in a pursuit format. (Boats start at staggered intervals according to their handicap -- slowest boat first; in theory crossing the finish line close together).


KATS IC24’s being the slowest handicapped boats started together in a blustery downwind start--always a difficult maneuver. Indeed with 20 secs to go CCTKATS helmed by James Woods was caught literally beating back to the correct side of the line. The strategy (if it was one?) worked and CCTKATS crossed the line correctly on the start gun for a perfect start. Later they suffered a broken tiller off Great Thatch and so retired—better this race than next week James.








14 minutes 31 seconds later visiting J27 J Walker from St Thomas crossed the line under blue spinnaker—a bold move well executed. After this the faster boats came within minutes of each other: John Haracivet’s “Tempest” who was over the line by 10 secs and received a penalty, Pat Nolan’s “Seabiscuit”, Kevin Rowlett’s “Picaroon” and “Rhumb Squall” sailed by Alison Knights-Bramble with a cast of youth sailors.

This was Rhumb Squall’s trial by firecracker (pun intended) since Alison assumed custody of the highly tuned Antrim 27 under a donation program from the US owner, Tom Mullen. Despite her crew too many to count on the rail and a reefed mainsail, Alison was heard later muttering at the bar about boats that would not “stand up”. But by the time they bravely appeared on the last beat they had shaken out the reef and were definitely in control—well done Alison and the crew. (Maybe Tom didn’t tell her the ideal crew weight for that boat is 1100 lbs).

With the fleet disappearing and re-appearing around Little and Great Thatch it seemed anybody’s race, assuming the pursuit handicaps were working; with the bar flies betting on the bigger boats and Rhumb Squall the wild card. But shortly before 1400 hours Cy Thompson with his “little boat that could” “J Walker” crossed the line 8 minutes ahead of Picaroon to show the Loyals and (the bar flies) how to sail a crazy eights course.

KEVIN ROWLETT'S PICAROON TAKING 2ND PLACE BEHIND CY THOMPSON'S J WALKER.











Absent from the fleet was any representation from the “Royals” despite a challenge to them from the “Loyals” for a sail-off for the Manhattan Yacht Club Trophy (presented to both Clubs by MYC after 911 with thanks for the support they received). The trophy will be held by WEYC again by default until the challenge is answered.

At 5.30pm eight delicious chili concoctions appeared and the chili aficionados began their daunting culinary judgment. It was amazingly close voting by 21 tasters with Di Kirk beating out Stick by one vote with Aurlie from the Jolly Roger a very close third. All funds from the registration and the cook off are donated to KATS by the WEYC.

RESULTS:
1 J Walker—Cy Thompson—J27
2 Picaroon---Kevin Rowlett---Oyster 48
3 1st Caribbean Kats---Javon Cooper---IC24
4 Seabiscuit---Pat Nolan---Beneteau 445
5 Tempest---John Haracivet---Beneteau 38
6 Rhumb Squall---Alison Knights-Bramble---Antrim 27
7 CCT Kats---James Woods---IC24

May 27 and 28, 2006 Mike Kirk

“Foxy’s Wooden Boat Regatta - 2006”
The revised format for the 2006 Wooden Boat Regatta brought out a fleet of 22 yachts of every age, design and type to compete for the 18 perpetual trophies given for this granddaddy of regattas.
Sad news at registration was of the sinking of Dragon being towed from Puerto Rico. While the crew were distracted fishing she sank in 120 ft of water off Culebra! (Something about a bung secured with 5200 was rumored to be the cause) Arrangements were already underway to re-float this valuable Island Sloop.
Despite dwindling turnout in earlier years Foxy had said there will always be a race even if there are only two wooden boats in the Caribbean! This year he sat at registration desk with a twinkle in his eye saying that we were on the way back to the days of 80 boat fleets. The variety of entries makes this regatta unique. The newest boat was the Island Sloop Scorpion, built in 2002 with the oldest boat being the Morecombe Bay Prawner from England Lu Lu Du celebrating her 80th birthday. Boats came from seven different islands many locally built by owners such as Rafiki 3 built in Cocoa Beach Fl. by Chris Angel and the old stalwart Breath built by Peter Muilenburg in St John
The addition of the Classic class (any boat of a design over 30 years old) meant that most boats sailed both days in either the Single Hander or Classic on Saturday followed by the two race wooden boat race on Sunday. A possible varied eight courses were available for the committee to ensure good competition.
Saturday saw the Classics circumnavigating Jost van Dyke in medium winds while the single handers circled Sandy Cay and Great Thatch. Winds were light on Sunday and so Race Captain Robin Pinfold selected shorter courses around Sandy Cay.
The old Great Lakes pilot boat Silver Cloud was, as always the Classic Committee Boat.
Owners Elliot and Jo Hooper from St. John kept the race committee entertained with stories of the resident ghosts living on this 1899 steel hulled veteran, named originally the Helen “S”. (When at sea a group of card players can be heard listening to a 1930 Cleveland Indians Baseball game!)
West End Yacht Club (WEYC) rules allowing engines to be run to the start - designed to improve safety - seemed to encourage a tightly packed start as boats drove to the line within seconds of one another. Odege threaded a needle gap ahead of port tack Ruffian but ducked heavy and blunt Buxam—Sarah O'Neill has just got her Camper Nicholson 33 back in shape after grounding in the Anegada race earlier this year.
On Sunday much of the inter-boat competition came down to match racing between two or three boats. (To ensure even racing, boats are divided into length classes and boat type divisions.) In race one the big Island Sloops Oasis and Jaguar both over stood the line and had to circle spectator boats at the port end to restart on port. Likewise the three small sloops fought for the start with Scorpion pulling off a port approach against Coaba and Buenadaga. Coaba won the first race despite a broken tiller –the helmsman steering with his foot over the transom on the rudder!
Adding to the start mayhem were the two committee boat dogs barking at four legged crew members on passing race boats. WEYC Commodore Martin van Houton was heard to say ruefully “This is a whole new genre of sailboat racing!”
Sundays finish was delayed as Lilly and Jezephyr (without radios) sailed the planned long course around Little and Great Thatch. After four hours they approached the finish in a deadly luffing match with humorous profanities and criticisms of the Almighty flowing freely across the water. Jezephyr held her lead to finish by 14 seconds. Robin Pinfold summed it up with “Oh well –the best laid plans of mice and committee men…..”
Carter Powell and Carol King completed a yeoman’s task of allocating the 50 or so prizes along with $200 for each class winner for the noisy prize giving. With prizes for all and 18 perpetual trophies to award the committee was hard pressed to keep prizes and trophies moving before the drinking and dancing got serious.
A special award was resented to retiring Vice Commodor Robin Pinfold after his many years of service to WEYC.


Results
Single Handed Race:
1st Virgin Fire Gold Coast 56 Cat – Jo Colpitt – St. John
2nd Jezephyr Alden 33 – Tory Lane – St. John
3rd Lilly 38ft Italian Sloop – “Bear” – St. John

Classic Race:
1st Oasis 34ft Gelo Island Sloop – Miguel Gomez – Puerto Rico
2nd Trinka Rhodes 40 – Thatcher Lord – St. John
3rd Scorpion 22ft Gelo Island Sloop – Juan Ramden/Luis Nieves – Puerto Rico

Wooden Boat (2 Races Overall):
Under 30ft Island Sloops
1st Scorpion 22ft Gelo Island Sloop – Juan Ramden/Luis Nieves – Puerto Rico
2nd Coaba 26ft Freddie Island Sloop – Ricardo Alvarez – Puerto Rico
30ft to 40ft Island Sloops
1st Jaguar II 34ft Yeyo Medina Island Sloop – Junior Palmas – Puerto Rico
2ndOasis 34ft Gelo Island Sloop – Miguel Gomez – Puerto Rico
Under 30ft Marconi Sloops
1st Peacepipe Laurent Giles 29 – Parker Hall – St. Thomas
2ndPepper Culbert 23 – Fred Renner – St. John
30ft to 40 ft Marconi Sloops
1st Yankee Rhodes 34 – Brad Glidden - St. Thomas
2ndJezephyr Alden 33 – Tory Lane – St. John
3rd Lilly 38ft Italian Sloop – “Bear” – St. John
50ft to 60ft Marconi Sloops
1st Spree Ackerman 50 – Bob Reedy – St John
2nd Lu Lu Du 51ft Morecombe Bay Prawner – Matt Carroll – England
30ft to 40 ft Traditional Sloops (Gaff Rigged)
1st Buxam II 39ft Tahiti Ketch – Colin Hansen – St John
30ft to 40 ft Multihulls
1st Rafiki 3 37ft Chris Angel Trimaran – Christopher Angel – St John
Over 50ft Multihull
1st Virgin Fire Gold Coast 56 Cat – Jo Colpitt – St. John

This is a real life sailing story about three very different boats and two crews who went from acrimony to close friendship through the sport of sailing.
The Caribbean Ocean Racing Triangle (CORT) pits boats of all types against each other over three coordinated regattas. To win CORT you have to race in three specific international regattas: St Croix, Culebra and the BVI. This year only three boats made it through all three regattas in the Performance Cruising Class; a class designed to accommodate fast boats with optional spinnakers but still fitted out as cruisers.

Each boat was very different:
“Three Harkoms” was listed as a Semi-custom 45. In reality this boat was a bastardized aging Beneteau 445 charter boat. The cockpit had been enlarged, the transom cut open and the hull faired. She was fitted with a modified deep keel, a larger mast and sported an unmeasured free flying jib. (One observer called her a “poor” man’s Swan 45). Optimized within the Caribbean Sailing Association’s (CSA) “secret” measurement rule, her owners hoped she would be unbeatable. The crew of “Harkoms” was rumored to include three measurers and an Americas cup designer

“Shamrock V” is a stock J120 (41 ft) with asymmetrical spinnaker, carbon mast and motley crew with high hopes of beating their 2005 reputation of “the boat to beat” if they could ever sail consistently.

“Cayennita” is an older Soverel 27 flying a conventional spinnaker and crewed by an old time veteran of 30 years Caribbean racing (and winner of many trophies).

To sort all this out the CSA had imposed handicaps that described “Harkoms” 9% faster than “Cayanita” and “Shamrock”, the apparent rocket ship, another 3% faster than “Harkoms”. The game - as Sherlock Holmes would say - was afoot! What none of the crews knew was that “Murphy” had also decided to enter the CORT series and would choose his boats carefully.

The bar talk was all about an “unfair sailing” protest to the CSA but heck most people had no time for such politics and preferred to concentrate on good sailing. But there is a sailing God…….read on.

To the delight of S and C, 3H’s extensive modifications were completed late (hey this is the Caribbean) and although entered, she never made the regatta in St Croix—an automatic penalty score. She was down but not out! After 4 races in St Croix with 25 knot winds, the J120 was leading the little Soverel in all races. It looked like “Shamrock” would have CORT sewn up. But in the last race “Cayennita” executed a violent luff at the start potentially creating a DSQ chance over Shamrock—her only hope. But Murphy was riding with the Soverel that day. The designated protest flag carrier had left the flag in his other pants pocket and the protest was thrown out on a technicality for no proper flag—Shamrock bought dinner for both crews that night, a new friendship was born and a common enemy defined.

The second regatta in the series was staged in the Spanish Virgin Isle of Culebra. Mr. Murphy was feeling bad about the “flag in the pants trick” and talked to the wind gods. With only 5 to 8 knots breeze the handicaps where turned inside out and the “little boat that could” swept the fleet 1st, with the ugly duckling 2nd and the rocket ship a frustrating 3rd.. “Cayennita” was back in the game, “Shamrock” was humbled and “Harkoms” potential was manifest.

Mixed winds for the third regatta in the BVI gave all boats determined hopes but “Harkoms” looked tough to beat. By this time “Cayennita’s” owner was coaching “Shamrock’s” crew from his experience of the CSA rule. To be fair Murphy decided to spin the wheel again and “Harkoms” got disqualified in the 1st race due to egregious sailing (their expert crew not being available for this regatta). So it was all down to the early St Croix protagonists and now strong friends. All the talk was about a tie for series points with resolution to be determined by (as yet unpublished) tie breaker criteria. So what was Murphy to do?

Going into the last race both crews were convinced they were tied and each had to beat the other to win the coveted CORT series in Performance Cruising Class. A long course around three islands and shifty 10 to 15 knot winds made it anyone’s guess as to who would win. But to make sure of a good race Murphy had destroyed the hydraulic backstay on “Shamrock” and she was sailing with no mast bend.

At the finish “Shamrock” stood by the line with the stopwatch ticking convinced that a 19 minutes separation from “Cayennita” would give them the series on handicap. After a grueling 3 hrs 9 minutes and 14 seconds the little Soverel came across the line under full spinnaker 19 minutes 36 seconds after the wounded “Shamrock”. Now it was all up to the computer calculations in the “secret” CSA black handicapping box.

ON CORRECTED TIME CAYENNITA CAME IN 67 SECONDS AHEAD OF SHAMROCK TO TAKE THE “CORT” SERIES FOR PERFORMANCE CRUISING CLASS 2006.

After three weeks of sailing, three regattas and 16 races only 67 seconds separated these two very different boats—a tribute to CSA handicapping—maybe. But with “Three Harkoms” crying in their rum over their self-made misfortunes, who can say what a fair sailing protest would have revealed and what would be the effect on the CSA’s reputation to handicap a boat modified to a “secret” rule.

But for two crews new respect was found and bonds of friendship tied……….and that’s sailing.

By - Mike Kirk - Race Chairman

MT GAY & ROADTOWN WHOLESALE SPONSOR THE SWEETHEARTS & CLASSIC REGATTA

Schooners and Classic Yachts out in force.

Saturday Feb 11th saw an historic spread of canvas off West End Tortola with the running of the 28th “Sweethearts of the Caribbean Schooner Regatta”. The West End Yacht Club’s flagship event represents the only known opportunity Schooner Regatta in the Caribbean.