By Geoff Moore - Post-regatta Wrap Up
Geoff Moore, John Mollicone, John McCabe, Rob Macmillan, and Sam Howell won the 2000 J/24 Midwinter Championship last Saturday. The initial moments after you realize you have just won a challenging
regatta are truly memorable. Seeing the look on your crew's faces and realizing that they share the exact same emotion is beyond expression.
When people ask why our J/24 program is doing so well lately I am tempted to answer, "it is our new Millennium J/24 sails". They certainly help but...
The reality is that we have an excellent team. Our tactician John Mollicone is truly exceptional. I overheard him explain to someone at the awards ceremony Saturday night that he believes one of the reasons we have been doing so well lately is because there is an atmosphere of trust on board. Well, maybe the 15 beers and the half a bottle of rum we had imbibed was making us a little ... over sentimental? But, when I think about it, he is right. It isn't just about me trusting him to make good tactical decisions. We often have differences of opinion. We make mistakes. I even lost my cool one race and smashed a winch handle. But, when the race ends we always talk about it and try to learn. We are constantly looking forward. We often laugh at our inadequacies, and complement the other's strengths. Then we head to the club as good friends. The "trust" John spoke about extends far beyond a skipper/ tactician relationship. It encompasses the entire crew. Everyone helps transport, rig and pack up. We try to pinpoint our errors and correct them without pointing an angry finger. Teasing never crosses the line and becomes hurtful. No one ever feels left out, or gets left behind. We genuinely look out for each other. The result is that a sense of confidence has emerged. Confidence in ourselves and our team.
Every time I race a sailboat I am a student. Sometimes the subject has nothing to do with sailing.
By Geoff Moore - It's finally like Florida
There wasn't enough wind yesterday to get a race off so I am happy to report that we are the 2000 J/24 midwinter champions. Thanks to John Mollicone our tactician, Rob Macmillan cockpit, Sam Howell twings and John McCabe foredeck. They all did a great job.
By noon we were finally experiencing Florida weather. Shirts came off and the de-rigging circus began.
It only took 2.5 hours to haul all 64 boats. The awards started at six. A fabulous dinner was served, and as far as I can tell everyone had a great time. The Davis Island yacht club is a great place to hold a regatta of this magnitude. Bill Icely and the members of Fleet 86 are wonderful people who went to great lengths to make sure that the J/24 fleet felt welcome in there home town.
By Geoff Moore - So far so good!
Three more great races were sailed yesterday. The wind was stronger, but well within the Genoa range. Even though the wind was up the surface remained amazingly flat. There were some clouds that gathered as the day went on. A few raindrops even made their way to the surface, but I can't say it really rained.
Race 4 began with a fair number of boats being scored OCS, maybe five or six. Our strategy was to sail to the right because the wind direction had been trending that way. We had a good start in the middle of the line and soon found a header to tack on. Many of the top boats did the same. The shift never really came back, so anyone on the left side had a strong jump on the fleet. Rudy Wolf 's Emailtopia was first at every mark and went on to win the race. Tim Healy and Al Constance fought for second while Brad Read, Tom Sitzman and ourselves battled hard for fourth place. At the finish it was all three of us shooting the line. We were fourth, then Brad, then Tom. It doesn't get any closer than that.
Race 5 was dominated by a huge left shift before the start. This made the pin very favored to the point where you could barely cross the line on starboard tack. We had a comfortable lead at that point so we opted for a conservative start. Since the course was now skewed there weren't going to be many passing lanes. We managed a few quick tacks and poped through on port tack, but Brad, Tim Healy, and Blitz were able to get a jump on us. The beat turned into a fetch and that is the way we finished.
Race 6 had a heavy boat end favored start with a black flag. We were set up well at the boat end at about 20 seconds to go when someone came from behind and fouled our weather quarter and rolled over us to get a black flag. They accepted a penalty at the time, but our good start had turned to a disaster. When we finally found an escape route Brad Read was right there to pounce on us. He hit us hard two times before we were able to split tacks with him. We managed to make a comeback on the right side, but Brad was still a few boats ahead of us at the windward mark. A bad call on the run and we were back around 7th. A disastrous leeward mark rounding and we were in 10th. Brad went on to win again.
Going into the final day we have a 7-point lead over Brad. Tom Sitzman and Al Constance are tied 23 points behind us for third. Tim Healy is 17 points behind them.
By Geoff Moore - The race is on
The forecast was correct, NE breeze that slowly dwindled. As the seven-hour sailing day progressed the wind became increasingly unstable. Three races were held with long 1.5-mile windward legs. All in all it was a decent sailing day albeit a little cool. Full foul weather gear was required. There was bright sun all day.
Race 1 was the windiest. The boat end was slightly favored and Brad Read in the bright yellow boat did a good job of swooping down late in the game and won the boat end. Chris Snow was launched in the middle of the line. We jumped out to the right early and sailed well to the right of the fleet. The shifts were oscillating far too fast to take advantage of every one, so you had to watch very carefully for larger trends. Snow was the leader at the first mark followed fairly closely by a pack of very fast competitors. The leeward legs proved to be just as frightening as Snow passed up his lead. In the end it was a four-way shoot at the finish line between Tom Sitzman, Tim Healy, Jeff Linton, and myself. Tom won the race because Jeff Linton in his "clear" Genoa was OCS.
Race 2 started with a huge left shift with about 40 seconds before the start. Just about everyone tacked at the gun. The wind oscillated back and forth quickly before many of the early leaders were left stranded too far to the left in a big hole. We won the race but not before exchanging the lead many times on the final beat.
Race 3 was very light and extremely unstable. At times it looked like Mashal Lyttle and Brad Read were winning as they reached toward the windward mark on starboard tack with their Genoas cracked and the fleet abeam to leeward. Then as quickly as it came the breeze would shut off and Jeff Linton would look the same on the left side. I was very happy to survive the race with a six-place finish.
Tim Healy in the "new boat" had a very tough day. Randy Borges kidded that he was sandbagging in order to dispel rumors that he was building "super boats".
I heard Jay Miles comment after the race "it wasn't that complicated you just had wait and be lucky"
If conditions today are like yesterday the results won't stay stable.
Everyone seems to be having a good time.
By Geoff Moore - A chilly practice day
62 Boats! It is still cold and the wind is continuing to lighten and shift to the right. Today is forecasted to be a light North Easter.
A lot of boats made it out on the water yesterday to find a pleasant Genoa breeze with extremely flat water. Full foul weather gear was mandatory, however because it was so cold. The upper level wind was mixing with the surface wind as the land slowly heated. It became very turbulent as the day went on. If today is anything like yesterday it will be a very difficult condition to predict.
Measurement was a circus as expected. The Davis Island Yacht club did a fantastic job of making sure that everyone here is in compliance with the rules. Many volunteers spent a long day inspecting sails, verifying measurement certificates, handing out bow numbers, and helping to launch boats. Many thanks to those who we so often forget to recognize.
Good Luck to everyone.
By Geoff Moore - Pipe Dream is here.
They made it! Around 9:00pm the old Pipe Dream rolled into a local Hooters and we all rejoiced with a few drafts. It was good it see them. (…my crew that is) The storm that waylaid them was both unpredicted and much more severe than anything North Carolina has seen in many years.
Yesterday Tampa was cold and windy again, but a few boats made it out to practice with their blades.
Our numbers have swollen to around 55. The quality of this fleet will be very deep because most of the world qualifiers seem to be here.
Sail measurement has been very strict. I have heard a few grumbling about people having to move numbers around etc. Today will probably be a zoo as everyone races to complete the registration requirements so they can go out for a sail before the race tomorrow.
By Geoff Moore - Where's my boat?!?
Hello from Tampa,
The Davis Island Yacht club is beginning to fill up with J/24s as more and more brave souls finish their long trek to the 2000 midwinter's. The first race starts on Thursday, but many teams are already rigging and polishing their steeds.
I arrived yesterday in hopes of having the morning to lounge by the pool and soak up some sun while I waited for my boat to arrive. No such luck. It was 59 degrees and blowing about 35+ knots across Tampa Bay. The pool will have to wait. My boat and crew are stranded in North Carolina under 17" of snow! Evidently it is some kind of record. There aren't too many snowplows in that part of the world. When their progress dropped to less than 20 mile per hour they did the right thing and found shelter for the night. As of 8:00am this morning they had 500 mile to go. Hopefully they will arrive this evening. The weather is still very cool, but the wind has dropped considerably.
This is my first visit to the Davis Island Yacht club. It is a relatively small club situated on a small island connected via bridges to the Tampa City front. There is little sense that Davis Island is actually an island. It is mostly a pleasant residential neighborhood. At the extreme southern end there is a small airport. The Yacht Club sits on a peninsula that juts out into the bay on the far side. This gives the club an isolated feeling. There is a small cove with an odd collection of moored boats, and a few nicely maintained docks. There is one hoist, which looks adequate, but there is already a line up of a few dozen J/24 waiting to be splashed. When I walked into the clubhouse I was met with some very friendly faces. The membership appears sincerely happy that we are here. Some measurement will begin today, but I expect the real circus will be tomorrow when all the boats will have to be launched.
Tim Healy is here with the very first boat that Waterline has produced. So far he has been patiently allowing everyone who is interested (virtually everyone here) to crawl all over the newest J/24. The boat carries 40 pounds of corrector weights and looks very much like any other J/24. It has a very aggressive non-skid deck and molded-in winch risers and footrests. The interior looks very similar to the Italian built boats. The bottom has some kind of white paint and it is faired to perfection. All and all it looks very sharp.