Fran Byrne Regatta 2007
LET THERE BE WIND!
COLLABORATION WINS FRAN BYRNE REGATTA
(Sunday, August 5, 2007) In the most wind the Chicago Beneteau 40.7 Fleet has seen all year in any buoy event, Collaboration, skippered by Bob Vickery, and with what Bob described as a “light crew of eight”, won the two-race Fran Byrne Regatta 
with race finishes of 3rd and 1st. Winds were measured at over 25 knots during the early legs of the first race. The start was about twenty minutes late due to the race committee having difficulty setting the course in the somewhat lumpy conditions that prevailed until mid-afternoon. Waves were running about 3-4 feet. Nine 40.7 competed in this annual even put on by Columbia Yacht Club under the auspices of the Lake Michigan Sail Racing Federation (LMSRF) Area III.
Collaboration did not have it so easy in the first race. Starting on the left side of the line and going left, because, according to skipper Vickery, “he didn’t have a lot of experienced crew and he was light on crew anyway, with only eight”. Bob went on to describe the first beat, “There was a twenty degree shift to the right so we were on the outside of that. We rounded the windward mark in 5th place.”
As the 40.7 section rounded the first windward mark, with Collaboration in about 5th place, the wind began gusting from 15 to 25 knots. Boats in sections ahead of the 40.7’s began wrapping and shredding spinnakers and wiping out. Collaboration’s spinnaker became wrapped around the forestay, slowing her down, and allowing several of the trailing boats to pass her as she rounded the leeward mark in 8th place. Meanwhile, Don Hayes’ Tsunami, who had been in 2nd place at the mark, was also having spinnaker troubles and fell to last place at the leeward mark.
In the
end, Jay Muller’s Das Boot finished in 1st place in the first race, beating 2nd place Bill Bartz and his crew on Turning Point by 11 seconds. Das Boot eventually finished in 2nd place in the regatta with 1st and 4th place finishes, 1 point behind overall winner, Collaboration. Turning Point finished in 3rd place in the regatta with 2nd and 3rd place finishes.
At the end of the first race, after Das Boot and Turning Point had crossed the finish line, there was the typical 40.7 hotly contested sprint between four boats: Collaboration, Excalibur, La Tempete, and Vayu, as each boat poured it on. In the end they finished in that order with only four seconds separating all of them!
For the second race, the wind abated somewhat to about 15 knots and the waves subsided. Vickery’s Collaboration won this race, followed by Tsunami in 2nd place and then Turning Point in 3rd.
Bob Vickery described this race: “We had a clean start and stayed in phase. The wind was oscillating in direction and velocity. We sniffed that out in the 1st race when we were outside on the 20 degree lift. Our outhaul purchase, you know, in the boom, exploded during the 2nd beat with the only thing holding the outhaul in place was the velcro strap on the clew. There were some big shifts and we were on the right side of them.”
When asked why Collaboration went to the left after the start of the first race, Bob answered: “There was no good reason to go left on the first race start. We were terribly undermanned, with only four people who knew how to sail, really. We had eight people. One of them was sick. I didn’t want to mix it up at the boat end with an inexperienced crew.”
Regarding the recent 330 mile Chicago to Mackinac Island race and his 2nd place finish, Bob had this to say: “I subscribe to the Commander forecast. It’s usually more accurate than not. But this year their forecast cost us the race. Sunday afternoon they forecast it would be calm and suggested we get near shore. My recent experience is that when you get up near Point Betsie you don't want to be too close to shore, with “near shore” being three miles off. So Sunday afternoon, from 2:30 to 5 we steered 85° on starboard gybe to get near shore and we gave up distance to guys who just went north as best they could. (Dick) Jennings (skipper of Chicago to Mackinac winner, Pied Piper) always told me if there is high pressure, or if there isn't pressure, over the lake, head for shore to get thermal effect along the sand dunes.
"We went for the fog and we saw Spanker going the other way and that's the last I saw of them. My friend Shawn O’Neil on Eagle also went away from the fog and they had solid pressure all the way to Gray's Reef.”
“I can’t think of a better fleet than the 40.7’s.”
Below is the hour-by-hour wind readings for Sunday August 5th, for Chicago Offshore:
Updated 40.7 fleet standings are at: Fleet standings