TWO REGATTAS IN A ROW FOR DAS BOOT

[Saturday, July 15, 2006. Chicago]   Is it time for La Tempete to step aside?  For the first time in three years a boat other than La Tempete has won the Beneteau 40.7 section in two Area III regattas in a row.  That boat is Jay Muller’s Das Boot.  Their victory in the Fran Byrne Regatta on Saturday with 1^st and 3^rd places in the two races and their victory last week in the Hobleman Regatta marks two Area III regatta victories in a row, the first time any boat other than La Tempete has done it since Tsunami did it in 2003.  Not only has Das Boot won these two regattas, but in buoy racing since the 4^th race of the NOOD on June 18^th she hasn’t finished worse than 5^th place.  On the other hand, La Tempete hasn’t finished worse than 5^th place in any buoy race this entire year.  So maybe Tom Weber and his team on La Tempete aren’t ready to move over.  But the competition is definitely heating up. 

Second place on Saturday went to Vayu, skippered by Ron Buzil with a 5th place in the first race and a 1st place in the second race.  Clem Boltz' CanCan, tied with Vayu in points was awarded 3rd place in the regatta with 4th and 2nd place finishes.

Weather conditions were initially light.  After a short postponement the winds filled in at 3-5 knots and racing was underway.  With wind initially out of the northeast the first race course was set at 70° but by the time the 40.7’s were on their way up the first leg there was a significant left shift to 35°, skewing the remaining legs.  The wind filled in and by the 40.7 start for the second race it was up to 8-10 knots on a course of 45°.  Skies were sunny and warm with waves of one foot or less.

After the racing we asked Jay Muller a few questions about the day’s racing: 

40.7:  What was your plan for the start and first upwind leg of the first race?

JM:  (On the first race) we had an ok start but we were to leeward of Tsunami so we thought it was best to bail and go right.  We sailed into all of the other sections coming downwind.  Wasn’t that crazy?  I think we were third at the mark. 

JM:  We saw that the long mark was out of whack and followed you guys (Vayu and Cancan), we had overstood so we were sailing a little hotter than those boats on the line.  We were fifth around on the final downwind and then watched La Tempete take Tsunami up and out.  I still don’t understand what was going on there.  We sailed directly towards the RC boat, favored end, I believe, and got both of them to finish third. Once again, the crew work was really good and they worked Das Boot well.  We tried to keep it going fast.

Ron Buzil then had this to say about Vayu’s second place in the regatta: 

40.7:  How did Vayu handle the left shift at the beginning of the first race and the approach to the windward mark?

RB:  In the first race we started near the pin with Tsunami to leeward and La Tempete to windward.  We were definitely on the short tack to the first mark.  Of the three of us on the left side of our section, La Tempete tacked first, then we did, then Tsunami.  We were overstood on the port layline.  Tsunami was higher and behind us.  Both of us were coming down to the mark with good speed, like 7.5 knots plus.  La Tempete was definitely ahead of us and I could see Cancan, also on port tack, to leeward of us and slightly ahead.  I felt we could reach the two-boat-length zone clear ahead of Tsunami and maybe even ahead of Cancan.  About one hundred yards from the mark our jib halyard was accidentally released and the jib fell about six feet.  As Joe Spataro, our pitman, raced to winch the jib back up, I saw Tsunami in my peripheral vision and knew they would have the inside overlap which they did when we finally got to the mark. 

40.7:  How did you handle the shift and dragged mark in the second race?

RB:      We rounded the leeward mark in second place just behind Cancan.  We had already seen the wind begin veering so I figured going right would be a good thing and we followed Cancan for a few minutes.  As we tried to identify the mark I remembered hearing a PHRF competitor calling the RC on the radio about the long course mark having dragged.  Suddenly we realized we were high of the layline so we immediately tacked.  Then the wind shifted even more right.  I saw 85° at one point, so we were even more overstood.  All we could do at that point was crack off and go for the mark with full speed.  It was then that we realized that we were in first.  I called for a gybe set at the mark but called it off after there seemed to be some confusion, maybe because our regular bowman (bow-woman?), Jenna Herhold, wasn’t with us.  Just before the mark I double-checked with Joe what our rounding plan was and it was then I found out that we were doing a gybe set after all.  I’m glad they told me.  Our bowman for the day, Lior Cohen, did a good job with the setup and Ed Radzikowski my long-time mastman did a good hoist and we were off on port tack racing for the finish.  All we had to do was hold off Cancan who was about two boatlengths behind us.  The team did well all day and showed good speed.

This Fran Byrne Regatta counts for the season-long Area III Buoy Boat of the Year series.  Half of the six two-race scheduled regattas have been completed and La Tempete leads the series followed by Das Boot in second place and Vayu in third place.  Full results for all series standings can be viewed at http://first407.com/2006seriesstandings.

 In other 40.7 news:

Aftermath of the Hobleman Regatta on July 9^th:  Spanker was disqualified in the first race after being protested by Excalibur for a leeward mark rounding incident.

Barracuda is shown as disqualified in the second race of the Hobleman although her skipper, Steve Pelke, reports that she withdrew after a port/starboard incident with a T-10 resulted in a protest.  The scoring result is the same. 

Results of the 2006 Fran Byrne Regatta (40.7 Section):

Division=Ben 40.7

  RaceName=Race1

WindSpeed:8 WindDirection:SE

Division=Ben 40.7

Date: 07/15/06 StartTime: 12:00:00 Distance: 3.5 nm

Speed as VMG of winning boat: 4.2 knots 

RaceName=Race 2

WindSpeed:6 WindDirection:SE

Division=Ben 40.7

Date: 07/15/06 StartTime: 13:45:00 Distance: 5.1 nm