Well….three out of five races were primarily reaches just
like predicted. The winds really
didn’t cooperate for the series,…but hey that’s sailboat racen. It appears that the conditions were best in races
1 and 5. We’ll compare notes from the previous forecasts to the actual
finishes… to see how far off or on ..my big mouth was! Here we go..
In Class A, The original forecast called for Decision
to win big and they did. It called
for Java to come on only as strong as the wind. It never blew and Java never came on strong. Heartbeat & Chutzpah were predicted to
dominate the buoy races and they
didn’t. Team Tiburon was called on
to have consistent finishes but not enough to win it all, they finished as a
bride’s maid. The out of town Melges was predicted to get smoked and they
only finished three out of five races (they did win the drag race for what it
is worth). The only two people in the
country that I’ve seen make the Melges 30 go are JDIII & Benz…it really
seems to be a tricky boat to get hooked up.
Some extra scoop here…., we spoke to Stephen “Stumpy” Murray Jr. about the top of
his finger getting hacked off before race 2, he said, “I’m just glad it
was my jacket sleeve and not my shorts that got caught in the winch!”. Yikes!
Can some one help this guy find a good lawyer. We checked with our litigation specialist who reviewed the latest
Eason’s Quantum Study …and it looks like the tip of a finger is only worth
about twenty grand these days… maybe he can get a new main or chute out of
this!
In Class B,
the “B” stands for BUMPER BOATS as I saw several boats trade
paint and almost trade paint in this class.
Lets see here… the guest driver of Dom Perignon can land a 727 on a dime
but he can’t get a 40-foot plus Tartan around the course with out hitting two
boats. In one incident, Green Jacket
tacked into them to test the gel coat and in another incident, the Krewe of
Rags got a real good push off of Dom’s bow pulpit. (I did see some bumper boats in Class A also... it looked like the crew on Banking 101...whoops Freudian slip...I mean Lesson #1 pushed off of
Surfinn's stearn pulpit and spun them head to wind before one start...it
appeared that the light winds made it difficult for the big J-boat to
maneuver with the little J-boat in the light air conditions...this was
probably the best maneuver to avoid collision in this circumstance....
but hey...i'm no Dick Rose.) This was a class that the forecast was
affected because of the class breaks…the final out come was predicted correct
though. Sudpack was predicted to
come on strong at the end during the buoy races and win overall,…they did just
that! Dom was suppose to be the
“bomb-diggitty” if the wind blew and it
never did. Beast should have
showed,..but it was all my fault… I called every shift wrong both days I was on
the boat. This boat rates “84” in Long
Beach California… so it should either get nine seconds or an overlapping headsail
at no charge to rating (how’s that for biased).
In Class C, the re-forecast due to class
breaks predicted “Team Jackson” on Dream Cookie to win and Tiare &
Cutlass next. I over heard the Team
Jackson captain and it sounded a little bit like this, “Vit is very vard
…to make my twenty-vix vooter go as vast as a vorty-vine vooter ”. Tiare won, Cutlass came in second and Dream Cookie came in
third. Initially, I thought our PHRF
rating Sheriff would be sure to issue Tiare & Cutlass a speeding ticket
but after reviewing the fleet results, their ratings may well be
preserved. In race 3, Tiare & Cutlass did happen to blow
through a certain J-35 with the PHRF Sheriff and “Sail maker/Speed Merchant” on
board that started five minutes ahead…but this may get over looked.
In Class D,
The forecast was as wrong as it could get other than Spray. The J-30’s and Pearson Flyer were no match
for the J-80’s in this very prevalent light air series. Woody won, J-Spot placed and Spray
showed. The guys on Crying Tiger
were going slow…cow slow…moooooo! Maybe
they’ll change the name of the boat to “Walking Cow”. They should have been re-forecasted after the first weekend…I
should noticed that the owner had been hitting the outlet malls instead of the
sail lofts. Even their “coach” gave up
on em. I still want one of those crew
hats before hunting season starts. I’ll
make sure I don’t put any more pressure on these guys…ever think just maybe,…
the babe was the bad mojo… and not the pressure from being ceded so high?
In Class E,
The prediction was right on except you have to trade Tenacity and The
Bear around. Outasight finished
third. If the wind would have come
on a bit stronger, The Bear may have been able to pull it off. Tenacity was hooked up in the last race,
they beat The Bear by over 20 seconds per mile. This class without a doubt after spectating the last two races
had the best crew work. The boats in this class are small and very manageable,
so the crew work and starts were very tight.
Hey Girl was the highest finishing boat in fleet that had a dog on board….ok…they were the only boat
racing with a dog on board. They
took two thirds and finished in the money racing a J-24 with a pooch on the
rail. The PHRF Sheriff needs to look
into this!..anyone racing with a Dog that gibes the spinnaker pole should get
at least 6 seconds per mile added to his or her rating. More serious note here: I attempted to shame Throw Down into this
class early on as I knew they could take it.
Throw Down started 15 minutes behind this class and in three races
they caught the leaders boat for boat and they didn’t even fly a chute.
In Cruiser Racer, to much pressure was put on Kon-Kiki. These guys were leading the last race and
had a horrible mark rounding. They
came in from a real hot angle,…couldn’t get the chute down….didn’t get the
Genoa up…and then blew the gibe when they didn’t take the pole down. I think “Skip” got some pretty good photos
of this,…but nothing worthy of the 2002 LPRC poster nor “Dr. Crash”. Me,… sizing their skipper up for “the
jacket” too early, might have been bad mojo…sorry. The “Red Jacket”
winner for spinnaker class was SABADABA. I don’t want to take anything away from these CHAMPIONS, but I
just don’t know em. I don’t know who
they are, where they work or where they sail out of? If anyone does know them, please have them email me at dale@noyc.org and maybe we can get a 60 second
interview. CONGRATS TO SABADABA…try
saying that boat name real fast after three Mt. Gay Rum and Cokes. Oh yeah… Jeff Hampton wants to talk to you
also…he didn’t say why…but you might want to take a wild guess…can you get 50
miles of racing logged on this boat before early June?
In Non-Spinnaker, to put it simply, THROW
DOWN RULED! He took home more
trophies, hats, boat of the day awards and jackets than “The Special Man” had
kids. When Ryan’s new patio home is
completed in English Turn after Thanksgiving, it will be well outfitted with
2001 LPRC décor (Clocks, vases, fine silver trays and such). The 2001 LPRC was a very high yield trophy
hunt for “Team Throw Down”. As the
trout fisherman say in Cocodrie “He limited out early”. This big win along with “Twilight Race
Boat of The Year” qualifies him as THE NON-SPINNAKER INTER-GALACTIC UNIVERSE
CHAMPION! Congrats to Ryan, Gilbert
& Chris on their BLOW OUT. Team
Tillman on “Getaway” finished second…if Throw Down graduates to Spinnaker Class
in 2002… Team Tillman very well may dominate this class next year. This writer was recently criticized for not
mentioning the other boats in the Non-Spinnaker fleet. So we have brought this critic on as our
roaming reporter…. here it is Brian Weir’s own Non-Spinnaker Class wrap up! Be careful not to read while operating heavy
machinery …zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz ...zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz!
The 2001 LPRC was difficult and very trying series due to
the lack of wind. Many of the
complaints that I heard for not participating were pretty pathetic..such as…
you spend more time driving your crew in your car around the lake than you do
racing…that’s a crock…anyone who did this needs to get with the “Awesome Bus
Program”. The 2001 LPRC may not have
had the best wind conditions this year, but it is still one of the best
run “Multi-venue PHRF Regatta’s” in
the south. Oh yeah….I almost
forgot…the “Osama Bin Laden Photos” taped in the urinals at TYC were
hilarious…every thirteen year old I saw…couldn’t stop laughing…I hear that they
are also my biggest fans. Please don’t
forget to check out “THE OFFICIAL LPRC WEBPAGE”, patronize the sponsor listed there & thank the race committee folks and volunteers that make this premier event happen. Don’t forget, J-fest regatta at NOYC next Saturday.
-steinkamp
