ZEPHYR WINS IN CHICAGO
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In Race Four, the squaw/front/lowpressurefeederband was about two miles to windward and just sitting there.  So that is where the RC decided to drop the weather mark.  We were thinking, we came here to race….but these guys are nuts if they are going to race us into this damn front!  They started the sequence and the breeze was howling!  It was blowing at least 30 knots.  We even saw a few well sailed J-30’s take a reef (very rare occurrence).  We went with the #3 a full main and mega back stay!  We won the start, but the brain trust was a little weary of whether or not we were over the line or not!  Our foredeck lost site of the pin end in the waves as they were rolling about 6- 8 feet.   The breeze was on, blowing stink as they say in da big easy.  The only lulls were at the bottom of the wave troughs.  The rail meat convinced the brain trust not to go back and restart, so we kept racing with a bit of doubt!    Soon after the start, a J-30 on our windward hip blew the clew and foot out of his main,  another J-30 bow out and leeward broke his main halyard, and the Soverel 27 was going up one wave and sideways two!    We were smokin, our class was going out the back door.  We got to the weather mark with about 100 yard lead.  We did a very conservative chute set with tweakers, backstay and vang whaled on.  It was all white knuckles, we were blowing off these cliff like waves with no problems.  Our speed was in the 12-15 knot range the entire leg.  The Chicago Air Show was going on all weekend at the lake front also, so we weren’t the only ones breaking the sound barrier. The only relief in sight was that we were about 4 degrees above the leeward mark and might not have to jibe (YIKES!).  Stephen Murray’s Andrews  70 Decision racing on course “A” opted to not put their chute up on this leg, they achieved speeds in the mid-teens and opted to do a 360 degree turn and tack down wind instead of jibing so that they could keep the rig in the boat.  It ended up being a good call for them, as they kept their rig up (at least two-three boats lost their masts in this race).  Zephyr stayed on its feet and extended its lead, we caught a few waves right and didn’t have to jibe.  We had a great take down and the breeze  settled down to the upper twenties.  We had passed all of the J-29’s that started five minutes ahead of us and could keep a very comfortable lead as long as we didn’t break anything.  We reached the weather mark a good ½ mile ahead of everyone in our class, so no need to put up the chute on the last leg right!…. wrong… chute goes up perfect and we blast off again!  Now we are really cocky…..but this time we have to jibe for the finish!  No problem, you know the old saying about heavy air sailing down wind in waves…. as long as you are on a full plane….. all the loads are off and the jibe is easy! Wrong!  We flubbed the jibe bad, couldn’t get the main over, couldn’t get the pole made and tripped over keel on a huge wave.  The J-29’s that we passed, said that it didn’t look too bad.  We recovered and finished first with a four minute lead on a 5.25 mile course in thirty knots of breeze.  Not to bad for some dumb southerners. 

In Race Five, Zephyr blows it!  The breeze is blowing any where from 8-25 but shows signs of building as there was another storm lurking.  We opted for the # 3 and the breeze crumped shortly after the start.  Our competitors went with #2’s and left us in their wakes.  We switched to the #1 and rounded the weather mark fifth.  The breeze swung 40 degrees and filled in at about 20-25 knots.  We caught the front pack on this reach, but could only grind down one more boat upwind.  We finished this race fourth but still won our class overall.

It was an awesome weekend, the race committee work on Course C was done by Columbia Yacht Club and was damn near perfect considering the trying conditions.  The RC announced the course, direction, distance to mark and welcomed the sailors prior to every race on the VHF radio.  The parties were great, the Zephyr team of Scott, Dale, Dave Erwin, Chris Wientjes, Steve Klyce, Riccardo, & New Zealander Terry Kay two fisted free rum drinks on Saturday night in a typical NOYC fashion.  The Band “Common Grounds” played great hits of Van Halen, Violent Femmes & the Clash which helped get the party cranked up.   The three boats that had mostly GYA talent all won their classes.   Hunter Riddle from Pensacola on Fin-esse won class in PHRF 6 and Stephen  Murray’s Andrews 70 Turbo Sled with a –99 rating won class in PHRF 1.  The regatta was also a trip down memory lane, as the last time I saw Gauntlet, Saga & Zephyr at the same dock was in 1993.  Here they were in Chicago all at the same dock, Saga has been renamed Wind Dancer, but Gauntlet is still Gauntlet.  We will report again via live web-cast from down town Chicago next week at the J-30 North Americans.  Hopefully, we can produce the same results.  Stay tuned.

-steinkamp