Key West Race Week is over and we have checked in
with some local top talent to see how the West was almost won! We spoke w/ Chris Wientjes who drove Woody
to a second place overall finish in the J-80 class and John Dane III
who drove Tiburon (Melges 30) to a third place finish in its PHRF
Class. Chris has had a great run
of finishes lately, that include Sugar Bowl 1st (on 22’s
w/Baker), Verve Cup 1st (throttle
man on Zephyr) and top 4 in local J-22 Fleet 46 while only sailing in two
thirds of the races. Here is how our
Q&A’s went with Chris & John:
NOYC.org:
Chris, Congrats on your second place finish in J-80’s at KWRW. How did
it go?
Turley:
Better than expected! I got
lucky to get hooked up with Pearce Wood’s J-80 program he was putting
together for Key West. We may have
finished second but Pearce put together a first class program. The boat was in great shape, the sails were
new, the crew was incredible and the accommodations were awesome.
NOYC.org:
Who sailed with you?
Turley:
Pearce, Marcy Lake, Chris Wilke, Michelle Hitter & Louise Bienvenu.
NOYC.org:
What kind of experience do ya’ll have with the J-80.
Turley:
Pearce bought the boat last year and won LPRC w/ Michelle, Louise &
Benz. Wilke & I have been mostly
sailing J-22’s lately. I sailed this
boat a few times when Charlie Dupin owned it.
NOYC.org:
How did ya’ll tune the boat, you must have had some decent boat speed
since you pulled off several top three finishes in a 23 boat fleet?
Turley: Wilke
& I , initially set it up like a J-22 and found that to be a little
soft. Our speed was very similar to
most of the boats except current J-80 World Champion Kerry Klinger who won most
of the races. We asked if we could get
his settings and he obliged. We copied
his rig tune and our finishes dropped a few points so we found a happy medium
somewhere in between. We really were
not that blazing fast. On the day
we pulled off two thirds… we had hung over crew puking over the side (Wilke?)
NOYC.org:
If it wasn’t boat speed how did you pull off those great finishes?
Turley: The
crew work was great and we had good starts but we usually found ourselves
leading the middle of the pack. We
would pick up plenty of boats on the down wind legs and at the favored pin of
the gate roundings. The front of our
class would usually get mixed up in the PHRF herd with plenty of bad air. The PHRF herd also prevented you from
sailing the proper polars for these sprint boats. We found ourselves gybing twice as much as our competitors to
stay in clear lanes. On several
occasions, we picked the more congested favored gate pin and that would help
pick up a few boats there also. We hit
some nice shifts upwind and making sure that you didn’t hit the waves wrong
driving upwind was also critical.
NOYC.org:
Chris, I have had the pleasure of sailing with you on several occasions
and your sailing personality can be compared to the following: Kyle Turley,
Bobby Knight & Mount Vesuvious. Your thoughts?
Turley: Maybe
you just bring out the worst in me…or it all pertains to your crew work.
NOYC.org: Any
closing comments before we get to John Dane?
Turley: It was an incredible week of sailing,
Pearce put together a great program and Wilke, Louise, Marcy & Michelle
were real troopers and fun to hang with.
NOYC.org:
(THIS JUST IN! NOTE:)The ISAF has selected the J-80 as the
men’s keel boat for the 2002 World Sailing Games held in Marseleilles,
France in late June. Woody’s second
place overall finish this past week qualifies them to represent the USA
at the 2002 World Sailing Games. Go get em’!
Danes turn
NOYC.org:
Congrats on your 3rd in class finish down @ KWRW. Do you
think the 15 second spread for yanking the Yanmar saildrive on the Melges 30
was a little much?
JDIII:
Thanks, based on the fact that we won 6 of the starts, we were rated as
scratch boat and only finished first twice, I think something was obviously
wrong.
NOYC.org:
What do you think of the Thompson 30, Henderson 30, the ratings and the
talent they had on board.
JDIII: Both
the Thompson 30 & the St. Pete Henderson 30 that finished second were well
sailed. The real problem with the PHRF
class this year was how the boats got rated.
We had an excellent series last year and got hit six seconds per mile
while the Henderson 30 got helped 3 seconds per mile despite major
modifications to improve their performance.
They added a huge roach main with 2 added battens and then put on a
new keel and the rating went up 3 seconds.
Explain that to me. This year
there were 3 other Melges 30’s racing and I feel good, that in only one race,
did one of them beat us and that was due to a poor buoy rounding. We averaged over 10 seconds per mile faster
than the other 30’s probably due to crew, sails, tactics and boat
preparation. In other words, if we were
not there, then they would be looking to help the Melges 30’s against the
Hendersons and Thompsons.
NOYC.org:
I noticed that last year you had Benz on board and this year you
didn’t. Did you miss him?
JDIII: Of
course you miss someone of Benz’s caliber.
The good news is that our food and beverage bill was greatly reduced
because of his absence. We did
however throw him a banana a few days to help him out.
NOYC.org:
It seems that you really like the Key West racing venue, any closing
comments.
JDIII: For
those who have never attended, it is really one of the best sailing times
you can have. The hardest part is
getting your crew to tell you what their real weights are, as the rules are
real particular for this regatta.
Thanks for the opportunity to talk.
-steinkamp
