J/30 Class Association Forums J/30 Forum Events and Scheduling Chicago NOOD

June 11-13

At least 8 boats

Verve Cup

August 20-22

Dennis, when is Verve Cup?

Sorry, I looked at your post again!

Verve Cup is August 20-22.

Congratulations to Planxty for winning a tight 2004 Chicago NOOD Regatta.

Place Sail # Owner Race 1 Race 2 Race 3 Race 4 Race 5 Race 6 Race 7 TOTAL
1 23994 Planxty Dennis Bartley 1 1 1 4 3 1 1 12
2 89 Ricochet Bobby T. Cox 3 2 2 2 1 2 2 14
3 31709 Hullabaloo Tex & Susan Hull 2 5 4 3 4 5 3 26
4 USA 88 Hallel Bill Anderson 9 dsq 4 5 1 2 3 5 29
5 6230 Defiant Bernie Kucharski 5 3 3 5 5 4 4 29
6 30510 Salacious Miles Lowry 4 6 7 7 7 6 6 43
7 243 Awesome Bill & Vivian Smith 6 7 6 6 6 7 7 45
8 26219 Circus 9 dnc 9 dnc 9 dnc 9 dnc 9 dnc 9 dnc 9 dnc 9 dnc

Next stop of the J/30 Lake Michigan Circuit is the South Haven One-Design

[This message has been edited by Bernie Kucharski (edited 06-13-2004).]

What happened to Circus?

I heard that the Nawluns team that was supposed to come up got sidetracked at Paddy O's

And besides, Circus was no match for Ricochet anyway.

If you're at all interested, there's a short article on the Sailing World web site about 40.7s match racing the last day. We had our own version, but it started back on Saturday... why wait for the last day!

After Planxty posted 3 bullets, Ricochet decided the only way they were gonna have a chance was to do some hurting to Planxty. The Oirish boat didn't help themselves in race 4. Starting at the left end of the line, the quickly discovered they were DFL... how'd that happen? They decided to bail out right, and with all the boats stacked up on starboard, nobody would be able to tack on them anyway... except of course the last boat in line - Ricochet - just waiting to pounce. And pounce they did, sat on poor Planxty the whole race. Ricochet 2, Planxty 4.

Race 5 wasn't much better. On advice from their newest tactician just back from the Mallory Cup in New Orleans (high school double handed championships), Planxty opted for a late start at the boat... and did it perfectly, verrry late. And guess who was lying in wait yet again? Bobbie Cox wouldn't even let poor little Planxty even see the correct side of the course the whole race. Ricochet 1, Planxty 3.

After 5 races, the top two spots were tied at 10 points each. Sunday brought sunny skies and a fresh breeze with gusts to 30+ at times. For the first race, everyone was wearing their #3s. Planxty started to the left of the fleet, and guess who was just to windard? We both hoofed it out to the left corner, completely oblivious to the other boats. If Planxty occasionally had just a little speed, it wasn't nearly enough to cross Ricochet. Planxty threw in a fake take, and Bobbie bit hard. We continued on starboard for another 300 yards before tacking. A little bit of a left shift at the end of the leg gave Planxty just enough of a lead to round the windard mark ahead. Now it was Planxty's turn, and she didn't let Ricochet off the hook this time. Planxty 1, Ricochet 2.

Shortly before the final race, the winds started to calm down to the mid teens. Lots of different choices for headsails, from a #1 on Hullabaloo, #2 on Ricochet, and Planxty kept her #3. All Planxty needed to do was finish no worse than a point behind Ricochet. This time it was the Ricochet team that made a starting error... Bobbie was overlapped to windward as Planxty approached the r/c. Planxty luffed around the anchor line and there was no place for Ricochet to go but below Planxty. There were a few anxious minutes as the wind went down a bit further, but picked up again nicely inshore. Bobbie tried sending Planxty off into a gaggle of T10s coming downwind, and changed headsails down to their 3. Nothing helped. Planxty rounded the windward mark in the biggest puff of the regatta (30+), set a chute, and held on tight.

Up the second beat, Planxty changed to her #2, and just maintened a cover on Ricochet.

All in all, a very interesting regatta.

The most original strategy for knocking off PLANXTY came from the crew of DEFIANT.

Background: PLANXTY has somehow been pegged (unfairly) with the reputation of maybe pounding a few (dozen) beers (not that Coors Light **** that Seabiscuit calls beer) before, during, and after the race. This is totally untrue because we drink rum after the race. During the lengthy delay on day 1, PLANXTY was running dangerously low and negotiated a "free" port tack cross in exchange for 4 cans of beer.

Usual Strategy: At the post race party, get the leading crew as liquored up as possible so that they have difficulty functioning the next day.

DEFIANT Strategy: Get them liquored up at the party and then remove the beer cooler from PLANXTY. They've never sailed sober before and would be at a loss on how to dull the hangover from the previous night. Once the DT's set in, they'd be useless.

Luckily, through a mole and excellent intelligence information, the plan was thwarted.