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What a "Worlds" of a Difference! |
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Team Tawas (Jeff Titsworth, Jennifer Princing, and Chris Princing)
went to Annapolis, Maryland towing J/22 USA 838 for the 2004 Land
Rover of Annapolis J/22 World Championship Regatta. This was Team
Tawas' first regatta together and the first Worlds for USA 838.
We met Jeff Titsworth at the Birch Run exit at 5:00am on Friday,
May 14, 2004. Excitement ran high as we did not know what to
expect, but we knew we would have fun. Our trip, according to
Jennifer, would be about 10 maybe 11 hours. We made it out of
Michigan with only one incident (the bird was flipped and the exit
was missed). The miles were flying by and we were all getting a
quick nap or two. Ohio went by and then Pittsburgh. Our first
real burp came when Jeff was driving and he asked me "What is that
noise?" I replied "Oh that's just box in the back of the pickup."
We both turned to look in the mirror and horror struck us! The
back two boat support bunks had broken off the trailer. We were
dragging the bunks down the highway and the boats was bouncing all
over the place at 70 miles an hour! Jeff quickly pulled over to
the very narrow shoulder on a busy Pennsylvania turnpike and we
went to inspect the damage. We found that the hardened steel
bolts that held the supports on had failed and the bunks (150-200
pounds of steel) were being held on by a 3/16" piece of line that
we tied the ladder to the trailer with. We lifted the bunks into
the back of the truck and rode the shouder to the next exit which
was 18 miles down the road. We asked the guy at the toll who we
could get to weld the trailer and he mentioned a place called
Jack's Racks. We got lucky, Jack's Racks is owned by Jack Wampler
and is located in Adamsburg, Pennsylvania. Jack makes custom
truck racks for contractors. We arrived at his shop and the sign
said he would be back in 1½ hours. We dropped the trailer and
went for some lunch. When we got back he still was not back so we
inspected the boat and found no damage to the vessel. Jack showed
up at 1:30pm and had some bad news. He may not be able to fix it
right away as he was waiting to hear from his doctor and may have
to leave. Jack started to warm up to us and pretty soon we were
joking with him and he had it fixed for us. Jack's shop is small,
but let us tell you, he is pro and did a great job! He told us
$50.00, I handed him $100.00 and he told us he was taking his wife
out for a steak dinner tonight! We took our photo with Jack and
the boat in front of his shop and took off down the road only
losing three hours.
Back on the highway, breathing a sigh of relief, we were making
good time until the rain came. We spent the next 1½ hours driving
at most 25 mph in the driving rain and t-storms. We cleared the
rain and made it to Baltimore and cracked a couple of beers, whew!
We arrived at Annapolis Yacht Club (AYC) at 6:30pm. We found a
fairly empty yard and our good friend Bear Peet. Jeff and
Jennifer rigged the mast as I undid the straps and prepared to
step the mast. We got the mast up and our host, Janene
Marascuillo, Jennifer's friend, showed up and we took her and Bear
to an Italian restaurant for dinner. After dinner it was back to
Janene's for beer, Pirates of the Carribean, and sleep.
Saturday, May 15, 2004. We went to the yard to
get the boat ready and to get weighed, sails measured, and
inspected. Our expectations were of long lines and a long day. We
were greeted with the most organized group of people in our memory.
We were weighed, sails measured, and boat waxed and prepared by
3:00pm. We spent the rest of the day flopping around drinking beer
and saying hello to all of our friends we have not seen in some
time. We decided dinner was a good idea and went downtown to
Phillips. We ate local seafood and drank beer. Janene called and
the girls wanted ice cream. We walked back downtown, they got ice
cream, Jeff and I got lost in a Yaegerbomb. We finally caught up
the girls and went down to the boat yard for a few drinks before
calling it a night.
Sunday, May 16, 2004. We slept in and got down to
the boat after catching lunch. We did the last necessary thing and
tuned the rigging. Said hello to a few more friends and planned to
go sailing. Rumors spread that if you went in, you were not coming
out until regatta end. The forecast called for severe t-storms, so
we went drinking. Played pretty hard that night and went to sleep.
Monday, May 17, 2004. We finally go sailing. We
sailed out to the sailing area, roughly 3.5 miles from the dock.
It was light and shifty. There was a practice race, but since we
had only spent 1 hour together on the boat, we decided to find a
couple of buoys and practice tacks, gybes, marks roundings, and
sets. We made it back to the dock, put the boat away for the day
and went to the opening ceromonies at the Annapolis City dock. I
was honored to be asked to raise the Michigan State flag.
Speaking at this event were Gary Jobson, the mayor, and the
governor of Maryland. Afterwards, we were thirsty, so we headed
to the nearest bar. As we were drinking, Jennifer's friend from
college, Fiona, said "look the governor is parked in a handicapped
spot, I bet you won't go take a photo of him?" So I took
Jennifer's camera, went out the door of the bar and yelled "Hey
Gov" and snapped his photo. His big body guards looked at me and
I decided to run, but then I said "Thanks for talking at the
ceremony." He walked across the street shook my hand and asked if
my team was inside. I said yes they were. He and his whole group
of guards and press people came in and met us and took a photo with
us inside. It was cool and he was a nice guy! Oh, by the way, it
was not his car that was parked in the handicapped spot. We then
met up with Chris and Sue Doyle, Mark Sertl, Paul Seitz, Bruce
Scott, Dave Kupas, Andrew (Former Drunk Bastard) Riem and went down
to the Boatyard for dinner and drinks. Then it was off to
sleepytime.
Tuesday, May 18, 2004. The first day of
qualifying. Our plan was to play it conservative and get to the
right early. We also knew we needed to be on the line at the start
to have any chance of doing well. After last years NAs we had a
plan for starts, but that was quickly found to be inadequate. We
cannot begin to tell how tight the starting line was with 65 boats
on it. Race one was fairly choppy with 12-16 knots of breeze. We
got to line fine, but did not have speed to get off of it and
found ourselves being ponged out to the left. Now we liked left
early and were relieved to have a lane out there, but all of sudden
we are near the port tack layline. We thought we might be fine,
but the boats out to the right had crushed us on the left. We had
a crowded but fairly clean mark rounding. Picked a few boats off
downwind and went out to the right and soon found that the left
paid on this beat. We finally finished a disappointing 44th. The
rest of the day went about the same, on the line, no room to
accelerate and pong, pong, pong. Pass boats downwind and pong,
pong. We actually sailed better in race two, but had a Z flag
penalty on the first general recall that added 13 spots to our
score and a penalty for a port/starboard incident and the ensuing
720 lost us another 10 boats. We finished the day 44, 55ZFP, 53.
Not exactly how we envisioned it, but we thought we learned a
little and were looking forward to day two of qualifying.
Wednesday, May 19, 2004. We were greeted by
light air and we needed all three scheduled races to try and move
up into the gold fleet. The wind gods were with us and against us.
We were able to get off the line better and had great speed in
this condition of flat water and light air. The first start we
got off the line to the left clear and fast only to look back at
the fleet after 5 minutes to see a huge 40 degree righty! Thank
God we heard boom, boom, boom! They reset the course and we
started again in about and hour. Again we got off the line and
looked good, but were greeted by three booms. It was not looking
good to get our three races in, if any at all. We were a little
bummed, because we had the speed in these conditions. They
finally got us off again, around 1:30pm. We got out early and
were sailing in the top 15. Set the kite and the wind puked. We
were being pushed as much by current was we were by the sail. The
fleet behind us all caught up to our lead pack and by the leeward
mark we had all 130 boats within a ¼ mile of each other. We
finally drifted by the leeward marks after being within in 100
feet of it for ½ hour and hearing Chris Larson use the "fuck" in
many more ways then I ever thought possible. Found a lane up the
middle and started passing boats on each side of us. We made out
way back near the top of our fleet and got within 100 yards of the
weather mark and parked. We had full sails and were not moving,
the current was pushing us as fast or faster then we could sail.
We popped the kite to try to get around it, gybed to try and pass
it, and missed. Had to gybe back to try again. There were 100
boats right there and we finally heard the boom, boom, boom. Day
two over and no races scored! Were are now placed in the silver
fleet and our scores come with us! We had a wonderful sail in,
and met up with a bunch of friends and went to the east side of
the bay and ate at a little seafood place. Jeff and I had the
local crabs. Mmm mmm good. We went to the Boatyard after that
for more libations (Scotch for Jeff) and then to sleep.
Thursday, May 20, 2004. Our first day in the
silver fleet. Since scores carried over and we were unable to
sail on Tuesday, we started this out in 46th place a shit load of
points out of first. We knew we could not win the silver fleet
unless 30 boats sank, our goal now changed to moving up each day.
I looked down the list of silver fleet boats and was surprised to
see all of the hotshots in our fleet, it was going to be work.
Race one was sailed in changing conditions, wind on and then wind
gone. We were ok when the wind was up around 8-10, but suffered
under this. We got clear lanes, but were deep at the top mark.
We found some wind downhill and passed a few boats. The next beat
saw us on the wrong side of the course, but with wind and a
favorable current. We passed a few more boats. On the run to the
finish they changed the course and we found a line of breeze and
the mark. We were really fast here and passed even more boats.
We wound up with a great finish of 16th! A lot of luck went into
that one! Race two was our best race of the series, even though
our score does not reflect it. Our teamwork came alive and the
boat felt the same way. We were fast and held lanes. We gave
away a few boats at the mark roundings, but fought back each time.
We were coming into the finish and tried to gain a few more boats
at the finish, but ended up losing five, finishing 24th. Oh well,
we were not too bummed and it was fun. The last race of the day
made you want to pull the hair out of your head. We got ponged a
lot and never could find our way to clear air. We were pinwheeled
into a pissing match on the final run which cost us about 10
boats. We kept yelling to the other boats, "sail deep, those guys
inside of us are killing us!" No one listened and we had to
grumble all the way to the dock. Finished the day 16, 24, 45. We
accomplished our goal of moving up! After sailing it was showers,
then blue blazers and dresses for VIP Day at AYC. Free beer and
all of our buddies dressed up. Very cool, got some group photos.
This was the best food of the event that was free.
Friday, May 21, 2004. The last day of the
regatta and no wind to be seen. Shit, we needed three races! We
got off to a good start, medium winds and flat water, ripping speed
downhill and a finish of 14th! Yeeha! Jennifer and I disagreed,
but we sailed the last race instead of trying to get to the hoist
early. I am glad we did, but the result sucked. The wind is all
over the place now. The race committee was doing a great job, but
it was near impossible. Wind would go right 50 degrees, then left
100 degrees. Finally got a race off and we are in good shape.
Top fifteen after the first two legs. We made our way up the beat
and were passing boats, the current was helping us and hurting the
boats on the right. We rounded the weather mark in the top ten
and we were only 20 yards behind the leaders. We had eight boats
with us in the top ten trying to get around the marks at the same
time and then we heard boom, boom, boom! Race abandoned because
of a huge windshift. RC again reset the course, 160 degrees right
of the original. The air has now died out completely. It is
2:30pm and they need to get us started by 3:00pm. They do. The
wind is in a right phase and about 10 knots. With 50 seconds to
go to the start it pukes to nothing, we are still five boat lengths
below the line and spend a lot of time getting ponged for the first
beat. We pass some boats downwind and our spirits are good. We
round the leeward gate and the wind pukes, again. We are now
bobbing. After nearly forty minutes we make it to the weather mark
after losing every boat that we passed earlier who went left. Now
the wind picks up and it is a reach to the finish. Regatta over
with a final day of 14 and 56/ZFP. We did not know we were ZFP
until we saw the scores that night, it was a bummer! We guess we
got it on the first of three starts for that race. Oh well, it
was fun! Without the ZFP we would have moved up another 2 spots.
As it was, we met out goal and moved up for a second day in a row.
We ended up in 30th place in the silver fleet.
What did we learn? There to many things to list, but here goes:
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130 boats is a lot! 65 boats on one short line is crazy,
especially when the wind jumps up on you.
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It is not enough to just be on the line at the gun. You need
speed to hold your lane.
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Forget the compass until you get clear air. Wind shifts meant
nothing when we were trying to dig out a clear lane.
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Mark roundings in big fleets are huge. We were too cautious,
worrying about current and other things is fine, but we went
ultra cautious. Must be inside at the mark, or you get into a
reach fest downwind while the guys who went down the middle go
to town on you. Need to be aggressive in these situations,
know the rules.
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Current is wack! It changed a lot things on the course.
Sometimes it helped us and sometimes it did not. Must read
more about this.
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There is huge talent in this class, we are lucky to be sailing
against the Tiger Woods of sailing at events like this. Only
there is one Tiger, here there were like 85 of him!
Summary: Huge event! I cannot express what a
great job the workers in the AYC yard did shuffling all the boats
around, they were organized! They made it very easy for us to do
our thing and relax. This was great fun for Jennifer and me. We
have not sailed with Jeff in sometime and it was fun spending a
week with him, out there on the water, and also afterwards
socializing. We are glad he is our chum and look forward to more
time spent with him this summer! When the shit hit the fan on the
course or with the trailer on the way, Jennifer and Jeff had a
very calming effect on me and I never lost it once the whole week,
that was nice. I think events like this should be experience by
everyone at least once, it was a spectacle. We are already
planning on the NAs next year in Oklahoma City, but for now we are
glad to be returning to our beloved TAWAS BAY! See you in the bar.
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