Update
2015 Rolex Farr 40 Worlds: they may no longer command such large fleets, but at the top level and especially in the USA the Farr 40s still offer very tight racing… sometimes too tight (above). There are two ‘divisions’ now in the class, with local boat purchases offering outstanding value, plus the rarified ‘grand prix’ fleet which remains 100 per cent focused on pro-supported one-design competition
MIXED EMOTIONS – Terry Hutchinson
A beautiful autumn day in Annapolis watching the Ravens play football and recovering from hernia surgery, which is absolutely no fun! Doctor’s orders are couch and rest for 72 hours and no heavy lifting for five weeks. Well, no worries there, ha!
The past month was tough. Two world championships, Farr 40 and Melges 20; and, rereading last month’s piece, the events were indeed as tough as you could find all year. The 18th Farr 40 world championship was held at the Long Beach Yacht Club. LBYC is known for great hospitality and great racing and back in September it was all on display. Seventeen boats faced off over 11 races in light to medium airs. The racing was characterised as challenging, with the emphasis on starting consistently and avoiding the humongous piles of kelp. Onboard Alex Roeper’s Plentywe viewed this event as an oppor- tunity to redeem our season. We had finishes of 2,4,4 over the previous three events and, while we had not sailed as much as in 2014, we felt prepared. The North Americans showed promise as we sailed well, primarily through Alex getting Plentyconsistently off the startline. This would be paramount in Long Beach, yet knowing the venue we knew this was an event where you just had to hang tough. This was not going to be like 2014 – whoever won was not going to win by a large margin. In fact, we figured that an average of 4.5 would win the event and as a team we needed to be mentally prepared for a bun-fight for each and every point. Well, the prediction was right – at the end of each day there was a different leader and it was clear that consistency would prevail. Some pre-regatta favourites struggled early on: North American champion Flash Gordon was DSQ in race 1 and season champion Enfant Terribleseemed to be having an endless battle with kelp. The last day greeted us with a light to moderate southwesterly.
8 SEAHORSE
Plentyheld a 1pt lead over Groovederciand 5pt over Struntje Light. Struntjegot away clean in race 10 to take the bullet. On Plentywe managed fifth, a bit unlucky up the second beat as we were tacked on by a team not in contention. But such is life. Groovedercifinished ninth and, with Struntje Lightwinning, our 1pt lead was now over Struntjewhile we were 4pt clear of Groove - derci. We had achieved our first goal of the event: getting to the last race with an opportunity to win. Goal two was to finish strong. From here it was on us to execute.
Race 11 started with a heavily biased pin end. Martin Hill’s Estate
Masterwon the pin with everybody else in contention starting at the weather end. The battle was on. Plentyrounded mark 1 in third with Struntje Lighthot on our heels in fourth and Groovederci100m back in fifth. On Plentywe went for a quick gybe and unfortunately did not execute smoothly… That put Plenty back to even with Struntjewho was now in a position to luff us off the racecourse, which of course she did. The big winner through this was Groovederci who exited nicely out of the gate in third. From then on it was anybody’s regatta. Struntjeand Groovederci held the advantage over Plenty. As we settled in for the final beat on Plentyyou could see everybody hiking their ring out to make up for our ill-timed gybe down the run. But it was not meant to be. Groovederci finished second, Plenty seventh and Struntje Light eighth, giving Johnny D and Groovedercithe 18th world title. For us this was a tough loss. Alex and the team gave 110 per
cent – we sailed smart, conservatively, and relied on our speed to get us out of tough spots, which it did. The sting of losing is brutal but congrats, John, you sailed a great series and earned this win through patience and perseverance.
From Long Beach it was up to San Francisco and the Berkeley Circle for the Melges 20 Worlds, competing with current Melges 32 world champions Alessandro Rombelli and Giorgio Tortarolo. This event was won by John Kilroy and the dominant Samba Pa Ti who defended their title from Lake Garda in 2014; it was a strong result and rewarded a season spent by John and son Liam training on San
PAUL TODD/OUTSIDE
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