2021 Southern Comfort Classic

• Print

April 24-25
Asheville Sailing Club, Arden, NC

After a one year hiatus due to some kind of viral challenge, the SoCo Classic returned to Asheville Sailing Club for the 9th time and with a cool new nickname. Three boats from the great white north (Ohio) leaped at the opportunity to come down and experience the beautiful North Carolina spring. Stewart Fitz Gibbon (1161) led the charge, bringing his regular Interlake crew who, standing at about 7'2" tall, couldn't fit in the Jet. So Stewart ended up picking up Paula Hennon to crew, and Paula lent her boat (1129) to Tom Grace and Paula Pacheco, who showed up about 10 minutes before the first gun for some reason. It's all very confusing. Representing Edgewater Yacht Club was Marsha Kneller and Eric Toivonen (1141). Their trip would end up being more focused on sightseeing than racing, as an unfortunate T-bone incident on Saturday created a 4" hole in their hull, which speed expert Lenny Wells assessed as "slow". The hole was courtesy of Seth and Tim Parker's guy hook on 1076. Not since COVID-19 had such a small thing created such a huge cluster. Rounding out the fleet were Katie and DeDe Richardson (962) from Carolina Sailing Club and five boats from ASC, including juniors Caswell Kern (1007) and Kevin Trebilcock (544), who was showing off his newly refurbished Jet.

The weather forecast was not the most favorable, with a chilly rain forecast much of the day Saturday. Winds were quite acceptable though, with a 10 kt. breeze augmented by some puffy southerlies in the rain showers. Trebilcock and crew Carter Mosby were looking fast in warm ups and seemed poised to challenge for the title but apparently his renovation did not include the jib halyard, which gave way and ended their day. PRO Don Read set a square start line about 1/2 boatlength long, leading to some close quarter starting sequences. Race 1 got off cleanly and the fleet stayed fairly close together around the two lap windward-leeward course. Chris and Olivia Hennon (951) rounded the last bottom mark just ahead of Grace/Pacheco, Lenny Wells and Teri Fosmire (433), and Kneller/Toivonen and all four jostled for the lead in the short beat to the finish, finishing within a boatlength of each other. Race 2 was all about Fitz Gibbon and Hennon, who jumped out to an early lead and were never threatened in their win. Grace and Pacheco, near the top of the fleet all day, found the right shifts in Race 3 to take the win. They were followed in by Wells/Fosmire and Team Parker, who had the their best result of the day despite their damaged guy hook. The last race of the day was claimed by ASC members Bruce Sampson and Tom Cannon (977) - a quite impressive showing that Bruce attributed to "letting some vang off". I think a little bit of savy sailing and sound tactics played a role too.

After day 1, Grace and Pacheco had a dominant lead with a first and three seconds. In the press tent following racing, Grace said that he was "in the zone" and could see the shifts coming several minutes ahead of everyone else. Paula made it clear that hull 1129 had a part to play in the results. "I LOVE this boat!", Paula was heard proclaiming several times. "This is the BEST BOAT I've ever raced!" Though she left the press conference before any follow up questions could be asked, Tom couldn't understand how his "luxury" hull (717) could be upstaged by this "boring" set up. "1129 only has 5 tell tales on the whole sail plan, and there's just 5 control lines", Grace said. "It has no character, no patches,  and just one color paint. I don't understand. Any boat without 986 tell tales on the main and 46 hull patches is not worth my time. It's a minor miracle I made this boat go forward, let alone win a race." 

Sunday's forecast was dry but very windy. Paula P. didn't want to risk hurting her new fiberglass love in the nuclear puffs and they retired after some testing. The two remaining Ohio boats also made wise decisions to pack it up and not tempt fate. Ultimately, four boats started what would end up being the only race of the day in 10-20 kt breeze with gusts exceeding 30 kt. It was definitely "survival" mode racing. Wells/Fosmire battled with Team Hennon over much of the course, with Sampson/Cannon and Kern/Aeden Fodi looking for lulls to tack and gybe. As Wells and Hennon approached the last bottom mark, a 37 mph gust (see official observation from across the interstate) came in and blasted the boats. Hennon lost all desire to try to gybe around the mark and rounded up into irons. Wells/Fosmire somehow managed to get around the mark and take the race. The gust put Kern/Fodi out of the race. Sampson/Cannon managed to finish, only to see their mast snap into three pieces on the sail back to the dock. Needless to say, additional races were called off.

Dave's Dogs served up some delicious hot dogs and the beer was flowing after racing. Many thanks to Don Read and all of the volunteers for helping to put on this great event. Special thanks to Tim Parker for driving all the way up from Tampa FL (I heard we have things called planes?) to join us as well as the other out of town boats. Travelers really make regattas special. We'll see you on the circuit this year!

Chris Hennon

Photos (courtesy of Bill Romanelli, ASC)

Results:

 A Fleet (* = junior)

B Fleet