2013 Southern Comfort Classic

Asheville Sailing Club, Asheville NC

April 20-21

Dave and Sue Michos say "What 20+ kt. puffs?" as they race on Saturday at the Southern Comfort Classic.

Participants

Dave and Sue Michos – Clear favorites to win.  Sue was whining on shore how they haven’t been sailing in a few weeks in a ridiculous attempt to lower expectations.  Seemed disappointed that no worthy competition showed up.  Promised to not fly the chute to “even things up”

Stewart FitzGibbon – In a bold intimidation move, showed up in a personalized Jet-14 #1161 jacket, specially ordered from West Marine in Milan Italy.  Crew Teri from ASC  seemed to like the jacket.  Tried to lower expectations by claiming he couldn’t remember how to rig his boat.

Tom Grace and Paula Pacheco – Came with about 34 gallons of rum in an attempt to inebriate the fleet.  Last seen passing 43 boats on the last run at Nationals to steal the Dixie Award from Team Hennon by 1 point.

Barry Saunders – Record for shortest regatta ever.  Parks boat, says hi, goes to rig, comes back 3 minutes later “I’m out”.  Surpasses the Brent “I drove all the way to Saratoga with no spreaders because I’m so anal that I take them off the mast to travel with” Barbehenn incident from a few years ago.  You know, this one

Barney Sokol and Peter Brezny/Drew Langsner – Or Team ASC.  Barney did such a fantastic job as social chair at last year’s event that he was promoted to boat skipper this year.  A Flying Scot sailor, he wanted to know where the 10 gallon cooler of beer was going to fit.

Hunter Trombetta and Cameron – Fresh off their losing battle with the rocky shore last weekend, this spunky duo returns for another round of nuclear puffs, auto tacks, and jib window breaches.

Tom Cannon and Richard Hansen – A last minute pairing, both Jet-14 virgins but experienced sailors in other less fun boats.  Became the designated “air tank tester” on #433 during Saturday’s racing.

Steven Anthony and Barry Saunders – After we failed  to convince Barry that he could race without a rudder, Barry decided temper his embarrassment by mentoring  one of the young guys in his first ever regatta.  Steven was also coming off his first club race ever the previous weekend, which involved 7 near capsizes, 23 auto tacks, 1 real capsize, 4 swampings, and a main sheet that only allowed the main to go out halfway, making for some really “interesting” runs. 

Bruce Sampson and Andrea Thompson – Clear favorite for a 5^th place finish.  Bruce spent the last 8 weeks working on his rudder.  He said it is “the fastest looking rudder ever made”.  He should have paid more attention to his forestay.  Andrea was Hennon’s crew last year.  She dumped him because she “was tired of telling her skipper not to pinch”.

Chris Hennon and Meg Russell – Joined the Jet-14 capsize parade the previous weekend and found out that his “air” tanks were very good at expelling  the air as the water rushed in.  Fortunately Meg actually knows how to sail and provided ample hiking and tactical advice.

Not Participating This Year

Brent Barbehenn – Citing a strict restraining order issued by hush puppies, Brent couldn’t make the trip this year. 

Marion Zaugg – Issued some weak excuse about putting too many miles on his VW or something. 

Seth Parker – Cited “trailer and crew issues” for not making the trip down.   We think Nate Reffner blew up Seth’s trailer, but this has not been confirmed.

Tim Porter – In one of the all-time weakest excuses to miss a regatta in your home state, Tim was reffing some water polo match in Atlanta this weekend.  What?!?

Friday – Michos taken to the wood shed in darts again

The weekend festivities began at Barley’s Taproom and Pizza, where several out of towners and local ASC members gathered for a fun evening of Gaelic Ale, pizza, and darts.  Last year, Dave was thoroughly embarrassed by his performance, losing 5 out of 5 cricket games in just under 30 minutes.  This year he was slightly better, only losing 2 out of 2 games and recording 5 “plywood” shots.  It would be the last thing that Team Michos would lose this weekend.

Saturday – Michos Gives the Fleet a Big Smackdown

A very puffy, shifty, and sometimes overpowering northerly greeted the fleet as they sailed out to the course.  With a couple of first time Jet-14 skippers and crews, the conditions may have been a bit much.  Tom Cannon and Richard Hansen immediately confirmed this by capsizing during their “warm up” period before the first race.  Unfortunately it seems that #433 shares the same air tank performance as #483 – the side tanks filled up faster than Michos reneging on his “no chute” promise during the first run of the day.

As the safety boat pulled #433 to safety, most of the fleet found shelter in a nice cove.  This did not impress Team Michos, who were the only boat to remain out in the middle of the “roaring 20s”; they performed a few tacks, spinnaker runs, and several gybes in an effort to say “you guys have no chance”.  It appeared that Michos actually performed one roll tack while standing on his head.

Hennon and Russell however had other ideas at the start of Race 1, nailing the start (which was 10 seconds late according to everyone’s watch except the race committee’s) on port tack and leading the fleet up to the top mark.  Michos rounded in second and immediately launched the chute as Hennon watched helplessly.  Grace and Pacheco followed suit and both passed Hennon/Russell by the time they reached the bottom of the course.  The fleet was now in two packs, with the tightly bunched second tier about 50 yards behind the leaders.  Michos brought home the victory and Hennon sneaked past Grace/Pacheco on the last leg for second.

To the amazement of just about everyone in western North Carolina, Cannon and Hansen returned from their 1 hour swim and near sinking, ready to kick some butt in race 2.  There was some excitement at the start.  A big lefty left Michos and Hennon pinching to make the pin, and then an abrupt autotack made “2 boats sail as 1” (see image).  As Dave tried to get Hennon’s jib sheet untangled from this tiller, FitzGibbon and Teri sailed away and lead the fleet by 10 boat lengths.   Cannon and Hansen had a nice race going right up until they crash gybed and again demonstrated that the air tanks still didn’t work.   In the end Team Michos pulled out another win, with FitzGibbon hanging on for a nice finish.

With one boat still half submerged and no sign that the 20+ kt. gusts were going to back down, the fleet retired for the day to a delicious Barbeque dinner with homemade beer.

Sunday – Great Racing Punctuates a Great Weekend

As the front pulled away the winds shifted out of the east at 5-12 kt. with some gustiness, but nothing like Saturday.  The biggest gust of the day occurred as the fleet prepared to leave the dock, causing Steven Anthony to think of his family and decide it might be better to wait onshore and drink beer.  Sampson, Grace, and Pacheco showed up a little late after their all night rum fest at the Sampson house, and Sue Michos appeared very relaxed from the “Hilton Hot Tub” experience.  She obviously kept Dave in line as they sailed away once again to take the bullet in the first race of the morning. 

In an effort to prevent Michos from winning every single race, Hennon instructed the race committee to try an Olympic course for the second race.  FitzGibbon and Teri hit all of the shifts up the first leg and took a commanding lead into the reach legs, followed by a pack of three boats including Michos and Grace.   Despite not flying a spinnaker, FitzGibbon managed to hold off the late charging Allen Jet for the win and prevent Dave’s ego from getting too much bigger than it already is.  Stewart’s win also put him in command of the B Fleet standings.   Sampson and Thompson turned in their best race of the series, screaming down the last run to overtake a couple of A fleet boats and secure 3^rd.  Hennon and Russell covered Grace and Pacheco up the last beat to secure second for the series, or so they thought.

PRO Wells ignored Hennon’s pleas to head in for lunch by starting a new sequence.  Hennon tried to convince Michos to go in and pack the boat up “to give a NC boat a chance to win”, but Dave just laughed and did 20 spinnaker sets and 40 gybes to show off.  Sure enough, Team Michos ended the regatta on a high note by taking top honors in the final race.  Hunter and Cameron found their grove and had their best finish of the series, nipping at the heels of the leaders all race.  Sampson held off Barney to secure second place in B Fleet.

A big thank you to all of the local club members who either raced or contributed to all of the food and activities on shore.  Also big thanks go to those who made the trip in from out of town – you are helping to spread the excitement for Jet-14 sailing that is percolating through the state right now.  This could be a good sign for Nationals at Lake Norman this year!

Pictures

Results Posted 4/25/2013

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