2014 NC Governors Cup

Carolina Sailing Club, Henderson NC

June 14-15

This was the 57th annual running of the North Carolina Governor’s Cup One Design regatta, billed as the “premier regatta in North Carolina”.  The theme of this year’s event was the “Wheel of Champions”, which basically was a Wheel of Fortune showing the number of victories each sailing class has achieved over the 56 years of the cup.  A victory is usually won by having the most boats in attendance, and the Jet-14 class did that 5 times (tied for 4th best!).  Unfortunately the last time this occurred was about 432 B.C. but the NC fleet is working hard to bring the Jet-14 back into GC contention.

As usually happens there was some difficulty in traveling to Henderson, NC for the event.  Fleet 65 captain Barry Saunders had one of the shortest drives up from Chapel Hill but texted President Hennon something to the effect of “I-85 is a parking lot, take detour”.  The President took the suggested route, a fine 10 mile, peaceful drive through the NC countryside.  The first lady (Paula), towing her newly named “Zen-Yacht-a”, decided to detour through Speedtrapville NC and earned a $200 fine for passing a couple of mopeds at about 96 mph in a 35 zone.  She flashed some skin and almost got out of the ticket until Officer Dontyouhaveanythingbettertodo noticed Zen-Yacht-a was traveling on a tagless trailer.  Things didn’t get much better when Team Hennon arrived at the facility, as they were greeted by a torrential downpour.   Fortunately, Barry and wife/crew Sue risked their lives to save the bratwurst coals as the President watched on from inside his car.  Paula celebrated her ticket by running over her camping stove with her car.

Jet #433One of the great things about this regatta is the group campsite, shared by Lenny Wells/Hunter Trombetta (#1130), Chris, Paula, and Olivia Hennon (#483/#433), newcomer Connie Berchem and crew Teri Fosmire (#203), Tom Grace and Paula Pacheco (#717), and Barry/Sue (#737).   Fortunately we all had our own tent.  Discussions the first evening centered on the upcoming “Death Race” that Barry will be undertaking with his Jet-14.  Described on the website as a “100 mile survival race”, Saunders is planning on outfitting his Jet with oars, food, water, tequila, and other mandatory items to, uh, what was the point of this again?  Paula Pacheco was scheming to convince Paula Hennon to join her for the race to the death but fortunately Chris didn’t quite consume enough beer to give the go ahead.   Paula P. couldn’t mask her disappointment, consuming about 3 bottles of wine before disappearing into her tent for the night.  Barry soon followed, muttering something about how all he needs to survive in the death race is 2 gallons of water and a Mas epoxy repair kit. 

Joining the fleet for Saturday’s racing was Tony Corkell and daughter Kelsey in Barry’s #2 boat (#962).  There was a nice 6-8 kt breeze on hand for the skipper’s meeting that immediately died as the 68-boat flotilla arrived at the race course.  After drifting around for 2 hours, we were sent back in and racing was ultimately called for the day. 

After a nice chicken dinner, security seemed to be high back at the campsite.  Teri asked the group if they saw this new sign on the Women’s restroom/showers:

Bathroom warming sign

Lenny said he was thankful for the sign, because he was slightly confused that the skirt icon meant “Women” until he read it.  When Tom Grace was asked if he knew what this was all about, he admitted that he sometimes accompanied Paula into the restroom to “make sure there were no spiders in the shower”.  Curiously, there wasn’t a similar sign in the Men’s room, only “No Pets Allowed in the Restroom”. 

After the big dinner, the group wasn’t in much of a mood for consumption of much else that evening.  As soon as the discussion turned to “how to prepare squirrels to eat”, it was clearly time to turn in and get ready for the Force 0.04 winds expected the next day.

Action from day 2 of the 2014 NC Governor's CupThe fleet arrived the next day in the middle of a 12 kt. northerly that moved in overnight.  After testing the waters, Zen-Yacht-a decided to watch the proceedings from the shore as new crew Olivia was still getting used to this sailing thing.  With Tim Porter stuck in Charlotte for the weekend, that left 6 boats to contend for the title.  The first race was a two lap windward-leeward course with a curious left hand turn/reach finish.  The Jets started with the Tanzer 16s and a bunch of other annoying boats like Windmills, 420s, and a couple I can't remember.  Hennon and Corkell started toward the pin and immediately gained an early advantage.  Wells and Berchem seemed to get caught in the wind shadows of about 8 Thistles and 4 Flying Scots toward the right side which  hurt them big time.  Grace and Pacheco worked their way to the left side of the course and soon passed Hennon and Corkell.  The fleet became fairly tightly bunched toward the top mark but Hennon and Grace managed to round first and put a little distance between the others.  Hennon and Russell held off the always dangerous Wren on the first run but unfortunately for them Grace escaped to the left up the next beat and never looked back to take the win.  The Corkell clan had their best finish in the Jet yet, taking a close third.  The others had some ground to make up in the next race if they were going to place.

Unfortunately the beautiful wind present for the first race was dying as the fleet readied for the second start.  In addition, there was a pretty dramatic and sustained left hand shift that had the race committee setting a new windward mark.  As the gun sounded, those on the left side, mainly Grace, Berchem, and Wells, had a huge advantage as the others had to suck on their wind shadow all the way up the beat.  However, confusion soon arose from the frontrunners as they were presented two windward marks from which to choose from.  Other fleets were rounding both of them so that wasn't much of a help.  The brief delay in committing to the mark allowed Hennon/Russell to tack over to the left and make up a little ground on the leaders.  Eventually everyone figured out to round the one to the left, but then the "run" became almost another windward leg.  In summary, there was not much opportunity to pass, at least not until the bottom mark where a bunch of traffic caused a key change in position:

Hennon (far left) managed to get over the top of Berchem (red spinnaker) just before the bottom mark (to the right of the Buccanneer).  Wells (just to the right of Berchem) manages to clear traffic and head back upwind.

A few seconds later, Hennon has barely cleared the Hobie 16 (who is heading toward his own mark far to leeward) as Berchem is caught to windward and must gybe (or maybe tack) away to make her own mark.  Wells has to deal with the Buc to windward.

The rounding ended up costing Berchem at least 20 boatlengths and her third place position on the course.  Wells/Trombetta ended up slightly to leeward of Hennon/Russell and eventually were passed before the next mark rounding.  But good downwind speed and a fortunate puff pushed them back ahead of Hennon and into 2nd place for the race.  Grace and Pacheco lead the entire way and won the race and the regatta.  Hennon and Russell held on for second, while Wells/Trombetta took third overall.

Probably the greatest thing that happened all weekend was in the parking lot before we went out on Saturday.  A random guy approached and introduced himself as Don Janeway, a new Jet owner from Chapel Hill.  Apparently Don bought #1115 and has already had her out 2 or 3 times and plans to race her.  Although he wasn't racing in the regatta, he wanted to "stop by" and check out the Jets and how they are rigged.  Now that raises the spirits for sure.  

Thanks to Barry and Sue Saunders for organizing the camping and being the spiritual leaders of the event.  Already looking forward to next year.

- Chris (#483)

Pictures

NC Governor's Cup

Race

Place

Sail

Skipper

Crew

1

2

Total

1

717

T. Grace

P. Pacheco

1

1

2

2

483

C. Hennon

M. Russell

2

3

5

3

1130

L. Wells

H. Trombetta

5

2

7

4

962

T. Corkell

K. Corkell

3

5

8

5

203

C. Berchem

T. Fosmire

6

4

10

6

737

B. Saunders

S. Saunders

4

6

10

7

433

P. Hennon

O. Hennon

DNC

DNC

18

7

544

T. Porter

M. Porter

DNC

DNC

18


Results Posted 6/20/2014

Send corrections to the webmaster