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Buccaneer North Americans (BNAC) May 23-26, 2008 Daves Take First and Second Place – North Winners at Buccaneer 18 Championships
Lake Hartwell, SC May 26, 2008 North customers, David Spira of Denver, Colorado with crew Dennis Martinelli of Phoenix, Arizona and Dave Chadwick with crew Brian van Nostrand of Huntsville, Alabama earned 1st and 2nd in the four day regatta which saw 12 races in light to moderate conditions. Ryan and Jennifer Flack from Beach Park IL took 3rd. 4th place went to local sailor and regatta organizer Justin Hull and crew Patrick Kopp who flew a North jib. Rick Scarborough and Jim Binnings of Birmingham Alabama were fifth. Skipper Emory Heisler and crew Dave Rawstrom of Phoenix, Arizona bested the B fleet with all North sails. The racing between the two Daves was incredibly tight with four 1-2 finishes between the two teams; each had six wins over the other! Spira and Martinelli clinched the championship with a win in the next to last race but Dave and Brian were right there with a 3rd place. After two throwouts there were only four points separating the Daves! Downwind finishes a-la the Americas Cup made it all the more exciting with inches separating the boats and last minute dramatic come from behind duels. In a regatta where the weather was dealing out light and flukey conditions and a Memorial Day weekend full of motor boat wakes, gear changing was at a premium and the Norths seemed to respond easily to the different modes. We kept the mast powered up with a couple of shims filling the gap under the forward edge of the bottom of the mast and used a bit less tension most of the time than the tuning guide suggests. Friday had the best wind of the series with crews fully hiking and the North mylar jibs still the clear winners by out pointing the rest. Our rig tension was set at about 325 lbs. Congratulations to the entire 33 boat Buccaneer fleet who traveled from all over the US and Canada to vie for the title. Competition was great all across the board and about half of the sailors had full sets of North sails. Buccaneer racing is growing at a great pace with Nickels Boatworks on board as the class builder. There are new fleets forming in Alaska and other venues around the country and Canada. One of the largest fleets is located in Phoenix, AZ. For complete results and more BUCC news log on to www.buccaneer18.org Upcoming events like the Virginia Governor’s Cup at the Ware River Yacht Club August 1-3 are drawing great attendance with the Buccaneers outnumbering the other classes. For complete information on our Bucanner sails, contact the North Buccaneer experts. To order our fast Buccaneer sails, click here.
This year’s championship was held at Mississauga Sailing Club, an ideal facility just west of Toronto, and organized by club members and Buccaneer competitors Bruce Buckingham and Deb Woods. Jim Daus and Sue Swisher of Denver, Colorado won the regatta on Quack! Quack! (#5218), a 2004 boat built by current manufacturer Nickels Boat Works. David Chadwick and up and coming youngster Brian Van Nostrand took second on Blur (#5200). Third place was earned by Tony Wright and daughter Amy Domaratzki on Black and Tan (#5233). While the weather wasn’t totally cooperative, we actually had relatively good wind when we were racing. The race committee did an excellent job of adjusting the courses and postponing when necessary. Each race presented highlights and lead changes right from the start. Race one saw Chadwick, Tony Chapman and Wright make better choices on the shortened course right up to the end. Daus would have ended up in fourth had Chadwick not had a near foul right at the finish line allowing him to squeek into second place behind Wright. Race two saw John Hammerslaugh with a great start forcing the fleet to have to sit in his bad air for a long time on the favored side of the course. Wright and Tim DeVries were outstanding in race three, leading out early. Wright launched off on a fantastic favored pin end start and one-tacked the left side of the course to dominate the first leg. Daus had an outstanding downwind and managed to get inside Wright at the pin. Daus managed a great 2nd upwind leg and lead handily until about 100 feet from the leeward mark when the wind died an the entire fleet sailed right up to the and passing the leader. It was excruciating as the slightest breeze clocked 180 degrees twice in 10 minutes. The leaders faced attack after attack in the space of 200 feet but Daus got boat speed the earliest. Chadwick, a light air magician, managed to squeeze ahead of the others. Daus barely mustered a win by a few boatlengths ahead of Chadwick! In race four, the fleet had a very nice 10 knot breeze. Wright sailed over top of Daus at the start who was forced to follow in bad air for several boat lengths. Wright, Rick Scarborough, Devries and Scott Laundry all had great starts and constantly were covering or being covered as the lead switched. Daus had to double tack to make the windward but passed several boats to lead the race at the leeward rounding with Wright close behind. On the second downwind, Wright gybe-set and went way left, while Daus stayed center and right trying to keep Devries and Chadwick in check. Was Wright going to pull off a gamble?! He very nearly did, halving Daus’s lead to only 2 boatlengths and picking off Scarbarough and Devries to finish in 2nd.
Chadwick, Daus and Wright duel downwind in light air. Chadwick and Devries would have finished 1-2 in the next race had it not been abandoned due to lightning. Other skippers were right in the mix like Michael Connolly, Chapman, Bob DeRoek and Scarborough. Race 7-9 were all Olympic (triangle, windward leeward) courses and conducted in high wind (increasing from about 17 to 20 knots with shifty puffs over 25). Heavier crews accelerated. Downwind was a surf fest! Wright fouled Chadwick with 100’ to the mark (windward/leeward) and did his turns just beyond the leeward mark. Daus, who rounded the windward mark in 5th, had closed the gap and rounded the leeward mark in third with Scarborough and Scott Laundry hot on his tail in a building wind.
On the downwind leg, Chadwick and Devries and Scarbarough made bear away sets as did Daus – nearly fetching the mark dead downind on an intermitant plane. However, recognizing more wind on the right side of the course (downwind left), Daus gybed away to seek the wind and a hotter angle. After about 200 yards he gybed back in wind that was 20 knots sustained. Daus took off on a hotter broad reach angle than the leaders and flew down the course on a permanent plane. Somewhere behind Chapman had capsized! Daus caught and passed all the leaders rounding in first at the leeward mark with Chadwick 100 feet behind! The upwind to the finish was a duel of duels between a better tuned, heavier Chadwick, chewing up Daus’ lead. Chadwick tacked and Daus covered about 4 times, each time Chadwick gaining a boat length. Daus crossed the finish line ahead by only 3 feet. Scarborough and Devries were very close behind in 3rd and 4th. Race 8 saw Devries, Laundry, Scarborough ahead and all lead by Chadwick who kept the lead for the entire race. Laundry had outstanding roundings at both leeward marks, not allowing followers to pass and pulling off a great 2nd place finish! Tony Chapman finished in fourth right behind Daus. The final race of the regatta was notable for the fastest downwind several of the skippers had ever experienced. Daus claims to have been going close to 20mph praising crew Sue Swisher for being “totally sharp with her spinnaker work, never letting it collapse (because it is the refilling of it that kills ya!).” Devries was firmly in second place but retired after he had a spectacular capsize and turtle just ahead of Daus on the final downind leg. Chadwick blew the doors off everyone taking the win handily. For complete information on our Bucanner sails, contact the North Buccaneer experts. To order our fast Buccaneer sails, click here.
Report courtesy Dave Spira, Euphoria #5230 BUCCANEER 18 North American Championship Powered by North: For complete information on our Bucanner sails, contact the North Buccaneer experts. To order our fast Buccaneer sails, click here.
Report by Greg Fisher
The Buccaneer NAs took place the first week of August at Mallets bay, VT. 31 boats sailed indicating that this class is doing just fine. They have a strong builder ( who is quite active in the class) in Nickels Boat Works. Venue: Mallets Bay Boat Club August 1-5 Top 5 all with full North Inventories: For information on our Bucanner sails, contact the North Buccaneer experts. To order our fast Buccaneer sails, click here.
Report by Greg Fisher A couple weeks back our sails performed well at the 2004 Buccaneer Nationals held at Ft Walton Beach, Fl. The regatta was sailed in varied winds so it was a true test of the sailors and their equipement. Ryan Flack and Jenn Armbruster sailed a brand new boat fresh out of the shop from the class's new builder- Nickels Boat Works. They sailed a full complement of North Sails. Norths were: 1,2,4,5,6,7,10* overall. Congrats to all!!! For information on our Bucanner sails, contact the North Buccaneer experts.
David Spira 8/16/03 My first good decision was asking Mark Allen to crew. Mark is a member of the Pontiac Yacht Club on Cass Lake, Michigan and races Lightnings, and JY15s. This was our first time sailing together. The night before the critical last race we went to the movies to see the new Tomb Raider flick. We felt very relaxed and confident going into the last day. With knowledgeable crew it was easy to stick to the basics. Good starts, boatspeed and positioning. I purchased a full set of new North sails in November and left them in the box rolled up until the week before the regatta. The sails had never been out on the water. I did put them up and check them out in the parking lot before I left Denver.
It was great to sail against several sailors who had not previously competed in the event - Eric Oster, Florida and Dave Chadwick, Alabama - who both dominate their home fleets. They finished 2nd and 4th. We sailed our own race and fortunately were able to stay in front of those guys as well as defending champs Tim Devries and Larry Schmida who took third. Congratulations to all of them. Richard and Danny West did a great job as well by winning their first championship race and taking 5th place. We did nothing different...but were ready to switch gears as necessary given changing wind strength and direction. With 28 boats, this was the best attended Buccaneer Regatta in over a decade. It is just awesome to see the support and interest from sailors who are new to the class and to sail racing. Congratulations to Nickels Boatworks, Fenton, Michigan, the new builder of the Buccaneer.
The race committee did a great job! Thanks to Harry and the Sindle family for the incredible Virginia hospitality. We were happy not to be camping with all of the moisture. I began sail racing on Interclubs dinghies at Larchmont, New York in 1990. Purchased my first Bucc in 1996 after moving to Denver. I have competed in every BNAC since 1997 and finally won the 2001 BNAC at the Cork Regatta, Kingston, Ontario. I am also currently racing Lightnings. I turned fifty (50) years old this year and live in Denver, Colorado.
For complete results, visit www.buccaneer18.org For information on our Bucanner sails, contact the North
Buccaneer experts.
Report courtesy Dave and Cody Chadwick
Here is a brief report for my family and sailing friends on the Buccaneer 18 NA Championships that Cody and I did last week - our first time to compete in this event. We came 4th in the 14 strong "A" fleet. There were also 14 boats in the "B" fleet so we can say we came 4th out of (nearly) 30 boats. We were very pleased with our perfomance. We were consistant if not brilliant with 4-5-5-4-5-3-5 ! From Day 1 we seemed to have a lock on 4th place. The first 3 boats were very consistant in 1-2-3. Generally we got very good starts and good first legs - we were always in the top 3 boats at the first windward mark. The new North mylar jib certainly appeared to help our upwind speed. We led 3 races for part of the race ! Our main problem was in holding our top 3 positions - we had a few problems with bad spinnaker drops at the last leeward mark that led to tangles on the last beat and dropping places. Cody (13) did great on learning to trim the spinnaker during the week. The key moment in the regatta for us was on Wednesday when the winds increased to 15 to 20 mph. We were easily the lightest crew in the "A" fleet and felt it might be tough to hang in the top 5 on this day. In the first race of the day we had a great first beat, rounded in first and held the lead for the first lap - we lost places on the 2nd beat and ended up with a 4th. The next race we help 3rd most of the way round but after a bad spinnaker drop at the last leeward mark and resultant tangle in the boat dropped 2 places at the finish line to finish 5th. This dropping of places at the end of the race was getting old and we were a bit down at lunch with the wind still increasing. Still we toughed it out for the last race of the day and held 3rd/4th/5th for the most of the way around. On the last run the wind dropped and we gybed to the left away from the fleet. We came back really hot on starboard and got back into 3rd and held this to the finish - our best result of the regatta and it felt really good. We lost a day of sailing on Thursday due to thunderstorms and had
one last
race on Friday. This was an awesome race with light and patchy winds
and the
whole regatta on the line for the top 3 boats. For once we had a bad
first
leg and rounded 8th. The leading group of boats sailed into a calm
patch
enabling us to come down the reach with a new band of wind and round
on the
inside in 1st ! Unfortunately we had a bad gybe and 3 boats rolled
us
shortly after the gybe. We got back up to 2nd at the leeward mark (including
rolling the eventual regatta winner) but rounded on the outside of
a slow
boat and fell to 5th on the final beat. Bad tactics on my part - I
went
right to try and win the race - should have consolidated in the middle.
This
race was captured fairly well on video and it is awesome to watch Dave
Spira's moves at the gybe and leeward marks that got him into first
place to
win the regatta.
For information on our Bucanner sails, contact the North Buccaneer experts. |
1. David Spira and Philip Ryan, Denver CO 14 pts
The last race was critical and we were very aware of the need to stay
in front
of our two closest competitors. It seemed worthwhile to take a risk
in that
situation whereas conservative sailing was what got us to that point.
My boat, "ELUSIVE" is a 1997 Cardinal - previously sailed by Harry
Sindle in
the 1997 BNAC at Nyack, New York. I especially appreciate the incredible
contribution made by Harry who has built and sailed Buccaneers since
1985.
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