2014 Southern Comfort Classic

Asheville Sailing Club, Asheville NC

April 12-13

After the long hard winter here in the east the weather gods smiled on Asheville and brought in some ideal conditions with temperatures in the mid-70s and warm southerly winds in the 8-15 kt. range both days. 36-time defending champions Dave and Sue Michos woke up around 3 am Friday to reach the regatta venue that afternoon, mostly so they could catch a bunch of 6 ounce bluegills and catfish in Lake Julian.  Tom Grace made his annual pilgrimage up the mountain from Lake Norman, this time without companion and invaluble crew member Paula Pacheco, who was out with an unspecified knee injury - local Jackson Harris filled in admirably.  Seth Parker resolved his trailer (it works) and crew (had one) issues from last year, and Tim Porter managed to get out of his annual water polo commitments long enough to compete alongside daughter Madison, who was last seen getting passed over for the youngest Nationals sailor award.  Also, we were happy to welcome Stuart FitzGibbon from Mohican Sailing Club, who upon arriving immediately went for the "mercy card" by limping so badly it appeared he had just drove 9 hours with a squirrel smashing his foot with a hammer the whole time.  Rounding out the travelers was Barry Saunders and Todd "I just drank heavily last night but show me where the keg is" Ochoa.  Fortunately Barry remembered to bring all the required equipment this year and as of this writing it appears he remembered to take it all back.

The locals at Asheville Sailing Club had had enough of the out of town dominance of their own regatta, and they worked hard to field a strong local fleet.  Former Thistle sailor and Jet-14 convert Bruce Sampson was back in the yellow submarine boat along with crew Eileen Gertz, whose infectous smile on the race course somewhat mitigated the frustration of Bruce rolling over you on a reach.  Lenny Wells was back in the saddle of #1130 with hot shot crew Hunter "I like Lenny better because he doesn't capsize me into the Chesapeake" Trombetta.  The 9-boat fleet was completed with yours truly, sailing with local college tactician Meg Russell.

Friday – Michos breathes easy as darts action canceled

The weekend festivities traditionally begin at Barley’s Taproom and Pizza, which has become somewhat of a tourist attraction in Asheville for the annual Michos dart beat downs.  Dave became nervous when a large crowd of attractive people, assumably to watch the match, filtered in.  But alas, it was only a wedding rehersal group.  The evening ended without a match, as daughter Olivia fell asleep in the restaurant and it was decided she should probably go home.

Saturday – Ho Hum, Another Win

Fresh from a good night's sleep, Dave and Sue Michos came out ready to take charge on Saturday.  Race committee set up a "windward leeward" course, which turned out being an almost "reach reach" course.  This made starting at the favored end a premium.  Hennon and Russell produced one their only highlights of the weekend by winning the first start and gassing the fleet up the first leg.  Sure enough, Team Michos caught them at the second mark rounding and went on for the win.  In what was to become a common theme throughout the weekend, Hennon lost 3 more boats, this time when he forgot the course was 1 lap instead of 2.  Grace, Wells, and FitzGibbon took advantage.

Apparently the race committee wanted to get off about 14 races this day as the warning for the next race began about 3 seconds after the last boat finished.  After another good start, Hennon/Russell managed to go from first to worst after the bottom mark rounding, all in a span of about 60 yards.  Hennon is currently working on his first sailing book, titled "20 Tactical Errors I Make Over and Over Again".  This time around, tacking around the mark into a parade of downwind boats, then tacking back to the edge of the lake where the wind is about 40% lighter were the main mistakes.  FitzGibbon, shaking off his foot "injury" and showing new speed with his brand new sails chased Michos all over the lake but couldn't quite catch them in the end.  Grace came out of his missing Paula stupor to tally up a nice 2nd, and Wells/Trombetta announced that they were "in it to win it" with a second good finish in a row.

It was FitzGibbon's turn to nail the start in Race 3, and the fleet finally saw what solid racing tactics can do for a leader as Stuart led the race the entire way in route to the victory.  All that did was stir up Team Michos as they went out and took home the next two races with little challenge, leaving the scraps for the rest of the fleet to pick up.  The Porters and Saunders/Ochoa finally awoke from their slumber to finish in the top half, while FitzGibbon concluded his strong day of sailing with another 2nd in Race 5.

After racing the BBQ arrived and the hushpuppies were relieved that Barbehenn was not on the premises.  In fact, there were actually some left over!  An ice cold keg of Highland Gaelic Ale calmed everyone down and made for an enjoyable yet very windy evening at the lake.

Sunday – Building Wind Suits Fleet Just Fine

Day 2 got off to a late start as the race committee made some last minute adjustments to the course.  The modified Olympic was certainly a unique course, as all 3 legs somehow ended up being reaches at various angles, making passing a difficult chore.  The start was even more critical than Saturday and everyone knew it, leading to a big bunch of boats crowded in around the committee boat at the gun.  Repeating their Saturday performance, Hennon and Russell won the first start but figured out a way to let 2 boats pass them during the 1 lap reach race.  Turns out that would be their highlight of the day as things went downhill real quick after that, including an unfortunate boom/shroud tangle mess with Sampson and Gertz at the start of the second race.  

Wells and Trombetta found the freshening 10-14 kt breeze to their liking, playing the starts smartly and sailing consistently fast to move up into medal contention.  Also having a much better time of it were Seth Parker and Meg, who went from sniffing everyone's transom on Saturday to leading a couple races today.  In fact they had a nice lead going in the last race but forgot which course they were sailing, which was understandable as the race committee introduced a couple of new courses not in the sailing instructions.  Saunders and Ochoa sailed much more consistently as well, pounding out a series of 5th place finishes which moved them up into 2nd place in the B fleet.  Sampson and Gertz couldn't make the yellow boat go as fast as they wanted, but they both had big smiles on their faces which was great to see.  Grace did what Grace does best, go low and fast and make everyone wonder "How the hell did that boat beat me?!?".

In the end it was another win for Dave and Sue Michos, although many of the races were much closer than the scores imply.  FitzGibbon had as much speed as anyone and almost finished 2nd overall - maybe his best performance ever in the Jet.  Barney was inspired watching all of the good racing and notified us that he would like to race a Jet at the upcoming Governor's Cup.  He immediately began trash talking Dave about next year - Michos shrugged it off and said something about how that would be like Hennon challenging Tiger Woods to a round of golf.

We are very thankful for the out of town folks who continue to make the sizeable drive down to Asheville to support Jet-14 racing in North Carolina.  The Asheville Sailing Club again stepped up big time in supporting the event.  We can't wait to have everyone back next year!

Chris (#483)   

Pictures

A Fleet

Race

Place

Sail

Skipper

Crew

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

Total

1

217

D. Michos

 S. Michos

1

1

2

1

1

1

1

1

1

10

2

717

T. Grace

J. Harris

4

2

3

2

6

7

3

4

2

33

3

1130

L. Wells

H. Trombetta

3

4

6

4

7

4

2

2

3

35

4

483

C. Hennon

M. Russell

5

7

4

3

3

3

8

7

DNS

50

5

1076

S. Parker

M. Beal

8

5

9

7

8

2

4

5

4

52

6

433

T. Porter

M. Porter

7

6

7

9

4

DNC

DNC

DNC

DNC

73

B Fleet

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

Total

1

1161

S. Fitz Gibbon

T. Fosmire

2

3

1

5

2

6

7

3

5

34

2

737

B. Saunders

 T. Ochoa

6

9

5

8

5

5

5

8

6

57

3

977

B. Sampson

 E. Gertz

3

8

8

6

9

8

6

6

7

61


Results Posted 4/23/2014

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