© Diane Chase

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By 2:30 Sunday afternoon, the final day of the 2002 Sailing World Annapolis NOOD Regatta, it was all over but the shouting. Light and variable breezes off Annapolis spelled an early end to the regatta for most classes and a tough, light air finish for others. The 42-boat J/22 class, which raced three races in Friday’s heavy wind, and none on Saturday, barely eked a race out in today’s conditions. The J/22 1467, helmed by Corey Butlan, of Bristol, R.I., and crewed by the husband and wife team of Kristan and Moose Mclintock took first in the only race of the day. “It was pretty light and shifty but we got a good start and got punched out at the beginning,” said Butlan. “Then we just stayed between everybody else and the mark. Being punched out helped Butlan’s team quite a bit, as they were able to finish the race before the time limit expired, unlike 25 other boats in the class.

Some well-known names scored big in the other large classes here in Annapolis. National champion Kerry Klingler, of Larchmont. NY, topped the J/80 class with a very strong 1,3,1,4, ending the regatta 12 points over Martin Kald’s Monster Lady. Geoffery Pierini, Metuchen, NJ, sailing Bada Bing, took third. Jud Smith, of Marblehead, MA., topped the 27-boat Etchells 22 class, after Ched Proctor, of Southport, CT., who was in first place at the end of Friday’s wild day, stumbled on Saturday’s only race with a fifteenth and was unable to take another crack at Smith because no races were held in their division Sunday.

Rich Harrison, of Chester, Md., has been sailing with his son, Brett for 26 years, twenty of them on their J/30 No Respect and the time spent sailing together shone through in the results. The Harrison Syndicate, as they call themselves, won the 18-boat J/30 class with a 5,1,2,2. “A lot of credit goes to Brett,” said Rich. “He kept us in the right places in all the races. The big thing was knowing where you were with the shifts. When the wind blows out of the Northwest (as it did on Friday), you’ve got to stay on top of the oscillations. We also have a very stable crew, we’ve been very lucky and haven’t had a lot of turnover.” One of the stalwarts sailing with the Harrison Syndicate is Cheryl Cook, of Eastport, Md., who has been sailing on No Respect for 9 years. As she says: “9 years of no respect.” The windy conditions on the first day of racing didn’t faze her at all. “Friday was exciting,” said Cook. “But we were comfortable with it. We’ve all been together for a long time.”
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The 34-boat J/105 class victors may not be a family team, but they’re almost as close. Cedric Lewis and Fredrik Salvesen have been best friends since high school twenty years ago
and have been sailing together ever since, along with bowman Patrick Donnelly. “ We started out a little slow on the first day,” said Salvesen. “We got an eighth in the first race, then bullets in the next two. We had good starts and just ground everybody down.” Despite the very strong breezes the duo stayed calm, cool, and collected.“ We were in control,” said Lewis. “Basically because it’s a J/105 and a little easier to sail in breeze. The race we barely survived was on the second day in the light air when we got a ninth.” Lewis and Salvesen share tactician duties but when there’s a disagreement the driver gets the final say. “I’m driving,” said Salvesen. “I get to make the call.” This was the fourth Annapolis NOOD regatta they’ve sailed together and their first class win. “After the last race of last year’s NOOD,” said Lewis. “As we were sailing in, everybody was congratulating us for being first overall. We found out later that we’d been called over early by the race committee, which took us out of the running. This year’s win means a lot to us.”

Division Four, the Henderson 30, Mumm 30, J/35, and J/105 classes, waited in vain for the wind to come up Sunday, which was good news for USA 320, owned by Dan Cheresh, of Holland, MI, tieing for first with Bent Dietrich’s Rainbow but winning the tiebreaker with more first place finishes. The Rainbow crew was especially happy that no races were held because scheduling conflicts had deprived them of two crew, including owner Dietrich. Despite searching everywhere for crew to replace the missing, they were only able to field five and were not looking forward to try sailing the Mumm 30 with so few bodies. “We could have done it,” said a member of the crew. “But we were quite pleased that we didn’t have to.” In the J/35 class, Jim Sampson, of Naples, Fla., hung on to his first place slot with eight points in the four races scored. In the Henderson 30 class, New Wave, owned by Mike Carroll of Clearwater Fla., and helmed by John Jennings won their class and the Henderson 30 Spring Series, by five points over Kevin Young’s Solon, Ohio-based Dark and Stormy. “Friday was obviously the most exhilarating day of sailing,” said Carroll. “It was exciting. The boat is so powerful and kind of captured all of us.” Carroll praised the effort put out by all of his crew, especially a couple of key players. “John Jennings has been a blessing for us,” he said. “He’s sailed with us as tactician and helmsman over the years and the skillsets he has just transfer so well from boat to boat. I’ll never sail this boat without Ron Hyatt, our bowman. The bow position on this boat is so critical, he’s just an unsung hero. He’s quiet yet effective and very sought after. I feel happy to have him aboard.”

233 boats from 14 states, as well as boats from Australia and Canada took part in this year’s Annapolis NOOD.