Gumption/Mack Daddy Wins Larchmont Overall
The 123-boat Lands' End NOOD Regatta at Larchmont YC concluded on Sunday
with top finishers in 15 classes receiving trophies and the highly
prized NOOD regatta crew shirts (embroidered by sponsor Lands' End
Business Outfitters, of course). Most classes finished the five or six
races in the series, and the overall NOOD champion was named, Kevin
Grainger's J/105 Gumption, which won a tiebreaker to take the 17-boat class over frequent champion Eclipse,
owned by Damian Emery. Their prize is a week's stay at Sunsail's
Colonna Resort in Antigua for the Caribbean NOOD championship, a fun
event against all the other NOOD champions in January.
Grainger overcame a few hurdles simply to sail in the regatta as his
boat had an "unfortunate incident" a few weeks earlier when it ran
aground. "Basically, we tried to sink the boat," said Grainger, "but
fortunately, my good friend Brandon Rose, owner of Mack Daddy,
hadn't been sailing his boat much and loaned me his." Then all the
36-year-old former Wall Street trader had to do was learn to sail with
a tiller, which Mack Daddy has, instead of a wheel, which Gumption has. "I only learned how to sail in 2000," said Grainger, "and I'd never used a tiller before."
"It's great to beat Damian," said Grainger. "We've gauged ourselves
against him for a long time. He sails incredibly well." Gumption won
two races to Eclipes's one, which spelled the difference on the tiebreak.
Grainger said his crew of the last two years may be a bit "rag tag but
definitely greater than the sum of their parts," with a tremendous
positive attitude toward self improvement. Sailing with him were
Jean-Claude Zuccuni, Bill Howard, Jamie Morris, Tom Wey, and Cullin
Wible. All of them are planning out their trip to Antigua already. As
for Grainger, another year he might be tuning up for next week's J/105
NAs, but instead, he's going home to hang out with his wife Noelle, who
was due to have their first baby today. "Hopefully it'll come soon," he
said, "but not tonight. I'm too tired."
In other classes, Tom Fahy's Ranger 33 Close Enough
made history by winning two races to take the class's first
championship since the '70s. Fahy, who sails out of the Housatonic Boat
Club in Stratford, Conn., got "good clean starts and worked the favored
right side," according to class ringleader Stephen Petri, whose Witchcraft fell out of the lead to third place with a 5th in the last race. Norman Kilarjian's Tolo
finished second for the series with a pair of seconds on the day.
What's next for the R33's-Fahy and Petri were talking about heading for
Block Island Race Week next June, and then coming back to Larchmont. "I
know of 13 boats in the area," said Petri. "And," said Fahy, "one of my
crew is thinking of buying a 33." Making the biggest splash at the awards ceremony, held on the Larchmont YC lawn, was Afterglow, owned by Bill Walker, who despite two 5ths today, beat Rich duMoulin's Lora Ann
by one point. DuMoulin, who finished with a 1-3 today, helped present
the class's annual Carl Schumacher award to Walker, and then reminded
him of the class tradition, which involved carrying Walker to the end
of the launch dock for a September swim. Walker has owned the boat for
only a couple years and has restored it a great deal. Now he's learning
to make it go fast, too. The other highlight of the awards
ceremony was the appearance of Olin Stephens, who had made it to
Larchmont to watch the Shields fleet race as a tuneup for the Shields
Nationals at LYC next week. Stephens reminisced about meetings he'd had
at the club over 40 years ago with Corny Shields as they planned the
Sparkman & Stephens design of the Shields. Then he presented the
first-place award to one of the local fleet's longest-time competitors,
Fred Werblow, of Scarsdale, N.Y. Werblow (who beat this reporter's team
aboard Grace by 1 point for
the series) described the phone call he got in 1973 from Corny Shields
after he'd won the Rhodes 19 fleet for the season. "He said, 'Fred,
it's time for you to sail a Shields,'" Werblow related. "I told him I
was flattered but didn't think I could afford one. he told me, 'I'll
give you my boat,' which is the boat Werblow has competed in to this
day. Werblow did pay for the boat eventually, and carries on the
tradition of Long Island Sound light-air speedsters. In third behind
this reporter's boat was Syrinx, Bill Berry's boat from Marion, Mass., just ahead of Com Crocker's Rascal and Rob Dailey's Lady.
