T-10s Day 2 Detroit NOOD
The second day of the Lands’ End Detroit NOOD began as a picture-perfect, sunny, and windy day. Wind speeds up to 15 knots graced all three race circles, and sailors traded out their light headsails and got ready for what appeared to be a great day of racing. Day 2 at the Detroit NOOD is all about building on the foundations laid on Day 1, or maybe climbing out of basements dug deep. For Dan Klasen, tactician on his dad, Dave’s J/105 Macho Duck, it was all about clawing back. The Macho Duck crew started out the event hot, with a first place in the first race, but they scored a DNF for Race 2, and not for the usual reasons. “My cousin got married on Friday,” said Klasen. “So instead of finishing the second race, we had to head in to get to the wedding on time.” Talk about poor planning on the cousin’s part; doesn’t he know how important the Detroit NOOD is? All is not lost for the Turbo Duck crew, while first may be out of reach-first-place Richard Listwan’s Tenacious has a 2-1-1 scoreline-but C.J Ruffing’s C-Jem and Michael Morin’s Junto have 12 points each. “Things worked out well in our favor today,” said Klasen. “We were third in the first race in great conditions; 12 to 15 knots of breeze. In the second race, we were in eighth place at the weather mark, but then the breeze lightened up so much our race committee abandoned the race. We were very happy.” On Course A, where the 16-boat Beneteau 36.7, 7-boat Warhorse, 11-boat IRC A, 6-boat J/35/T35, and 7-boat J/120 classes were racing, the first race saw sailors enjoying much the same conditions in the first race as the J/105 class saw on their race circle. The second race also mirrored the conditions on the J/105 course. Despite a breeze that dropped to exactly zero, Circle A’s race committee inexplicably decided to play the race out until the bitter end. At one point, the fifteen or so boats that hadn’t managed to finish the race before the wind died showed an amazing variety of sail plans and headings. One Beneteau 36.7 crew became so frustrated they dropped their main and left their spinnaker up, hoping that whatever zephyrs came to them would be kinder to the lighter sail. Finally, a slight breeze wafted down the course ahead of some thunderstorms and helped the stragglers limp across the finish line. Then came perhaps the worst part of the day for racers on Course A. As the wind built enough to start another race, the race committee started the sequence for the Beneteau 36.7 class. First start: General Recall. Second attempt at a start for the overeager 36.7 sailors: General Recall. Meanwhile the thunderstorms were approaching rapidly, with many lightning strikes visible both north and south of the racecourse. The Circle A race committee, never one to say die, tried the get the Beneteau 36.7 class off one more time: General Recall, and with that, the race committee finally pulled the plug and sent the fleet scurrying for Bayview YC ahead of the thunderstorm.In the largest fleet, the 29-boat Cal 25 class, Never Alone, co-skippered by Paul and Ross Nuechterlein climbed out of the 7-7-4 hole they dug on Day 1 with a 3-2 for the day, putting them on top of the class by five points over Dale Marshall’s Clytie. In third, David Holme’s Holmebrew, with 32 points. Thanks to a mixup on the starting line yesterday, the scoreboard for the Melges 24 class doesn’t accurately reflect what’s happening in the class. Marc Hollerbach’s Fu appears to be in fourth overall, behind USA175, Flyer, and Rapid Sequence, respectively, Fu is actually leading the class. In the first race on Day 1, Fu was called OCS, but filed for redress, saying that they’d come back and re-crossed the line. The protest committee awarded Fu average points for the race, and since they’ve got a 4-10-3-7 scoreline as of the end of racing today, and appear to have a handle on the Lake St. Clair conditions, we may see them on the podium on Sunday.The feel-good story of the regatta so far is from the 10-boat Ultimate 20 class. When skipper Nancy Duffy checked her results on Friday evening, she saw her boat Prize had been scored first in Race 2. She’d actually finished third, so she immediately filed for redress, and now sits in fourth overall. Brad Boston’s Honour is leading the class with 6 points, Richard Hunt’s Go Fish is second, with 13, and Angela Scheibner’s High Cotton is in third, with 18 points.Day 2 ended with a tropical downpour as racers gathered at the party tent after racing, but it did nothing to dampen the enthusiasm of the crowd. Even though there’ll be no races started after 3 pm tomorrow, there’s still plenty of racing left at the Detroit NOOD. For complete results, see www.sailingworld.com
