Atlantic Coast Championships
July 29-30, 2005
Wrightsville Beach, NC

The ACCs coincided with Tom Martin's annual vacation to Wrightsville this year.  That meant Team Catawba would have great lodging right on the island.  Tom and Susan headed down early Friday.  John and I followed with Woodstock in tow arriving around 10 PM.  We speculated on what would be a good finish in a 35 boat national fleet and decided 25 would be acceptable and 20 would be outstanding.   Tom met us at the club when we arrived and we elected to simply park the boat and go get some rest. 

We arose Saturday morning and after a quick run through McDonald's, headed over to set up.  Mother nature was not cooperating very well and it made for an unusual race weekend in Wrightsville.  Rain and variable winds delayed racing until mid-afternoon when the AP finally came down and the fleet headed out to race.  The race committee set a short windward-leeward once-around course.  We opted for a committee boat start and actually Ron managed to stick 14355 in a pretty good slot.  By the first mark, we were higher up in the fleet than we anticipated.  We held our own and it looked like we had actually finished somewhere around 15.  A second race was called up and we pretty much duplicated race one - perhaps even a little better.  It was really neat to see so many boats behinds us.  We had sailed the boat very well and Tom, in particular, had a great day trimming the chute.  In race two we were in the first of two very tough leeward roundings.  We had improved our position on the run, and as we approached the mark, we allowed John Sawyer of Wrightsville, who had rights, to go ahead of us.  But a second boat claimed rights that we felt was too far back to justify.  We refused to yield.  A number of shouts ensued.  The skipper barged in and hit the mark.  He kept right on sailing, too.

With the late start, the RC sent the fleet back in as evening was approaching.  Back on land, we put up Woodstock and headed back to Tom's condo for showers.  When we returned to the club, the results were posted.   We were stunned.  There, sitting in eighth place was Team Catawba.  OCS calls played a major roll as a number of the top finishers in each race, were OCS once or twice.  OCS or not, we knew we had finished top 15.  Our thoughts went back to Beaufort, 2004 and the Lake Murray "Bottom's Up" Regatta of 2005.  At each regatta, we sailed a superb Saturday only to slip back on Sunday.  Would this be the regatta we would break through and put two days together back to back?         

On Sunday around 8:30 am, the fleet began launching under sunny skies and hopes were high for a good day of racing.  But on the way to the race course, a dark cloud came up sending many skippers into a 180 degree turn for the docks.  However, the RC was on the course and called everyone out seeing no immediate danger from the cloud.  We cleared the jetties into the ocean, took our compass readings, and got ready to race.  Race one was started.  We did not get nearly the start we had on Saturday, but we stayed with it and worked on improving.  As the fleet rounded the windward mark, a huge shift moved in switching the leeward leg to a beat.  Tom caught it quickly and we dropped our chute and hoisted the jib.  The race committee shortened the race to a finish at the leeward-turned-windward pin.  We had not done as well as on Saturday but figured we were in the low twenties. 

As we contemplated the next start and the RC worked on adjusting the course, a rain squall moved over the course.  This was ocean sailing.  There would be no dash to the docks.  About half of the fleet, including 14355, dropped sails and set anchors to ride out the rain.  We were fairly comfortable in our rain gear.  Ron pulled the main sail up to his waist.  We took turns bailing rain water.  A few boats half cut back to mainsail only and attempted to keep some minimum movement going.  Thankfully, there was no lightning or high wind associated with the rain, so when it stopped after 20 minutes, the fleet hoisted sails and the RC moved on to race 2 and 3.  Again in race two, we finished in the twenties. 

In race three, we did much better and were in a dog fight headed to the leeward mark.  We felt like we passed several boats downwind.  But leeward mark roundings are the hardest part of large fleet sailing.  Inevitably, racers can plan on tight roundings with two - three other boats.  As we neared the mark, John Sawyer again darted inside behind us and called buoy rights.  Woodstock was in a very tight situation with Sawyer on the left and Raleigh's John Pelosi ahead and to the right.  Ron did not have overlap on Pelosi and moved off his stern to round behind him and give room to Sawyer.  As Ron moved outside, the bow caught Pelosi's rudder.  Contact was made and race three turned into disaster.  We sailed away, took our penalty turns, and headed for the finish line.  We lost ground to almost everyone and finished next to last.  We were pretty glum about it.  We have made some noise in recent regattas, but putting it all together would not happen at the ACCs. 

Back at the docks, a number of protests were filed including redress for the day one OCS calls by Bob Harkrider and Lenny Krawcheck  To the surprise of a lot of skippers, Bob and Lenny won their hearings and their day one OCS calls were reversed.  With actual on course scores now on the books, Krawcheck won the regatta.   Bob Harkrider was third and Pierce Barden finished fifth.  Team Catawba finished 19th.  We took stock of the weekend.  In reality we exceeded expectations.  But we also knew what could have been. 

Ron