2001 505 North American Championships
Regatta Report

August 8-12, 2001
Kingston Yacht Club, Kingston, Ontario

By Shona Moss Lovshin

 

 

Howard Hamilin and Mike Martin sweep the 2001 North American 505 Championships

 

 

Well, here starts another regatta report where someone gushes about the fantastic sailing conditions in Kingston..... Well, there really is no other way to commence.... the sailing conditions at the 505 North American Championships held last week, August 8 - 12, 2001 were FANTASTIC!� Sunny, hot, and GREAT WINDS.� Well, there was one fluky light air race, but the race committee wisely nipped that one in the butt early on before it got too painful.� Six races in total were held.�

 

Howard Hamlin and Mike Martin from Long Beach, California won the event with five bullets and one second place finish.� Second place overall was won by Tyler Moore and Peter Alaire.� Third place honours went to Macey Nelson and Jesse Falsone.� Fourth to Ethan Bixby and Hans Birkholz.� Danny Tompson and Jeff Nelson secured fifth place.� Howard and Mike were in a league of their own; often securing the lead by the first mark and taking off from the fleet during the rest of the race.� Very impressive downwind windspeed and handling guys!.� Several other prizes were awarded.� Top team comprised of a male and female were Clarissa Bush and Chris Gillies (Darn!� I did want that one!� Way to go guys!).� The Colgate award for the best smiles went to Debbie Ashby and Davie Adams.� If there was an award for the fleet with the most breakdowns, the Ottawa fleet certainly would have won; it was like down home week in at the harbour during the first race as Marg and Will, Hugh and Michael, and Steve and I rendezvoused there for a pow wow.� The youngest competitor went to 16 year old Ottawa sailor Peter Gifford.� And finally, the �stylin� award goes Jeff and Martin for those cool shirts they wore during the prize giving!��

 

Thanks go out to the organizers of the event: Florence and Jeff Boyd and Barbara and Steve Yates as well as the Race Committee Chair Peter Schell and his gang!� The whole event was very enjoyable.� Last evening after our Tuesday night race, Chris Gillies summed up what I had been thinking: �I�m even more geared up and enthused about getting faster in the 505 after the N.A.s than before.�� It seems to me that in our Ottawa fleet there is quite a bit of talk about buying new sails and having fun building new foils.� This is great to hear!

 

Several sailors came from far away to sail in this event.� Cynthia DesBrisay and Charles Hansen came all the way from Vancouver.� Charles drove solo across the country!� That is dedication.� American sailors came from California, Florida, the MidWest, and from spots along the east coast.� The rest of the Canadian sailors heralded from Montreal, Ottawa, Kingston, Toronto, and Windsor.��

 

When I ask myself what really stood out to me at this regatta, I come up with the following:

 

�                      More mast rake and mast bend than I recall in the past.� In 18 knots, people were sailing with rakes of 25'0" (or 3'7" using the spinnaker halyard measurement system) and very bent masts.� I recall when such conditions called for rakes of 25'6" or maybe down to 25'5" at the most.� Maybe I�m just showing how out of touch I�ve been lately with such issues..... but maybe for someone who was not at the event, this information will prove useful.


�                      Check out the foil shapes being used by Howard Hamlin and Mike Martin!� They published an article in Sailing World on these foils, which can be found in the March 1999 issue.� Check it out!� Some sailors are talking about making some of their own; you might want to look into this.�� It seemed to me that Howard and Mike showed particularly good speed on the offwind legs.� Which brings us to.....

�                      Going �Hot� on the downwind legs.� This means that you steer a course on the runs just high enough to keep the crew on the trapeze.� This is not a new concept, as we�ve been hearing a lot about it over the past couple of years, but it was interesting to see if it paid off in each of the runs at the N.A.s.� It seems to be a bit risky to head way out to a corner when there were significant �holes� in the wind on the course.� However, for the majority of the time, it was definitely faster to go �Hot� when the wind was 12 knots (apparently this is the magic number) or more.�

 

A couple of issues were discussed at the American AGM that might be of interest.� I assume that the minutes will be posted soon on the American Section website (https://www.int505.org/usa/).� These issues are:

 

�                      Next year�s North American Championships will be held in California at the Cabrillo Beach Yacht Club.� Apparently this is the windiest place to sail in Southern California.�

�                      Number of races to be sailed per day.� The question is whether the race instructions should specify (and thus limit) the set number of races to be sailed each day of a regatta.� For example, at this North American Championships, only two races per day were scheduled.� The alternative proposed was to just specify a maximum per day (for example, 4 or 5 races) except on the final day of racing where a specified number of races that the RC would aim for would be known prior to leaving the dock in the morning.

�                      More debate was had about the course(s) to be used at World Championships.� There is a lot of debate on this on the International 505 Class website, therefore I will not write much on it here.�

 

Again, congratulations to the winners, thanks to the organizers for hosting the event, and thanks for all those who attended and made the event a success.�

2001 INTERNATIONAL 505� North American� Championships 8 - 12 August, Kingston Yacht Club, Ontario
RACE TOTAL POINTS DROP NET POINTS SAIL NUMBER POS
SKIPPER / CREW Sail # 1 2 3 4 5 6
1 Hamlin / Martin 8714 1 1 1 1 1 2 7 2 5 8266 1
2 Moore / Alarie 8629 3 3 2 2 2 3 15 3 12 8629 2
3 Nelson / Falsone 8722 8 2 3 3 6 5 27 8 19 8722 3
4 Bixby / Birkholz 8715 4 5 4 4 5 4 26 5 21 8715 4
5 Thompson / Nelson 7201 2 4 5 14 4 9 38 14 24 7201 5
6 Boyd / ten Hove 8264 5 9 9 5 3 6 37 9 28 8264 6
7 Fowler / Dyson 8083 9 6 7 6 11 1 40 11 29 8083 7
8 Amthor / Smith 8012 7 10 6 10 8 7 48 10 38 8012 8
9 Collins / Amthor 8627 10 8 12 7 9 8 54 12 42 8627 9
10 Meller / Sparkman 8018 6 12 8 12 7 10 55 12 43 8018 10
11 Herlihy / Buttner 8576 13 7 11 8 10 20 69 20 49 8660 11
12 Kivney / Schell 8194 11 11 10 11 17 19 79 19 60 8092 12
13 McLaughlin / Yates 8698 12 14 15 13 12 12 78 15 63 8698 13
14 de la Rie / Freedman 8085 DNF 13 16 16 13 14 108 36 72 8085 14
15 Kaiser / Badtke 8600 17 15 13 21 19 16 101 21 80 8600 15
16 Ferrarone / Ferrarone 7068 15 16 19 15 18 17 100 19 81 7068 16
17 Bush / Gillies 8410 20 19 DNF 18 14 15 122 36 86 8410 17
18 Morrin / Hoffman 8442 DNF DNF 17 9 15 13 126 36 90 8442 18
19 Hansen / Gifford 7346 16 17 14 23 22 21 113 23 90 7346 19
20 Bertrand / Molimard 8233 19 DNF 20 19 28 11 133 36 97 8233 20
21 Gesing / Gesing 7605 14 DNF 18 17 20 30 135 36 99 7605 21
22 Desbrisay / Hansen 7610 18 18 22 20 23 22 123 23 100 7610 22
23 Moss Lovshin / Lovshin 8260 DNF 23 24 24 16 18 141 36 105 7687 23
24 Ashby / Adams 7796 22 20 23 25 26 27 143 27 116 7796 24
25 Leiberman / Lieberman 7876 21 25 25 28 29 31 159 31 128 7318 25
26 Long / Long 8073 DNS 24 DNS 22 24 29 171 36 135 8073 26
27 Alexander / Wentz 7685 DNS 22 DNF 29 25 24 172 36 136 7685 27
28 Romey / Mehaffey 7092 DNF 21 21 DSQ DSQ 23 173 36 137 7092 28
29 Hennessy / Angers 7857 24 27 27 31 31 33 173 33 140 7857 29
30 Angliss / Cockburn 3827 23 26 28 33 33 34 177 34 143 3827 30
31 Stetson / Stetson 8624 DNF DNS DNS 26 21 25 180 36 144 8624 31
32 Hurley / Penney 7798 DNF DNS 29 30 27 26 184 36 148 7798 32
33 Heintz / Fowler 8261 DNF DNS DNS 27 30 28 193 36 157 8261 33
34 Seiple / Brown 7793 DNF DNF 26 32 32 32 194 36 158 7793 34
35 MacGovern / Calhoun 5828 DNF DNS DNF DNF DNS DNS 216 36 180 5828 35

Please let us know what you think of this site, and how we can make it better. E-mail comments, suggestions, questions and submissions to: [email protected].

Return to the Canadian 505 Home Page.