Annapolis NOOD Regatta preview

2017 Helly Hansen Annapolis NOOD - Day 3 © Paul Todd/Outside Images http://www.outsideimages.com

The first major regatta of the 2019 Chesapeake Bay sailing season is ready to roll this coming "Cinco de Mayo" weekend, the Helly Hansen Annapolis NOOD Regatta hosted by Annapolis YC.

As one of the largest of Sailing World's NOOD Regattas held nationwide, the Annapolis event also ranks as the one perhaps most dominated by the various J/One-design classes, 130 J's in an overall fleet of 178 boats (or about 73.0%)! Sailing one-design will be J/22s, J/24s, J/70s, J/80s, J/30s, J/35s, J/105s and J/111s.

The twenty-one boat J/22 class always promises great competition on Chesapeake Bay. Several class veterans are participating, including notables like Sandy Adzick's Hot Ticket, Chris Doyle's The Jug 4 1, Cate Muller's Thunder Chicken, and Chris Wilson's Lil'Puffy.

The J/24s have a seven-boat field that includes Tony Parker's famous Bangor Packet, Pat Fitzgerald's Rush Hour, and Pete Kassal's Spaceman Spiff.

With thirty-one boats on the starting line, the J/70s have the largest fleet at the regatta. Leading teams may include Geoff Becker's Helly Hansen Junior Crew, Travis Odenbach's Honeybadger, Glenn Darden's Hoss, Ray Wulff's Joint Custody, Bruce Golison's Midlife Crisis, Brian Keane's Savasana, and three Brazilian teams from Rio de Janeiro (Mario Sorensen Garcia's Mandachuva, Pedro Camargo's Mancha Negra, Flavio Andrade's Oceanpact).

At twenty-three boats, the J/80 class is seeing one of its best turn-outs in recent years. Watch for these teams to be amongst the leaders; Bert Carp's Eleven, Les Beckwith's FKA, Tom Kopp's Kopp-Out, Mike Hobson's Meltemi, and David Andril's Vayu.

There are a dozen-boats sailing in the J/30 class; an amazing turn-out for this historical class (the second design ever by designer Rod Johnstone!). The leading teams include Bob Rutsch and Mike Costello's Bepop, Jim McGinnis' Blitz, Pam Morris' Bump, Rob and Beth Lundahl's Rag Doll, and Heidi Frist's Suzie Q.

The third oldest class in the regatta is the J/35s, with a seven boats ready to do battle for class honors over the three days of sailing. One wonders, will it be a "wash, rinse, repeat" from past years? The infamous duo of Jim Sagerholm and Jerry Christofel's Aunt Jean defending their title in four previous events over good teams like David Lange's Fatal Attraction and Bruce Artman's T-BONE? Watch this space!

With one of the largest J/105 fleets in the world, the Chesapeake J/105 fleet will again see eighteen boats pointing their bows towards the starting line. This year will see a diverse, strong group of teams from across the spectrum of 105 teams, including two from Texas! Those crews that should factor on the leaderboard are Andrew Kennedy's BAT IV, Ben duPont's CTRL ALT DEL, Bill Zartler's DEJA Voodoo, Peter McChesney's Dog House, Donald Santa's Santas Reign Dear, Scott Gitchell's Tenacious, and Mark Masur's Two Feathers.

Eight J/111 teams from across the country (San Francisco, New York, Cleveland, Buzzards Bay) will be vying for class honors. J/111 World Champion Peter Wagner and crew on Skeleton Key from St Francis YC will again be challenged by several hot teams. The top "locals" include Marty Roesch's Velocity and Jim Connelly's Slush Fund (third at the 2017 Worlds). The two-times J/111 Midwinter Champion Rob Ruhlman and crew on Spaceman Spiff from Cleveland, OH will also be looking forward to engaging those top teams. As well, two leading northeastern teams, both Block Island Race Week Champions, will be participating, Sedge Ward's Bravo and Doug Curtiss' Wicked 2.0.

In the North Sails Rally that takes place on Saturday will be two boats- Dan Leonard's J/100 Flashpoint and Nicholas Illiff's J/105 Muskrat.

More information at sailingworld.com/tags/helly-hansen-nood-regatta-in-annapolis