Renehans win Tasar North Americans

The 2020 Tasar North Americans were dominated by Jay and Lisa Renehan, held September 26-27 in Seattle, WA. With 22 teams competing in seven races, Renehans led the way with all top 2 scores after discarding a 4th.

Hosted by Seattle Yacht Club and sanctioned by the Port of Seattle on the condition that it was limited to 50 people. This capped entries at 22 boats, plus six Race Committee members. The event followed a strong year of Tasar resurgence in Seattle which has seen teams training with smaller races all year, but this was the first opportunity to host a full on championship on Puget Sound, site of the 2021 Tasar Worlds.

Day one dawned cold and windy, with a 16-20 knot southerly challenging the fleet. It was a gift to strong wind specialists like Jonathan and Libby McKee and Michael and Molly Karas, but in the end the smaller Renehan team was able to hang in upwind, rip on the reaches and runs, and win the lighter final race of the day to hold a 2 point lead.

Day two looked pretty marginal for wind, but eventually a light northerly filled in for three more races to complete the series. As usual in light air, there were a lot more boats in contention, but the Renehans again demonstrated their superiority, winning two races to take the Tasar North American title for the fourth time.

Final Results (Top 5 of 22; 7 races, 1 discard)
1. Jay Renehan/Lisa Renehan, 8 points
2. Jonathan McKee/Libby Johnson McKee, 13 points
3. Michael Karas/Molly Karas, 22 points (top newlywed!)
4. Anthony Boscolo/Haley Lane, 30 points
5. Dalton Bergan/Lindsey Bergan, 32 points

Event details – Results – Photos

Fleet Building – Johnathan McKee:
The Tasar fleet has been in a rebuilding phase all year, as more new teams got boats and some of the veteran teams got back on the water. All spring we had casual racing/training on Sundays and “Tasar Tuesdays”, coordinated on our Google group site.

We also used this email list for extensive debriefs led by the class leaders. This has allowed new teams to get up to speed quickly in the somewhat technical Tasar. The fastest growing part of our group is the 20-25 year old cohort, who are looking for an inexpensive way to sail with their partners.

Fittingly, the Renehans have been the prime motivators of this training, and the biggest contributors to the debriefs. Always ready with a spare part, setup advice or word of encouragement, their victory in the NAs was a popular one.

As an interesting aside, the top 5 boats in the North Americans were all married couples! While my wife and I along with the Renehans have been racing Tasars against each other for 35 years, the rest of the top group have been racing together for at least 10 years, but they are all being pushed by the younger group, who are bringing collegiate skills and fresh energy to the racing.

“We have been racing so hard against the McKees and others for so many years,” noted Lisa Renehan. “We really push each other, and have different strengths. Even though we are best friends, we are intensely competitive on the water. But we share everything we are learning with each other and with the entire fleet. This has allowed us to continue to improve, and enabled those new to the fleet to get up to speed quickly. Its how we roll in the Tasar Fleet.”

Fleet Captain and 2013 World Champion Anthony Boscolo added, “We have a pretty cool thing going on right now.”