Ramrod wins overall ORC East Coast title

Rod Jabin took delivery of a J/111 in March, but as a global pandemic shut down sailboat racing on the Chesapeake Bay, his new toy stayed on the hard in a cradle. However, with just four events under their belts, Jabin’ Ramrod team dominated the 2020 Annapolis Fall Regatta for the ORC East Coast Championship, held October 23-25 in Annapolis, MD.

Jabin, who has owned a series of boats named Ramrod, including a Farr 40 and Farr 30, has turned his attention to the J/111 class, buying an English boat which won the 2015 World Championship.

“All credit goes to Chris Larson, who has really done a great job putting the boat together,” Jabin said. “Chris took care of getting the sails organized, tuning the boat and putting the crew together. This weekend he did a great job of getting us around the racecourse.”

Larson called tactics for Jabin, who sailed with an extremely talented crew. Matt Beck trimmed the main, while Morgan Trubovich and Ridgely McKenzie teamed to trim the headsails. Teddy Haaland handled the foredeck, Van Walke worked the mast and Fletcher Sims was in the pit.

Jabin is planning to compete in the 2021 J/111 Winter Series (Key West, FL) to help prepare for the 2021 J/111 North American Championship (Annapolis, MD) and 2021 J/111 World Championship (Hampton, VA).

“There’s a lot of activity and energy in the J/111 class, which is exciting,” he said. “We’re still figuring out what makes the boat go well. It’s very different than some of the other boats I’ve had. All my other boats had a tiller. I’m still learning how to handle that wheel.”

Ramrod’s perfect score line of four firsts left the rest of the ORC 2 class fighting for second. M’am’selle, a J/122 owned by Ed and Cindy Hartman, earned the runner-up position on the strength of two second place finishes. M’am’selle totaled 14 points, three better than skipper Ken Comerford and his team on the J/111 Moneypenny.

“Although two races were decided by 6 and 10 seconds, we were not going to catch Rod this weekend. He sailed flawlessly – good skipper, good boat, good crew and good sails. Very tough to beat,” said Hartman, vice commodore of the Annapolis Yacht Club.

“For a big heavy cruising boat sailing in light air, rating the same as the J/111s that are half our weight, Cindy and I were very pleased with second. We still have some work to do if we are going to make Rod look back over his transom,” Hartman added.

There was a good battle between a pair of Naval Academy entries in ORC 1. Members of the Navy varsity offshore sailing team performed impressively as skipper Paul Jervis and the crew of the J/133 Wasp outlasted skipper Ashley Koenig and her team aboard the Farr 40 Ranger.

Jervis served as tactician for driver Maddy Ploch as Wasp posted a solid score line of 1-3-1-2 for a low score of seven points. Ranger won the opening buoy race Sunday then followed with a couple thirds in finishing four points astern.

“Ranger seemed to be our main competitor. Our logic was to sail our own race and make sure we stayed in pressure, but to also remain in fighting range with Ranger,” said Jervis, a first-class midshipman. “We were pretty much able to sail their angles or a little lower and stay in touch. We kept up with them pretty well on both the upwind and downwind legs.”

In the time on time format of the ORC scoring choices, Ranger owed Wasp a minute and change per hour.

Rounding out the Wasp crew were Lauren Breitinger (main), Teagan Foley (spinnaker), Joe Garcia (jib), Patrick Michalik (pit), Gary Munsell (bow) Gregory Smith (floater) and Vaughn Studer (mast).

Jervis was one of four sailors who have been racing Wasp throughout the summer and fall. Five sailors were new to the team for this regatta and had two days of practice to prepare.

“I was impressed the crew was able to pick up some of the more challenging maneuvers fairly quickly. We had some phenomenal jibes downwind,” Jervis said. “I’m extremely proud of the team. We pushed the boat as hard as we could.”

Head coach Jahn Tihansky entered four of the Naval Academy’s donated boats in the Annapolis Fall Regatta. Members of the Navy varsity offshore sailing team also raced the Ker 50 Wahoo and the Farr 40 Zephyr.

Because of the coronavirus, Tihansky has been unable to utilize his cadre of volunteer coaches. He was the only coach on the water this weekend, sailing aboard Wasp as safety officer on Friday and with Ranger on Sunday.

Standing on the stern of Ranger, Tihansky had a good vantage point to observe the Wasp crew and came away impressed.

“They sailed their boat extremely well and had it going fast. They got good starts, stayed out of trouble and had solid boat-handling,” he said. “They essentially covered from behind and Ranger was unable to get away from Wasp. They made no mistakes.”

Dick Neville, race committee chairman for the Storm Trysail Club-Chesapeake Station, resurrected the Annapolis Fall Regatta following a one-year hiatus. This season saw a noticeable increase in ORC racing on the Chesapeake Bay with a significant number of boat owners obtaining rating certificates.

Neville scheduled a distance race around government marks on the Chesapeake Bay for Friday. A light south-southeasterly breeze in the 6-8 knot range prompted Neville to shorten the course to 19 nautical miles with Wasp winning ORC 1 and Ramrod topping ORC 2.

Saturday brought light, fluky conditions and Neville postponed on station in hopes of finding a stable breeze. He got off one start but was quickly forced to abandon.

Fortunately, Sunday brought strong northeasterly winds in the 12-15 knot range, allowing the race committee to complete three windward-leeward races. Neville set windward legs of 1.4 nautical miles and sent the fleet around twice.

“We were very pleased with the attendance this year. We’ve seen a resurgence in interest in handicap racing, which is a positive,” said Neville, who was hopeful for a 2021 Annapolis Fall Regatta. “If we can get some out of town entries to go along with this strong local fleet of ORC boats, we could have a great event.”

Event details – Results

Source: Bill Wagner