Mayor Daley 2007
TSUNAMI WINS MAYOR DALEY REGATTA
COLLABORATION AND VAYU ARE 2nd and 3rdIN TEN BOAT 40.7 SECTION
(Saturday, July 7, 2007) With ten Beneteau 40.7’s participating in Columbia Yacht Club’s Mayor Daley Regatta on Lake Michigan, Don Hayes’ Tsunami won the day with a 1st place in the first race and a 2nd place in the second race. Bob Vickery’s Collaboration finished overall in 2nd place with 4th and 1st place finishes. Vayu, skippered by Ron Buzil, finished in 3rd place with 2nd and 4th place finishes.
The venerable La Tempete, skippered by Tom Weber, and with two 3rd place finishes, tied Vayu in overall points but lost the “peanut dish” on the tie-breaker as Vayu’s best race of 2nd beat their 3rd place best finish position.
The first race started under clear skies at 11:40 AM for the 40.7 section. The wind was about 8 knots out of the south-southeast. The course was called for four windward/leeward legs at a direction of 155° and a distance of 2 miles for a total course distance of 7.5 nautical miles.
Just before the start, a battle for the pin end of the line erupted between Vayu and Tsunami. Tsunami and Vayu, with Vayu behind, made their run to the right of the pin on port tack. Tsunami tacked back to starboard three boatlengths above the pin with about one minute to go. Vayu tacked just to leeward of Tsunami and luffed Tsunami up to the start line. Tsunami had to quickly tack away and then back. Vayu, bearing off with less than twenty seconds to go to the starting gun, was charging early for the PIN and had to gybe and tack back to the line. One minute after the gun saw Tsunami on starboard tack leading the leftmost pack of boats of Collaboration, La Tempete, and Vayu.
Midway to the port layline Collaboration and La Tempete tacked back to the center of the race course. A subsequent 15° left shift favored the two remaining boats on the left and the order of rounding of the first windward mark was Tsunami, Vayu, Collaboration, and La Tempete in that order. It was Tsunami and Vayu, first and second, at the leeward mark, the second windward mark, and at the finish.
The start of the second race, at 14:10 hours, was unusual because the race committee dispensed with two starting pins and left the long start line used by the larger Tartan-10 and J105 sections for all sections starting later. This resulted in a longer than usual line for the 40.7’s and with plenty of room almost all of the boats had a good start.
As the wind continued to shift left and build to 10-13 knots, the second race was on a course of 145° for 2 miles. Despite the direction change the wind shift resulted in a left skew to the course with port now being the long tack. Many of the boats headed to the left and found themselves quickly overstood on the port tack layline. Of these, Vayu, on the layline, tacked first and gained on the boats ahead and over the layline. Collaboration, only slightly overstood, came down to the pin with great speed and rounded the windward mark in first place, followed by Tsunami and then Vayu with La Tempete in fourth.
This was the same order of rounding at the leeward mark.
About three-fourths of the way up the final upwind beat, La Tempete was behind Vayu by about two boatlengths as they neared the port layline. Vayu tacked to port but immediately Tsunami, about four boatlengths ahead and to windward tacked also, casting a wind shadow on Vayu and slowing her down enough so that when the starboard layline was reached at a distance of about six boatlengths from the windward pin, La Tempete was just ahead of Vayu.
The order of rounding of the second windward mark was Collaboration, Tsunami, La Tempete, Vayu, and then Das Boot. This hierarchy didn’t change and this was the order of finish for the first five boats.
Note that as of Tuesday following the regatta, Area III had not properly scored La Tempete for this event. Also, for the Boat of the Year buoy series, neither Cancan nor La Tempete are shown as registered though their skippers report that they did in fact properly do so. Same for Cancan in the BOY long-distance series: skipper Clem Boltz registered but Area III is not showing it. Standings reported on the 40.7 website will correctly show both of these boats.
Current standings for all 2007 series can be viewed at 40.7 Standings.
The next event for the Chicago Beneteau 40.7 fleet will be Chicago Yacht Club’s annual race to Mackinac Island, starting on Saturday, July 14th. All thirteen members of the fleet are registered for the event. Though this is the total of boats racing in the section and is less than the sixteen boats participating last year, it is nonetheless a strong showing for the fleet.
Bob Vickery’s Collaboration is the three-time (in a row) defending champion of the 40.7 section for the Mackinac race.