First 40.7

Tri-state Regatta Belongs to La Tempete

[Monday, September 4, 2006. Chicago] La Tempete, skippered by Tom Weber, won all three races of the Beneteau 40.7 section of the 2006 Tri-State Regatta and by doing so decisively won the overall Tri-state Regatta award not only for the Chicago Beneteau 40.7 fleet, but also for all boats in all sections entered and by doing so won the prestigious and coveted Hamilton Cup. In the 40.7 section Clem Boltz’ Cancan Deux took 2nd place overall with finishes of 3-2-6. Ron Buzil’s Vayu was overall in 3rd place with 2-3-7 finishes. Seven boats participated in this year’s three-race, three-state event, which is the most 40.7’s in the five years since 2002 when the fleet began racing one-design long-distance races. Newly instituted this year is the overall 40.7 section award for the three Tri-state races.

La Tempete won the Hamilton cup with overall of 2, 3, and 6 finishes among the 119 entrants.

The Tri-state Regatta began Friday evening with a 50.5 nautical mile night race from Chicago, across Lake Michigan, to St. Joseph, Michigan. On Sunday the fleet raced 28.9 miles from St. Joseph to Michigan City, Indiana and on Monday, Labor Day, the race was 31.3 miles from Michigan City back to Chicago.

After the Friday night race most of the participating sailors spent the day relaxing or playing volley-ball on the beach or at the St. Joseph Yacht Club’s pool and facilities. The club hosted a party and awards ceremony on Saturday evening.

Of interest to many in the 40.7 fleet was the final outcome of the Area III Boat of the Year (BOY) series for long-distance races. This season-long series consisted of the two races to Waukegan and back to Chicago in June and the three races of the Tri-state for a total of 5 races. There are no throw-outs in this series. Though seven boats were racing in the Tri-state, only six of them were registered in the BOY series as Don Hayes’ Tsunami had not registered. Two boats who were registered in the series did not participate this weekend: Bob Vickery’s Collaboration and Alan McMillan’s Finesse.

At the beginning of the Tri-state event, Buzil’s Vayu was in first place in the series, over 2nd place Excalibur by 3 points. After the first two races of the Tri-state, with only a single race remaining in the series, Vayu’s lead over 2nd place, now held by Weber’s La Tempete, was 5 points. In 3rd place was Boltz’ Cancan now trailing Vayu by 6 points. Since only six boats racing were registered, the only way for Vayu to lose first place was for La Tempete to finish in 1st place and for Vayu to finish dead last. And that is exactly what happened, the final result being La Tempete tying Vayu in the series with 14 points. The tie-breaker went to La Temepte with three first place finishes compared to Vayu’s single first place. Meanwhile, Cancan finished in 5th place in the last race (6th in the race but 5th for the series) and dropped out of the series leadership as Dave Tarson’s Excalibur, with a strong and consistent enough series record of 1-5-5-3-2 totalling 17 points, moved into 3rd place for the year.

Immediately after Monday’s race, Tom Weber had this to say about his unprecedented three first place finishes: "Before each race we made a conscious decision to go to one side of the course and we stuck with that decision."

Through much of the final race on Monday, from Michigan City to Chicago, Excalibur was narrowly ahead of La Tempete. Both boats had gone to the right and to what turned out to be windward of the bulk of the fleet. Weber related how they were finally able to make a move on Excalibur: "We waited until we were about four miles from the finish line. Didn’t want to make a move too soon. Then we saw our opportunity. For a few seconds everyone on Excalibur was looking forward. I gave a nod to my trimmer and we went up and over them before they could react."

On his last place finish on that final race and it’s affect on the season standings, Buzil had this to say: "All we had to do was beat any boat in the section except Tsunami, who wasn’t in the series. At the end of the day, we couldn’t do it. Our plan was a loose cover on La Tempete but about an hour into the race we sailed into a hole and got stuck there doing a knot or less for about an hour while 40.7’s passed on either side. Tom and his crew fully deserve the Boat of the Year title. Their accomplishment of winning all three races this weekend is magnificent."

On another perspective of the Tri-state event, Buzil’s Vayu finished in 2nd place in the Chicago to St. Joseph race for the handicapped Americap division. Fourteen boats from several sections participated in this auxiliary division in which 1st place wend to Tom Petkus J-105, Vytis, and 3rd place went to Alice Martin’s Sydney 38, Painkiller 4. No other 40.s were registered for the Americap division.