1996 North American Championship - Wilmette, Illinois
Regatta Report - Courtesy of Brian Moloney, Pioneer Press newspaper
This 1996 North American Championship was started with a light onshore breeze which gave the race committee some headaches before settling. After one short postponement, the starting sequence began for the field of 34 boats racing a windward-leeward course. A last-minute oscillation of the wind to the right, brought most of the racers to the boat end of the large starting line at the gun. Joe Londrigan and at least one other boat were called over early. Londrigan continued sailing, was informed at the windward mark and promptly dropped out.
At the second upwind rounding, lightning punctuated the sky and for a moment the wind died completely. That’s when the fun began. A torrential downpour accompanied a fresh breeze and a 90 degree downshift to the southwest, making for an entertaining screaming reach. As the racers approached the second leeward gate, the wind again shifted another 90 degrees to the northwest, making the downwind leg upwind. The racers tacked through the downwind gate and continued to a reset upwind finish, with Mitchell taking the gun and Macdonald second. Locals Bill Allen and Ross Adams placed third and fourth respectively. Susie Pegel lodged a protest against the entire fleet for passing through the second downwind gate arks and not rounding either mark. Stay tuned for the decision.
Race 2 – A steady northerly breeze of 15 knots and three to four foot seas greeted competitors. Today was Ross Macdonald’s day as he led at every mark rounding, finishing first with a comfortable margin. The real race was between Vincent Brun and Joe Londrigan for second. Brun had the advantage upwind and rounded the first weather mark just ahead of Londrigan, who was faster downwind with Londrigan then leading Brun. Brun’s upwind advantage placed him in second again at the second upwind mark. Londrigan again passed Brun on the second downwind and rounded just ahead. As Londrigan approached the finish on port tack, he was forced to duck below Brun, who subsequently tacked on top. Londrigan was able to power through to the finish, besting Brun by three feet.
The Pegel protest was heard following today’s race. Based upon Appeal 275, Pegel believed the race instructions were vague as to whether the leeward gate was a passing or rounding mark. By rounding instead of passing through, she believed she was the only one to comply with Rule 51.2. After some deliberation, the jury disallowed the protest, stating that either rounding a gate mark or passing through the gate complied with 51.2. Bainton had filed protest against Pegel in race one. The protest was based on Rule 51.2 and stated that by roundin the gate mark, Pegel in fact, passed the mark twice and consequently did not round the marks in the course in proper sequence. This protest was disallowed.
Race 3 – Day three started with a quiet easterly breeze at 5 knots increasing to 10 knots by the end of the race. Most racers went for the boat end, prompting a general recall. The second start was clean except for local Doug Tate, who was over early. The fluky wind provided many shifts to play upwind. Series’ leader Ross Macdonald went left on the first upwind, which proved unwise as the wind quickly shifted right. The race committee executed a course change to square off the leeward let. After the first downwind leg Cuyler Morris took over the race and led around each subsequent mark, finishing first by good margin.
Another shift to the right and another course change right started the second upwind leg. John MacCausland crept up the fleet and rounded the second upwind mark in second place, with Tom Olsen, third. MacCausland and Olsen traded placed as the second downwind gate and finished in that order. Tuesday night marked the mid-week awards dinner. After an open bus ride from the harbor to a downtown Chicago restaurant and a large Mexican buffet, the daily awards were given out. The highlight was the award for daily first place, courtesy of regatta sponsor Noblia, a division of Citizen Watch Company. Both skipper and crew were awarded a limited edition Star Class watch.
Races 4 and 5 – Races four, rescheduled from the previous day due to lack of wind, and 5 were sailed in northwest winds at 18-20 knots. Unusually large rollers form the northeast mixed with the smaller waves from the northwest, creating a confused sea and typical offshore conditions: shifty and gusty. Three boats lost their rigs. Race four began with a clean start and the majority of the fleet sticking to the left, shore side. Vincent Brun was in sync with the shifts, oscillating as much as 35 degrees, and rounded the weather mark first, followed by Tom Olsen and Ross Macdonald. Brun decided to put his boat into overdrive and did a horizon job on the rest of the fleet, winning the race handily.
In race five, Brun rounded first at the second windward mark by a substantial margin and preceded to hand the fleet its second horizon job for the ay. Adams also caught up to round third, just outside of Londrigan. Macdonald was fourth at the windward mar, but caught up to finish second, with Londrigan third and Adams fourth.
Race 6 – Due to unsafe conditions at the harbor entrance Race six was canceled, the championship was complete.
Regatta Results
1996 NORTH AMERICAN CHAMPIONSHIP - WILMETTE HARBOR report
Place No. Skipper Crew Fleet Daily Places Pts.
1 7872 Ross Macdonald Dag Nyhof EB 2 1 15 2 2 7
2 7836 Vince Brun Rodrigo Meirelles SDB 10 3 8 1 1 13
3 7515 Ross Adams Chuck Nevel WH 4 10 4 4 4 16
4 7604 Cuyer Morris Mike Dorgan CasB 12 7 1 3 7 16
5 7862 J.A. MacCauslandMagnus Liljedahl CR 5 5 3 5 10 16
6 7630 Ben Mitchell Bill Stump LB 1 9 5 8 6 20
7 7713 Joe Londrigan Scott Zimmer SDB pms 2 12 7 3 24
8 7655 Rob Maine III Andrew Higgs WH 6 4 6 11 9 25
9 7765 Bill Allen Eric Beckwith WH 3 6 11 6 12 26
10 7738* Bill Buchan Jr Garth Miller PS 8 8 7 10 8 31
11 7737 Tom Olsen Mike Deyett Sun 25 11 2 9 11 33
12 7791 Peter Vessella John Rokosz NB 18 12 10 15 5 42
13 7325 Susan Pegel Mark Johnson WH 13 17 9 28 16 55
14 7659* Durward KnowlesChris Rogers N 20 13 18 12 17 60
15 7434* William Parks John Beery SLE 26 19 13 17 14 63
16 7660 Chris Lanza Timothy Banks BisB 7 27 27 18 13 65
17 7547* Jack Rickard Bill Lane WH 22 15 14 16 dnc 67
18 7615 Logan Farrar Norbert Gravelle CD 21 14 16 21 19 70
19 6933 Chris Nelson Mathew Pederson WLM 9 dnc 23 24 15 71
20 7814 Todd Gay Mark Lewis LS 14 21 22 23 18 75
21 7634 Jeff Schaefer John Goode GLW 11 24 26 14 dnf 75
22 7507 Tony Hermann Gill Cole WLM 23 18 24 19 20 60
23 7817* John Rumsey Fred Stritt BisB 15 dnc 21 13 dnc 84
24 7775 Bob Vickery Don McGuire SLM 17 dnf 17 27 24 85
25 7585 Jock Kohlhas Rick Peters CasB 16 26 19 25 dnf 66
26 7288 Richard Rundle Keslutis Barkauskas JP 24 22 33 29 23 98
27 7602* Tom Londrigan Darrin Shipley LS 33 16 28 22 dmf 99
28 6690 Bill Cuberson Dash Adams MoB 19 25 20 dnf dnc 99
29 7512* Robert Teitge Chris Henry DR 30 20 30 28 21 99
30 7471 Joe Bainton Michael Walsh NB 28 23 29 20 dnc 100
31 7718 Joseph Pro John Hilton WS 27 28 25 31 22 102
32 7055 Douglas Tate John Dishner WH 29 29 pms 32 28 116
33 7296* E.F. Atkinson Glenn Atkinson CD 32 31 32 30 25 118
34 7579* Hans Bucher Tom Kilroy CarL 31 30 31 dnf dnc 127
* = Master's Division
