Rocky Mountain Shootout 2008 Report
Sponsored by Denver Sailing Association
Cherry Creek Reservoir
May 3-4, 2008
The Setup
Saturday morning, May 3, was bright and sunny as sailboat racers gathered at Cherry Creek Reservoir to register for the season’s first test of their sailing skills.
Some wondered how the boats would perform; with the intermittent bad weather this Spring, there hadn’t been time to complete the “to do” task lists to get the boat in top condition. Some wondered how they would perform. How rusty had the skills become after seven months without practice?
Five Ultimate 20 crews made up one fleet. Four boats eyed Jim Ulatowski’s “Juiced”, which had dominated 2007. Clifford Begnaud’s “Underdog” was the dark horse.
A varied collection of eight boats made up PHRF (the Performance Handicap Racing Fleet) where there was no clear favorite. Tom Bremer’s J24, “Catapult”, always had done well. Mike Dannecker, owner of another J24, “Entourage”, had got in some practice in the South China Sea this winter. Tom Sweeney’s J24 crew included Robin Jackson, one of the nation’s best female sailors. Because of the handicaps, either would have to outpace the three Santana 20s by at least 4 minutes per hour to win.
Race One
After a brief competitors’ meeting to announce the starting order and go over rules questions, all headed out to the starting area. The race committee set marks for the southeasterly wind direction, announced a windward/leeward twice-around course and began the five-minute sequence promptly at noon. At 1205, the Ultimate 20s were off, with Juiced opening a lead in the off-and-on patchy winds. Juiced and Underdog led the Ultimate 20s with Juiced a half-mile ahead and pulling further away. Juiced finished just before 1:00 PM, 8 minutes ahead of Underdog.
The PHRF boats started at 1210 with Tom Sweeney’s crew opening fast. By the first mark, Sweeney had passed half the fleet starting five minutes before. His crew also had the knack for finding the wind patches and avoiding the light spots; they finished almost six minutes ahead of the 2nd place boat, Fred Wolf’s Santana 20, “Altitude Sickness”. Dannecker’s “Entourage” took a 7th place, which would prove to cost heavily.
Race Two
Race 2 for the U-20s started at 1:32. This time, Juiced was unable to stretch out on Underdog, who matched their every move. That is until the final mark before the finish; behind by six lengths with only one leg to go, Underdog chose to separate on the theory that “You can’t win by following.” They found an area of more breeze and Juiced was unable to come back to cover when a water skier fell in front of them. Underdog crossed the finish line 13 seconds ahead.
In race 2 for PHRF, Entourage found her speed while Sweeney found calamity. The mainsail on the yellow J boat fell down when a knot came undone; Robin climbed the mast to fix it as the whole fleet sailed by. Entourage finished in 56 minutes 12 seconds, a little more than one minute ahead of Catapult to win. Third place went to Geoff Zaun’s Space Pipe, by seven seconds of corrected time. The time limit to finish ran out on Sweeney.
Race Three
Race 3 started about 3:45. Again, Underdog & Juiced battled each other for the lead. Underdog worked the increasingly variable winds a little better to win by 12 seconds.
The three J24s raced closely, Entourage beating Catapult by 1 minute 20 seconds and Sweeney by 2 minutes.
It had been a long, but satisfying day of sailing. The race committee sent the boats home as they finished the third race.
Sunday, a washout
Sunday opened with postponement ashore because a lack of wind. Finally, something looked promising and the boats sailed out to the race area. Still (and that’s the word) there was little consistent breeze from any directions. Occasionally enough for the boats to move, but constantly dying and changing direction. Two starts were attempted; one cancelled 1 second before the start, another a few minutes after the start. At 2:00 PM, the race committee decided it was unlikely to get in a race before the mandatory quitting time of 3:00.
The Scoring
Only Saturday’s races counted. Underdog won the Ultimate 20 fleet with 2 firsts and a 2nd for a total of 4 points; Juiced was in second place with 2 seconds and a 1st for 5 points. Peter Muller’s Cloud Nine had 2 thirds and a fourth for 10 points.
In PHRF, Entourage had bounced back from its 7th to take 2 firsts for a total of 9 points. Sweeney took 6 points for race 2 but had a first and a third for a total of 10 points. Also totaling 10 points, but losing on a tie-breaker was Catapult.
See the complete results here.
The Overall Winner
The overall Roger Marshall Trophy was between Underdog and Entourage as the fleet winners. In the overall scoring formula total points were divided by the number of boats in the respective fleet. Despite the disadvantage of the smaller fleet, Underdog won with 0.8 as compared to Entourage’s 1.1.
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