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Conditions: Northwest
25 to 30 knots with stronger gusts.
“Our motto’s going to be ‘keep our sticks up’”,
yelled one boat from Team Trouble to another as they sailed into the
final race of the semi-finals, down one race already. With winds
gusting to 40 mph at one point, the final day of sailing at the U.S.
Team Racing Championship for the George R. Hinman trophy was wet, wild
and thrilling.
Keeping your sticks up turned out the phrase of the
day as sixth-ranked Team Trouble won its semi finals against Team Racing
World Champions Cape Cod WHishbone. In another upset, second-ranked
Silver Panda lost its semi-final match to eighth-ranked Route 3 Split
with Silver Panda capsizing at the start of both of its matches.
With the breezes continuing to build, the final
races were to be the last of the day. Team Trouble won the first
despite having to do spins earlier on. In
race 2, Team Trouble once again had to spin and then as a strong puff
blew through, capsized. It looked like Route 3 Split
had it sewn up and then a second puff blew down one boat from each
team. This gave Team Trouble’s boat which had by now righted, a chance
to get back in the game. With two boats in the water, the scores were
tied. It would all come down to how fast the sailors could right their
boats and how they would then tactically manage to finish. All of this
is a fairly steady 30 knots of wind with higher gusts.
In the end, Team Trouble (Matt Allen, Glen Oaks, NY;
Timothy Cain, Marlborough, NJ; Brad Funk, Belleair Bluffs, FL; Heather
Pescatello, Westerly, RI; Anna Tunnicliffe, Norfolk, VA; and Mark Zagol,
New York, NY) had the winning combination and are the 2005 U.S. Team
Racing Champions. “Having only squeaked into the Gold Fleet, it’s
especially satisfying to have won,” said Tim Cain.
"Especially after then being down 1-0 in the semis"
added teammate Brad Funk.
All of the competitors had nothing but high praises
for this year’s hosts, Larchmont Yacht Club who ran this event in
conjunction with the Hinman Masters, an enormously complex undertaking
chaired by Ed “Buttons” Padin. “When we originally scheduled this
regatta for October, we thought we’d have great breezes. Our judgment
was sound given the average of 25 knots of wind we sailed in. This made
for challenging, and spectacular, team racing.”
Larchmont Yacht Club is also to be congratulated for
winning the Commodore George R. Hinman Invitational Masters trophy.
Larchmont won all its races in the final round beating out a highly
competitive team from Pequot Yacht Club in second and Eastern Yacht Club
in third.
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