4 Chicks and A Chuck Hit the Road for the 2008 Annapolis NOODS
(by Diane Denman)

It was all Pip’s idea.
As you may recall, in July 2006, Fleet 28 women, Pip Earl, Julie Femino, Leanne Smith, Diane McAdoo, Rachel Allen and Diane Denman sailed in the J24 Women’s Open Championship Regatta in Marion, MA. Well they plan on participating once again in this event this coming June and headed down to the 2008 Annapolis NOODS for some practice and tune-up.

It was a great idea Pip and I am so glad we did it.

The story goes something like this……If you’ve ever traveled with your boat, you know the drill. You drive as fast as you dare while pulling 5000 lbs for 9 hours, set up the boat, launch the boat, race, drink sleep, race, drink sleep and race again. Haul out, break her down, and drive another 9 hours in an exhausted daze as fast as you can to the real finish line. Travel regattas are something like the Amazing Race but with no cash prize. But you get hats, you get really nice hats.

Pip Earl, along with Julie Femino as co-pilot, left Beverly Ma early, very early, Thursday morning with “4 Chicks and a Chuck” (the renamed Usual Suspect) and headed south to Annapolis. They arrived with the boat at 4:00 p.m. and the set up began. The boat was rigged and in by 7:30 just in time for an airport run to pick up the rest of the crew. The crew would consist of Pip Earl, Diane Denman, Julie Femino, Diane McAdoo and Chucky Twombly. Put another way, Chick#1, Chick#2, Chick#3, Chick#4 and a Chuck. (Chuck was substituting for trimmer Rachel Allen who will be joining the women in Marion this June.)

We chose the Annapolis NOODS as an opportunity to hopefully gain some confidence and practice our crew work in a large fleet of competitive J24 sailors. As a crew, we girls have not had a lot of experience in large fleets on a crowded line with crowded mark roundings, and tight finishes, so we went to Annapolis looking for just that and that is just what we got. I was nervous to helm the boat in a large competitive fleet, but I knew we had a great boat with good sails and a fine crew, so I went into it knowing we had all the right tools. We just needed to stay focused and give it our all.

As a side note, along with the “4 Chicks and A Chuck” there was also another Fleet 28 boat participating in this event…… “And in the left hand corner, weighing in at #@! lbs is Airodoodle”, helmed by John Denman (my husband) and crewed by Jeff Earl (Pip’s husband), Matt Herbster, Josh Toso, and Blair Denman.

This was gonna’ be fun.

Day 1:

Well, there’s the crowded starting line we were looking for. 26 J24’s. Gulp.
Wind = Light 6-8kts. NE
Weather = 65, sunny.

The good news is the starts went better than expected. Chucky as my wing-man called the shots down the line. Our approach was, start at the boat at about a minute and a half, sail the line and find a nice hole to put the boat. And it worked. In fact, in the first race, we found a real nice spot to put the boat, just underneath, coincidently enough, Airodoodle. Thanks honey. This WAS gonna’ be fun.

The 1st race went real well. It was a 3 leg race. After a decent start, we had a great first leg, getting to the mark in 6th , holding our position downwind, and finishing the race in 6th, what would turn out to be our best finish of the regatta. We were thrilled, there were hugs among us.

The next 2 races were what I would call good races with bad results. 3 legs, same starting approach.
2nd race, good start, got us to the first windward mark in 7th. Now normally being one of the first boats to round the mark is a good thing, but not when you are one of the first boats to discover that there is a LOAD of current running and all the boats behind you go to school on you. We got swept into the mark, passed by a handful of boats, pushed off, and started looking for a good place to do circles. Again, good practice right? You want to learn to take your punishment quickly. Finished this race up in 13th.
3rd race, good start, rounded the windward mark in 5th, held position downwind, smooth rounding. There was clearly more wind on the right side of the course so we started upwind in the pressure on the right. For a while, it looked like we were doing great things, but as we sailed into the deeper water, we were stopped dead in the water by the current. We were in darker water with more wind and lots of water rushing by the hull, but we were not moving well in relation to the rest of the fleet on the left. We learned the hard way to stay out of the current, crossed the line in 24th. Ouch. Don’t worry, we didn’t let that happen twice, we covered the next time and played the left side with shallow water and less current.

Day 2:

Wind = Light 6-8kts. NE
Weather = 68, sunny

Starts not so good this day. We weren’t giving ourselves enough time to find a decent hole to put the boat, ended up having to stick the boat in some less desirable spots. When we did find ourselves in a bad starting position, we did our best to keep the boat moving no matter how small the slot was that we had to sail in. The crew found us a lane to clear air real quick so the pain was brief.

1st race, 3 legs, we dug off the line from a bad start real nice, worked some great tactics upwind getting us to the mark in top 10. Held position downwind and ended up finishing that race with a 9th. That finish was fun. Sailing on starboard tack with one tack to go for the finish, we had one J to windward of us on starboard also. Julie waited for the guy to tack over, called for our tack, a beautiful roll tack followed getting us neck and neck with this other guy. It was gonna be real close. We sailed a horse race but Julie had us positioned well to windward of the committee boat so we didn’t have to pinch to make the finish. I had just enough breathing room below me to sail the boat at a fast angle and man, when the trim is right and you focus on letting the boat sail and you don’t try to push it forward, she sails fast! We got him. Hugs were among us.

2nd race, 5 legs this time, dug off the line again from a not so good start. About half way up the course we headed out to the left and called our layline to allow for the current we had seen the previous day around this time. Unfortunately, the current was not as strong as we anticipated and we found ourselves overstood as we approached the windward mark in the low 20’s, ugh. Picked up a few downwind. Sailed the next leg on port tack in my tell-tail hypnotic state learning that no matter how bad your position may be you need to stay focused and keep trying to sail the boat fast. You will pick up boats that aren’t doing this, especially in a 5 leg race. It was mixed results. We did pick up a few but I also got my first taste of being spit out. As we began to creep over one of our competitors to leeward, I held my lane and started gaining a bit. I tried focusing a little more, trying to get every bit of speed I could out of the boat in hopes of passing this guy, when I heard a noise over my left shoulder. It was the bow wake of another J. It was kinda’ loud, he wasn’t going slow. I tried focusing even harder now hoping to not only pass the one J to leeward, but totally blow away the one trying to sneak up on us too. I held my lane, wanting to sail high and fast and dust off both these guys. Well, that’s not what happened at all. I may have been holding MY lane but the guy over my left shoulder certainly wasn’t holding his, he was bearing off in full roll mode and before I knew it, my genie stalled, the guy above rolled over us and the guy below us took off, passing us to leeward like a greased pig, and Iwe were (say it together….) SPIT OUT! God this sail boat racing thing is fun. I vowed to not let that happen again. We finished in 18th.

3rd race, 5 legs again. Second best race of the regatta, got off the line with a decent start, got to the line in 12th, had wheels downwind, rounded close with the front of the pack, covered the fleet and worked great tactics upwind, rounding in 9th. Wheels again downwind, (don’t ask me how much we weighed, I’ll never tell), good rounding, picked off a few more upwind, finished in 7th. Hugs were among us again. It was great to close the day with a solid race start to finish. Nice job all around.

Day 3:

Wind = Wish I had fat friends kts. NE
Weather = 55, rain/drizzle

The wind had kicked up for the last day of racing, 15kts, puffs to 18kts. We carried the genie with a bubble most of the day. Flukey, flukey, flukey. I learned a lot about driving the boat upwind that day. I found that I could not just get into a groove and chew upwind. I really needed to “steer” the boat to the shifts in order to keep her sailing fast. It was great practice. The race course was real crowded that day. We had 19 Etchells on our line, 38 J22’s and the 26 of us. The committee ran 5 leg races that day so we all piled up at the roundings and on the course. We got a lot of practice tacking, ducking, and using all the cockpit controls. It was great. We struggled to keep the boat flat and point with the heavies, but we held our own. Starts weren’t great, again we weren’t giving ourselves enough time to find a good spot for the boat. 1st race finished us in 17th.
2nd race was a better race, approached the first windward mark in 6th but got fouled on layline in a port/starboard and forced to duck the port tacker. With the 2 extra tacks now required to make the mark, we rounded in 14th. Held our position downwind, slipped a little upwind, rounded deep in 20th, held our position downwind. We needed to dig-out! Our last leg we worked our way out to the left and found some shifts off the point of land. We sailed in phase with the shifts and picked up a good number of boats, crossing the line in 14th.

Overall result for the regatta….we lost the tie breaker for 13th . Yes, that does sound better than 14th. We were happy with that. I was thrilled to have done more than just survive. We got great practice, learned so much, and came away better sailors. And to all you women racers out there….I’ll admit, as a fairly inexperienced driver, I was afraid to play with the big boys. Thought I might mess them up, get in their way, embarrass myself. What I learned? Their not gonna’ cut you any slack and they won’t do you any favors out there, but they will welcome you to the race course with respect and enthusiasm, so GO FOR IT! It’s fun to be a girl.

For full results go to…http://www.sailingworld.com/nood_regatta.jsp
See you all on the water,
Chick#2

What a weekend! The racing was great, the competition stiff and the weather couldn’t have been better. Thank you to all who competed and contributed to making this the second successful Around the Rocks Regatta hosted by the JYC. The race committee did a super job of reminding us that sail boat racing is an athletic event by throwing 6 races in on the first day and 4 on day 2. Shan you are a mad man and we love you! It was awesome to see some of our friends from Scituate, Newport, Marion and as far away as Florida! Look forward to sailing with you all again next year!

J24 Fleet
Sailed:10, Discards:0, To count:10, Entries:17, Scoring system:One Design

Finally I am getting a chance to sit down and report to you all on one of the best J24 events yet, the J24 Womens Championship Regatta. The regatta was held last weekend in Marion, Ma, racing venue Buzzards Bay, and boy did BB live up to it’s reputation as one of the most exciting bodies of water to sail a boat. The weather on Friday was so typical, with SSW winds blowing 25 knots against the current making for big, BIG chop. FUN! Before I get into the details of weather and racing however, I have got to take a minute to brag a bit about the rock star crew on the boat. The boat was run by 6 amazing women. Starting from the pointy end and working back we had Leanne Smith, Pip Earl, Diane Economedes, Julie Femino, (substituted by Vita Berg on Sunday,) Rachel Allen and myself Diane Denman. What a group! Smart, strong, patient, fearless and alot of fun! I could not have asked for a better crew for my first time on the helm in a regatta. (Did I mention they were fearless?)

As I was saying, the first day of racing started with 25 knots and big chop. “We” were psyched, “I” was a little scared. Ok, psyched and scared I guess. We had 20 minutes ’til the start of the first race and we were in our practice mode of sailing upwind, getting some numbers, testing the rig, setting the chute, making sure everything’s run right, when on the call for “HOIST!”, the spinn halyard, ONLY the spin halyard, went straight to the top of the mast. Damn. This was were Julie earned her stripes. She did not hesitate to begin making a series of bowlines which quickly produced a lovely bosum’s chair into which she climbed and rocking and reeling under bare poles, up up up she went. (Did I mention strong and fearless?) Well the halyard was retrived and we made it back to the line in time to pull off a fairly good pin end start in the first race of the regatta. We carried the genoa during the first two races of the day. The upwind legs were hard work but great. The downwind legs were hairy!, but successful. No broaching, no crazy manouvers, just fast downwind sailing! Man that boat can hum a tune. The crew did such a great job on the jybes downwind, Leanne you rock! You SHOW that pole who’s boss! Upwind, Pip and Diane on controls, calling puffs, waves and traffic allowed me to concentrate on just driving the boat, keeping her ON her feet upwind and UNDER our feet downwind. It was cool. We had the boat in 5th place at the first windward mark and held that position for the whole race finishing in 5th. We were happy. Rachel had to have been tired but wouldn’t admit it. We pushed on with the genoa for the second race. Popped the chute again at the windward mark in 3rd place, very fast ride downwind, getting us quickly to the leward mark, still in 3rd. The breeze built on the 2nd upwind leg and we managed to leg it out enough on the fourth place boat and the leaders managed to leg it out enough on us, that the crew made the wise choice not to pop the shoot at the windward mark and sail the downwind leg wing on wing. Hey I said we were smart, not proud. 3 day regatta, lets not beat up the trimmer and risk a chute tearing, crew member losing, rig damaging incident if it’s not necessary. I was more than happy with the decision. We had the chute ready to hoist if #4 started getting close, but never needed it. Finished 3rd. We were really happy. Third race of the day was one which does not require alot of discussion. Overearly, didn’t hear about it until we were half way up, turned back, dipped the start, sailed the windward/leward, determined we weren’t catching anyone in this race, so we called it a throw out and ate lunch. Fun first day, with our DNF/18 we were in 8th overall. Great party that night at a “private home”, as it was listed in the schedule of events. Well this “home” just so happened to be giant, right on the water at the mouth of Marion harbor, with a live band playing on the deck and free Gosslings under a lawn tent. Life was good. The “welcome party” held the previous evening was great as well. Another live band, free rum, on the beach at the Piny Point Beach Club. These women know how to throw a party. Back to the racing………

The second day started with a bit lighter breeze 10-15, still out of the SSW, less chop though. The start of the first race gave me my first “we gotta get outta here” experience. The crew knew we couldn’t live with the start we had so the call to tack came immediately after the gun went off. And dippin and a duckin and a shootin’ boats we went through the fleet. It was very exciting. Most of the time the driver’s movements on the helm are supposed to be small and quiet, but not during this maneouver. You really get to drive the boat like a race car, which is really what we all want to do. It was fun and we got outta’ there. We rounded the windward mark in 5th, the leeward in 4th and then something happened that felt real good upwind. The lead boats started covering us. My crew told me it was because they were “scared of us”. I liked this. We were “cover-worthy”!, I knew that was good. We finished in third. We were very happy, but not as happy as we were gonna’ be that day. The second race of the day produced a 6th place finish. We weren’t really as happy with this. So we talked a bit about things and changed the rig a bit, it was getting a little lighter and Julie thought a few turns off would do us some good. Well let me tell you, that boat felt so awesome in that 3rd race, I almost didn’t have to drive her. The rig was perfect, the start was good, the left hand side was the place to be and we got to that windward mark in YES, you guessed it FIRST!!! It was awesome, we were phsyched. The crew did such a great job staying focused that we manged to hold that first place wire to wire!! Not to get too girly and emotional but I had tears in my eyes when we crossed that line. It was the best! The hugs were among us and the excitement didn’t die. We were very very happy. This finish put us in 3rd overall for the regatta!!!!

As we sat at the mooring later that afternoon sipping Mt Gay, reminiscing about the day, and wondering what tomorrow would bring, it hit us that we would have a bit of an added challenge to overcome the next day. Our smart, fearless crew was going to have a little bit of a shake up. Our beloved Julie would be leaving tonight. She had tickets to a Red Sox game that she had been looking forward to for a very long time and it was the next day. How were we going to hold our 3rd place with out her? We were all a little worried, but still fearless. We had a very competent subsititute coming in for the last day and Leanne was brave enough to assume the role of tactition as long as she wasn’t hung out there alone and Pip stepped up to foredeck. It would be a strong group effort and we WOULD hold it together. Julie left us with strict rig instructions and the best Julie “jue-jue” she could work up. She even left her life jacket on board, telling us it would bring us luck and wisdom. She said she had complete confidence in us and to call her with the good news! We said we would.

Well the next day came, the sun came up, the boat left the mooring, the fog came in, the boat came back to the mooring. But, No, No, don’t stop reading, there WAS racing that day. We weren’t gonna get let off that easy. We were gonna’ be asked to earn our 3rd. And earn it we did! The first race brought light air conditions, 5-7 knots. Well I could NOT shift gears. I was still looking for that heavy air feel on the helm and of course it wasn’t there. No big puffs to contend with, no feathering to be done, no waves to ride, how do you do THIS? But Leanne, my big sister, said to me as she sat on the rail during the first race and watched me struggle to get the boat going, “Remember where you come from. Think of the light air Saturdays and Thursday nights at home. That is what you’ve got today. You need to drive to that.” Good advice, (Did I mention smart?) We had got off to a rough start, on the first race and ended up sailing out to the left into a bit of a hole. We were deep, something like 13th. We needed the big shovel and we needed to dig. As we approached the windward mark, we noticed that most of the boats were having a really hard time getting around the mark due to current, so the call was made to overstand a bit, and what a good call that turned out to be. We picked off at least 5 boats at the rounding putting us in 8th place at the mark. We held this position to the finish. Now let me give you a sense of the “feelings” on the boat at this point. We’re fighting for 3rd overall with at least 3 boats for sure. We had just finished with an 8th in that race and 2 of our major competitors for 3rd overall finished with….. are you ready for this?……, a 1st, and a 4th! No we were not comfortable with this. No one was calling Julie with this news. Ok, so one race left. I promised to drive the boat faster, Leanne says something very encouraging about how we CAN do this and the rest of the crew swallows and agrees, so off we go to the last start of the regatta. The flags on the committe boat were calling for a 5 leg race. Our start wasn’t great and we got forced out to the right. We got to the windward mark in 9th. We knew we had work to do. We picked off a couple of boats downwind then headed out to the left side of the course and made out BIG. Rounded the windward mark in 4th place, held 4th through the downwind leg, Leanne took us out to the right side of the course this time and we picked off 2 more! We were in a battle for the bullet now. The last upwind leg was a real nail biter with Nancy Zangerle of “No Twisted Knickers”. During the last few hundred yards of the leg she performed a text book “lee-bow” on us and we just couldn’t live there and were forced to tack away. It was a fight to the finish and Nancy won. But what a time we had fighting! We had protected our position of 3rd overall and we called Julie. I think I heard her exhale as she said “I knew you could do it.” What a weekend, what a regatta, I am so glad I have the story to tell.

I can not finish my story however, without extending a couple of heart-felt thank you’s, the first of which goes to my husband John Denman who helped in so many ways to make the weekend possible for us. You are the best, you are a wonderful man and we love you Boat Boy! Kisses and hugs from your girls forever. Also, we need to send a huge thank you to our friend Katie Collins of local J24, “Giz”, who hosted us all weekend at her home. What a wonderful home she provided us. One block from the yacht club, beds for everyone and an outdoor shower! “Giz over-early and often Kate!” We love you. Lastly, I would like to send a thank you to Mark Toso for the small but effective piece of “optional equipment” he supplied to our team. It seemed to really satisfy the crew. Thank you, I think……….
And for those of you who have never participated in an all women’s sailing event, I thought I might “entertain” you a bit with some of the on/off water chit-chat that goes on. Although the serious racing and subsequent discussions heard over the weekend are very similar to those heard at any J24 regatta, there were some subtle differences in the casual chatter and conversation reminding you that this was an all womens event ………………………………….

“Just leave your pee in the bucket, hand me a water and I’ll flush for you.”
“Where do you get your bikini wax?”
“Damn this razor burn is killing my legs!”
“How’s your dress fitting going?”
“Wearing a thong while trimming was not a good idea. I’ve got ass rash!”
“I love Lionnel Richie!”
“These Helly Hansen foulies suck, my panty liner got washed right outta’ my underpants.” (sorry, but it was heard.)
“How many in your crew? 6, We’re light by 130lbs.”
“Hey my trophy came with flowers in it. That’s a nice touch.”
“Hey they put really nice face creams and hand creams in the Helly Hansen regatta bags.”
“You guys don’t mind if you have to share a twin bed tonight do you? No problem.”
“I love those shorts. Where did you get them? Brooks Pharmacy, $4.”
“Ooooh you have a dog!!!!!!, what kind?”
“Are you part of the Pussy Circus?”
“Hey did you see the North Sail regatta belts their selling. They’re trimmed in pink. I love them.”
“That movie Dirty Dancing makes me so horny.” (that one was my favorite.)

But seriously, it really was great to meet all of the women and congratulations to Sarah Buckley and her team who plain and simple “KICKED ASS!” in this regatta, finishing first with only 12 points! and to Nancy Zangerle and her team who finished 2nd with only 15.
It was a good time.
For a more overall view of the regatta and results you can visit the website at:
http://www.j24fleet16.com/Womensopen/main.htm
Thanks for reading,
Diane
Airodoodle
USA 2109

Fleet 28’s own Diane Denman and Karen Kelley both sailed very well this past weekend In Marion, MA at the J24 Women’s Open Championship. Diane Denman and Crew sailed Airodoodle to a solid 3 rd place finish!! Karen Kelley sailing Pussy Galore ( Mark Toso’s renamed High 5) also finish a strong 4th!

More Reports to follow soon…