This past weekend the Fishing Bay Yacht Club may not have been represented widely among the many classes at the Annapolis NOOD event, but in the hotly contested 50-boat J/22 fleet, a couple of Fishing Bay boys demonstrated that the little club is still a force to be respected. Scott Collins and I represented FBYC in the J/22 fleet and brought home a hard fought fourth place standing.

This was my first regatta as a driver in well over a year and my first regatta driving a J/22 since the 2000 World Championship in Medemblik, Holland. It was nice to get back in the saddle, and especially nice to do it with Scott Collins who I grew up sailing with and against as a teenager in the Fishing Bay junior program. Sharing a long-standing bond like that made the event of sailing one of the tougher regattas and the better comebacks of my sailing career all the sweeter in the end. The 50-boat fleet was comprised of the likes of Greg Fisher who holds more national and north-american championship titles than I have fingers and toes, Nancy Haberland who has a Rolex watch to prove she’s one of the best female sailors in the country and the world, and many other all-american and regional, national and international title holders from various classes. The racing was so tight that our fourth place standing in the final results was decided through a three-way tie in points with only two points between us and third and only a couple more from second, which ultimately means that with one more race we could have either been in 14th or 1st depending on how the race went. That’s tight racing.

We began the regatta with a respectable 2nd place finish that was a nice little private race between Greg Fisher and ourselves as we caught the first shift to move into a comfortable position. We promptly followed that race up with another match race with Greg crossing tacks through the middle of the fleet to land ourselves in 22nd with Greg behind in 24th. After a few jokes with Greg between races about being stuck together with glue we did it again with another match race landing in Greg’s favor with him in 7th and us 10th.

After two days with three races, we were in 10th place overall on the scoreboard with better than 10 points to make up in order to break into the top 5. In the first race on Sunday, we experienced one of the greater moments of fortune I’ve ever witnessed in large fleet competition. Having been flushed on the start from the position we wanted near the pin with a lane into the left side of the course, we tacked to port and watched as every single boat in the fleet passed in front of us in bunches. Scott was calling out “all clear” for starboard tackers, and as the last boats crossed our trimmer Dave Thomas from the Houston Yacht Club says to me in a challenging kind of way “Just so that you know, we were the very last across the line.” Thanks Dave. I knew that. Fortunately the entire fleet wanted the left side so badly that they acted with a herd mentality. So, we quickly found ourselves in open territory on port tack with clear air. To our surprise and amazement we continued to move into more pressure on the right side of the course and even received a favorable header on port-tack that allowed us to tack over to starboard accepting it as a lift. As we watched the pack of boats converging from the left under the boom, we noticed they were not in as much pressure (breeze) because they weren’t hiking as hard as us, and we had gained enough ground to round the windward mark in 2nd. We maintained the second place to bring ourselves into possible contention for the regatta. You know that I have to tell this story because never again will I go from last to second in a fleet of this quality without the conditions for racing being totally bogus. We followed up the 2nd place with a 9th in the last race and sailed happily in talking about Clark and Susan Dennison’s new baby girl that arrived this weekend and about how great it is to share the camaraderie of competition amongst buddies over so many years together. (Consequently, David Thomas while not an FBYC member has sailed there a few times during the 8 years he has been sailing with me).

Having said that, I would like to thank Kenzie Hubard who worked so hard when we were young to provide and develop the FBYC junior program that has allowed Scott, I and many others to enjoy sailing on a very special level now. Kenzie enthusiastically motivated our parents to be involved and lay the foundations for something that will be a legacy for the yacht club for many years to come. Please know that the fun Scott and I had this past weekend is the result of her efforts as well as those from many others such as Johnny Hawksworth, Charlie Clough, Jere Dennison, Happy Hubard, Jimmy Rogers and of course our parent's patient encouragement to sail for fun.

Full results can be found at http://www.sailingworld.com/sw_article.php?articleID=1798

Thanks,
Will Crump

First 15 boats in J-22

Position Bow/Sail Boat Skipper 1 2 3 4 5 Total Points
1 USA 1502 Palmer Legal Staffing Peter McChesney 12 1 1 9 3 26.00
2 585 No Holes Barred James Hayes, II 3 7 3 22 2 37.00
3 USA 751 Love The Thunder Greg Fisher 1 24 7 10 1 43.00
4 1033 Freestyle Will Crump 2 22 10 2 9 45.00
5 USA 568 Flying Piglet Nick Cromwell 28 2 5 6 4 45.00
6 977 Seafood Margaret Podlich 13 17 6 4 5 45.00
7 489 Mo' Money Kevin Doyle / Vic Snyder 4 11 17 11 7 50.00
8 1467 Nancy Haberland 7 16 2 8 18 51.00
9 USA 1464 USA 1464 Doug Clark 5 4 14 23 6 52.00
10 USA 1207 Skyehigh.com Jim Barnash 10 12 8 3 30 63.00
11 1045 Mach Turtle Lorie Stout 20 27 16 1 8 72.00
12 USA 10 Jazz Tim Gibbs 22 20 18 5 10 75.00
13 1262 Shagatsea Bob Oberg 15 3 12 12 34 76.00
14 1077 10 Ouncer Geoff Oxnam 14 19 24 7 12 76.00
15 792 Handbasket David Robinson 9 15 21 21 13 79.00