Reid Collins - 2011 Catalina 22 National Champion "Genoa & Spinnaker"

2011 Catalina 22 Genoa National Championship Results

2011 Catalina 22 Spinnaker National Championship Results

2011 Catalina 22 National Championship On the Water Photo Gallery

2011 Catalina 22 National Championships Video

 Results

by Reid Collins

For those who missed the GWTW this year, I think everyone had an excellent time and the racing was extremely tight.  We ended up with 45 boats for the regatta from 9 states (AL, AR, FL, GA, IN, KY, OH, SC, and TN) comprised of 27 gold fleet boats and 18 silver fleet boats.  Conditions were better than expected based on the forecast.  The breeze blew out of the NE all weekend and was probably 8-10 (maybe some higher puffs) on Saturday and lighter on Sunday. 
 
The silver fleet was won by Tim Cent on Fiscal Restraint.  Tim had solid finishes and consistency with two 1sts, 2 2nds, and a 4th for a total of 10 points.  Bobby McCullough was certainly in the mix, though, as he finished only one point behind Tim with 11 points.  Our Region 3 Commodore, Don Waterhouse was in the fight as well finishing with 16 points and a 3rd place overall in the silver fleet. 
 
The gold fleet was won by 2004 C22 National Champion, Mike Glover on Dain Bramage (formerly Free James Brown Again, but James has been freed for the last time I'm afraid) with a total of 18 points.  As proof of a tight and competitive fleet, the top 7 spots had a total spread of only 14 points.  Following Mike were Reid Collins (2nd, 20 points), Gene Cochran/Kevin McCoy (3rd, 23 points), Matt Perry (4th, 24 points), Win Story (5th, 24 points), Keith Bennett (6th, 26 points), and Dennis Slaton (7th, 32 points.)  Special congratulations go out to Matt as he just won the silver fleet at the nationals a couple of years ago.  Also congrats to Gene Cochran/Kevin McCoy from Ft. Pierce, FL who had rocket speed on Speed Demon all weekend and were the only gold fleet boat with two 1st place finishes.
 
Once again, please thank and patronize all of the sponsors who made this event as successful and inexpensive as it was.  This includes:
 
Waters Sails
Gus Sails
Blue Star Sails - Kent Kindervater, (423) 255-5969
West Marine, Wink Poterfield, (770) 614-5111
Annapolis Performance Sailing
Gill
Gotcha Covered Canvas - Pam Slaton, (770) 534-2657
 
Also, I'd like to send a special thank you to all the volunteers who made this event what it was.  This includes Jim Smither, our PRO, everyone on race committee, Dennis Slaton, Ted McGee, Win Story, and a whole host of others.
 
Last and certainly not least, thank you to all who attended the regatta.  It means so much to me and every other member of Fleet 58 to have you come to the regatta and we truly hope you had a great time. 
 
Until next year, I am signing off. 
 
Sail safe and fast and as always Fear the Chikin,
 
Reid Collins, CPA

Link to results 
Link to photos

Justin Chambers Top of the Podium Again

Link to results

Ted McGee's blog

Link to photos

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Re: C22 Nationals - preliminary results
Posted by: "Bob Keim"
Fri May 21, 2010 5:40 pm (PDT)
Here is my side of the story.. Legs were generally 3/4 of a mile with mostly a 4-legged race.

Monday - we raced 3 races. They were in 5-10 mph winds, occasionally winds in the low teens.

We got out on the lake early to try to figure out some sail trim. We were using a set of Bartlett Sails that has the molded genoa. The Speed Puck indicated that the boat was faster when we let off the forestay and genoa halyard a little in lighter air. So I took a felt tip marker and marked the backstay control line for the highest speed. Unfortunately that light setting mad the genoa too difficult for my Captain to keep it flying in the disturbed air of 40 other boats.

Race 1 - The wind shifted about 40 degrees and we got caught on the wrong side of the shift sailing a great circle to the mark. We probably went from 5th to 10th on that one wind shift. The lighter backstay also made it too hard for my Captain to sail the genoa. Finish - 10th
Race 2 - a little higher wind speeds. Between a heavy boat and two heavy crew, we needed winds of 10+ to do well. We got a great start and finished 3rd. I tightened up the backstay. Right after the start we got a BIG puff coming down the line. We rounded up and I hailed the boats to windward. They luffed up with us and came to a screeching halt. That put us in front of two of them who immediately fell off, while we tacked in front of them. Off we went on port and the favored tack. Finish - 3rd
Race 3 - good winds still. We didn't get a good start and had to pass some people to get our 5th. We actually fouled Ticky Tacky at the finish line, but they gave us a free pass. Finish - 5th.
So day one ended with us with a lot of points from the poor first race.

Tuesday - We got in 2 races Tuesday and maybe we had a chance for a throw out or two!
Race 1 - The first race was very light air. We did very well until we sailed into a hole about half way up the course the first time. The wind was extremely light and fluky in the hole and we backwinded the genoa a dozen or more times and basically went nowhere for about 5 minutes. We finally got some new wind and made it to the starboard layline in surprisingly decent shape - with 3 or 4 other boats near us. We did not concentrate on keeping the boat moving because of pinching and fluky air and again lost another few minutes and 3 or 4 places. Finish 9th
Race 2 - The winds were decent speed and fluctuated on predictable intervals. We had a decent start and got in phase with the shifts the first wind shift and stayed in phase so we were in contention at the windward mark. We sailed very well downwind, had a couple of good mark roundings, got back in phase on the next windward leg and rounded the windward mark the 2nd time with a commanding lead which we carried to the finish. Finish - 1st.
Wednesday
One race in very light variable winds. We sailed poorly but got lucky to be in the middle of a 90 degree shift. So half the boats lost big time to us on that shift and half of them gained big time on us. We sailed a great downwind to the finish by noting that new wind was coming down the course, so we sailed high and got it soon enough to pass 2 or 3 boats. :) Finish - 6th
So we ended the day in 6th place, 4 points separating us and #4
Thursday
Big winds. One spinnaker boat told us of 20 mph winds and 3' chop. Well... I didn't see anything like that. We got a good start and lead around the windward mark and leeward mark the first time around. We sailed the lifted tack from the leeward mark and failed to cover the 3 boats behind us who went the other way. Ooops, new wind came down on their side of the course and we went from 1st to 5th. :(
A beginner's mistake. How could we have been so silly not to cover them! That mistake gave Rich the 3rd place trophy.

Bob Keim
'76 Pursuit, '70 White Trash, a couple of parts boats.
Nashville TN

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Re: C22 Nationals - preliminary results
Posted by: "Glenn Warner"
Sat May 22, 2010 11:47 am (PDT)

Just back from the Nationals where I crewed with my old friend Bob Scott Wrenched my back on Sat. morning moving the trailer around. Could barely walk Sat. With plenty of beer and ibuprofen felt a little better on Sun. but thought it wise to not push it, so we skipped the practice race. Also had to back out of my commitment to race in the spinnaker fleet With George Yerger and Louis Plaisance. Hated to do that, but I was there to try and bring home some silver in the gold fleet for Bob and I needed to take it as easy as possible on my back. There is no place to hide on a c22 racing with a crew of two.

Great regatta. Well done by Bill Robertson and his gang out of TN. Nice venue. Only legit complaint I heard all week was in regards to the regatta being held in a DRY county. Fortunately the authorities around the lodge were willing to turn a blind eye to beverages in cups. As advertised every room had a view of the marina where there were plenty of slips reserved for the fleet. On site restaurant was not too bad. Weather was pretty darn good and pretty much covered the spectrum of conditions and provided a good test. RC -made up of volunteers- did an outstanding job for the most part and hopefully understood how much those of us racing appreciated them giving of their time. Saw bunches of folks from the list. Some for the first time and some were repeat offenders.

For the record, me and Bob finished 6th in the Gold fleet. We had hoped to bring home a new salad plate but it wasn't to be. But we were pretty happy to be up in the company we were with. Three of the top five skippers have a total of around nine or ten National Championships between them. With at least one more prior Champion sprinkled within their crews. Bob had set a goal of no finishes outside of the top ten. We met this goal. We had a fantastic time. Saw many old, and met many new friends. For anyone who wants to meet great people, have a great time, learn more about setting up and sailing a c22 in a weeks time than they thought possible, put that pig on a trailer and head to the National Regatta. See you in Texas.

Glenn Warner
#10369,#1222, #979
Jacksonville Florida
Re: Reefing at Nationals
Posted by: "Bob Scott" This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.   boscott2010
Tue Jun 1, 2010 9:59 am (PDT)

Bob,
I think becuase of the chop there was no way to drop to the jib, but if the winds were to stay the same or get a bit stronger without the chop, you would not have lost a great deal up or down wind with the jib. But like I said I need more power to drive through the chop. But like Glenn said, "you are going to be so unhappy and Bitchy if we go to the jib", He knows me pretty well.

Bob Scott

____________ _________ _________ __
From: Bob Keim <taxbusterbob@ yahoo.com>
To: catalina22@yahoogro ups.com
Sent: Tue, June 1, 2010 11:10:30 AM
Subject: Re: [catalina22] Reefing at Nationals

The winds were not even close to bringing out the jib, IMHO. Maybe a gust or two into the 20's, but consistently barely 15. We led around the first 3 marks with a full main and genoa powered up.

Missed the new wind coming down the last beat and let Norbert and 3 other boats pass us because we didn't cover them. That one beginner's mistake cost us a finishing position...

Bob Keim
'76 Pursuit, '70 White Trash, a couple of parts boats.
Nashville TN

____________ _________ _________ __
From: Louis Plaisance <louisplaisance@ yahoo.com>
To: catalina22@yahoogro ups.com
Sent: Tue, June 1, 2010 9:03:06 AM
Subject: [catalina22] Reefing at Nationals

Hello Scotty,

At Nationals, Norbert Falk and Chuck Weever were tied for first in silver on last day. Chuck went with the jib vs genoa on Falk's boat. I think that it cost Chuck big time going downwind. Falk aced the race while Chuck placed 8th. Falk won the sliver with 21 pts over Chuck's 28.

What makes sailing so difficult to evaluate is all of the intangibles. So the jib/genoa comparison may not in fact be the real story of this particular race. Though Norbert and Chuck seem to be of similar vintage, well into sixty, the crew on the respective fore-decks differed significantly. Falk had a twenty-something lemur dancing among the shrouds while Chucks little wife was up there with the stick. This may have been the real story on that last windy day.

As for Yerg and I on Sirocco, this was our best day of the regatta, sixth. We hit mark and did turn on race one, twelfth. Broke the pole on first dw leg race two. Duct taped it together and did OK race three. Race four we fouled Chuck at mark. More turns and still sailing deep into the corners trying to catch up, another twelve. After that we got into our groove and went 7, 8, 6. We were hauling ass at the top of the fleet race 6 when we ran over a 12' x 10" log. We hit it T-bone, dead-center. Must have been water logged because the keel rode over it and pushed it down far enough for the rudder to clear. We could still be sitting on top of that sucker or worse. At least one boat retired after hitting similar.

Tactics cost us too. I called tacks and consistently tacked into the only hole on the lake. George is a bulldog driver on the line and we had great starts every outing, never more than a few boats behind and twice had the damned thing nailed. We had boat speed equal to most of the silver except for five or so boats. Though we finished tenth,we could have been in the top five or six had our luck/skill been better. Three races we were in a pack of four/five boats at the finish. Two of those we lost three boats right at the line; once we edged out a boat by inches at the finish.

What we did wrong: mostly not reading wind-shifts with the top sailors. To me this is what the best sailors have over the also-rans. Additionally, we banged the corners, fouled marks, fouled boats, sailed wide at marks, broke the pole, hit a log. Oh yeah, bounced the boom off my shoulder then onto my ear hole while between races. Big bruises, not much blood ;^)

What we did right: didn't break nothin on the boat, hurt much of anything on the old body, had a BLAST!

ljp
Saint Benedict, sk/14686

____________ _________ _________ __
From: Bob Scott <boscott2010@ yahoo.com>
To: catalina22@yahoogro ups.com
Sent: Mon, May 31, 2010 8:44:18 PM
Subject: Re: [catalina22] Re: When to reef?

robert and all,

Actually this spring at lake lanier fleet 58, we did some tests with several of our boats with reefed and none reefed mains. We put four boats out, all of are really fast c22, one reefed the main with geneoa, one reefed main with jib, two full main and jib. after we sailed what we found is there was very little difference going to weather on speed. Even though the first boat to the mark was not the reefed main, he was not far behind. According to Dennis and Winn the boat was much easier to handle with no lack of speed and very little difference in pointing.

With that said your comment about luffing the main is pretty spot on. However what we are finding out is how fast and out of control do you want to go/be?

At the Nationals on the last day we had the most pressure of the week, probably about 13-15, we all went with full main and geneoa, but we depowered like there was not tomorrow, I told Glenn I have never seen my main that flat!

good sailing

Bob Scott
C22, fleet 58
Banshee 6973
Halligan 45