Multihulls Make an Impressive Debut in SORC
Multihulls made their second debut in the ranks of premier regattas with their entry in the 55th Annual SORC (Southern Ocean Racing Conference) Regatta in Biscayne Bay February 28-March 3, 1996. Yachting's Key West Race Week, held in January of this year, was the first of the two major events newly opened to cats and tris. Fifteen multis were registered among the 150 boats overall at SORC, nearly double last year's 88 competitors. An estimated 1,200 sailors were on the water.
Said Bob Meagher, SORC Chairman: "The growth of this event the last few years has been nothing short of phenomenal. We're in contention with Key West Race Week for billing as the top regatta of the American winter sailing circuit." Since 1938, the regatta has evolved from a series of distance races and local racing spread over a six-week season to the present format of five days of intense round-the-buoys day racing with social activities ashore every night.
There was a broad array of multihull boat designs competing, including most Corsair designs, a number of Stilettos, F-25Cs and a very unusual homemade trimaran design by Peter Murray. And the competition was pretty fierce to go along with these fine boats. Check out some of the sailors: Randy Smyth, Keith Notary, Enrique Figueroa, Rick White, Dave Calvert, Bob Onsgard, Steve Lohmayer, Ron Nicol and many other very good competitors.
Great Conditions
The air was light to moderate the first two days, with a slight chop, but Mother Nature turned on the gas the last two days. On the third day the wind piped to 15-20 mph, with gusts to nearly 30 and a tough chop. By the last day, the winds were howling at 25-30, gusts were well over 30 and seas were downright nasty.
Strong northerly winds blew the regatta to a boisterous conclusion, littering the ocean off Miami Beach with out-of-control monohulls and shredded spinnakers. In one heavy gust, five spinnakers shredded almost simultaneously among the monohulls.
In the most spectacular incident of the last race, the Mumm 30 Roxanne nosedived while sailing under spinnaker, burying its bow and catapulting its helmsman, Englishman Andy Green, into the ocean. Ian "Tink" Chambers of Annapolis, Maryland, who was watching from a chase boat, said: "They set their biggest spinnaker as they rounded the mark. The boat accelerated and nose-dived to 45 degrees. We saw Green in the water, clinging to a horseshoe buoy that someone had thrown." Green was laughing as he was pulled from the water. "Boy, that was ugly," he later told a friend.
There were few calamities in the multihull fleet, except for a broken mast. On the last day's race, however, Lion's Paw braved up enough to fly their spinnaker. When they jibed, the acceleration threw helmsman Dave Calvert off the back of the boat, Dave grinned sheepishly and said: "I've never fallen off a boat before."
The Overall Races
A few years ago, Lyman White and Rick White (not related) teamed up on a Corsair F-24 to sweep the Corsair Regionals (more like Nationals) Event that headlines claimed was a "White Out," sailing to a sweeping win over all types of Corsairs. Here these two again teamed up on an F-25C, Silverheels, to take the overall win. It was not another sweep as before, but rather just steady sailing with few mistakes.
Top contender to the White Team was Silver Medalist Randy Smyth, also on an F-25C, Yo. He brought aboard old Olympic teammate and Silver Medalist Keith Notary.
They were late for the first start and, although they managed to climb up through a lot of the fleet, they suffered a 12th-place finish on corrected time. Smyth and company won the second race and then fell to fourth in the third race. With no throwouts, they needed the White team to make a mistake - they didn't, never finishing worse than second place. However, Smyth got it together and took all firsts after that. But, by then, it was too little, too late.
John Teloh kept his F-25C, Lunatic Fringe, on a hot pace behind White and Smyth to take third overall, but not without constant hounding by Phil Styne on his F-27, Lion's Paw. Styne teamed up with sailmaker Dave Calvert and beat Teloh's F-25C in a couple of races. Styne took fourth place overall.
Robert Onsgard recruited Steve Lohmayer on his F-27, Bobsled, and was likewise hounding Styne during the entire regatta, finishing fifth overall.
Rich Carlson imported multiple World Champion Enrique Figueroa from Puerto Rico to guide his Stiletto 27, Thor's Hammer, and they did well. After four races they were in third place, but two races later their mast buckled in the strong winds and they were out of the running.
Classes Within the Class
There were some unofficial classes within the multihull class - the Formula F-27 class held Regional Championships and the F-25C class held its Midwinter Nationals.
Six F-27s that had been modified to conform to the Formula 27 class rules joined in the races, and in winds over 30 knots for the last day of racing, the fleet was really strutting its stuff, screaming around the Biscayne Bay course. Lion's Paw, owned by Phil Styne, dominated the series with five bullets and captured the Formula 27 class crown, although Robert Onsgard's Bobsled kept pace close at their heels and finished less than 3 points behind.
A tough battle for third was fought by Steve Marsh on Magic and Preston Watters on II Caliente, with Magic winning out by 2 points. Don Wigston sailed Panacea very well and seemed to improve with each race to take fifth place.
Thanks go out to the Finish Line, Corsair Marine dealer in Jensen Beach, Florida, for providing the Regional Championship trophies.
(For information on joining the Formula 27 class association, call 305.232.7554.)
In the F-25C class, Lyman White's Silverheels took an early lead on the first day with a bullet and a second. Randy Smyth on Yo and John Teloh on Lunatic Fringe were tied at five points each. Silverheels pulled away even more on the second day, but from then on it was all Yo, taking the rest of the races with distant first-place finishes. Silverheels sailed consistently, never taking worse than a second-place finish, but lost the first Midwinter Nationals by 3/4 point. Lunatic Fringe took third and Mike Bender's Mindbender took fourth.
Handicap Questions
For the entire regatta, the main conversations were not about the wind nor the rigging, but rather the handicapping system. The MASF handicap was used, which is determined by a measurement formula alone - there is no factor for performance.
The system worked pretty well in lighter winds for the first two days, but there was dispute about its effectiveness in the higher winds. Rick White was taking down times and calculating the handicap at the finish line and commented: "The top five or six boats handicapped out to within a few minutes for each race in the lighter stuff, but when the wind came it was Katie bar the door. The F-25Cs were gone. The handicap did not work."
If that is the case, White added, then there seems to be no handicap system around, except Portsmouth, that handles different wind velocities. Jim Frederick, who heads up PHRF for US Sailing's Multihull Council, has been experimenting with performance numbers for a few years now and is still desperately trying to collect more data. It would be interesting to see, said White, if numbers applied by that system would have worked any better at SORC.
It was felt by many that PHRF is the way to go, White said, as it is much more user-friendly for predominantly monohull-managed regattas. The race administrators get frustrated trying to deal with strange handicap systems - they usually multiply (as they normally do in PHRF) as opposed to dividing (as we do in MASF and Portsmouth).
Summing It Up
It was a terrific turnout of multihulls, and the sailing was excellent. It would be great to see excellent turnouts at both the SORC and Key West Race Week for 1997. It's not too early to start planning that adventure now.
Overall Results/SORC/February 28-March 3, 1996/Miami, FL:
Silverheels F-25C White Longmont, CO 1-2-1-2-2-2-2 11.5
Yo F-25C Smyth Ft. Walton Beach, FL 12-1-4-1-1-1-1 19.75
Lunatic Fringe F-25C Teloh Ft. Lauderdale, FL 2-3-2-9-6-3-3 28
Lion's Paw F-27Form Styne Orlando, FL 3-5-8-4-3-5-4 32
Bobsled F-27Form Onsgard Miami, FL 6-8-3-5-5-4-5 36
Thor's Hammer Stiletto 27 Carlson Clearwater, FL 5-6-5-5-7-dnf-dns 49
Magic F-27Form Marsh Port St Lucie, FL 10-9-6-10-8-6-dns 56
IICaliente F-27Form Watters Miami, FL 8-10-7-8-10-7-dns 57
Team Stiletto Stiletto 27GT Nicol Nokomis, FL 11-7-10-12-4-10-dnf 61
Panacea F-27Form Wigston Decatur, GA 9-12-9-6-12-11-6 65
Catclysmal Stiletto 27 Roedig Miami, FL 4-4-12-7-dnf-dns-dns 66
Mindbender F-25C Bender Princeton, NJ 7-11-13-11-9-9-dns 67
Andiamo F-27Form Harvey Stonington, CT 13-13-11-13-11-8-dns 76
Matador F-31 Aguilera Miami, FL all dns 105
Global Cooler 33 Tri Murray all dns 105
F-25C Midwinter Championships Results:
Yo F-25C Smyth Ft. Walton Beach, FL 4-1-3-1-1-1-1 10.75
Silverheels F-25C White Longmont, CO 1-2-1-2-2-2-2 11.5
Lunatic Fringe F-25C Teloh Ft. Lauderdale, FL 2-3-2-3-3-3-3 19
Mindbender F-25C Bender Princeton, NJ 3-4-4-4-4-4-4 27
Formula F-27 Results:
Lion's Paw F-27Form Styne Orlando, FL 1-1-4-1-1-2-1 9.5
Bobsled F-27Form Onsgard Miami, FL 3-2-1-2-2-1-2 12.8
Magic F-27Form Marsh Port St. Lucie, FL 5-3-2-5-3-3-dns 24
IICaliente F-27Form Watters Miami, FL 3-4-3-4-4-4-dns 28
Panacea F-27Form Wigston Decatur, GA 4-5-5-3-6-6-3 32
Andiamo F-27Form Harvey Stonington, CT 6-6-6-6-5-5-dns 40