2015 Verve Cup Offshore Regatta - Close competition on Day 1

by Morgan Kinney on 8 Aug 2015 2015 52 Super Series - “Today was champagne sailing,” smiled Sam Nedeau, owner of GL70 Windancer. Sailors had no trouble finding the wind today for Day One with warm, southerly winds at 10-15 knots accompanied by choppy conditions. The Race Committee was able to fire off four races without delay on both courses.

In the Beneteau 36.7 Section, Chris Duhon’s Tequila Mockingbird is leading the fleet at the end of Day One, followed by FOG and Split Decision. Lake Michigan Beneteau 36.7 Fleet Captain Jarrett Altmin observed, “The fleet was extremely tight today. Even the back of the fleet was right up there. Today was much less forgiving if you had a bad start or had a boat handling problem – it ended up being a much bigger issue.”

Bennet Greenwald’s J/111 Perseverance came out with west coast power from San Diego and earned three bullets for all but one race sailed. “We saw most of these boats at the Worlds in June. This time we’re just upping our game a little bit,” commented Greenwald. “Wooton is our biggest competition – that guy is always rocket ship fast.” Wooton is trailing eight points behind Perseverance, so they will really have to pick up the pace Saturday and Sunday.

The Beneteau 40.7 Fleet, though, has zero room for error – Ron Buzil’s Vayu is only one point ahead of Thomas Weber’s La Tempete. “We’re playing it conservatively, not taking any chances. In the long run that’s what pays off,” explained Buzil. La Tempete’s Tom Weber said, “(Tomorrow) we’re not going to change anything; we’re just going to go out there and sail. It could be anyone’s race.”

The ORR1 Section was eerily consistent with each boat correcting the exact same for each race. “The GL70s are really closely matched, so it was cool having the TP52 Imedi out there with us today – she was right in the middle of us,” reflected Nedeau. The GL70s traditionally race one design events and travel with each other, but without a minimum of six boats, they were unable to have their own section. “We all know each other and can predict each other’s moves. All of a sudden you’ve got this different boat, and we did have a situation where we weren’t going to make a mark and Imedi tried to make it by pinching. We footed off and were able to get in front of her. It was just a little different because we didn’t know how she was going to handle that.”

Saturday racing starts at 9:55 A.M., and courses will be four - five miles off of Monroe Harbor.