Farr 30 North American Championship to Barking Mad

by Jan Harley on 10 Sep 2010 Farr 30 North American Championship

As Hurricane Earl pounded the East Coast, Jim Richardson’s Barking Mad was doing the same thing to the Farr 30 fleet which was racing in CBYRA’s Annapolis Race Week and competing for the class’ North American title.

At 13-strong the Farr 30s were one of 18 classes participating in the Labor Day Weekend regatta, marking the second consecutive year that the class held its North American championship in conjunction with Annapolis Race Week.

'Earl gave us beautiful weather,' said Deneen Demourkas (Santa Barbara, Calif.), the Farr 30 International Class President. 'It was the four most beautiful days I’ve ever seen in Annapolis. We were afraid the first day [of racing] would be cancelled, but the humidity went away and it was gorgeous.'
The Farr 30s were the only class scheduled to sail on Friday, September 3, and in four races Richardson (Newport, R.I.) and his ace tactician Terry Hutchinson (Annapolis), the 2008 Rolex Yachtsman of the Year, ensconced themselves at the top of the fleet with finishes of 1-2-2-1. While Richardson had not competed in the class for the past two years he had spent that time racing his Farr 40 with the same core crew.

'I know the program [Barking Mad] and the players and they are very good,' said Bodo von der Wense (Wayne, Penn.) the 2009 Farr 30 North American champion and skipper of Turbo Duck who explained that Barking Mad’s out-of-the gate dominance was no surprise to the fleet. After the first day of racing the team on Turbo Duck, who had not sailed together since April, was 21 points behind Barking Mad which significantly reduced the chances of von der Wense repeating as the class’ North American champion.

From Saturday through Monday, the daily returns saw Turbo Duck even on points with Barking Mad on two days, and only three points behind on one day. But in the end it was Barking Mad who would claim the 2010 North American title by 25 points. William Markel (Orchard Park, N.Y.) on Standard Deviation was 22 points behind Turbo Duck to finish third overall with 66 points. John Dybas (Chicago, Ill.) on Jack-A-Roe finished fourth overall with 68 points, followed in by James Allsopp (Annapolis, Md.) on Moxie with 72 points.

'Having a four-day event was very good,' said von der Wense. 'There was a threat [Earl], but we had perfect racing conditions and we got a lot of races in. More than we get in Key West in a whole week. That’s pretty special. Everyone commented about it. We had an excellent race committee and having the North Americans as part of Race Week is exciting. It was very well done.'

Next up on the Farr 30 schedule of events is the Canadian National Championship in Vancouver, B.C., September 24-26, and the Farr 30 World Championship, October 23-31 in Hyeres, France.

For more information on the Farr 30 class and full results, please visit: www.farr30.org