Farr 40 East Coast Championship - Ramrod takes early lead

by Tink Chambers on 25 May 2012 Farr 40 East Coast Championship 2012 is currently underway in Annapolis, MD. Local knowledge sprinkled with some world-class talent allowed Annapolis-based Rod Jabin and his Ramrod team to take an early lead in today's first of four days of racing. After three races, Ramrod leads the 11-boat fleet by three points.

'We're happy to be in the lead at this stage,' said Jabin, 'but it sure wasn't easy. We had some new sails delivered a few days ago, and no breeze to learn how to get them set up, so when the breeze came up it was a big scramble. But the class is also very tough, and it's been a while since we've been racing these boats at this level.'

In fact, the last Farr 40 event Jabin sailed was here in Annapolis at the Rolex 2010 North American Championship, which he won decisively in a mostly-local 9-boat fleet. But with teams from Germany, Italy, Monaco, Turkey and the US here this week, the fleet is of higher caliber and on a mission: the Rolex Farr 40 World Championship held in Chicago in September. No wonder the next six places in the standings are bottle-necked in tie-breaks for 14 and 15 points.

Ramrod tactician Gavin Brady came up from New Zealand to race with Jabin, and said it was a 'pleasure' to race with the Ramrod team again. 'We had not been together since the 2008 Worlds in Miami, but just took out our notes from that event and with all the same guys we were able to get back into it quickly.' It's worth noting that at that event Ramrod was the highest-placed US team, finishing seventh in a fleet of 33 entries.

After an aborted first race started in a dying northerly breeze, race managers from the Storm Trysail Club re-set the course for the new building southerly, which was enhanced even more by a strong ebb current flowing south down the Bay. The locals knew gaining control of the left side of the course in the deeper water would pay off, but it was Nico Poons's Charisma who gained on a right shift in the second beat to take the win.

And as the breeze built from 10 to 12 then to 15 knots, this advantage was not quite as pronounced, so superior speed and boathandling came into play, allowing John Demourkas's Groovederci to take his first win of the series in Race 2, while Wolfgang Schaefer's Struntje Light held his early lead to take the win in Race 3. With this bullet on his scorecard, Schaefer wins the tie-break with Ergin Imre and Onur Erardag's Provezza 8 for the current runner-up position.

In his first-ever day of racing in the Chesapeake, Schaefer said 'We had always heard this was a challenging place to sail, and it has not disappointed us. But the racing so far has been fantastic, I look forward to doing more.'

Racing resumes tomorrow in Day 2, with three races planned to start at 1130 EDT.

Results:
Farr 40 Class website

	Sail No	Yacht Name	Yacht Design	Owner/Skipper	Race 1	Race 2	Race 3			Total
1.	USA 46999	Ramrod	Farr 40	Rodrick Jabin	3	3	5			11.0
2.	GER 4060	Struntje light	Farr 40	Wolfgang Schaefer	5	8	1			14.0
3.	TUR 1211	Provezza 8	Farr 40	Ergin Imre/Onur Erardag	6	6	2			14.0
4.	USA 7289	Groovederci	Farr 40	John Demourkas	10	1	4			15.0
5.	USA 40076	Nightshift	Farr 40	Kevin McNeil	2	5	8			15.0
6.	ITA 29141	Enfant Terrible	Farr 40	Rossi Alberto	7	2	6			15.0
7.	GBR 1640R	Asterisk Uno	Farr 40	Hasip Gencer	8	4	3			15.0
8.	MON 69	Charisma	Farr 40	Nico Poons	1	10	7			18.0
9.	USA 50955	Barking Mad	Farr 40	James Richardson	4	7	10			21.0
10.	USA 51313	Sundance	Farr 40	Gary Beer	9	9	9			27.0
11.	USA 92	Yellow Jacket	Farr 40	Bulman Scholz Syndicate	11	12/DNF	11			34.0