ACC's - Tom's River, NJ

This is coming a little late, but thought I'd share of few brief thoughts from the ACCs, held July 25-26 at Tom's River Yacht Club. What a tremendous 2 days of "atlantic coastal" sailing we were treated to. If you like breeze (which our heavy team does), it was absolutely ideal. Arrived fri night around 10:30 pm to drop off the boat and a few stragglers were still imbibing around a fire-ring overlooking the scenic Tom's River. Sat morning came fast and early, and we rigged up, launched and hooked up to the nearest tow for the long trip out to Barnegat bay. By the way, this is where next year's NA's will be, and I hear they plan on towing out to the race course every day, which is pretty cool. About the time we arrived at the sailing area, the sea breeze was starting to fill nicely. We sailed the first race in about 10-12 knots as I recall, but steadily building. The right was paying most of the time it seemed, and when we had a lane to get over to that side, the waves weren't as bad, and we seemed to pick up boats. At this point, I can't recall the details, but we had a mediocre first day and were in about 17th out of 59 boats. TRYC put on a great dinner at the club in some ideal weather for sitting outside and enjoying a few adult beverages. David Starck was leading, having won races 2 and 3, with Allan and Bill Fastiggi each trailing by 2 points. Given the 3 long, breezy races, most of the crowd seemed to retire fairly early.

Sunday started out with a tow out to the mouth of the river to sail on the "inside" course, but after one abandoned start in a dying westerly, the RC smartly rounded everyone up and towed to the Bay. Again the sea breeze delivered it's punch, and we got off another 2 races in 15-20 knots with some higher puffs. De-powering (except in the big waves) was critical, keeping the boat on it's feet, and staying in control downwind while trying to surf on as many waves as possible to keep up with the really fast guys. They seemed to have an extra gear downwind in the waves. We managed to hover around the low teens in both races, (with some not-so-good starts), to finish up 11th overall (losing the 10th place tiebreaker to Bill Bogardus). Dave Starck and Allan battled it out in the last race, Allan having won race 4 and taking the overall lead, but Dave won the last race convincingly to take back the regatta. The ride in the from race course on Sunday was possibly more fun than the actual racing, as we were planing almost the whole time, first under spin, then just tight reaching with jib. For those thinking about NAs next summer, the exhilarating sail in each day may be enough reason to go! Other Fleet 329 boats that attended were Geoff Becker who finished 4th, Steve (who had a jib halyard breakdown in the last race), Jason Werner who had a sweet 4th in the last race, Joe Friebele, and Gary and Joan Hurban. And the District sent a total of 17 boats, probably the best represented District at the regatta! TRYC is a fantastic place to sail and runs a great show, and it's only 3 hours away. Hope to see some of you at the Duck Challenge next.

Here's a Link to Results
http://www.lightningclass.org/racing/results/2009/acc.asp