Mike Beasley found himself in a strange position going into the final day of Sperry Charleston Race Week.
Beasley and his Rattle-n-Rum team were second in the standings for ORC C class, trailing the Farr 30 HeadFirst3 by three points.
“The Farr 30 is a well-sailed boat and is giving us all we can handle,” Beasley said graciously following Saturday’s racing.
Tactician and jib trimmer Joe Gibson revealed the attitude of the team about being in the runner-up position: “We’re not happy about it and we’re going to do something about it,” he said defiantly.
Rattle-n-Rum had led wire-to-wire en route to capturing the sport boat class at Sperry Charleston Race Week in 2017 and 2018. Beasley was presented with the prestigious Palmetto Trophy for best performance by an ORC entry both years.
HeadFirst3, owned by Peter Toomb of Charlottetown, Canada, won two races on Saturday to take over the lead.
“We know the GP team is very good so we’ve been watching them closely. It’s been a heck of a battle with those guys and we have one more day to go,” said Toomb, a Prince Edward Island resident.
Sunday dawned with dark skies and howling winds, which made Beasley happy because such conditions favored his GP 26 over the Farr 30. Rattle-n-Rum did indeed perform extremely well in the 15 to 25 knot breeze and posted a pair of bullets on Sunday to force a tiebreaker with HeadFirst3.
Rattle-n-Rum won two more races than the Farr 30 and is now a three-time Charleston Race Week champion as a result.
“It was challenging from the get-go because the Farr 30 had an outstanding sailing team,” Beasley said. “It is so much more rewarding when you are pushed to the limit and have to win a regatta on a count back.”
Annapolis residents Teddy Haaland (bow), Joanna Haaland (runners), Matt Weimer (main) and Ryan Rutkowski (floater) completed the crew aboard Rattle-n-Rum, which wound up winning five races and placing second in two others in totaling 15 points.
“We knew what we had to do today and decided to be very conservative and let the boat do its stuff,” Beasley said. “We didn’t engage the Farr 30, we didn’t wipe out, we hiked as hard as we ever had and we knew how to sail the boat in that type of breeze.”
Rattle-n-Rum could not continue its streak of capturing the Palmetto Trophy, which went to the ORC B champion Teamwork this year. Three Annapolis residents crew on Teamwork, a J/122 owned by Robin Team of Lexington, North Carolina.
North Sails-Chesapeake professional Jonathan Bartlett calls tactics while Kevin Ryman and Jeff Reidle are the mainsail and headsail trimmers, respectively.
This marked the fifth time Teamwork has received the Palmetto Trophy at Sperry Charleston Race Week. Team sails with Adam, two sons Alston and Coleman and best friend Bill Fuqua on Teamwork, which won all six races in ORC B class on the Hybrid Pursuit course.
“We’ve been coming to Charleston for a long time and we absolutely love this regatta,” said Team, whose previous Palmetto Trophy wins were as top PHRF entry.
Now Teamwork has another one for the shelf for best performance among ORC entries after duking it out with the J/111 Sitella, skippered by Ian Hill of Chesapeake, Virginia.
“We had a great time mixing it up with Sitella, which is always well-sailed,” Team said. “We had the boat well-prepped and dialed in from the beginning while our crew work was incredible once again.”
Shenanigans came away as winner of J/80 class following a tight three-way battle with fellow Annapolis entry Eleven, which is skippered by Bert Carp. Shannon Lockwood steered while her father Bill trimmed the main. Jeff Todd handled headsails while his daughter Cassie worked the bow aboard Shenanigans, which won five of eight races.
“We had a great battle with Bert, who we race against on Thursday nights in Annapolis,” said Shannon Lockwood, who was a member of the keelboat team at St. Mary’s College.
“I thought our team handled the boat well and paid attention to the puffy and shifty conditions. We were also conservative and smart with our maneuvers. It’s always cool to win, especially at such a major regatta like Charleston so we’re super psyched.”
Annapolis resident Sandra Askew steered Flying Jenny to a sixth place result in VX One class, which had 30 entries. Quantum pro and Annapolis resident Jason Currie called tactics while Nick Turney also crewed on Flying Jenny, which took third in consecutive starts and posted top 10 finishes in eight of 10 races.
Annapolis professionals Chris Larson and Allan Terhune crewed on Team Vineyard Vines, which finished fifth out of 55 boats in J/70 class. Larson called tactics while Terhune trimmed the headsails for owners John and Molly Baxter, who won Race 1 and also notched a couple seconds.
EIGHT BELLS: Annapolis lost a longtime member of its sailing community when John Thackwray passed away on March 5 after a long battle with cancer. The 73-year-old was surrounded by close friends and his nephew from England.
Born in the Kirkby Malzeard region of the United Kingdom, Thackwray grew up sailing on the English Channel and North Sea and quickly developed a passion for the sea and the finer points of racing a sailboat.
During his racing career, Thackwray crewed aboard several famous maxi boats of the day such as Kialoa, Running Tide, and Charisma. His racing resume was extensive with Atlantic and Pacific Ocean crossings, many Bermuda Races and major regattas around the world. He was a superb trimmer and often managed the boat as the chief maintenance worker.
In the 1997-98 Whitbread Round the World Race, the seventh edition of the around-the-world sailing event, Thackwray served as assistant shore manger for the Whitbread 60 Chessie Racing. He was hired by George Collins, the Gibson Island resident who funded the Chesapeake Bay entry, which became the first American finisher in the race.
While sailing Leg 5 from Auckland, New Zealand to Sao Sabastiao, Brazil through the treacherous Southern Ocean, Chessie Racing broke the engine that was needed to shift water ballast and make fresh water.
JT, as he was known to many in the sailing community, scrounged the many parts required to make the repair in Annapolis and also secured charts and other equipment. He then flew to Chile, took a long cab ride to Ushuaia and met Chessie Racing offshore so it could successfully complete the leg to finish third.
In recent years, Thackwray worked for Collins down in Miami and served as captain of the Feadship 75-footer Grand Slam as well as several smaller competitive fishing boats. He was a member of the Storm Trysail Club and Royal Ocean Racing Club, and for many years also the Annapolis Yacht Club.
“JT was a very dependable boat captain and trusted colleague who became a good friend,” said Collins, mentioning how Thackwray would take his mother or mother-in-law to doctor’s appointments when circumstances required.
Fittingly, Thackwray’s ashes will be distributed in his favorite seas off Miami, the Chesapeake Bay near Annapolis and the English Channel. A Celebration of Life for Thackwray will be held Sunday, April 28 (2-5 p.m.) in the Skipjack Room at Annapolis Yacht Club.
J/22 MIDWINTERS: Annapolis residents Zeke Horowitz and Todd Hiller crewed for Mike Marshall aboard Bad News, which claimed the J/22 Midwinter Championship in convincing fashion last month.
Horowitz, a North Sails-Chesapeake pro, called tactics for Marshall as Bad News won four of eight races in posting a low score of 19 points. Hiller, longtime skipper of the local J/22 Leading Edge, worked the bow.
Marshall, Horowitz and Hiller are all past J/22 world champions so it was no surprise they would enjoy success after coming together as a team for the first time.
“Zeke called stellar tactics upwind in a super shifty venue. Todd called breeze downwind and talked about how we were doing relative to other boats,” Marshall said. “So I could change what I needed if we were going slow or keep trying to do what I was doing if we were going fast.”
Annapolis resident Jeff Todd and his Hot Toddy team took second overall, 21 points astern of Bad News. Chip Carr served as tactician and trimmed headsails while Chris Ryan worked the bow on Hot Toddy, which placed third in four races and counted all single-digit results.
PAN AM GAMES: Annapolis resident Farrah Hall has been selected to represent the United States in board sailing at the Pan American Games, being held July 26 through August 11 in Lima, Peru.
US Sailing has Hall, a Broadneck High graduate, as the highest-ranked American in the Women’s RS:X class.
SMITH ON TOP: Annapolis sailor Dee Smith, the current U.S. and North American Champion, crossed the finish line first in eight of the nine races to capture the 2.4mR class at the Can Am Championship Series.
Smith posted an insurmountable low score of eight points – 23 clear of Tony Pocklington of Fort Myers, Florida and Allan Leibel of Toronto, Canada.
