Chaos storms back from late start to triumph in 2009 ATI Classic

This year’s Around-the-Island Race was sailed in a fresh northerly breeze and big ebb tide, under clear, cool skies. Unlike so many past counter-clockwise races, the northerly held throughout the day, only softening from 15 knots to 8 knots by the finish. In sum, the conditions were spectacular.

The start saw all the J/22’s favoring the pin end with Machbuster the leeward boat followed by Bad News. Everyone headed straight into the mooring field in front of the club to avoid the tide, providing some early entertainment for big boat racers still on their balls. The five boats on the line were still neck and neck after a clean start. Unbeknownst to those five, Chaos, the sixth entrant, was still sailing south from her mooring to get to the line, having failed to anticipate this year’s class B start (second in the sequence). This would prove to be Chaos’s only mistake of the day, however.

As the leaders approached the Newport Bridge, Bad News, sailed today by the emeritus crew of Johnny Quinn, Roger Marshall, and Jim Mattingly, took Machbuster out to the center span. Bill Porter’s Conundrum, free to tack, crossed under the western third span, and instantly assumed the lead as a persistent right shift at that moment had made it a fetch to the north end, leaving Machbuster, Bad News, and USA 1575 both behind and overstood. This early shift no doubt played a role in Chaos’s quick recovery, as she could sail a more direct course to the bridge and avoid overstanding.

Conundrum had stretched her lead over Machbuster to 100 yards as they neared can #3. Bad News was third another 75 yards back, with Chaos close behind, having already caught and passed Bob and Peter Parsons’ Catch and Matt Dunbar’s USA 1575. With only Bob and Peter aboard, Catch was short of needed ballast for the hour-long loose power beat to the north end, sailed into a nasty, wet chop.

With the J/22’s still enjoying essentially traffic-free racing as they rounded can #5, disaster struck aboard Machbuster when the spinnaker halyard shackle gave way moments after setting her chute. Recovering from the resulting mess effectively ended her initially strong showing. The long broad reach down the West Passage saw no further changes and even the Chaos charge was temporarily stalled as Bad News’ notorious downwind speed advantage allowed her to pull away a bit, but not quite enough to challenge Conundrum’s safe lead. Most of the grand prix boats sailed through the J/22 fleet south of Dutch Island, offering an occasional wake surfing opportunity, much to the amusement of the big boat rail meat.

At the Beavertail Bell, Chaos rounded just inside USA 1575 to retain third, still 300 yards behind the leader, Conundrum. In a decision he will no doubt long regret, Lowell Thomas was on the golf course today, having turned over the Chaos helm to loyal crew Maggie Borden, sailing with regulars Megan McCarty, and Pam Rodgers, plus US Sailing’s Lindsay Nahmias. The wind was still northeast at 10 knots with higher puffs, with a strong outgoing tide, so the entire regatta fleet was now short tacking their way up the Jamestown shore towards Clingstone. The Chaos girls fought the heavy traffic and made significant gains on the still unsuspecting Conundrum, having finally passed Bad News shortly after Beavertail. Somewhere north of Kettle Bottom, the leader finally spotted Chaos, realized that they had a race on their hands, and began a covering effort.

But with the puffy breeze and fickle currents around Bull Point adding a large dose of the imponderable, Chaos managed to slip past a shocked Conundrum and into an unlikely lead just two tacks before the Clingstone Bell. Once around, it was a close reach fetch to the finish and Conundrum had no realistic passing lane to challenge the comeback kids on Chaos. Six minutes back, the veterans on Bad News held onto a very respectable third place edging USA 1575 by just thirteen seconds and Catch by only fifty-three seconds after the Parsons boys staged a late comeback of their own by scraping a few barnacles off the Dumplings. Machbuster, flummoxed by her gear failure, had thrown caution (and good sense) to the wind, sailing out into the adverse current of the channel in hopes of finding salvation in a miracle right shift only to get flushed by the tide.

Interestingly, Machbuster still led Catch at Beavertail and had been sailing for nearly an hour within 100 yards of Pegasus, David Marshall’s class-winning J/24, when she abandoned the obviously superior short tack strategy south of Hull’s Cove. By staying out of the tide, but in phase with the wind, Pegasus gained fifteen minutes on Machbuster between Hull’s Cove and the finish! In fact, the Marshall’s J/24 even beat Chaos by three minutes, having trailed by at least five at Beavertail, a good lesson to remember for future years.