Category: Reporting

FLORIDA, USA. (December 17, 2004) David Ingram was crowned the inaugural Endurance Sails Series Open Class Champion for 2004. The catamaran series, sponsored by Endurance Sails of West Palm Beach (www.EnduranceSails.com), comprises six distance racing events around the State of Florida. The series had an excellent turnout with 100 individual skippers participating in at least one event. Ingram will be the first name added to the perpetual trophy, "The Endurance Cup" after his excellent finish at the final event, the Steeplechase, held last week in Key Largo, Florida. Ingram sailed on a Nacra20 catamaran.

Asked about the level of pressure he felt going into the Steeplechase against a large competitive fleet, Ingram replied "You always feel the pressure of your competition, the southeast offers a great deal of talent at almost every event you attend. You never know if you are going to be on the starting line with an Olympic medalist, W1000/Atlantic1000 winner, and/or several national champions." Ingram also commented on the popularity of the series and the outlook for 2005, "Now that the sailing community knows the series is for real the amount of talent on the starting line next year will be dramatically different. Every race will be a hard fought contest. The 2005 season promises to be very exciting." When asked if he thinks the series is only for the hardcore racer, Ingram replied "No! Four of the six races are geared towards a more relaxed fun aspect of the sport. The Mug Race and Hiram's Haul are two of my favorites and I have done them almost exclusively with my wife."

On Sunday November 7th 2004, Gunnar Larsen and Xander Pols from the Netherlands started strongly at the fourteenth Aruba Heineken Catamaran Regatta. Last year’s winners were victorious in both races with a northeaster force five to six. The British competitors Stuart Gummer and Gillian Power followed with their Spitfire on the second place. Christopher Sproat and Georgina Burke, also from Great Britain, are in third position in a field of fifty-four catamarans, representing five countries.

"It went very well", was the enthusiastic reaction of Larsen. "We have sailed conservatively, which gave us a good position to start with.” Many teams capsized under genaker and lost their races. According to Larsen, they did not push their Nacra F18 to the limit: "We did not want to start with a discard.” They are again the men to beat. Today, the performance of the Spitfires was remarkable good with four teams in the top ten.

LOVELL AND OGLETREE SUCCESSFULLY DEFEND TITLE


NEW ORLEANS, LA. (October 23, 2004) In an exciting final day of competition, the USAs 2004 Olympic Silver Medal team of John Lovell (New Orleans) and Charlie Ogletree (Houston, Texas) have successfully defended their claim to the International Catamaran Challenge Trophy (ICCT) by defeating Enrique Figueroa and Jorge Hernandez of Puerto Rico. After going ahead on a score of 3-1 yesterday, the American pair needed to win only one match today to hold on to their title in the first-to-four point series sailed in F18HTs on Lake Pontchartrain and hosted by Southern Yacht Club.

But the win did not come easily. In the first do-or-die match for the Challengers, Lovell and Ogletree replicated the mastery theyve displayed all week in match racing, controlling the Puerto Ricans in the pre-start and leading around the first mark by several lengths. And while the 9-12 knot southerly breeze was the most promising all week for match racing, there were not only opportunities to speed away in the puffs but also pitfalls to die in the lulls over the 2.5-mile course. Soon after their rounding, Lovell and Ogletree gybed away to protect their lead only to fall into a hole while Figueroa and Hernandez sped away to a spectacular three-minute lead, the largest of any match of the week.

Thanks for the mulligan, quipped Figueroa to a disappointed but smiling Lovell between matches. We lucked into that one. Even with a long-standing rivalry between these two going back to their Olympic Tornado competition -- the sailors have maintained their good nature and camaraderie both on and off the water.

Hurricane Jeanne hits regatta location with less force than expected - Nacra North American Championship is still on!

Tuesday, September 28, 2004 - Hurricane Jeanne came barreling up the coast of Florida and Georgia late last weekend and the Nacra North American Championship regatta site was in jeopardy.

Weather Channel's Jeff Morrow was on Tybee Island over the weekend, keeping a watchful eye on the winds and waves. However, the storm was downgraded to a tropical storm and Tybee Island did not receive the damage that was expected or experienced in other parts of the Southeast.

After contacting Regatta Official Chuck Bargeron this morning, he briefly stated It¹s a go! and quickly hung up with no time to chat.

Pete Melvin and Nacra A2 "Team Up" to Sweep A-Class Championships with 7 Bullets!

September 23, 2004 - The new Nacra A2 catamaran, with Pete Melvin at the helm, swept the A-Class North American Championships with 7 bullets out of 11 races! 28 top sailors from North America competed for the championships but were defeated by Melvin on the A2 who¹s total score was only 13 points.

The boat I sailed was a stock Nacra A2, built with the latest materials and production processes, fresh out of the box and included a Hall Spars mast and Ullman sail. "It's performance was outstanding!" says Melvin. The A2 was very fast in all conditions sailed, including the 20 knot+ conditions experienced the first two days, as well as the more moderate conditions at the end of the regatta.

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