2006 US 2.4 Meter Nationals

A record fleet of 19 boats participated in the 2.4 Nationals this year, up from 11 last year.  Eight disabled sailors, including 2005 world open champion Nick Scandone, participated, and we had four entries from Canada and one from Puerto Rico.  Nine races were sailed over four days (one totally windless) and one discard was allowed.  Allan Leibel from Canada beat out Bruce Millar (also from Canada) on a tie breaker for first, and Peter Wilson from the host club was third, and as first US boat, the US National Champion.

Betsy Alison, US Sailing’s Disabled Sailing Team coach ran a clinic on Tuesday before the regatta got underway.  June 14th was set aside for registration, measurement, weighing, and sail checking.  Gene Hinkel oversaw a very thorough measurement process and issued new and revised certificates for all boats after they conformed to the new all up weight of 254kg.

Allan Leibel

Thursday’s racing took place in a 12 to 22 knot Northerly with 20 to 35 degree shifts as the air over the land heated up and caused the major oscillations.  Allan Leibel won the day with two bullets and a fifth, followed by Peter Wilson with a consistent three thirds.  The key to good performance was keeping the boat on its feet in the big puffs and staying left of middle as the left NW phase was the dominant shift. 

On Friday the day started with a light SW breeze and the RC was able to get a good one hour race in the bank before the wind died.  Then the gradient northerly wind was able to get down to the surface (probably due to the cold water), and we had two great races in 6 to 18 knots.  Again the offshore breeze had major oscillations, but not as predictable and neither shift was dominant.  Nick Scandone won the day with a 1, 1, 4, followed by Allan Leibel with a 4, 2, 1.  At the end of day two, with a discard, Leibel led with 9 low points, followed by Bruce Millar with 11, and Wilson with 16.  Nick Scandone, who was off to a slow start on the first windy day, had 20 low points.

Saturday surprised everybody.  The forecast was for 5-10 or higher from the southwest, but Connecticut became clouded over and the air mass remained stable, and totally calm.  We got good practice towing strings of boats out to the starting area and back, but that was all.  Fortunately, the evening was successful with a steak and fish cookout at the Wilsons….and everybody enjoyed themselves.

Sunday produced a smokey southwesterly at 8 am, and with an earlier harbor start, we were off to some good sailing.  The breeze had a stronger than normal westerly component which caused some long phases of 20 degrees, left shift in the lighter air and right shift in the higher velocity.  Three hour long races were run, and Bruce Millar won the day with a 3, 4, 1.  That was good enough to catch Allan Leibel, but Allan won thetiebreaker having three firsts to Bruce’s two.  When you look at the overall results, three of the top six finishers were disabled sailors.  This tells you a lot about how well the 2.4 meter levels the playing field for physical abilities, and makes it such a great boat.  However, it also tells us how well our top disabled sailors are doing.  They train a lot, they innovate and improve the boats and sails, and they make the rest of us bust our tails to get a decent finish now and then.  The 2.4 class in North America has not only a very high level of competition now, it has a great camaraderie amongst all its members, which bodes well for the future. Many more photos can be found here at Noroton YC's photo gallery .

Results

06/21/06