SKUD'in In the USA
The four US teams held the first SKUD-18 regatta in the world (as far as we know) during the Marblehead NOOD, July 28th – 30th. It was a pretty typical Marblehead Race Week, mostly light, under 10 knots of breeze. The boat is not too exciting in those non-planing conditions. After the first day, the Race Committee wisely set a shorter course for the SKUDs and the Finns vs. the Sonars, J/24's and Viper 640's racing on the same line. In the light air, the bigger sail areas on the bigger keel boats had them running over the SKUDs. After racing, the most common question to the SKUD'ers was “Is that boat safe? It looks really unstable.” However, I'm pretty sure that all of the SKUD'ers answered, “No problem”. The flare of the hull shape gives it a lot of form stability as the boat powers up. Not to mention the fact that there's a 300 pound bulb on a 5½ foot fin providing a hell of a lot of righting moment. The most common comment about the boat was something along the line of, “That looks like a cool boat” and “Bet that's a lot of fun when the breeze comes up”. Both are true! Team Eagle, Mark Lewis and local Maureen McKinnon-Tucker led the first two days of the regatta, with Scott Whitman sailing with a local AB (able body) crew of Allison Whittredge only a few points behind. Sunday was the lightest day of the regatta, and Team Eagle tacked away from Whitman for clear air, into a lift but out of the pressure. Scott took the bullet in the lone race of the day, and with it the regatta by a single point. Sarah Everhart-Skeels and Bob Jones took second in that race, and third in the regatta, close on our heels only 2 points behind. Jim “Meat” Donohue and Mike Grimm rounded out the fleet. In Marblehead there was plenty of tight, tactical racing, both upwind and down. The boat rewards good crew work. It's an easier boat to manage in that regard compared the the Martin 16t, which it seems many people expected to be chosen for the '08 Paralympics. The skiffy spinnaker launching/retrieval system is a makes handling the kite relatively easy, though there's an awful lot for the forward crew to do during a set or douse, particularly with a quadriplegic driving with his hands Velcroed to the tillers so he can't handle lines at all!
The most fun I had as the Team Eagle coach, was filling in for the ailing Karen Mitchell on Friday. It was only my second opportunity to sail the boat myself and I learned a lot about the boat while schooling the disabled sailors with a 4-0 record in the practice racing, with her crew Mike Grimm. It was nice to prove to my team that I'm qualified to coach! Sailing in 10-12 knots the boat is a bit of a contradiction, at times it's quick to accelerate in a puff like a skiff, but sometimes it feels slow to accelerate like a keelboat. The helm is heavy and rather wooden feeling in those conditions. Downwind, you can really feel the difference when you heat it up a couple of degrees, the boat just leaps ahead. Fun! Saturday of the actual regatta and US Sailing Team qualifier, Karen Mitchell and Mike Grimm put on a clinic, going 4-0 in 12-15 knots of breeze. They simply sailed smarter than the rest despite Karen having been on IV antibiotics for 2 days. Scott Whitman and Julia Dorsett were second, with Team Eagle close on their heels despite a DNF due to Maureen pulling the spin halyard stopper knot right up through the masthead halyard block so the kite wouldn't come down and Sarah & Bob close behind. Karen and Mike were mostly able to sail away from the fleet. The magic number for the SKUD-18 seems to be 12 knots. That's when the boat kicks up its heels and starts planing downwind. When the bow lifts and the windward rudder starts kicking up a rooster tail, the fun begins! That's pretty much the point were the Martin 16t starts to get squirrelly and wipe out, filling up the cockpit with water... Day 2 dawned with rain and breeze in the mid
to low 20's, but as 0930 the dock start approached, the rain cleared
and the breeze dropped to the mid teens. The tactics chalk talk with
Maureen and Mark paid off, and they sailed a lot smarter and continued
to have blazing downwind speed, winning the first of 5 races that
day. Karen and Mike had their worst race of the entire regatta, finishing
3rd. The racing tightened up a bit with all the teams pushing hard
Karen Mitchell and Mike Grimm won the SKUD-18 class with an impressive 6 wins in 8 races for a total of 9 points after 1 throw-out. They clearly sailed the boat well and sailed smart. Team Eagle improved dramatically to close to second with 16 points. Scott Whitman and Julia Dorsett seem stronger in light air and finished 3rd with 24 points, while Sarah Everhart-Skeels and Bob Jones suffered some bad luck with the spinnaker and sheets wrapping under the boat in 2 races and finished 4th with 26 points. The scores don't do justice to how hard fought each race was. There were frequent position changes and plenty of close tactical racing all weekend. It was tough for us to see our training partners and good friends Bob & Sarah not make the US Disabled Sailing Team this year, but it would have been hard to see any of our friends not make it. Great racing by everyone and the boat is a blast to sail in over 12 knots! Regatta site: www.ussailing.net/Clagett/ Video: www.t2p.tv The US SKUDs will be racing at the following regattas:
We'd love to see some international competition at any or all of these regattas! RockHead 08/24/06 |
The SKiff Univeral Design-18 is the new 2 person Paralympic boat,
designed by Julian Bethwaite and the first six hulls were delivered
to Newport on May 31st. There's been a lot of griping about the choice
of the boat in the disabled sailing world, but for those who haven't
seen, much less sailed the boat, here's some real world info...
This past week, the four US teams assembled again in Newport for the
C. Thomas Claggett Memorial Clinic and Regatta (that's a mouthful!).
We started training on Monday with US Disabled Sailing Team coach Betsy
Alison. We spent a few days testing boat speed stuff and a couple of
days on starting drills and practice racing. 
to
qualify for the 3 slots on US Sailing Team. Team Eagle pushed Mitchell
and Grimm hard in the next two races, with Mitchell/Grimm racking
up two more bullets, but not by much of a margin. Scott fouled Sarah
in a windward/leeward at the top mark of race 6 and he suffered a
hole in the top of his mainsail as Sarah's mast tip punched through
it. In race 8 Team Eagle nipped inside Karen & Mike at the final
leeward mark and led them up the short beat to the finish,
only the second race they didn't win. 