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The team of Andy Burdick and Butch Ulmer won the 16th Bitter End Pro Am Regatta with seven points out of a possible twelve. Each sailing six races each, Burdick contributed three points and Ulmer four in their respective junior and master divisions.
Racing Freedom 30s in a unique triple race format on the enclosed waters of the North Sound in the BVI's Virgin Gorda, amateur sailors have the chance to race with world-renowned pros. At one stage this regatta was a grade one match race event which one year saw competitors racing 56 times in a week - by the finals the pros were hard pushed to find any of their amateur crews willing to race. Things have changed. The five days of racing kicks off with the Defiance Day Regatta which has the fleet racing to the picturesque Baths and Devils Bay on the south west end of Virgin Gorda and back. Tuesday is day one of the match racing, Wednesday is a lay day with all the beach fun and watersports Bitter End can offer. Thursday and Friday complete the match racing with a total of 12 races - an altogether more acceptable schedule.
Originally devised by Paul Elvstrom and modified by Bitter End, the triple race format is a cross between match and fleet racing with three boats only and a gate start in which a "rabbit" is released while the other two boats must cross its stern to start. The format has eliminated the typical pre-race maneuvering of a match race in which the race is generally decided and gives the competitors more dueling opportunities and the paying guests a more exciting experience.
The course is start-windward-leeward-windward-finish. Each windward leg ends with four windward marks where racers round either the port, middle or starboard configuration - a determination made by the race committee depending on the wind shifts. They then head to one of two leeward marks where they can choose either one and pass inside to outside. The finish is between the two leeward marks which also act as the start for the rabbit. The only point that counts is the one for first place.
This year's junior pro lineup was: Dawn Riley, America's Cup and Around Alone veteran; Paul Cayard, Volvo Ocean Race winner and one of the world's top professional sailors; Mark Reynolds, Star Gold medallist and winner of most of the major Star championships; Andy Burdick, US Scow aficionado and VP of Melges Performance Sailboats; and the UK's Nigel Musto who stepped up to the plate to replace Marie Bjorling.
Tom Leweck, famed Curmudgeon of the Scuttlbutt newsletter and 2001 Pro Am champ; Keith Musto, a UK master and founder of Musto International; Rod "Mr J/Boat" Johnstone; Butch Ulmer, founder of UK Sailmakers; and Lowell North, founder of North Sails, made up the masters division.
In addition to the Burdick Ulmer pairing, Dawn Riley teamed up with Tom Leweck, Paul Cayard with Keith Musto, Mark Reynolds with Rod Johnstone, and Nigel Musto with Lowell North.
Paul Cayard was a late addition to the lineup. A member of the America's Cup Oracle BMW Racing team he is currently on "gardening leave" after being sidelined by syndicate boss Larry Ellison. Cayard was flying straight to Nassau after the Pro Am to sail with Phillipe Kahn in the Farr 40 world championships. Opinions were aired on whether Cayard had to ask permission to compete in both events and whether he would have to give his pay check from Kahn straight to Ellison. Nobody, including myself, had the cojones to ask the question of Cayard who reportedly had been very tight-lipped on the America's Cup throughout the Pro Am.
After two days of racing in the light air regatta, the Burdick/Ulmer combo went into the last day leading with five points; their only trouble could be be Johnstone and Reynolds second to them with three points. Juniors were first to race and Reynolds would be racing three times while Burdick only two. In the first race, Reynolds was the rabbit and stormed away up the lifting left hand side of the course but then opted for the right hand side on the second; a wise move as the wind left Dawn Riley slightly bereft on that side. A straightforward victory gave him his first bullet; race two also went to Reynolds.
Race three saw Reynolds and Burdick coming together for the only time that day; before the start they busily match raced each other into a general recall. Following the second start, their match racing continued leaving Riley to her second win of the regatta. Burdick notched up his third win in the last race for the juniors. By the lunch break, Reynolds' two bullets had closed the gap between the two teams to only one point.
It was down to the masters to decide the 2003 Bitter End Pro Am champs and the pressure was on for Rod Johnstone. Both he and Ulmer only had two races each and Johnstone had to win both to take the regatta or one to go to a tiebreak.
Keith Musto won race one. Race two saw Johnstone and Ulmer competing against each other for the last time and a little feisty they both were too. In one of the few flag encounters of the regatta, Johnstone flagged Ulmer in a port/starboard incident soon after the start. A dubious green-flagging by the umpire left Johnstone in a bit of a bother. If he hadn't taken avoiding action "there would have been a nice hole about five feet from the stern" he said. However it was a moot point as Leweck, the rabbit for the race, sailed the often advantageous left hand side of the course for the starting boat and took the race. Johnstone's only remaining chance was forcing a tiebreak with Ulmer if he won his last race of the regatta, race three.
But it was not to be for Johnstone. Race three went to the next rabbit, Lowell North, in his first and only win of the regatta in the closest racing of the day.
Ulmer stamped his mark on the regatta by decisively winning the last race of the regatta. He was the rabbit, had a lift and "sailed into the heat". The other two boats skippered by Leweck and Musto, were too far upwind and missed the puff as they headed back to cross Ulmers' stern; it was all over before the fat lady had started to clear her throat. "It was a nice way to end," said a happy Ulmer back on the dock.
For a large selection of photos from the last day click here .
Final Results:
Andy Burdick/Butch Ullmer - 7 points
Mark Reynolds/Rod Johnstone - 5 points
Dawn Riley/Tom Leweck - 3 points*
Paul Cayard/Keith Musto - 3 points*
Nigel Musto/Lowell North - 2 points
* - unbreakable tie
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