Ensign News

2007 Ensign Nationals

Report by Allan Terhune, Sr. Ensign #690

The Ensign Nationals were held at Toms River Yacht Club in Toms River, NJ this past week. Conditions during the week long event were challenging, ranging from shifty easterlies, to the famous Southwest breeze that Barnegat Bay is Famous for, which gave us the big blow during the 8th race.

Consistency over the ten race series and the ability to shift gears was critical. Dick Torpey, representing the host club, with his team of Benz Faget (North Sails New Orleans), son Kevin Torpey and Marc Finneran sailed a solid series to capture the second national title for team Irish Mist. Greg Eiffert sailing White Lady from Canandiagua, NY along with team, local Mike Frankovich, Doug Bertner and Alex Crerand, got off to a slow start but came on strong to finish second. Team Galatea skippered by Allan Terhune Sr, with Mike Cornelius and Billy Warner Jr finished third with eight races in the top eight. They were the only crew sailing three up.

Rounding out the top five were locals Bob Warner in Leading Edge from TRYC and Marista of Island Heights YC,steered by Thom Healy. Thom wore two hats as the regatta chairman and also sailing in the regatta. The event was well run and the depth of the teams made the racing extremely challenging. Places 4-11 were separated by only 11 points!

The new North inventory was all our team could have asked for. It was easy to trim and had the ability to adjust to all the different conditions. Benz was great prior to the regatta in sail selection, setup and was very helpful on site with technical support.

A few keys we took away from the event, not in any order but important and probably reinforcement of things we all already know.

1-Boat prep is extremely important-sails are great but we broke a halyard which cost us one race.

2-Jib halyard tension and being able to easily adjust it is CRITICAL in the changing conditions.

3- The number two is the most underrated sail in the inventory. After long discussions with Benz and Allan we decided the class tends to sail the #1 too high into the wind ranges. Since we sail three up, we felt as the wind increased the smaller/flatter genoa really paid big. The ability to tack on shifts and stay on your feet made big gains for us.

4-Mainsail trim in reference to twist, leach tension and top tell tale flow or stall is extremely important and needs constantly adjusting to your speed and tactical situations at the time.

5-Race eight it was blowing 25-28. We set the chute on second time down. By the time we got squared away, I looked and saw no other colored sails! I'm not sure the gain was significant but it was a challenging ride .Lesson-I don’t know if we were faster vs the risk, But we were the entertainment!

I'm very proud of our club as hosts, the local fleet members who did so well and my team who worked very hard.