Team St. Francis Defends 2002 MadCap Challenge from New York Yacht Club!

Team StFYC successfully defended the Madcap Team Racing Challenge from the NYYC on May 18-19, 2002 at the StFYC in San Francisco, CA. In a 3 boat J105 team event, the StFYC team, represented by Good Timin', Sails Call and Zuni Bear, defeated visiting NYYC sailing in borrowed J105s Arbitrage, Irrational Again and Whisper.

The Madcap trophy will stay in San Francisco until the challenge resumes next year in New York where the StFYC will defend the Madcap in a team race series at NYYC's Harbour Court Station in Newport, Rhode Island. "The purpose of the trophy and this trust shall be to foster and promote sailing competition and good fellowship between the two Trustee Clubs and their respective members.".

A huge thanks to event organizers Jaren Leet, Don Trask, the commodores of the StFYC, StFYC Executive Race Committee, Race Office, on the water umpire team lead by Tom Roberts, the StFYC team yachts Good Timin' (Phil Perkins & David Wilson), Sails Call (Ian Charles), and Zuni Bear (Richard Bergman and Shawn Bennett) and the loaned yachts Arbitrage (Bruce and Jean Marie Stone), Irrational Again (Jaren Leet) and Whisper (Eden Kim) and back up yacht and friday night reception host Charade (Tom Coates) and the crews of both the NYYC and the StFYC teams.

History Of Madcap Challenge Cup

According to oral history provided by StFYC commodore Steve Taft, NYYC rear Commodore George Hinman, and StFYC member Jaren Leet, the Madcap trophy was orginally won by the NYYC Second Class Sloop MADCAP from the British in 1876. In 1876 a Second Class Sloop was one over 130 feet. The Declaration of Trust that gave the Trophy in Joint Ownership to St. Francis with New York provided for a competition at least every four (4) years. The original Declaration of Trust provided for a Match Race Series in Six Meter Yachts. We (StFYC) went back to New York and won it first in 1985 by Tom Blackhaller 4-0. In 1987 Paul Cayard defended on San Francisco Bay, winning 3-0.

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Background of the 2002 Madcap Challenge Cup

In early 2002, the StFYC curator found the Madcap trophy in the StFYC trophy room and prepared to return it to the NYYC under the terms of the deed of gift. However, resourceful StFYC member Jaren Leet suggested reviving the challenge in team raced J105s. StFYC commodore Charlie Hart then visited the NYYC and NYYC rear Commodore George Hinman agreed to a best of 17 team race challenge to be held at the StFYC on an alternate year hosting basis. The rest is now history.

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Rules and Strategy

Under the SIs and rules of team racing, each race is scored on a 3 boat total of finishing places. The team with 10 or less points will win the race. Each race is scored individually. The cumulative individual boat finish is the team score. DSQ is the finish plus fleet or plus 6. Each boat carries flags and can red flag an opponent who may immediately exonerate herself with a 360 or if not in agreement, can wait for the on the water umpire ruling. If the umpires red flag a foul, then a 720 must be done. If the umpires say no foul, the protesting boat may request an on the water hearing post race with one rep from each boat. If there is a foul, then a DSQ is given.

Thus basic strategy is to try to win any combination of places adding up to 10 or less; e.g. 1,2,6 = 9, 2,3,5 = 10, etc. Accordingly, teammates attempt to use right of way to control opponents and create passing lanes to aid team boat scoring postions. Closeness of position counts. If a team has a solid 1,3,4, they may decide to stay in position and finish fast. If a team has a 1,4,6, the 1 may decide to try and slow down the fleet to help one of its team boats finish higher. Traps can be set up at the windward and gybe marks to compress the fleet and force interesting strategic situtations.

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Series Race Restuls - StFYC wins best ot 17, 9-3

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Race Descriptions

What began as a brotherly challenge between reciprocal yacht clubs soon escalated into a determined competition as race day approached.

The NYYC has a team racing program with a full season schedule in Sonars along with two clinics and a training program.

The StFYC had the advantage of local knowledge, top boats with experienced crews and younger and fitter crews.

Day one was held in a blustery 25-30 knots. The race committee wisely posted flag A no spinnakers. Day two was a full change to rainy, puffy winds with Spinnaker sets.

Perhpas due to opeinging jitters, Race 1 saw the entire fleet over early when they crossed at the 1 minute horn. On the restart, all 3 of the StFYC boats over early and a subsequent cake walk for NYYC with a basic fleet race around a windward, gybe, gybe, windward finish course. NYYC swept 1,2,3 to go up 1-0.

Race 2 saw a port starboard collision where NYYC port boat Irrational Again smashed into StFYC starboard boat Zuni Bear. Both boats retired from the race and Zuni Bear was forced to the docks where substitute boat Charade (Tom Coates, owner) was set up as a replacement boat. StFYC finsihed 1,2 to win race 2 and even the score at 1-1.

StFYC dominated race 3 & 4 with 1,2 finsihes to go out in front 3-1. Superior big wind boat handling and better starts put team StFYC out in front to speed race around the course. NYYC only had one boat in the top three and the ability to trap #4 StFYC would not affect the outcome. StFYC showed superior one on one boat speed during off wind manuvering with timely sail trim whereas the less experience in J105 NYYC teams were not able to trim in and out as fast nor change gears.

NYYC came back strong in Race 5 with a 1,2,6 by setting up a good windward trap to take the score to 3-2. In a critical ruling in Race 6, Sails Call was DSQ at a gbye mark resulting in a NYYC win of 3,4,5 to the StFYC 1,2, DSQ (6 plus 6). Now the series was tied at 3-3.

By now, the crews had raced 18 laps in 25 knots, and the NYYC boat owner reps were wearing down in their unfamiliar crew positions. Bruce and Jean Marie Stone were the strongest owner reps with Jean Marie in her usual bow position and Bruce quite effective in the cockpit. Not true for Irrational Again and Whisper Owners Jaren Leet and Eden Kim who rotated through all positions from grinding to pit to foredeck. Both owners disappeared in the steam room at the end of the day!

NYYC rear Commodore Hinman's crew on Whisper was consistently in the front of the pack. J boat founder Bob Johnstone on Arbitrage and Howard Shiebler on Irrational Again were getting good starts in a zone strategy (each boat gets 1/3 of the line to fight for) but had to fight through well coordinated StFYC team traps.

The last 3 races of Day One were pivotal for the series win. Race 7 saw a NYYC DSQ that resulted in a StFYC win to give StFYC a 4-3 lead. From there, StFYC swept Races 8 & 9 with a 1,2,6 and 1,2,3 to go up 6-3 after Day One by successfully trapping two of the NYYC boats at the weather mark. Interestingly, NYYC Whisper was leading in both races, but went back to the fleet to try and slow down the StFYC boats. But the team NYYC boats were too far behind to overtake the StFYC despite some interesting control and trap attempts by NYYC Whisper.

Day 2 dawned with rainy skies and no wind as a postponement had the teams in the yacht club waiting for the wind to fill. Team StFYC used the time to refine their starting strategy by deciding to switch zone responsibilities pre start if the set up dictated the position. This paid off as team StFYC started getting 1,3,5 postiion starts compared to day one 2,4,6 position starts.

With lighter winds, race committee took down the A flag and spinnaker work came into play. The boats had randomely assigned spinnakers on the docks, so the boats all had someone else's chute.

Race 7 started in 12-15 knots of rainy breeze in a dying 2.3 ebb. NYYC got off to a 1,5,6 position which stretched as the boats hoisted spinnakers for the reach to reach legs. Superior spinnaker work by team StFYC prevented 5,6 NYYC boats from catching up on the reaches despite some good assistance by the lead NYYC boat.

With puffty oscillating winds, team StFYC proved more adept at boat speed and handling and ran away from the NYYC by dominating Day 2 with wins of 1,2,3 1,2,5 and 1,2,5 to wrap up the series 9-3.

A Corinthain spirit came out in the second day as more team racing engagements occured on the water as well as in the Yacht club during the postponement, closing ceremony and extra time due to the early finish. All participants agreed that it was a great event and promised to keep the Madcap Challenge Cup alive between the NYYC and StFYC. See you all next year at the NYYC.

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Race Photos

Day One - 25-30 Knots!!! NO Spinnakers! Old guys grinding!! Young Guys ripping!!

Team boats pair up with competition. Fleet positions monitored. Places added up. Strategies devised. Traps set. Off wind boat handling. Controlling positions. Rules we never use. Oh, what a cool Day!!

NYYC Whisper leads StFYC Good Timin in Race 1

Fleet pairs up after start passing Anita Buoy

Fleet on the beat

Pre Start Manuevering

Rainy Day 2

Gype Mark Trap with Spinnakers!

Spread out after the reach on final beat

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StFYC goes 1,2,3 around the Gybe mark in Race 2

StFYC Good Timin' & Sails Call pin NYYC Whisper

Gbye Mark Trap!!

Reaching towards the StFYC

NYYC Whisper & Arbitrage Pre Start

StFYC Sails Call & Good Timin' pins NYYC Whisper

StFYC Zuni Bear (Charade)

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Madcap Challenge 2002 - NYYC vs StFYC Team Photos

StFYC Team
StFYC commodore Hart Presenting

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NYYC Team (with Owner reps)
NYYC rear commodore Hinman
first row, third from left

Post Race Photos

Commodore Taft, Exec Race Committee Doug Holm,
Race Manager John Craig & Organizer Don Trask

StFYC Team Good Timin

StFYC Team Sails Call

[Missing is Team Zuni Bear]

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J Boat Founder Bob Johnstone and
Arbibrage Owner Jean Marie Stone

NYYC Team Arbitrage

NYYC Team Irrational Again

NYYC Team Whisper (Rear commodore Hinam
second from the left)

2002 Madcap Challenge - Team Rosters

Team StFYC

Phil Perkins - Good Timin

John Torgeson
Dave Wilson
John Collins
John Perkins

Ian Charles - Sails Call

Tyler Doyle
Dennis George
Steve Marsh
Tom Sponhltz

Shawn Bennett - Zuni Bear

Rich Bergmann
Shane Wells
Tom Purdy
Debbie Bennett
Mark Reardon

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Team NYYC

George Hinman - Whisper

Phil Lotz
Donald Eagleman
Steve Wolf
Eden Kim (owner)

Howard Shiebler - Irrational Again

John Gochberg
Peter Benedetto
Jeff Condon
Jaren Leet (owner)

Bob Johnstone - Arbitrage

Glen Darden
Andy Schoettle
Mason Chrisman
Bruce Stone (owner)
Jean Marie Stone (owner)

John Kiriakis - Chairman
Doug Holm
Steve Taft
John Craig

Participants Observations

Shawn Bennett - Skipper/owner Zuni Bear: Team Racing

Team racing requires the ability to lay out a strategy, communicate the roles, and execute it on the water. Oh, and then when everything changes and is no longer anything like you originally planned it out to be, team racing is about the ability to react to those changes as a team all the while have some sort of communications/mind reading ability between your fellow team mates, to come up with plan b,c,d,..... then comes time to execute. If you turn to slow, if you turn to fast, if you set up too low, if you set up too high...... at best you don't get your team mate through/do not accomplish you objective, at worst, you don't get your team mate through/do not accomplish you objective and you get passed!

It's hard to explain but when your on a team that is working well together you feel, as I did this weekend, a since that we were all thinking the same thing at the same time, that gives you as a helmsman a level of confidence that compounds into better overall sailing. I haven't asked but I would guess that Ian and Phil would have a similar perspective. It helped to have a good tacticians calling out play numbers, of which I had to roll back to my archive brain cells labeled College Sailing to recall there meaning (Note: College Sailing File Corrupted Most Brain Cells dead). I hope we as a fleet can spring board off this win and do more team racing for both fun and in preparation for what could otherwise be a humbling experience in Newport next year.

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Ian Charles - Skipper/owner Sails Call: Observations of Team Racing

Team racing is unlike any other sailing event in that your goal isn't to take a bullet but rather to create winning combinations of finishes among your teammates. That requires the ability to sail fast when necessary and sail slow when it is required to slow down a competitor. In turn, you often act as a blocker in a "pick and roll" scenario in order to get your teammates up in the front in a 1,2, anything combination or 2,3,4 combination. during the course of the weekend, Team StFYC executed perfectly as a team and created effective mark traps that resulted in winning combinations. The boat to boat combat was not only intense but often within inches of the other boat. This is not a sport for the weak at heart or unskilled helmsmen. It required intense concentration on strategy, boat speed, timing and of course the rules! I found that Team StFYC sailed as a team and communicated as a team.

Our starts were scripted and our plays were thought out ahead of time to allow us to quickly communicate the "play in effect" on the water. Once in a play, each of us (Phil, Ian & Shawn) were quick to execute with precision in order send the NYYC into undesirable positions. All in all, it came down to (1) better communications between team members (2) a keen understanding of the boats and the time it takes to speed up and slow down (3) better boat handling and (4) the endurance to fight hard until the goal was achieved: Domination on the water!

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Phil Perkins - Skipper/owner Good Timin': Observations of Team Racing

What a great sailing discipline ! Sort of a combination of traditional sailboat racing, chess and rugby.

I kept thinking about our rules and tactics seminars earlier this year when the experts said there is no such thing as "check mate" in sailing. After seeing Zuni Bear execute a mark trap against a NYYC boat at the reach markon Saturday, I'm not sure I agree. Also, as if we don't have enough jargon in sailing to begin with, now we need to add "mark-trap", "passback", "pick and roll" and "pig in the middle" to our vocabulary. If some of those sound like potentially unsafe maneuvers, you get the picture.

The St. Francis team had the pleasure of being guided by three team racinggurus: Tyler Doyle, Shane Wells and John Torgeson. Three really nice guys and very good team racers. They did a great job of adapting traditional team racing moves to what is actually achievable in a 35 foot keelboat. I was somewhat worried when we had our chalk talk several days before the event. They would move the magnetic boats around the board while describing various plays and I'm sitting there thinking quietly, "you want me to try that ? RIGHT !" Then, to my surprise, Sails Call executed one of these moves perfectly (in 25 knots of breeze) on Saturday at a reach mark springing team St. FYC to a winning combination (at least it was when it was safe to open my eyes).

In short, team racing is a blast and I would encourage anyone who has the opportunity to get involved. I would also strongly suggest that you spend some time studying the tactics and practicing the boat handling moves
necessary so that your first experience is as enjoyable as ours.

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Robert Johnstone - Founder J Boats, Inc. on NYYC yacht Arbitrage

Eden, great job!

One of the positive outcomes of the Madcap Challenge was to sail with and get to know the owners of boats many of us are familiar with. Our crew very much enjoyed the company of Bruce and Jean Marie Stone, both
aboard and ashore...not to mention a real sense of camaraderie with you and Jaren Leet..as defacto team mates. And, it was a pleasure to meet and get to know a few more of the StFYC team at dinner on Saturday night. Building relationships between the clubs is the primary purpose of the event...and that really means personal relationships between the members of the two clubs. Your participation made clear that there are some things more important than winning. As this event goes forward in the future, I hope this benefit of competing in "big boats" is not forgotten!

Bob Johnstone

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Eden Kim - Whisper, owner rep on NYYC yacht.

It was a privilage to particpate in the 2002 Madcap Challenge and lend my yacht to the visiting NYYC team. I had the good fortune to sail with rear commodore Hinman on both days and to get to know several of the NYYC members. Although I am a StFYC member, particpating on the NYYC yacht allowed me to either win, or win. Plus, I got to take away a few personal relationships that I would not get if I compteted against them.

It was very interesting to participate in a team race. It offered many aspects of racing that we do not typically get in fleet around the buoy racing. This is definitely a great event and I hope we can get more team racing in our area. The event planners, race committee and supporters were great. Congratulations to all who participated and many thanks to all that made it possible. Also, thank you NYYC for taking the time and expense to come out to San Francisco. We look forward to sending a good team to race in your venue next year!

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