It’s a family affair at the Marblehead NOOD for Jamie Holley and his crew aboard Manikiki, who finished four days of racing with both the class title for the Rhodes 19 fleet, as well as the regatta’s overall prize. The win secures his team a berth at the Helly Hansen NOOD Regatta Championship, hosted by Sunsail, in the British Virgin Islands in October. When asked what his favorite part of race week was, Jamie answered, “My family. My wife crewed the first few days, and then my son did the last.”
Holley and his crew beat out second place co-skippers Ken Cormier and Steve Dalton in an overall points tie because Holley had more bullets overall. “It was a very tough week of sailing,” said Holley. “We were only one of two fleets that had to sail all four days. We were 12 points down coming into the last day of sailing, and we pulled through.”
He added, “There was everything from light air and flat water, to heavy air and high seas. I want to say it takes consistency to win, but we weren’t very consistent. There were at times five boats wide round the mark, and sometimes other factors made it a very complicated regatta.” Interestingly, in the 33-boat fleet, the top 13 boats had at least one first place finish during the NOOD.
Fred deNapoli’s Allegro Semplicita, the J/105 class winner, took home the black Wilmington Trust Leader Spinnaker. The “leader spinnaker” was given to the winning boat of each day, and switched owners a few times over the regatta. Ultimately, the overall class winner took it home for good. In second place in the class was Mark Marsur’s Two Feathers, followed by Mark Lindquist’s Sterling.
Holley and his team from the Marblehead NOOD will join Ron Buzil’s crew of the Beneteau First 40.7 Vayu, Grant Dumas of St. Petersburg, Fla., and his crew of the Tripp 38 Warrior and John Laun’s Caper crew of San Diego, Calif., along with Rolex Yachtsman of the Year, Terry Hutchinson, winner of the Annapolis NOOD and other victors in the British Virgin Islands to compete in the Helly Hansen NOOD Regatta Championship hosted by Sunsail. Each overall winning team will be outfitted with new sailing gear, compliments of Helly Hansen.
At the Marblehead NOOD, along with new title sponsor Helly Hansen, we welcome back renewing sponsors including: Mount Gay Rum, North Sails, Sunsail, West Marine and Wilmington Trust.
