More than 195 boats in 14 classes competed in the final day of racing at the Helly Hansen NOOD Regatta in Annapolis, Md. The three-day event wrapped up with local pro sailor and Rolex Yachtsman of the Year Terry Hutchinson and his crew winning its 60-boat fleet as well as the regatta’s overall title. The win secures his team a berth at the Helly Hansen NOOD Regatta Championship, hosted by Sunsail, in the British Virgin Islands in October. The regatta’s biggest fleet, the J/70s, is a highly competitive class, which was packed with both professional and amateur sailors. In light conditions and strong current, the fleet completed four races over three days.
“Day one we made a couple of small mistakes, but we had good speed and the team was doing well,” said Taylor Canfield, Hutchinson’s tactician. “The beginning was tricky for us because we were over early in the last race, but we had a great comeback. The conditions were supposed to be windy, but we predicted it would be lighter than the forecast. We have been training since last Sunday and expected to have a decent first race with pressure, but it was lighter.” Canfield later added, “We sailed conservatively to keep ourselves in the hunt for the rest of the weekend. We put in more fight when we needed to.”
Terry Hutchinson, Katherine Hutchinson, Morgane Renoir, Nick Turney, and Taylor Canfield (not pictured) won both the J/70 class and the overall regatta in Annapolis. As the regatta continued into its second day, no races were completed for any of the regatta’s buoy-racing fleets, including the J/70s. Considering the light-wind forecast for the remainder of the weekend, Hutchinson said he’d told his team on Friday that they’d “better be in the lead, because there might not be any racing after.”
The final race on Sunday was delayed once, but with a light southerly sea breeze finally filing, the race committee started the day’s one and only race. “We tried to get off the line clean and sail fast. We started a little bit late, and went left with the tide,” said Hutchinson. “A big right-shift filled in halfway up the first beat, and we sat in 20th place initially. We passed boats in the first run down, and beat most of the teams around the mark the second time.”
Hutchinson said Canfield wanted to go left and they went for it, but ultimately it didn’t feel like a Hail Mary. “It was smart sailing,” he said. Hutchinson gave credit to his new team of sailors, which included his 13-year-old daughter Katherine, Canfield, sailmaker Nick Turney, and Morgane Renoir.
“Last weekend my son was on board sailing, and this week my daughter is,” said Hutchinson. “Katherine helped tack, pull the ropes and trim the jib. She was worried we would lose after Friday and I told her that it’s not in the start—it’s the finish that counts, and we did well.”
Hutchinson and his crew will join Grant Dumas of St. Petersburg, Fla., the crew of the Tripp 38 Warrior and John Laun’s Caper crew of San Diego, Calif., along with winner from Chicago and Marblehead, in the British Virgin Islands to compete in the Helly Hansen NOOD Regatta Championship, hosted by Sunsail.
