Mutineer News

 2005 MUTINEER NATIONALS
North Sails take 1, 3, 4*, 5

Report courtesy Gib Charles

(* North jib)
The Mutineer 15 Class Association held their National Championship July 12-16 on Branched Oak Lake in Nebraska. This was the first stand-alone Nationals for the Class since 1981. The past 3 years we have sailed our Nationals in conjunction with our big brother Class, the Buccaneer 18. With the Buccs going to Vermont this year , we chose to stay in the middle of the country to increase participation, and allow members of both Classes to attend both events if they wanted. There is a lot of cooperation and crossover between the two classes. 4 Mutineer owners went to the Buccaneer North Americans as crew, and one, Bob DeRoeck, will be campaigning his own Buccaneer. I crewed for David Spira of Denver who is a two-time Buccaneer champion. David sailed a Mutineer in some regional races to help the Colorado Mutineers tune-up before the Mutineer Nationals. The effort appears to have been helpful, as the Colorado boats took 1st, 2nd and 4th out of 11 boats.

The Mutineer Nationals saw very nice conditions for our warm-day (of course), then strained to stay optimistic as the first day was very light winds, the 2nd day was even lighter, and the sun baked us in 95 degree heat. We got 5 races in over the first 2 days. My crew, Dale Leidheiser, and I worked hard in slow motion in the ultra light, shifty conditions that we so often get in mid-summer in Colorado, and scored 4 firsts and a second. The last day we were delighted to have the nice Nebraska winds back, blowing 10-20 mph, ideal for the Mutineer. In 3 great races with lots of lead changes, we scored a 3-2-1, ending with 9 points after a throw-out, defending our title. The second place boat was Bob DeRoeck and Bill Swearingen with 21 points, and 3rd was Pete Dix and Sandy Littlejohn from Michigan with 25 points.

The sails were great in all conditions. I love the Mylar jib. It can be very sensitive to steer to, especially in light wind, so it really grabs my attention and keeps it where it belongs. Now that I'm used to it, I'll never go back.

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