It was another beautiful day for the final races of the Helly Hansen National Offshore One Design (NOOD) Regatta St. Petersburg. Once the sea breeze filled in, racing got underway and most Classes completed two races for a regatta total of eight to nine races. At each Helly Hansen NOOD regatta, organizers select one challenger from among its Class winners to challenge the 2018 Caribbean NOOD Championship winner. In St. Petersburg, J/70 winner, Travis Odenbach, skipper of Honeybadger, and his crew were selected to represent, earning a berth in the Helly Hansen NOOD Caribbean Championship regatta, hosted by Sunsail in the British Virgin Islands in October. This was a particularly sweet win for the Pittsford, New York native and his team, who won by 15 points. Odenbach was the regatta’s overall winner previously and was unable to attend the Caribbean Championship due to a conflict with the J/24 North Americans. “I have been doing the NOOD since then trying to redeem myself, and my crew doesn’t want to sail with me if I skip it again,” said Odenbach. “We tried pretty hard to win, and this is a gift. We are all really excited, and we are not going to skip this year. With 75-degree temperatures and 10 to 12 knots of breeze, it’s been one of the best years that I have been in the NOOD here.” Odenbach, a successful J/24 racer, is relatively new to the J/70 and attributes his success to his crew who is enjoying the boat and also some lessons on the water this weekend. “One of the things I learned was driving through waves and understanding that the boat doesn’t go any faster or slower if you go really low through the waves, so we powered up, crashed on through and it seemed to really work out going upwind,” he said. Good starts, getting off the line clean and letting the crew do the rest was their recipe to success. Crew members on Honeybadger included Ian Coleman, Patrick Wilson and Brendan Feeney. For complete event details, visit https://www.sailingworld.com/tags/helly-hansen-nood-regatta-st-petersburg.
J/70 (14 Boats)
- Honeybadger, Travis Odenbach, Pittsford, NY 3-2-3-1-1-1-1-1-1;14
- USA 88, Maddy Ploch, Pelham, NY 4-3-4-2-5-2-3-2-4;29
- Tea Dance Snake, Peter Bowe, Baltimore, MD 2-1-1-6-2-6-4-6-2;30