Two days before the start of the Chicago NOOD regatta Voodoo was busy trying to get a new mast into the boat only days after their last one broke. They day before they were met with extremely light air and limited time to get the rig tuned.

Tom Neill’s Nitemare started the regatta right by winning the first race in 10-12 kts of wind. She was chased around the course by Phil Dowd’s Inferno with Jud Smith on board, Bob Hughes and Wally Tsuha’s Heartbreaker and Warren Levins Program. Voodoo started with a 9^th.

The entire regatta was sailed in a myriad of conditions ranging from 6-18TWS. Once again, the direction was from the Southwest which always produces big shifts. Consistency was the key, and only Voodoo and Helmut Jahn’s Flash Gordon were the only two boats to not have at least one double-digit finish, although both came very close.

The regatta came down to the last race where Voodoo had a 1-point lead on Flash and Program and Nitemare was a 3 pts further back. After a short delay for the wind to fill in the race started in 10kts. Nitemare, Voodoo, and Flash headed left while Program and Inferno went off to the right. ½ way up the beat the right looked like it might pay, but the breeze shifted back to the left giving the boats on the left the advantage. Rick and Dan Woodworth’s Contentious rounded the top mark in first followed closely by the rest of the fleet. At the bottom mark, Nitemare, Voodoo, and Flash Gordon were all in the battle for the lead. On the last beat Steve Mash’s Hot Lips got hooked up into high gear, and was just outpacing the rest. At the top mark Hot Lips had moved into second, with the leaders for the regatta were still fighting each other. Hot Lips found the passing lane and went on to win the race with Voodoo finishing second enough to take the regatta. Voodoo also won the Hugo’s Frog Bar Crew Dinner Award for the top boat.

The Farr-40 Great Lakes Championships is sponsored by Hugo’s Frog Bar located at 1024 N. Rush Street in Chicago www.hugosfrogbar.com and Creative Image Apparel @ 630-859-2220