The brother-sister Conway team, also representing SSA, competed on the James River out of the Warwick Yacht and Country Club, and won their Bemis Trophy contest by a one-point margin.
The three SSA sailors will go on to semifinal USYRU Area C contests in New Jersey next month, from which the winners will go to the nationals in Ohio a couple of weeks later.
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When a fleet of 35 J/24s converged on the Tidewater Sailing Club in Hampton, Va., for the Radisson Cup Regatta last weekend, several Annapolis-based teams were among them.
And when the series ended after two races Friday, three on Saturday and a concluding contest on Sunday, Harwood native Terry Hutchinson was at the top of the heap and Annapolitan Doug Clark was tied for second with Chris Larson of Clearwater, Fla.
Clark, an important member of the Naval Academy's Intercollegiate Sailing Team coaching staff, and his own team on Dusty Work, including Ens. Tim Wachendorfer, Lt. Jamie Fontanella, and Annapolis civilian sailors Rusty Deane and Sean Healey, unfortunately lost the tiebreaker to Larson.
Larson's best finish was a third-race ace, but the Dusty Work crew's finishes of 5-5-4-8-2-4 still represented a significant advance over their earlier relative standings.
"Going intothe last race we were six points behind Chris," Clark said. "But then at the finish, we were fourth, Terry was seventh, and Chris was 10th, so we beat him by almost enough to have taken second."
The regatta, which was sponsored by Radisson Hotels and J/24 Fleet 71 in Hampton, was sailed in shifty air on the Hampton Flats, but was a challenging and enjoyable event nonetheless, Clark said.
"We had a variety of breezes within any given race," he said. "We saw 40-, 50-, 60-, even 180-degree shifts, which made the racing really interesting. They put on a really good regatta, though, and I think they were a little disappointed that more people from up here didn't come down for it."
Also road-tripping down to Hampton were Havre de Grace sailmakerMax Skelley and his team on JYD, in sixth overall, and weekend Annapolitan Tony Parker and crew on Bangor Packet, 19th.
Radisson Cup 1991 Regatta results
1) Coal Pile Express, Terry Hutchinson, Traverse City, Mich., 20 pts.; 2) Love Shack, Langnick/Larson, Clearwater, Fla., 28 pts.; 3) Dusty Work, Doug Clark, Annapolis, 28 pts.; 4) Bandit, Steven Hunt, Hampton, Va., 39 pts.; 5) Fast Fwd, Wake/Amthor, Hampton, 39 pts.
Nancy Noyes is a member of the Chesapeake Bay Yacht Racing Association and has been racing on the bay for about five years. Her Sailing column appears every Wednesday and Sunday in The Anne Arundel County Sun.
