New Orleans’ Women Sailors
bring home the Trophies from Pensacola Beach YC’s Race for the Roses
Story by Catherine McNaught
PENSACOLA BEACH — New Orleans’ own J-30, Jackpot, cashed in last weekend at Pensacola Beach Yacht Club’s Race for the Roses, taking home a first in Spinnaker B class and second in fleet in a weekend full of competitive light-air, all-women’s sailing.
Meanwhile, the New Orleans-based crew of the Melges 24 Forerunner took home a second in Spinnaker A class after two days of hair-raising close calls with Pensacola Bay powerboats.
“It was really challenging for us out of town girls, not knowing the bay, the markers and the tide,” said Holly Casanova, owner of Jackpot. “But we went out there and focused on our tactics and crew work, and it paid off,” she said.
New Orleans sailors, Marcy Lake, Debby Grimm, Janice Griglak, Louise Bienvenue, Cody Vega and Jeannie Winters traveled to Pensacola to race Jackpot in the two-day all-women’s regatta.
Saturday’s racing began in light air that never built to more than 10 knots throughout the day. The conditions suited Jackpot, which earned a clean start and maintained the lead throughout the loose triangle course set around government marks in Pensacola Bay.
Jackpot was right on the money during the upwind legs of Saturday’s race and was first in their class to round the first weather mark.
“She just marched up the course like a dream,” said Casanova. “Downwind was a little more challenging, but we managed to stay well in front of the pack.
With an elapsed finish time of more than seven minutes ahead of the next B-class boat, Jackpot also moved into second position for the entire fleet position after Saturday’s race.
The Melges-24 Forerunner, owned by Pensacola native John Mathis and helmed by New Orleans’ Jennifer Lovell, meanwhile battled to get back into the race after being over early at the start. Tammy Hall of Mobile, Cayne Micelli of New Orleans, Kriss Ridgway of New Orleans and Catherine McNaught of Tallahassee rounded out Forerunner’s complement of crew.
“We had a simple strategy – get out front of Phaedra (an Evelyn 32 owned by Pensacola-based Bob Petroni) and hold our own on the windward legs, then walk away downwind,” said Lovell. “That got blown out of the water when we were over early and had to re-round. We really had to claw our way back into contention.”
“It didn’t help that we had to emergency tack away from a commercial fishing boat that was on autopilot in the middle of a shipping channel,” said New Orleans’ racer Kriss Ridgeway. “The skipper of the boat wasn’t even above decks. He would have T-boned us and sunk us. It was the closest call I can ever remember,” she said.
Though Phaedra took the gun, Forerunner climbed back into second position in Class A and third in Fleet after Saturday’s race.
Sunday’s three-lap windward-leeward race began much like Saturday’s, with a postponement. Soon enough, though, the wind filled in to about 10 knots with occasional gusts and oscillating shifts.
Though initially fouled at the start by a J-29, Forerunner tacked away in clean air and gained the lead, and led the fleet down to the first leeward mark on the short, 5.4-mile course.
“At that point, we were in perfect position to take home a bullet,” said Ridgeway. Unfortunately, in a close mark rounding with the J-35 Time Bandit, Forerunner’s spinnaker became fouled around the forestay during the douse, costing the Melges 24 precious minutes and putting them in fourth place for the second race.
“The course was too short to recover from that,” Lovell said.
Jackpot, meanwhile, battled the J-29s Wiley and Redline around the 0.9 mile course legs. Jackpot had a good start and worked hard to compete with the other boats her class, which in corrected time finished less than one minute apart. Unfortunately, their third place finish resulted in a three-way tie for overall class points. Fortunately, the tie-breaker was the total corrected time for both races and the excellent race on Saturday won Jackpot second in fleet overall.
It was a great weekend of racing, both the crews of Jackpot and Forerunner agreed.
“I think we went in as unknowns and underdogs,” noted Ridgeway. “They’ll be watching us next year,” she said.
