Mookie of the Year

My friend George doesn’t know a ton about sailing. But he wouldn’t have a hard time picking a team to root for in Fleet 50. Back when we were in college, during the dark ages of Red Sox Nation, he used to take every chance possible to remind us of the heart-wrenching collapse of the Red Sox in Game 6 of the 1986 World Series. He did this by yelling at the top of his lungs—often in response to any sort of pro-Sox chant—“MOOKIE OF THE YEAR.” This was, of course, in tribute to Mets outfielder Mookie Wilson who played such a pivotal role in that game: According to Wikipedia.org, “Wilson avoided being hit by a wild pitch, allowing the tying run to score in the bottom of the 10th. His ground ball later in the same at bat went through the legs of Red Sox first baseman Bill Buckner, allowing the winning run to score.” At the time, the early 1990s, with the Patriots, Sox, Bruins, and Celtics all in the crapper, it was tough to think of a snappy comeback.

Why am I telling that story? Because this week I sent off some questions to Pete Levesque, who’s been driving the J/24 Mookie—which one could say is equally as famous as the eponymous baseball player in J/24 circles—in Fleet 50. Levesque and team finished second and then first last Thursday. Levesque, who works at Hall Spars, was an outstanding college sailor at Tufts. Since graduating he’s been part of the very successful Silver Panda team racing syndicate, which won the last two ISAF Team Racing World Championships. He also placed seventh at the 2009 J/24 Worlds in Annapolis, Md., in May.

1. Pete, you’re relatively new to the fleet. Last Thursday was another classic Newport situation, where local knowledge plays a big role in the tactics. How have you gone about gathering the necessary local knowledge, and how did you pick your tactical strategy for the races?
We have been sailing the Mookie with a pretty consistent group of Nate Frizzell, Caroline Levesque, Ryan Scott, Ted Chwalk and myself since the beginning of last season. Our goal was to put together a strong effort for the 2009 Worlds so we took Thursdays pretty seriously last summer. To learn the venue as quickly as possible, I photocopied a chart and took notes on the conditions (current and wind) from each night. This plus asking many questions of Charlie, Will, Chuck, Chuck and Anthony helped. This past week we had Matt Cohen directing us around the bay. He was very good and you could tell he’d been on this course a few times before. Our main goal was to get out of the current without overdoing it and sailing out of the pressure. Matt did a good job of this.

2. Getting a J/24 to point properly isn’t easy, especially in lighter air and flat water. Sail off the genoa telltales in conventional manner and you’re likely to be 5 to 10 degrees lower than much of the fleet. What sort of guides do you use in lighter to moderate breeze to keep the boat pointing?
I like to look at the boats around us quite a bit. We generally have somebody on the rail giving a constant stream of relative speed and height information. This past week we used a genoa that was different than what we normally use. We used the North technora genoa. It was very nice and seemed to perform well. There were a few odd things about the cut that took a little while for our eyes to get used to, but we felt good with it while racing. In terms of trim, we look at the distance off of the top spreader, depth of the foot, depth of scallops and shape of the leach. We also like to sail by other boats that we know are fast and check out their setup.

3. How did you approach the downwind legs? Upwind it’s fairly easy, get out of the current. Downwind, the current is helpful, but it reduces the apparent wind.
Generally downwind we like to gain lateral separation from boats that might affect our breeze. This also gives us tactical options. We’ve found that during the past few weeks, pressure has trumped current. So we think about finding clear lanes with good pressure before we get too worried about the current.

4. Finally, what about starting? As a former college All American, I’m assuming you’ve developed a pretty good handle on how to start in a crowded fleet in a dinghy. How have you adapted your technique and strategy for keelboats, for Fleet 50?
The lines are generally very crowded at the favored end with many fouls going un-reported. So we like to be safe and try to start away from the crowd. It’s tough to win races this way, but we avoid disasters with this approach. Sometimes there seems to be more emphasis on winning the night rather than the season so I think people take big risks on the starting line. I don’t want to risk getting a 1st one race and a 19th the next so we play the start as conservative as possible while still giving ourselves a chance to do well.