VS photo of Jammin courtesy Spinsheet

THE EVELYN 32-2's duel at Screwpile '04

My first sight of Terry Reese's "Jammin'" was on the way down to Solomon's on Thursday am, the day before the Friday pm start of the "feeder race" from Annapolis. Terry was headed up the Bay and we were headed down. I saw this boat off in the distance and was thinking,"where have I seen a boat like that boat before..." and then finally gave myself a big slap to the forehead, well, DUH, it's another Evelyn. Of course, then I went nuts trying to wave Terry down and made a further ass out of myself.

So, we get to Solomons and wake up Saturday morning as the Eastport racers are getting in. The son of our boat's previous owner walks by and says, "How'd you do on the race down?" I say, "well...we didnt do the race down," sort of sheepishly, embarassed that we hadn't raced, and he says, "Too bad...it was an Evelyn kind of night!" Turns out he was right, too, as Terry & company lead the race in the A2 fleet for much of the race until the wind went sour at daylight and the fleet compressed. Terry still managed 3rd in PHRF A2! Huge congrats on that, Terry! (RESULTS)

So, finally after a day of practicing, we head out on Sunday morning to do battle against "Jammin." I made it a priority to find the other E 32-2 and we wanted to keep the boat in sight for the entire first race if not the entire regatta. Turns out that was not hard, as for almost the entire first race, "Dire Wolf" and "Jammin'" were neck and neck. The race to the finish line was very close and the D-Wolf crossed the line a few seconds ahead of "Jammin'", but I had forgotten we owed Terry 3 seconds a mile (O/B vs I/B) and Terry corrected over us by about 12 seconds. Bummer. Great race though. Looked like we were in for a wonderful three days of fierce competition.

Yeah, looked that way until Terry did a horizon job on us in Race 2, the next morning.

Finally, in Race 3, our skill prevailled. Riiiiiiiight....more like luck.

We somehow botched the start sequence (our tactician deserted us for a ride on a Mumm 30 that day) and we missed our start, along with a few other boats in our fleet. We were 3 minutes late to the line. But: all the boats that had started on-time ducked left for the beach, trying to avoid the notorious Cove Point foul current. We were stuck in the middle, having just cleared the line, when the breeze miraculously filled in from the right and we and two other boats were the only ones in our fleet that had any air. It was our worst start but our best race, finishing 5th in the fleet of 23 boats.

Then, the next day Terry did another horizon job on us...

results for the Screwpile Battle of the Evelyns were:

Jammin' 9-5-8-8 (30)

Dire Wolf 10-12-5-11 (38)............but we'll be back next year with a new #1 headsail!!!

btw, a Melges 24 finished in between Jammin' and Dire Wolf. Nice job, Terry, on beating the sportboat!

Regarding "Jammin's" trouncing of the interloper boat from the North, Terry says, "I was fortunate to have a whole bunch of really talented people on board that have been racing on "Jammin" for a long time and know how to make her go fast. Special thanks to Sandy, Joe, Bob, David R., Buddy, Rick, David D., Kenny, Jim & Seth. Those are the guy's & gal that make it happen, they just let me take the boat home when were done!"

Terry and all the folks at SMSA who participated in hosting the Screwpile Lighthouse Challenge, are truly a class act.

See y'all next year!

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