By Airwaves Writer Taylor Penwell
Photos © C A Hill Photo
New Bedford Community Boating Center, Buzzards Bay, MA–June 14-18 The Community Boating Center in New Bedford hosted the 2017 505 North American Championship from June 14-18th. 25 teams sailed out of Fort Taber 
for the event. The four days of racing held very different wind conditions. The lightest day of racing saw winds at five to seven knots while the heaviest day had twenty to twenty-five knots.
The courses were a mixture of windward-leewards, triangles and double windward-leewards with races running about 50-70 minutes. These long races allowed for plenty of time to pass and be passed, making the racing exciting.
505 Class Assocation members Drew Buttner and Craig Thompson had this to say about the racing,
“Day 1 was champagne sailing with 12-15 knots and sunny skies. Howie Hamlin and Andy Zinn asserted their dominance early on the fleet with Craig Thompson and Mike Curtin putting together a solid first day to hold 2nd place going into day two. Day 2 brought 20-25 knots and enormous waves launching many 505s into the air exposing both blades as they skipped over the waves upwind. Two races were held with the wind opposing the tide, until the breeze freshened. Howie and Andy along with Ted Conrads and Jeff Nelson both set themselves apart from 
the fleet in the big breeze, with finishes of 2-1 and 1-3 respectively. Day 3 was a light 5-7 knots, with two races held after a postponement on shore. Jesse Falsone and crew Chris Behn put together a solid day with two third place finishes putting them in striking distance of the top three going into the final day. The final day of racing saw 10-15 knots with heavy fog. Two races were held in tricky conditions with large disparity between the puff and the lulls. Limited visability also made for some interesting strategy in deciding which side of the course to favor. 505 newcomer Chris Segerblom and Eric Anderson won the day with finishes of 3-1, securing ther 8th place overall and the “top young team” award of a brand new jib donated by North Sails.”
First place finisher Howard Hamlin and crew Andy Zinn dominated the racing, finishing with a total of 13 points. The closely contested 2nd place came down to the last run with Jesse Falsone beating out Edward Conrads for the second and third places respectively with 38 and 39 points. Winners Hamlin and Zinn have won 3 of the last 4 North Americans and are looking to be the strong contenders going into the Annapolis Worlds in September.
Results for the 2017 505 North American can be found here:
https://yachtscoring.com/event_results_cumulative.cfm?eid=2998
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