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ODOM Regatta (See below)
(Race recaps below by class)
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Day #5 July
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The 3rd Saturday of each month. Mar-Nov.
Race Day #4 Action Photos 21 June 2025 at Columbia Pond
Skippers in Action in unpredictable and every changing winds
DF 65 Fleet headed to what was the downwind gate
Commodore clears hazard to navigation that got more than one boat hung up
ODOM Fleet at start
Race Day #4 Commodore's Recap
Folks,
Saturday was warm, sunny and a great day for racing. And by racing, I mean watching John Ebell win... As the winner of all three classes, John will send in a write-up for the day. Congratulations on an amazing and consistent performance John!
From my chair, I'd like to thank Dave Rakena for doing a great job as race director, and also John Houfek and Mike Rickels for their help with setting up.
Plenty of members attended the day and there were good numbers in all classes which produced plenty of great racing. What a wonderful sport this is!
Richard Herbert
Race Day #4 Recap by John Ebell (who won all three classes)...
June’s race day was a beautiful day, not too hot and with adequate wind. The only thing missing, making the day less than perfect, were actually a lot of our usual competitors. Conspicuously missing from this day’s racing were, regulars (in no particular order), Walter House, Mari Spina, Tom Walsh, Victor Gorokhov, James Earle, and Steve Andre, though Steve did stop by to watch. Ricardo Yepes and new member Bob Kehoe did sail but they only participated in two of the three classes. I guess that’s what happens come summer time. On the positive, it was good to see new members Chris Taylor and Kevin Brennan back out. In addition, MIA, Kurt Boren finally was able to join us for the first time this year! I hope to see all back this coming month.
Besides our normal members, we also had two new people race with us this month. Prospective new member, Julian Richards, raced both DF65s and ODOMs. Julian is a friend to many of us here, as several of us sailed big boats, for and against him, more times than we can count. Always a tough competitor and excellent sailor, Julian showed his mettle in the last ODOM race, taking a second place. We hope to see him back again soon. Richard Herbert also had a friend from Australia join us for the Vics and DF 65. Having never done this hobby before, he too held his own, and is looking to race with us again on his next visit.
This month I was fortunate in actually winning all three classes, and as a result I am writing this article explaining the overall day. Racing this day for me, actually started earlier in the week. Usually a day, or even two before we race, I always check the weather. I started this habit when I was racing big boats. It prepares you for what to expect, so you can formulate some strategies for the race. I also check again before I head to the pond, and then again at the pond against the actual conditions. The weather forecast even provides wind predictions for the whole day, so you can almost totally plan your racing day
The wind forecast for the day was southeast winds backing to south southeast and even possibly south later in the day. This forecast told me the course would probably be run from right to left. Even with that course setting, the winds would start to change and probably be prevailing from more left on the course. So before I even got to the pond, I had a strategy to stay on the left side on the course and protect the left side as warranted. This strategy proved very fruitful the first race of the day in Victorias. I started on port tack at the pin, making the windward mark on one tack and leaving the fleet struggling on starboard tack. I have had this done to me more times then I can count, and it is always very satisfying when it works for you.
I repeated the basic left hand strategy just about every race in all three classes for the remainder of the day. Not necessarily starting on the left but always protecting it. While the left hand side didn’t always lift you directly to the mark, staying left provided access first to newer and possibly stronger wind. So, whenever I found myself getting to right of center, I always looked for an opportunity, even if it meant eating a bit of a header, to get back left. It just about always paid off!
There were three other strategies I also adhered to during the day. One, I have found is basic to most model boat racing. It is a corollary to the “Always keep the boat moving” rule. It is the basic, “Don’t get tangled up with another boat” rule. This is either actually on the race course, or the bigger culprit, around turning marks. One tangle can completely take you out of a race. Usually, whenever I see a potential cluster at a turning mark, I sail well wide making sure to avoid everyone and keep my boat speed up. Often times, I have found this to be even faster, and actually pass boats while sailing this defensive method. Several other racers got tangled up during the day and this dramatically impacted their performance.
The second strategy which I have found extremely useful, particularly at Columbia with its ever changing winds, is one the late Tom Causin taught me. “When the winds are particularly often oscillating, (changing direction) try and stay center-ish on the race course”. This prevents you from getting totally screwed by wind shifts and increases your opportunities to use shifts to your advantage. However, like anything, timing is always important.
Finally, like any race, it is always helpful to get a good start. Like they say, “it’s not critical to win the start, it’s just important to get a decent start” That is usually one where you have good boat speed and moving clear. Races where I successfully navigated a decent start, I usually faired very well. Since the wind this day was always changing, both speed and direction, Columbia being Columbia, the trick this day was to not venture far from the starting line, and try and time the short approach so I was accelerating as I came to the line. This usually allowed me to get my nose clear and move out. I tell people, being clear is the most important thing. Heck, even being a little late to the start, but with clear air isn’t bad. If you have to, delay a little and stay out of the cluster.
It was a very fun day and several people had very good performances. Richard Herbert won 3 races, Alex Krusinger won 2 races, Mike Rickels won 1 race, Son Devin won 2 races, and Mike Stefancik also won 1 race. Way to go guys! I am sure next month will be even better. Look forward to seeing you all then.
2025 ODOM Region2 Championship Regatta
2025 ODOM Region2 Championship Regatta
By John Ebell
The 2025, Region 2, ODOM regatta, would be one for the books in many aspects, as I shall further elaborate. On many levels, from the beginning, this regatta fought us from happening, from having been rescheduled due to rain, losing the RD due to the reschedule, having an issue with very early weed growth, then having to transfer the sailing location. Ultimately, it was determined it would be held May 17th at our alternate sailing location in Columbia. Due to scheduling issues it was decided to hold the regatta concurrent with MMYC’s normal race day. Since I was already scheduled to be RD for our club that race day, and we had lost our Regatta RD, I decided to sit out the regatta and continue being RD for the regatta as well. So, after all the craziness, it was finally coming together.
Just when we thought we had everything that could go wrong fixed, this regatta continued to fight us. The scheduled winds for the day were supposed to be between 10 and 20 mph! When the regatta started it was close to 20mph at times and sometimes approached 30 mph in the gusts. You can imagine the carnage this dumped upon the fleet. With the regatta early in the year, and a lot of skippers not sailing much yet, coupled with the participation of several new skippers, many boats missed races due to needing repairs or withdrawing completely, due to more involved damage. As a result, only 5 of the starting boats finished the regatta, and only 2 raced every race! I am sure that’s a first! While the wind did
moderate at times, that just made the sailing even more difficult as everyone’s tune was set for heavy air!
For the most part, the wind did behave as anticipated. The course was set to it, but every once in a while, it would go more left and provide anyone protecting that side a nice port lift to the windward mark. The trick here was to guess (and I do mean guess) when to commit to that port tack. Too early and you could be caught out on the right eating a header to climb back to the mark. There were some shifts to tack on, but the biggest thing was to keep control and stay out of trouble. Get around the course clean, and you usually found yourself in the top boats.
While this day was difficult, there was some very good sailing. MMYC Club Commodore, Richard Herbert, came out of the blocks early, netting a bullet in the first race. Unfortunately he would suffer with collisions due to the wind and ultimately have to retire ½ way through the regatta with a burned up steering servo. Tom Walsh set a standard for the day by winning 4 races in a row, 5 total. However, he too succumbed to gear failure, and
had to not finish a race, as his sail servo mount ripped out of its attachment point. In retrospect, as it turned out, that might have made a difference in the final scoring. Mari Spina also had sail servo issues. It appeared the potentiometer in her sail servo wasn’t working correctly, limiting her sail trimming. This too caused her to retire from one race. Since she couldn’t repair it, she suffered through it for the remainder of the day, and to her
credit, she still managed a couple 2nd place finishes.
What is becoming a noticed item at MMYC lately, is the Rickels duo, father Mike, and son Devin. They have become a force lately at MMYC. Well, they didn’t disappoint in this regatta either. Mike put together 3 bullets in a row and sailed consistently, scoring high in most of the other races. Unfortunately, he did get tangled up in a couple of collisions. This resulted in him finishing deep, forcing him to use his drops there. Fortunately, he was one of only TWO BOATS that didn’t suffer a breakdown, so he could use his drops.
The only other skipper that didn’t miss a race was Devin Rickels. Devin sailed extremely well and clean, and after using his drops, finished 4th or higher in every race. Add to that consistency, like Tom Walsh, also winning 5 races, ultimately proved too much, and Devin won the first regatta he ever entered with 23 points! Add another for the books! Even another for the books, is Tom Walsh ended up second with 26 points. What makes this one for the books about both these performances, is, Devin who is only 22, is our youngest club member, while on the other hand, Tom Walsh at 81 (yes 81), is our oldest club member! To me, this just shows why I like this hobby so much. Not only is it perfect for both men and women, but all ages can compete equally and have fun!
Closing out the top three, the older part of the Rickels Duo, (Dad) Mike took 3rd place with 30 points. Of interesting note here is, Tom Walsh took 2nd place in 2024 and Mike Rickels took 3rd place in 2024 as well. Pretty consistent sailing guys!
Due to time, weather, and equipment life expectancy, we limited the regatta to 14 races. This provided everyone with 2 drops, and the relief they wanted. I feel I need to mention that this regatta was piggybacked on the normal MMYC race day. So, anyone who normally sailed the prior MMYC classes of Victorias and DF 65s, had already raced 14 races. So, you add that to the 14 Regatta races, that’s 28 races in a day. So, the final one for the books is, there were two skippers who raced all day, newest member Bob Kehoe (70) and the original ironman himself, Tom Walsh (81), the two oldest competitors!
Of noteworthy mention for the regatta, James Earle did score a second place finish, Bob Adams did start his first regatta, then promptly got dismasted, Victor Gorokhov sailed some of his best races yet. Missing UTAH transplant, Dick White, threw his boat in the water for the first time in a year, and was still getting consistent mid fleet finishes, and finally, newcomer/never have sailed an ODOM before, and co-ironman, Bob Kehoe, scored a Third in one race. Definitely some more for the books!
My thanks go out to all the guys and gal who gave it their best shot and suffered this blustery day.
Summary of 2025 ODOM R2CR
Class: ODOM
• Chevrons: Red
• Date: May 17, 2025
• Location: Pond behind Apple Ford, Columbia, MD
• Host Club: Maryland Model Yacht Club; AMYA #205
• # of Entries: 11
• Winds: WSW 15 – 30 mph
• Races completed: 14
• Scoring System: Low Point, one throw-out per 7 races
• Regatta Committee & Valuable Assistants: John Ebell, Holly Ross, Tom Walsh, Rich
Herbert
2025 ODOM R2CR Results
Place Skipper Sail # Points
1 Devin Rickels 599 23
2 Tom Walsh 37 26
3 Mike Rickels 621 30
4 Mari Spina 448 39
5 Bob Kehoe 1659 68
6 James Earle 00 97
7 Victor Gorokhov 524 100
8 Dick White 45 101
9 Rich Herbert 294 104
10 Bob Adams 506 132
Thanks to everyone who hung out after and helped clean up. Finally, thanks go to both Tom and his wife Holly Ross, who really pulled this regatta together and helped so much behind the scenes, and made cookies! They are always excellent! YUMMM!!!
Race Recap for Race Day #2 - April 2025
Race Conditions at the pond this month were superb. The wind was coming from the predicted SSW, SW direction and at the approximate speed. What I learned from racing the prior classes, that was really cool, was there were some good wind shifts to watch for, and to jump on to make significant gains, or losses if you missed them. That made the day all more fun. Besides the weather, what made the day even better, was, we had two new sailors racing in the One Meter Class. First time RC sailor Bob Adams, with his rebuilt ODOM, joined us for the fun. In addition, another Bob, Bob Kehoe with his DF 95 also hit the line. There is a rumor they will be participating in other classes soon, so be sure to welcome them when you meet them!
It was Easter Weekend and as a result we were missing several other One Meter competitors. Ricardo Yepe, Dave Birmingham, Victor Gorokhov, James Earle, Chris Taylor, Ed Riehl, Chris Carpenter and Kevin Brennan all were missing. Hopefully, they will all make it next month to get the starting numbers back to normal. One malady did occur, While rigging his boat, Steve Andre had some wind blow his rigging catawampus breaking a main boom and ripping his sails. Sorry about that Steve! I later found out he ordered a replacement set of sails from pondside and I am sure, knowing Steve, his boat will be fixed before this article is even published.
After sailing the prior two classes, I was of the opinion that the boat end was favored at the start. This was not because of any line bias, but because the wind seemed to shift to the right several times with good velocity during racing, which made me want to stay right of other boats immediately from the start.
Mike Rickels seemed to have his starts very well dialed in. He hit the line at the favored end at the gun just about every time. He was tough to duel with on the starts,and he forced me into a foul one time. Devon Rickels (yes son of Mike and yes the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree) sailed an excellent day. He tacked on shifts at the right moment and had excellent pointing and boat speed. The game to be played today was to take advantage of the shifts and try and guess when the next one would occur and be in position to take advantage of it when it did occur. It definitely was thinking racing. If you were on the wrong side of a shift, you would immediately find yourself behind. This was shown several times during the day, when the first boat rounded sometimes many boat lengths ahead of the next boat. This was not because of boat speed, but because of leverage.
It was good to see David Rakena back this month with his repaired keel. Tom Walsh had much better finishes this class. Glad we figured out how to elevate you and your finishes. Now you have to fabricate something more stable and functional before next month! Bob Kehoe sailed his DF 65 very well and is learning our pond. Look for him to be a strong contender next month. Total rookie Bob Adams got around the race course fine, which was more than I could do my first time out. Unfortunately, he learned an unfortunate lesson in waterproofing the boat and electronics, as after the second race, his boat was dead. Never fear, he will be back next month more determined than ever. Did I mention he is also recovering from back and tunnel carpel surgery. Just like Tom Walsh, he is a competitor! Finally, I have to mention that our Club Commodore sailed a pretty good day and had several signs of excellence. However, one can tell its still early in the season. He had a few bad tacks and other misfortunes that kept him back. I am sure once he gets the feel of things again, he will return to his winning form.
Finally, one other observation, boat breakdowns were critical to finishing well this month. Several skippers, for one reason or another, had to drop out, miss a race, or worse, not complete the day. Having your boat in tip top condition, fully charged and ready to go is extremely important. As I always say attendance is everything. Double check everything before you get to the pond. You will be glad you did. Also, be prepared to always perform pondside repairs. During the day, Devon Rickels, Mike Rickels and myself had boat issues. Fortunately we were prepared, made repairs and were back racing in the next race.
Finally, to all the ODOM skippers out there, don’t forget about the Region 2 ODOM Championship coming up in May. Be sure to get signed up now. For any club members who would like to assist, contact Tom Walsh. I am sure he can use a hand.
See ya at the Pond.
John Ebell
Race Recaps for Victoria, DF 65
Victoria - Won by Tom Walsh
DF 65 - Won by Mike Rickels
'Twas a beautiful day to race. Wind was strong and oscillating pretty good. Unfortunately, when we arrived, the Vics were already done. Why? Because imitation is the highest form of flattery and I generally like to watch their starts to see which end of the line and sides of the course seem favored. This time I was running blind, but generally the line was short, and the favored end of the line really doesn't matter as much with these boats. What's important is to get a clean start where you're not buried under someone, pinned, or fighting with someone even if that means starting a few seconds late. Get moving and get on the favored tack ASAP. Especially in an oscillating breeze. This matters even before the start since that perfect wind angle to get you to the start line may collapse right before the start and you can get stuck in no man's land having to make several tacks to get to the line. Until I got into the starting groove by Race 4 positioning myself inside the line to give me more options, I found myself having to dig through the fleet several times from really bad starts.
At that point, the strategy is pretty simple. The general rule in an oscillating breeze is stay in the middle and that really paid off. I saw several time folks get lured into the corners of the course by what seemed like an awesome heading or stronger breeze but then eat a horrible wind shift coming back. By staying in the middle, I guaranteed that I wouldn't overstand any marks, sail any additional distance, and give myself "optionality."
On the mark rounding's, I forgot my prime directives on the first 3 races. On Race 1 I got lucky but paid the price on Races 2 & 3. The rule is simple. Stay away from the pack. This is a classic case of being correct (having rights) but being the wrong choice. If a boat hangs you up, you can lose half the fleet, even if you did nothing wrong. If there's a pack hitting the mark at the same time, I go around them all or even head to the other mark when downwind. It's a matter of risk management. I didn't follow that in Races 2 & 3 and really got pushed deep into the pack.
Downwind, I just tried to go fast and keep the sails on the favored side of the boat. With that oscillating breeze, that's hard sometimes, but when I was going downwind wing-on-wing and the head sail started to luff, I would quickly pull in the main and see if it wanted to jibe over naturally to its favored side. Generally, that's a good test to read the wind direction. There were a couple of time that the wind tried (and was successful) to submarine my boat. I played with different techniques to try and fend this off, but I really haven't figured out yet a good way to consistently prevent it.
Overall, it just came down to trying to sail a clean race minimizing risk as much as possible.
Mike Rickels
ODOM - Won by Tom Walsh
This was our compressed schedule race day, which allowed MMYC to run their beleaguered
ODOM Championship Regatta on the same day.
Racing was at our alternate location, the pond at Columbia, due to heavy weed infestation at
Melford Pond. Winds were predicted to be 10 mph, gusting to 20. The winds for the ODOM
races were more on the order of 15 mph, gusting to 30!!
Our RD, John Ebell, had set a very fair course, with two sets of windward marks, one short and
one long. We used the long set of weather marks for the ODOMs. We had ten ODOMs racing
and sailed the first seven races of the ODOM R2CR, which counted as our normal May race day.
Three of the ten skippers scored bullets. Our Commodore, Rich Herbert jumped out in the first
race to score a bullet. Devin Rickels scored two bullets and Tom Walsh got four. As mentioned
above, the wind for the ODOMs was wild and woolly. There was a lot of submarining and
difficulty tacking in the heavy gusts. If your boat would not tack it was prudent to jibe in order
to get onto the other tack. There was a significant amount of attrition due to burned
up/unresponsive servos and rig failures. Bob Adams dismasted early on, which put him out of
the running for the day. Tom won the day with 67 points. Devin came second with 62 points
and Mike third with 57 points. The remaining order for the day was Mike, Mari, Rich, Jazz,
Dick, Victor, Bob Kehoe and Bob Adams.
A day of survival racing with a fair amount of attrition. Thank you to our RD, John Ebell for
running a good race day.
Tom Walsh
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