Two-time Helly Hansen Caribbean NOOD defending champ Dr. Jim Sears is a known Viper 640 sailor from the Long Beach, California. Sears’ Team Viper, having secured its place to Caribbean NOOD Championship by snatching the Viper 640 class as well as the San Diego NOOD in the year 2013, has always gone for the zest.
For his very first NOOD championship, Jim rented a catamaran to shadow the squad around the course, loaded it with buddies, booze, girlfriends and wives. He won the party hands down, but ended 2nd overall.
However, Team Viper revenged its loss in the year 2014, this time as a full-freight “Open” challenger, racing against select NOOD champs. Once again, The Viper mothership shook the BVI’s sleepy-eyed anchorages, lit up with LED disco lights and more importantly light, casual laughter. A win in ’14 gave them an automatic defender’s spot this year (thanks to Sunsail), and Team Viper came in Tortola in October all set to defend its awards.
According to a report by a Yacht Charter in Greece company, there were a lot of probable spoilers in the championship group. However, including San Diego YC’s commodore, John Laun, who earned his place as the captain of the top J/120 team at San Diego NOOD. The Commodore is also rolled into Sunsail’s Road Town base along with an entourage as well as a mother ship stocked with friends and crew.
Corresponding Chicago NOOD was a foursome led by Colleen Feeny. Her captain, Ron Buzil, could not pay heed so he put her in the responsibility of carrying Vayu battle flag. Team Chicago came light and lean on crew, confident the Sunsail 41’s jib-and-main combo might be handled by 8 hands.