Marblehead’s Smith a shining ‘Star’ at NOOD regatta

MARBLEHEAD – The action continued on Massachusetts Bay Friday as the Sperry Top-Sider National Offshore One-Design (NOOD) regatta hosted 10 boat classes just offshore of Marblehead for its second day of racing.Though the weather conditions were less than ideal for sailing, each fleet completed two races a piece to set up some interesting leads in the series.With back-to-back bullets in today’s races, Marblehead’s Jud Smith had the best finish of the day. Smith, who sails in the Star boat class, paces his fleet with a three-point lead at two points.Fellow Marblehead skipper Tomas Hornos trails behind Smith at five points, while Hong Kong’s William Swigart rounds out the top three with seven points.Smith took second place overall in the Star fleet at the 2009 Marblehead NOOD and is off to great start in 2010. The Star class will continue racing through Sunday, July 25, where a new Star champion will be crowned, as last year’s winner John MacCausland is not present to defend his title.Also notching back-to-back first-place finishes today was Tim Healy of Newport, R.I. Healy leads the J/24 fleet with two points. John Denman and John Surguy round out the top three, respectively.Racing for all 11 classes will continue today, beginning at 12 noon and conclude Sunday, where each boat class will crown a winner, plus the event’s overall champion.The overall winner in Marblehead will be invited to participate in the Sperry Top-Sider NOOD Championship regatta in the British Virgin Islands in November to compete aboard Sunsail 39s against the overall winners from each of the eight other stops in the Sperry Top-Sider NOOD regatta series.Marblehead is the eighth of nine stops in the 2010 season, and has been part of the Sperry Top-Sider NOOD regatta series since 1998.Following Marblehead, the Sperry Top-Sider NOOD regatta series will sail on to its final stop, Larchmont, N.Y., on Sept. 11 & 12. Additional venues for 2010 include St. Petersburg, Fla., San Diego, Calif., Annapolis, Md., Seattle, Wash., Detroit, Mich., Chicago, Ill. and San Francisco, Calif.For more information on the Sperry Top-Sider NOOD regatta series, please visit www.sailingworld.com.