Road To The Cup Week 6
*Road To The Cup – Week 6*
*Top-10 as of 6/27/15*
The mailbag this week was virtually overflowing with positive feedback
about *Charlie Pendleton’s* two-week guest stint authoring this
publication. In fact, the consensus view was that he actually added a
little class to the rag. Well done, Charlie. One generous reader even
went so far as to suggest I go away more often! As my thoughtful friend *Bill
Dalton* is fond of saying, “…. *Huh*.” Anyway, huge thanks to Charlie
for a job well done and for keeping the seat warm.
Three boats showed up for the June 25 twilight race, which proved to be 1-2
hour drifter that ended in a photo finish. This from *John Casler*:
“There was barely enough air at the start to get off a race. *John Casler
& Connie Blake *found whispers of air in the middle of the line and built
that piece of luck into a several-boat-length lead on the beat to the
mid-channel can. The lead shrank significantly as the boats drifted down
to the nun off the Fort, with *Sarah Sheldon* pulling even as the final leg
turned into a 30-40 minute drift against the outgoing tide. Zephyrs came
and went, and mostly the masthead flies on the nearby cruising boats spun
incoherently. *Sarah Sheldon *had a slightly better angle into the tide
over the last minute or two, and nudged out *Team Casler* by a foot or
two. At the finish, we thought they had the race, but they thought we did.
*Team Martini*, who had been killed at the start by a monster hole,
finished a couple of boat lengths back. The determinative factor for the
couple of feet winning margin may have been skipper weight, and I may have
paid dearly for Tuesday night’s backyard picnic with old time R-19
sailors *John
& Chris Todd*, *Mike & Barbara Ferro*, *Lew & Sharon Livermore*, *Jeff &
Dara Frankel *and *Joy Fisher*.”
Out on the MRA line, 14 boats showed up, including the 2015 MRA debuts
of *Stuart
Boyd* and the formidable team of *Chris Small & Ian Peebles*. It’s good to
see Chris sailing with *us* again – back where he belongs on his Rhodes and
not *that other boat*! Conditions were a mixed bag of overcast,
squirrelly, pre-frontal southeasterly. The drift out was painful, though
thankfully the pressure gradually trended up from there. We started the
day with a short postponement, the end of which caught more than a few by
surprise, most notably a couple of J70s who were too far up the course to
make it back. We ended up with an 8-9 knots southeasterly, which was just
enough to push us through the building lump. The RC did a good job of
getting races off, opting for a short line and a short course – 0.5 mile
legs for the first two. While not our usual style of racing, that kept the
fleets compressed and made for some interesting mark roundings.
Tactically, if I knew what was going on, I’d share it with you, but we
seemed to be on the wrong side of everything all day. I did note that
starboard approaches paid off pretty consistently, as boats lifted up to
the mark either due to the outgoing tide, the hand of God or both.
Taking honors for the day with an impressive 3-2-4 for 9 points was *Joe
Fava & Elise Mazareas*. Nice to see them back in the winner’s circle and
picking up steam heading into the heart of the season. Taking 2nd on the
day was the *Team Raisides / Pendleton*, who put up a 4-1-5 for 10 points.
I guess it really doesn’t matter which one of them drives – they are
interchangeable. After Friday’s Supreme Court decision, I wonder if
they’ll finally make it legal. And finishing 3rd on the day was team of *Team
Heffernan*, who rolled a 2-6-2, also for 10 points. Honorable mentions
goes to last year’s RW champ *Dave Nelson* who finished 4th with a 7-5-1
for 13 points, and *Mike Lane & Josh Wheeler* who took 5th with a 1-3-10
for 14 points. Congratulations to all.
So in Cup competition, *Pendleton / Raisides* hold a respectable 11-point
lead over *Hourihan / Frisch* heading into the Independence Day break. The
middle positions are all bunched up so still very much wide open. Worth
mentioning is that *Bill & Renee Heffernan* have begun their annual,
typically unstoppable march to the top five, despite missing the first few
days. Of course, I don’t need to remind you that it’s still early and the
8-10 races of Race Week are still in front of us.
1st
1217
Pendleton / Raisides
74.75
2nd
1210
Hourihan / Frisch
86.29
3rd
982
Team Pandapas
105.86
4th
2585
Steve Uhl
105.86
5th
2623
Mike Lane
108.57
6th
1090
Dru Slattery
112.00
7th
2692
Team Heffernan
120.00
8th
1316
Fava / Mazareas
123.00
9th
1683
Matt Hooks
127.00
10th
3172
Dave Nelson
131.00
Week 7 racing will include just the Twilight race on Thursday night as
there will be *no MRA racing on Saturday July 4th*. That leaves just two
Saturdays of racing before the big event. Remember that the registration
fee for NOOD is included in your MRA fees, but you still have to register,
which you can do online at http://www.yachtscoring.com/emenu.cfm?eID=1232.
Finally, you may have noticed an email about getting your boat measured.
The bottom line is that if you have changed *anything* on your boat since
your last measuring or if you have never been measured, your boat needs to
be measured. No exceptions. Doing this before NOOD is preferred but
certainly it will have to happen before Nationals. Measurer *Josh Wheeler* has
put together a schedule for boats that need to be measured and you can
coordinate directly with him at joshua.wheeler@gmail.com. -kp