I’d like to pause to remember Tom King, who passed away unexpectedly on May 15th at the young age of 44 (Boston Globe obit here). Tom sailed with Steve Uhl for close to 10 years and was one of the nicest guys you’d ever meet. He started out without a lot of experience but just wanted to get involved and learn the basics. And that he did. He quickly latched on to it all – to quote Steve, “hook, line and sinker.” To say he had a zest for life would be a profound understatement. He and wife Erinn got involved in Fleet 5’s social life and became regulars at parties and on the deck after sailing. When they started their family a few years ago, sailing was forced to theback burner, but he missed it and treasured his time on the water. I ran into him in an airport just a few months ago and he was just as excited and upbeat as ever. The photo below is from 2004 East Coasts in Winthrop – Tom is standing to Steve’s right. We will miss him.
A couple of important reminders before we get to the racing. Our first social event will be hosted this Saturdayafter racing at thehome Elise & Mike Nash. The idea of this party is to gather after racing, not after you go home and gussy up. No need to bring pot luck unless you want to. The fleet will provide chips, burgers, dogs and of course, the fleet bar. So put your boat away and head straight overto Elise & Mike’s house, located conveniently at 4 Longfellow Road, just off the neck. Let’s enjoy our first post-race drinks together. And please RSVP so we get enough of everything. Also, East Coasts are in less than three weeks in Rockport. If you haven’t registered yet, now is the time EC Registration.
Our first Twilight of the season was held Thursday night. This one was a practice race and not scored, so turnout was light. Our man onthe scene, John Casler reports that just two teams showed up to enjoy the light conditions of 5-6 from the NE. As is often the case, thewind direction and government mark selection resulted in no beats, but hey, that’s Thursday nights, right? The race went off as scheduled at 7:00, with a course of 22, 19, once around. Team Martini won the favored end and led John Casler & Connie Blake around the course. Things tightened up on the run back into the harbor, until a freshening breeze favored the Martini’s side of thecourse.
Spring Series was a tale of two cities. On Saturday, we got July in May as we were treated to mid-summer conditions with high temps, moderate sea breeze and early season sunburns. Reality returned on Sunday courtesy of a backdoor cold front that brought with it a chilly, foul weather gear-worthy nor’ easterly that was just crappy enough to encourage PRO Susie Schneider to run us inside. Four fleets showed up on Saturday (R19s, IODs, E22s and Vipers) and the J70s joined us on Sunday. For Fleet 5, a respectable fourteen boats showed up on Day 1. We lost a couple of those on Day 2. We got in two races on Saturday and three on Sunday.
For the day results, Team Pendleton/Raisides took Day 1 with an impressive 1-1 for 2 points. Pretty hot for right-out-of-the-box! Finishing 2nd was Team Pandapas who rolled a consistent 3-3 for 6 points, and 3rd was Steve Uhl with a 5-2 for 7 points. Honorable mentions go to Team Felton and Mike Lane, who split 4th with a 4-8 and an 8-4 respectively. On Day 2, 2015 Cup winners Hourihan / Frisch took 1st on a tiebreaker rolling 6-4-1 for 11 total points. Finishing 2nd was Team Pendleton/Raisides who put up a 7-2-2 also for 11 points, and despite a race 5 OCS. Taking 3rd on the tiebreaker for that day was Team Pandapas with a 1-7-6 for 14 points, narrowly beating Larry Ehrhardt with a 2-3-9, also for 14 points.
So congratulations to Team Pendleton/Raisides who dominated wire to wire with an adjusted 6 total points, less than half the next finisher. There really was no second place here, but for the record, finishing 2nd was Team Pandapas with an adjusted 13 points, and taking 3rd was Team Frisch/Hourihan with 17 points. Honorable mention goes to Matt Hooks who took 4th with 18 points. An interesting point of reference – the same four boats finished in the same order in last year’s Spring Series, except with totals of 7, 15, 16 and 17 points. How ‘bout that?
So in Cup competition, with no Twilight, our opening top-10 mirror the Spring Series results.
| 1st | 1217 | Pendleton / Raisides | 6.00 | |
| 2nd | 982 | Team Pandapas | 13.00 | |
| 3rd | 1210 | Frisch / Hourihan | 17.00 | |
| 4th | 1683 | Matt Hooks | 18.00 | |
| 5th | 2435 | Larry Ehrhardt | 19.00 | |
| 6th | 2585 | Steve Uhl | 20.00 | |
| 7th | 1299 | Team Felton | 20.00 | |
| 8th | 1090 | Dru Slattery | 22.00 | |
| 9th | 2623 | Mike Lane | 25.00 | |
| 10th | 1686 | Rick Saunders | 32.00 |
Week 2 racing will include the Twilight race on Thursday night and the 2-3 races of MRA Series 1, Day 1 this Saturday.
A couple of quick thankyous – the clinic was well attended and seems to have been a hit. If you missed it or want to hear it again, Nat Taylor videoed it and is putting topical clips up on the Fleet 5 web site for future reference. Thanks to Nat for that. And many thanks again to our panelists Jim Taylor, Evan Cooke, Charlie Pendletonand Jeff Shoreman.
Thanks also to Josh Wheeler and Jim Raisides for volunteering their time to measure masts. As it turned out, just two masts needed measuring, both made recently by Greg Dolan. Both, by the way, measured in.
Mail Bag
Finally, we had a few items in the mail bag this week. First, in response to the trivia question in the may newsletter about Rick Saunders, Tommy Tompkins wrote, “I thought Rick Saunders started in ‘Brown Eyes’ way back when he sailed with his dad.” Rick, what about that?
John Casler answered our question about the location of Skunk Hollow Yacht Club. “The answer to your question re the photo is Madison, Indiana. on the Ohio River.”
New fleet member Abbott Lowell, who is sailing with Steve Uhl, sent this in thank you in response to his appeal for used sails. “I wantto give a quick shout out to Fleet 5 on behalf of the Nahant Sailing Program: to Mike Lane, for connecting me with Fleet 5; to Kim Pandapas for writing up the classified for the sails; and to Jim Taylor, for being the first to come through. Thank you!”
Joan Thayer responded to our reference in the May Newsletter to Jim Taylor’s receding youth, “I think you’re going to have to mea culpa in the next edition re Jim Taylor. He may be receiving Social Security, but Medicaid? I don’t think so. That is for those with little or no money or on disability. I think you meant Medicare.” Fair enough. We stand corrected.
In response to our ongoing and utterly shameless efforts to get CYC Commodore Brent Larlee and his wife Beth Larlee into a R19, he wrote in, “Thanks for putting me on your email list. I am impressed with the newsletter and other R19 fleet communications. Well done.” Well thanks Commodore, but why haven’t we snagged you yet. I noticed a boat for sale just across the street from the CYC parking lot. What on earth are you waiting for? Consider this a personalized, engraved invitation! –kp (kpandapas@comcast.net)