Road To The Cup – Week 8

 

Road To The Cup – Week 8

Top-10 as of 7/16/17

 

This week’s Twilight report provides some solid evidence that we’re not always the hard-edged competitors we’re often made out to be.  This from John Casler.

 

“It was a cold night in July and the wind was 12-13 out of the Nor’East with gusts registering at 19.5 at the Pier House.  Only two Rhodes showed, 1466 and 1775, both eager to race.  The RC felt though, that even though both crews were looking forward to testing their hiking skills in the gusts, discretion suggested that the better course would be to resolve the race in the bar.  Which we did.  The results are therefore 1466 and 1775 in a tie.  There was a rumor about the club that the RC subsequently flew a cancellation flag, but that’s not official since we didn’t go out and look.”

 

Hmm.  In the insightful words of Mick Jagger, “Well, alright.”  Looks like the scorer got off easy on this one.

 

Out on the MRA line, 13 boats showed up for the second day of Series II.  That seems a little light with RW just around the corner, but it’s also understandable given the forecasted 6-7 knot southerly.  Mike Lane earns yet another ‘What a Guy’ award for taking the day off to participate in the ash-spreading ceremony of former Fleet 5 member Bill Henze, who passed away in January, just two months shy of his 92nd birthday.  Bill was a Fleet member from the 60’s through the 80s.  He campaigned #982 for a period and later partnered with Kevin Lane.

 

Light air was the order of the day.  In fact, it was so light early on that both RC boats hung around Marblehead Gong for the better part of an hour so the fleets wouldn’t have to sail all the way out, just to sail all the way again if they blew it off.  Both signal boats fired off two at 12:30 while we drifted around the gong.  But we didn’t have to wait long after that for the southerly to fill in and convince the RCs it was time to go set some lines.  The North Line set up just beyond Satan while the South Line set up in the area of the old Tinkers Line.  We ended up getting in two.  The first was a pretty light, will-your-boat-around-the-course affair, on a course of 170 at 0.6, under cloudy skies.  By the second race, the skies had cleared and the breeze was a little livelier 8-9 knots from 150.  A tip of the cap to PRO Joe Whipple and his team, who didn’t give up on it, providing us a perfectly pleasant day of racing.  The South Line threw in the towel mid-first race when they fired off three.

 

Congratulations to Matt Hooks, who found the conditions to his liking, rolling a beautifully consistent 1-2 for 3 points to win the day.  Well done.  Taking 2nd was Team Heffernan / Harsono with a 2-3 for 5 points, and finishing 3rd was Team Pandapas with a 5-1 for 6 points.  Worth noting is that July 15 is the latest first bullet for Team Pandapas in 20 years.  Honorable mentions to Steve Uhl in 4th with a 4-4 for 8 points, and the ‘shirtless dudes’ sailing 1210 for Team Frisch / Hourihan, who rook 5th with an 8-5 for 13 points.  Congratulations to all.

 

So, in Cup competition, Team Frisch / Hourihan ascend into first on the backs of the ‘shirtless dudes’ while the DNC Team Lane / Heffernan drop to 3rd.  Most notable is Team Heffernan / Harsono’s jump from 8th all the way up to 4th.  Pretty impressive move for the middle of July.  The top-10 are listed below.

 

 

Week 9 racing will include the Twilight race on Thursday night and the 2-3 races of MRA Series 2, Day 3 this Saturday.

 

Other News & Tidbits

MRA Asking for Feedback  As it does every year about this time, the MRA will hold a Fleet Reps meeting to talk about how the season is going so far.  The meeting is on Monday evening July 17th, and both Jim Taylor (jtyd@shore.net) and Kim Pandapas (kpandapas@comcast.net) plan to attend for Fleet 5.  If you have any feedback, positive or constructive, please contact one of them at your earliest convenience.  

 

Twilight Score-Gate  We heard from John Casler this week, wondering just how in the hell we could report that he could have 15 points for three races after winning one of them and throwing out another.  He put it this way. “Not sure how I would have wound up with 15 points?  We did win the first race.”  Well, we thought that was a perfectly legit question and put a team of experts to work to get to the bottom of it.  Boy were our faces red.  Turns out he was right.  There were two problems.  First is that the reported scores were based, not on three races but rather on four, which includes the race with two starters who were both scored DNF.  The second is that we inadvertently reported gross scores instead of net (after throw-out) scores.  So mystery solved, with no changes to the finishing order.

 

Thanks to Peter Sorlien  Fleet measurer Peter Sorlien continues his steady push to get local boats measured before Nationals, while also completing their measurement certificates once-and-for-all.  Last Sunday, with an assist from Jim Taylor, he completed three more boats, including 1790 (Cormier / Dalton), 2692 (Heffernan) and 982 (Pandapas).  Peter has two more planned for Sunday August 13 and Tuesday August 15.  

 

NOOD Registration Fleet 5 is now up to 28 boats registered, which suggests a handful of procrastinators.  You know who you are – avoid the late penalty (Wednesday the 19th) and get it done today.  Here are the links. Info, Online Entry, Current Entries.

 

J70s On The March  A count of 28 boats for NOOD puts Fleet 5 just one boat ahead of the ever-expanding J70 fleet, which has 27.   Those are great numbers for what is still a pretty new fleet around here.

 

Gearing Up for Junior Race Week  It’s about this time every year that an army of dedicated organizers, volunteers and RC people start having fitful night’s sleep as they gear up for the annual onslaught of junior racers.  MJRW has established itself as one of a handful of preeminent junior events on the junior regatta schedule, so tends to attract big numbers.  This year is no exception, as they are expecting hundreds of boats.  Regatta co-chairs Rick Myers and Mike Costello certainly have their hands full.  As the event’s Chief Race Officer Susie Schneider put it in a recent email, time to “Get mentally ready!  Practice deep breathing, rational thought……”.  Hmm.  Deep breathing, vodka, sniffing glue – whatever works.  

 

Nationals Update  The regatta committee could still use a boat or two for charter.  If you’re not sailing, please email Matt Hooks at mhooks@gmail.com.  If you are sailing, registration remains open here – do it now.  The committee also still needs hosts for sailors from out-of-town.  Contact Yati Harsono at yati_harsono@yahoo.com.  Finally, the regatta committee is looking for a few hands to help out with registration, hauling/launching and a few other odd jobs. Spouses very welcome!  Contact Evan Cooke at evancooke@gmail.com.  

 

Notices

Race Week Party The Race Week party will be on Thursday evening July 27th at the home of Jennifer & Steve Uhl.  Elise Nash will supply the bar.  Please respond to the evite which went out this past week so we know how much stuff to bring.

 

Upcoming Measurements  The Fleet has two more planned for Sunday August 13 and Tuesday August 15.  Measurer Peter Sorlien will start at 9AM each day.  Best too get it done in a relaxed setting while you still have time to correct any problems.  Contact Peter at psorlien@gmail.com / 781-631-5956 to reserve your spot.  

 

Boats For Sale – There are still several excellent boats on the market.  For info, either see the May Newsletter or email the fleet captain at kpandapas@comcast.net.  

 

Mail Bag

Ann Sousa wrote in alerting us to another great shot of last week’s weather.  “I am not sure who checks the facebook page for fleet 5 but I did post a picture taken from the EYC porch.  Photo credit goes to Jocelyn Cook.”  So, for future reference, Nat Taylor is Fleet 5’s Webmaster, and both he and Elise Nash look after the Fleet’s FB page (it really does take a village).  Anyway, Elise was kind of enough to grab the shot, which we share below.

 

 

 

And speaking of Jocelyn Cook, she wrote, “Kim as always – many thanks for these incredible emails!  My husband is racing to Halifax and I just forwarded to him to read the nail biter finish Ann and I had.  Beautiful recap.  Looking forward to getting to know you and others in the fleet more.”  Right back at you.  And just a reminder, last week’s Twilight recap was a joint effort of John Casler and Bill Heffernan.

 

We heard from old friend Rick Saunders, who has been MIA this season due to some surgery, but he’s hoping to make RW and Nationals.  “I’m looking forward to sailing – have not been out since the first day of race week last year.”  Rick went on to add this.  “My dad passed away last month and I’m getting the house ready for sale.  He blamed me for losing the floor board holder screw on our original R19.  I found it in his office at home with this MRA circular from 1984.”  Rick was nice enough to send along photos of both, though we include below just the old RW

SIs.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

–kp  kpandapas@comcast.net