Road To The Cup – Week 13 – Nationals Edition

 

Road To The Cup – Week 13 – Nationals Edition

Top-10 as of 8/20/17

 

 

 

Let’s start by acknowledging the army of volunteers who made Nationals happen.  It goes without saying that we are all deeply in debt to co-chairs Nat Taylor, Matt Hooks and their team, who did an exceptional job conceptualizing, organizing and executing this event.  If you think it’s easy doing what they did, think again.  These regattas have more moving parts than your car.  Yes, they made it look easy but don’t let that fool you.  Organizing and running one of these things is hard, and they did a truly outstanding job.  Really, really well done.  

 

As to their army of volunteers, those who worked all year on the committee as well as the more recent recruits who helped out running the event, I hesitate to try to start listing names.  There are so many, and I’m sure I’d miss people.  They include fund raisers, sponsor recruiters, event planners, content contributors, bag stuffers, registration desk volunteers, parking lot receivers, boat charterers, accommodation providers, sail measurers and on and on.  Truly an army, without whom this event could not have been pulled off.  So, thank you all.  Every single one of you deserves a tip of the cap.  

 

I’d like to give a special shout out to one individual who truly distinguished himself.  Measurer Peter Sorlien, along with his able assistant Jim Taylor, started measuring boats last spring and held several pre-regatta measurements leading up to Nationals.  On top of that, he worked non-stop all day Wednesday and parts of Thursday making sure everybody would be ready to sail.  Through it all, he was helpful, affable, accommodating and entirely pleasant.  No better bedside manner have I ever seen from a measurer, especially one as skilled.  We are so lucky to have him.  

 

Many thanks to the welcoming folks at the EYC, who really rolled out the red carpet for us.  And a special shout out to RC Chair Al McKinnon, PRO Susie Schneider and her on-the-water team for really crisp, high-quality RC work.  They outdid themselves.  

 

Finally, thanks to our many sponsors, again without whom this doesn’t happen.  The list is on the web site at http://2017nationals.rhodes19.org/.  Please go buy something from some of these very supportive businesses.  

 

So let’s get straight to the bottom line.  Congratulations to our new national champs Tomas Hornos, Duncan Swain & Lily Lichenstein.  These guys sailed an outstanding and unbelievably consistent regatta, putting up a line of 1-4-1-2-1-5-3 for an adjusted 12 points.  In the conditions we sailed, particularly the unpredictable northwesterly on Day 3, I find that remarkable.  What an impressive performance.  A huge tip of the cap to them.  

 

 

 

Finishing 2nd and taking the Norm Cressy Award was Ben Richardson, Chris Hufstader & Megan Watson Siegal.  They also sailed an outstanding regatta, rolling an impressive 5-3-6-1-3-1-8 for an adjusted 19 points.  Throwing out a single digit in any regatta should be good enough to win it, but not this time.  Well done.  And taking 3rd was Evan Cooke, Pete Kaznoski & Wilson Kaznoski, aka Pete & the Kid.  They finished with a 9-12-3-3-5-3-5 for 28 points after the throw-out.   Honorable mentions go to Team Taylor, who took 4th with 38 points and Larry Ehrhardt in 5th with 41 points.  Congratulations to all.

 

Practice Race Recap

The forecast called for 6-8 from the SW, and that’s what we got for the early part of the sail out until the sea breeze started to fill.  It was earlier than usual and a bit fickle at first, but everyone was happy to see it.  Just 20 of the 29 registered boats made it out, with explanations ranging from having to work to misplaced equipment.  Their loss, as it was a beautiful day.  We did just the one race, which was a C-course at 0.6 twice around.  The length would have been fine had the pressure stayed at 6-8, but was probably a little short for that number of boats in 10 knots – the weather mark was a crowded place.  So taking 1st was Tomas Hornos, who managed to prevail despite leaning to the un-favored left early.  Finishing 2nd was Team Lane / Heffernan and taking 3rd was Team Pandapas.  Honorable mentions go to Bob Bernstein in 4th and Rocky Sanchez in 5th.  

 

Day 1 Recap

What a difference a day makes.  This time the weatherman called for rain and 10-20 out of the SSE as a warm front moved through, and that’s about what we got.  It was three-on-the-rail most of the day but with miserably chaotic, steep seas coming from multiple directions that put a premium on keeping the bow down and sails powered up.  The current was outgoing most of the day, dragging you down on starboard, leaving port tack approaches the higher percentage play, assuming you could find a hole.  The RC did a bang-up job all day, giving us a relatively square line that was appropriately long for the conditions, and managed to get off three.  Congratulations to Tomas Hornos who won the day with an impressive 1-4-1 for 6 points.  Finishing 2nd was Ben Richardson, who put up a 5-3-6 for 14 points.  And taking 3rd was Chris Schreiber, who rolled a 3-1-13 for 17 points.  Honorable mentions go to Team Taylor, who took 4th with a 4-11-4 for 19 points and Larry Ehrhardt in 5th with a 2-7-11 for 20 points.

 

Day 2 Recap

The forecast was iffy from the start, with virtually every model saying light & variable.  But none of them said anything about fog, which is what ultimately did us in.  We all sailed out optimistically hoping for a little more breeze than predicted, and in fact there was enough to race.  But then the fog rolled in, thankfully before any of us made it out past the gong.  Susie Schneider corralled us for a while at the harbor mouth, and eventually sent us in to wait it out on shore.  They threw in the towel at 2pm, firing off 3 with N over A.

 

Day 3 Recap

It all came down to the final day, which was particularly early for the last to leave the Saturday night party.  The race day was extended by two hours from the scheduled 11-2:30 to 10-3:30 in order to get in races after the washout on Saturday.  The weatherman predicted a moderate northwesterly in the 8-13 knot range, and that’s about what we got, though with some occasional puffs in the mid-to-high teens.  It was in most respects a classic northwesterly, in that there were 15-20 degree oscillations with big pressure differential across the course.  The smart people I talked to pretty consistently focused on chasing the pressure more than one side or the other, and as is usually the case in a northwesterly, trying to climb the ladder up the middle wasn’t a high probability strategy.  The RC got in four very good races.  Taking 1st was Tomas Hornos with a 2-1-5-3 for 11 points.  Finishing 2nd was Ben Richardson, who rolled a 1-3-1-8 for 13 points, and in 3rd was Team Cooke / Kaznoski with a 3-5-3-5 for 16 points.  Honorable mentions go to Team Lane / Heffernan who took 4th with a 4-2-8-4 for 18 points, and Team Taylor in 5th with a 12-9-9-1 for 31 points.

 

A few final thoughts.  It never fails to amaze me how warm and welcoming this Rhodes 19 family is.  Just a great bunch of people. * New Orleans next Fall sounds like fun.  Who’s in? * Rocky Sanchez is one of those guys who just makes you smile.  So glad he’s around. * PRO Susie Schneider and the rest of the EYC RC did a really good job this week. * Boy, is Tomas a solid sailor!  Putting together that kind of regatta through those conditions is one of the best performances I’ve seen. * Ben Richardson isn’t necessarily the fastest guy on the course, but he’s one of the smartest and never seems to make mistakes. * How ‘bout those Savannah guys, Todd, Amar and Paul (aka TAP)?  They haven’t missed a Nationals since they started –always traveling.  Maybe it’s time for them to think about hosting one. * And, how ‘bout Grant Adam & team?  Those guys kicked butt. * It sure was nice to catch up with Hingham’s Ken Wilson; a consummate gentleman for the close to 20 years that I’ve known him. * The racing photo slideshow on Saturday night was outstanding.  Those were by far the best regatta action shots I’ve ever seen.  Tip of the cap to Phil Smith.  Bruce Durkee’s photos are also great.  You can check them out on the Nationals web site. * Chris & Debbie Schreiber would make awesome additions to our Fleet, don’t you think?  I sure would love to find a way for them to race with us more often. * Saturday’s dinner was awesome.  What a nice vibe that event had.  And look who closed the party.  Anyone surprised?

 

 

 

Finally, anybody else think Pete Kaznoski & Rocky Sanchez were separated at birth?  Here’s a shot from 2010.

 

 

 

So, in Cup competition, as you know, there were no twilight or MRA races this week, so no changes to our cup scoring other than a minor tweak to correct a scoring issue from last week.  The top 10 are listed below.  

 

 

Week 13 racing will include only one race; the next-to-last Twilight of the season on Thursday night.  There will be no MRA racing Saturday as all three RCs will running the three lines of the Storm Trysail Club’s Ted Hood Regatta.

 

Other News, Notices & Miscellaneous Scuttlebutt

Labor Day Party  Don’t forget that our Labor Day Party this year will be a joint party with our friends in the J70 fleet.  The party will be held on Saturday evening September 2nd at the home of Sloan & Charlie Pendleton.  Social Czar Elise Mazareas is still working out the details with our hosts and Alix Israel, her J70 counterpart, but both fleet bars will be there!  Keep an eye out for the evite.

 

Mail Bag

There were a few scoring issues last week, which thankfully got worked out and are reflected in the scores above.  We recall the RC running a starting sequence while also finishing us, and that has to get a little confusing.  But one factor that played a part was the presence of an unregistered boat who joined us for a Nationals warmup, that not only didn’t check in, but also may have had a chute with the same number as another competitor.  This from Susie Schneider after it all got sorted out, “Well phew! Hannah and I were not totally hallucinating a ‘ghost boat’!

 

Rick Berliner sent this is about last week’s MRA racing.  “What, no shout-out to old friends Jim and Charlie for re-joining our fleet at our first windward mark?  They executed an excellent needle-threading to shoot through the parade, popped the chute next to the (?)Taylors, and then

realized it was our mark and theirs had been moved.”  Somehow, I missed that. Thanks Rick.

 

 

 

–kp (kpandapas@comcast.net)