Road To The Cup – Week 1

Road To The Cup – Week 1

Top-10 as of 5/27/18

There were no Twilight this week (more on Twilights below).

Out on the MRA line, we kicked off our season with what was to have been the 2-day Spring Series.  New England spring conditions being what they are, like Forest Gump’s box of chocolates, you never know what you’re going to get.  Saturday proved a perfect sailing day but Sunday less so.

Sunday was one of those frigid, bone-chilling easterlies with sustained 18-20 and really impressive seas.  So crappy was it that we found several CYC Etchells hauling before the RC even made a decision. As it turned out, Susie Schneider and Al McKinnon decided better of it and fired off three with N over A at 10:30 am.  Susie mentioned they had considered running us inside, but with a wind direction of 120ish, there wasn’t enough real estate inside to set an appropriately long track.  In an interesting contrast, the J70s held their scheduled Jud Smith Clinic as planned.  And they didn’t just play at the mouth of the harbor, they went half way to Half Way, effectively thumbing their noses at the rest of us (weenies) who were content to go home and do chores, but I digress.  

Three fleets showed up Saturday – R19s, E22s and J70s.  For Fleet 5, a respectable 11 boats raced, which is two more than opening day last year.  Conditions included a solid 10-12 knots out of about 250ish, with flat seas and a pretty stiff outgoing tide that pushed you down and toward the pin at the start, making the pin a dangerous starting strategy.  We got in two races before Susie pulled the plug due to a few threatening blips on the weather radar.

So, what was to have been a 5-6 race series included just two.  Congratulations to Team Cooke/Kaznoski, who took the first race of the season and won Day 1 (and hence the regatta) with an impressive 1-2 for 3 points.  Not a lot of rust there, though we learned later on the porch that neither one of those guys even remembered to bring a watch.  Pretty decent results for seat-of-the-pants starts, right? And that’s not the half of it. Because they had planned from the start to race only Saturday, while the rest of us were bailing frigid bilges wondering what the RC would do, Pete & Evan were home drinking coffee and reading the paper.  So as far as I’m concerned, they won Sunday too. Taking 2nd was Team Pandapas, who rolled a 3-1 for 4 points, and finishing 3rd was Larry Ehrhardt with a 2-3 for 5 points.  Honorable mentions go to Steve Uhl who took 4th on a tie-breaker with a 7-4 for 11 points, and Team Frisch / Hourihan in 5th with a 4-7, also for 11 points.  Probably worth mentioning is that two other boats also put up 11 points, but there would be too much brain damage untangling all those tie breakers.  Congratulations to all.

As far as we know, no fouls were committed on Saturday and no penalty turns were spun, so our competition for most spins remains all tied up at zero for everyone.  Finally, Saturday also marked the debut for our newest Fleet member, Jocelyn Cook.  You may recall that Jocelyn sailed with Ann Souza for the last couple of years, and liked it so much, she bought a boat of her own.  Huge welcome to Jocelyn and her team!

So in Cup competition, with no Twilight, our opening top-10 mirrors the Spring Series results.

Week 2 racing will include Twilight 1-1 on Thursday night and the 2-3 races of MRA Series 1-1 this Saturday.  

A reminder that the Twilight series splits are as follows:

Series 1 – May 31, June 7, June 14, June 21, June 28, July 5, July 12

Series 2 – July 19, Aug 2, Aug 9, Aug 16, Aug 23, Aug 28, Sep 6, Sep 13

Below are the times listed in the Twilight SIs (attached for your convenience).  We don’t have the course diagram yet, but assume you’ll find it at the CYC front desk.  We have it on pretty good authority that the starting schedule may back up another half hour to 5:30 on August 28th to accommodate the shortening days, but no confirmation yet of that date.  Stay tuned.

Other News, Notices & Miscellaneous Scuttlebutt

Fleet Party on June 2 – Fleet 5 will hold its first party of the season after sailing on June 2nd, generously hosted this year by Rebecca & Larry Ehrhardt at their home on 11 Ballast Lane, just up from the EYC.  Huge thanks to them, and to Dave Reynolds who will make sure we all get enough to drink.

Lasers Summer Series – The Laser fleet begins its Summer Series this week, which will run on Tuesday evenings all summer, except the week of RW.  The NOR is attached, and for additional info, contact Patrick Andreasen at andreasensail@gmail.com.  

Friday Night Fights Start June 15 – Joe Fava and the CYC will run match racing this summer on Friday evenings – June 15, June 29 and July 6 – in the Friday Night Fights Match Race series.   Joe will be sending out an email on how to sign up and/or to volunteer to help, and we’ll forward it along when he does.

East Coast Championships – Our 2018 East Coast Championships will be held in Padanaram June 22-24.  You can register here.

NOOD at Marblehead Race Week – RW will be Thursday through Sunday, July 26-29. which will be here before you know it.  A reminder that your MRA registration fee covers the entry fee, so you don’t have to pony up any more money.  But you do have to register. Click these links to register and download the NOR.

Race Week Party  While on the subject of parties, this year’s Race Week party will be on July 26th, and again be generously hosted by Jennifer & Steve Uhl at their home on Front Street.  Dave Reynolds will supply the bar.

Mail Bag

Several fleet members responded positively to their first RTTC of the season.  This one is from Heather Kaznoski,  “So fun to know that the season has begun.  Looking forward to seeing everyone.”  We couldn’t agree more.  

In what we regard as a generous and gently worded request that we get our act together, Beanie Eisner wrote in with this about one of the Dave Perry Match Racing Clinic photos.  It seems that some, but not all, of last week’s RTTCs emails included a few upside-down pictures.  Why? you ask.  You got me!  We’ve alerted our quality control department who assures us they are on the case.  Thanks Beanie for letting us know.

Neal Melanson wrote in looking for a rudder.  “Kim, mutual friend, Rick Myers, suggested I reach out to ask if you knew of any old school Rhodes kick-up rudders I could obtain to re-fit my Minuteman 15 catboat.  I lost the original rudder after a broach and subsequent knockdown last Sunday and it now lives at the bottom of Great Bay. I have the skills to build a new one, but I hope to shortcut the process with a substitute.  Thanks in advance.”  If you can help, email Neal at neal.melanson@gmail.com.

–kp (kpandapas@comcast.net)