Road To The Cup – Week 7
Road To The Cup – Week 7
Top-10 as of 7/8/18
Out the beer can circuit, we know of one boat that showed up last Sunday morning, which was a drifter. Jocelyn Cook sent in this. “We had a beautiful paddle out this morning to the Sunday morning race with (daughter) Hannah at the helm. The wind picked up enough to start and then a bit more just around the windward mark, but abruptly died at the pin – at which time the course was shortened to become the finish.” Here is shot of Hannah at the helm. No family resemblance there, right?
The Thursday night Twilights were among the best attended in anyone’s memory, with ten boats showing up. That’s not even remotely surprising, given both the holiday and the fact that conditions were simply spectacular, with clear sky, warm temps, flat water and a solid 15-knot southerly – perfect by anyone’s calculus. Of course, nothing is ever really perfect, right? Every year, like clockwork, a kerfuffle erupts about the appropriate side to round a Twilight mark. More on that in a minute, but first this report from Steve Uhl.
“Beautiful breezy summer night – and biggest turnout of boats that I can remember ever. 10 !!! The course was downwind to the nun by Grey’s Rock, reach over to the nun past Children’s Island and then beat back to the harbor, twice around, though shortened on 2nd lap. Beautiful evening for sailing – I would have been good with 3 times around!. Sailing with Jim Taylor was Anne-Marije Veenland-Lee. Anne-Marije is an experienced Rhodes 19 skipper who usually sails at Courageous Sailing Center in Boston and just moved to Marblehead. With that brain trust – 1926 nailed the start and never looked back (well maybe a few times to laugh). Hope to see Anne-Marije out with Fleet 5 more in the future. Team Sheldon/Sousa kept them honest with a good start and excellent speed and finished #2. For the next four, we all converged at the first mark, four abreast so lots of craziness ensued. But Team Uhl got the inside securing third all the way around, followed by Mike Lane sailing w/daughters Sophie and Molly, and then Walter Colsman sailing with Kathleen Lane.”
Welcome to Anne-Marije Veenland-Lee and to the extended Lane Family, all of whom made their 2018 Twilight debuts. And at the end of the day, that’s what Twilights are all about – sailing with your kids, introducing new folks to the fleet and having a good time. So kudos (and a bit of envy) to all of who made it out.
So, to restate, Jim Taylor crossed 1st, Team Sheldon/Sousa 2nd and Steve Uhl 3rd. Honorable mentions go to Mike Lane & daughters in 4th and Walter Colsman in 5th. However, note I used the word crossed instead of finished. All competitors except one, John Casler, failed to round mark 3 (the starting pin) properly to start the second lap. Essentially, the way Twilights work is that if your government mark course is clockwise, you round everything to starboard and if it’s counter clockwise, you round to port. That’s an oversimplification, but the general idea. When issues come up, they typically are the result of a course change on the 2nd lap. But based on the course Steve described, all marks had to be left to starboard without a lot of ambiguity, yet everyone except John inexplicably left the pin to port. So, a lot of great results went for naught. John Casler (who crossed last), won the night and regrettably, everyone else was scored DNF. For clarity, one of the boats competing was 1219 and not a member of the fleet, so for scoring nine starters instead of ten, and DNFs were scored 10 points.
So, that unusual denouement brings Twilight Series 1 to a close. From a scoring perspective, everyone threw out the 10, but certainly the series outcome would have been different had everyone rounded to starboard. Taking 1st was John Casler, the only person to sail every race, with a 3-(4)-3-3-1 for 10 points. It pays to know the rules. Finishing 2nd was Team Sheldon, who put up a DNC-DNC-1-2-(DNF) for 12 points. And taking 3rd was Steve Uhl with a DNC-1-4-DNC-(DNF) for 14 points. Honorable mentions go to Team Colsman, who put up a DNC-DNC-5-1-(DNF) for 15 points, and to Jocelyn Cook who took 5th on a tiebreaker with a 1-3-7-DNC-(DNC) for 16 points. Congratulations to all.
Out on the MRA line, the Chamber of Commerce outdid itself, delivering up one of the most perfect sailing days in memory, including sunny skies, crisp temps, flat water and an 8-10 knot southeasterly. Perfect! 16 boats turned up, including the 2018 debut of one of my favorite R19 sailors, young Ashley Hoguet, sailing with her dad Ramsay Hoguet. Ashley, who is a Pleon 420 sailor, first graced our line four years ago when she could barely see over the steering wheel. Here’s a shot if her in 2014 when she was just 10.
Love that. Also making her R19 debut this season was Cindy Smith, who sailed with Jim Taylor, replacing the AWOL Nat Taylor, who inexplicably prioritized a wedding.
Anyway, conditions were pretty light on the way out, forcing a short postponement while the sea breeze settled it. As a result, we started late and the RC faced a judgement call on whether to start a third race at 3:30. Their limited polling of the first couple of Race 2 finishers inclined them to call it after two, a decision most racers disagreed with and later groused about on the porch.
The day belonged to Matt Hooks, who won handily with a 2-1 for 3 points. He wasn’t just fast, he sailed well, getting off the heavily boat biased line on time and with speed in both races. Well done. Taking 2nd was Team Heffernan/Harsono, who put up a 1-5 for 6 points. Bill loves those conditions and his performance showed it. And finishing 3rd was Team Frisch/Hourihan, who rolled a 3-4 for 7 points. Honorable mentions go to Team Lane/Heffernan in 4th with a 6-2 for 8 points, and to Team Taylor with 4-6 for 10 points. Congratulations to all.
So, in Cup competition, a little reshuffling as Matt Hooks jumps into the top 10 all the way up to 7th. Also there seems to be a battle developing as scoring is tight in the middle of the pack. The top 10 are listed below.
| 1st | 982 | Team Pandapas | 65.00 | |
| 2nd | 1926 | Team Taylor | 81.00 | |
| 3rd | 1210 | Frisch / Hourihan | 88.00 | |
| 4th | 2585 | Steve Uhl | 89.00 | |
| 5th | 2692 | Team Heffernan/Harsono | 99.00 | |
| 6th | 2623 | Team Lane/Heffernan | 105.00 | |
| 7th | 1683 | Matt Hooks | 109.00 | |
| 8th | 1299 | Team Felton | 115.00 | |
| 9th | 2648 | Team Cooke/Kaznoski | 119.00 | |
| 10th | 1790 | Team Cormier/Dalton | 125.00 |
Week 8 racing will include Twilight 2-1 on Thursday night, the 2-3 races of MRA Series 2-3 this Saturday and the informal (unscored) CYC Cooke Town Class Sunday Series on Sunday.
Other News, Notices & Miscellaneous Scuttlebutt
CYC Takes 2018 Commodores Cup – In the three clubs’ annual quest for harbor team racing bragging rights (played out in Sonars), CYC prevailed on a tiebreaker. This year’s winning skippers were Will Bailey, Colin Smith and Fleet 5er Evan Cooke. In addition to Evan, several Fleet members participated, including for CYC, Joe Fava and Christina Pandapas, for EYC Peter Frisch and Beanie Eisner and for BYC Vice Commodore and Fleet 5 emeritus Jennie Aspinall. In addition, former CYC Commodore Ken Adam served as PRO, assisted by former CYC RC chair Judy Adam. Honorary fleet member Tim Wadlow served as umpire. Here is a shot of the very proud Commodore Rob Howie.
Women’s Team Racing – The EYC, BYC, Pleon, and CYC held their Thursday night Women’s 2v2 match race on Thursday night, and photographer extraordinaire Bruce Durkee caught this very unusual shot. Why unusual? Well, for starters, Christina Pandapas has the tiller in her hand. Such versatility is reminiscent of star receiver Julian Edelman tossing a touchdown pass to Danny Amendola in 2015 playoffs. The second thing is that the boat she is steering is an EYC boat, which is right up there with that same Danny Amendola signing with Miami. Word is that she and teammate Martha Altruder steering the other Eastern boat, won this race with a 1-2.
Friday Night Fights Round Three – The final instalment of the three scheduled Friday evening match-racing events was to have occurred on Friday. Organizer Joe Fava, showing both caution and consideration for those rushing to make the 5:30 dock call, cancelled on Thursday based on the forecasted thunderstorms. Though that ended this season’s scheduled match racing events, Joe reminds us that there, “is still a ton of match racing happening at Oakcliff this summer.” See more detail here. For additional info, contact Joe Fava at joseph.c.fava@gmail.com or call 617-880-9807.
Sportsmanship Update – We heard of no fouls or spins this week, so our spin competition remains knotted at 1 between Team Rubin, Team Cormier/Dalton, Team Berliner, Dave Nelson. Remember, if you spin, send it in.
Fleet 5 hits the 420 New Englands – Old friend Pete Kaznoski spent last weekend in Stonington, CT at the 420 New Englands, hosted by the Wadawanuck Yacht Club. He sent in this link to the scores, which shows that son and Fleet 5 regular Wilson Kaznoski finished 19th of 72 with a bullet, just two boats behind fellow Fleet 5er Hunter Zonnenberg, who finished in 17th. Pretty impressive, right? When we suggested that Wilson was a chip off the ole block, he replied, “Well it was great to see the 1, but still work be done.” Wow, he’s tough. Grant Adam, who also has been known to grace our line, finished 42nd.
MRA Feedback – Last chance to provide comment to MRA, who will hold its mid-season Fleet Reps meeting on Tuesday July 10th. Please send any comments to Jim Taylor (jtyd@shore.net) or Kim Pandapas (kpandapas@comcast.net).
Race Week Registration –A reminder that your MRA registration fee covers the entry fee but you still have to register. Click these links to register and download the NOR.
Race Week Party – This year’s Race Week party will be on Thursday evening July 26th, and again will be generously hosted by Jennifer & Steve Uhl at their home on Front Street. Dave Reynolds will supply the bar. Keep an eye out for the evite.
Fleet Measurement – Fleet Measurer Peter Sorlien plans another measurement on July 15. If your measurement certificate is not current, contact Peter at psorlien@gmail.com.
Nationals in New Orleans – This year’s Nationals will be in New Orleans on October 3-7, hosted by our friends at Southern Yacht Club. If you’ve never been, take it from us that the Southern guys know how to throw a party (they’ve had lots of experience). So this definitely is worth the trek. You can get more info and download the NOR here.
Mail Bag
Ann Sousa was nice enough to send in a full report on Thursday’s Twilight. The report was a bit long to include the whole thing, but here is an excerpt. “The downwind start became a jack rabbit start with three boats approaching the pin on starboard and the rest of us on port and off to the races we went with everyone jockeying for windward position. The power boat waves and the tide created a challenging cross chop making it difficult to stay wing on wing. Rounding the first mark we crossed paths with phrf boats racing in the Jubliee Series which made for an awesome picture but I was too focused on sailing to get the camera out. It was fun to see so many Rhodes out and a great night for sailing.”
Finally, we heard from old friend Brent Larlee, who you may or may not know relocated to Portland, Maine. Though not a Fleet 5er, he’s certainly honorary and now adds to the growing list of Fleet 5ers in Maine. When we accused him of sneaking out of town in the dead of night, he wrote, “Yes, under cover of darkness back to my native state. I’ve been down a couple of times to the club but not for a weekend excursion yet.” He added, “We had dinner with JP (Zonnenberg) and Susan a couple of weeks ago, so yes we’ve connected up here.”
–kp (kpandapas@comcast.net)