Road To The Cup – Week 8
Top 10 as of 7/14/19
Eight teams showed up for the final race of Twilight Series 1, which thankfully happened despite yet another threat of thunderstorms. You’ll recall that three consecutive Thursdays were washouts due to weather, and then no race last week due to the holiday. So this was the first Twilight in over a month. Hard to believe, right? Anyway, below is a synopsis from John Casler.
“There were squalls cropping up throughout the afternoon, but with a beautiful gap in the forecast large enough for us finally to get in a race. The wind was out of the south at maybe 8 – 10, but with significant gusts. The RC gave us ‘28’ (the nun at Williams Rock), then can ‘1MH’ and back to ‘O’, twice around. This was shortened the second time around to drop ‘1MH’.
“With the start as a run, the fleet spread along the line fairly evenly, with Steve Uhl gradually pulling away in the downwind jockeying. Walter Colsman, sailing with his daughter Grace, was middle of the pack, but caught some nice wind going away from the fleet wing on wing, and rounded ‘28’ first (I think). I cannot comment much on the rest of the action, as we gradually dropped back, but Steve can confirm and add. I am told by Walter that the finish ended in a furious tacking duel, with Steve holding on to the lead at the end.”
All of this was corroborated by Steve Uhl, who added, “Walter sailed with his young daughter. They were fast downwind but in the stronger breeze upwind they were a little slower, which allowed us to nip them half way up the final beat…and stay ahead during tacking duel to finish.”
So there you have it – sounds like fun. Congratulations to Steve Uhl for the bullet, Walter & Grace Colsman who took 2nd and Team Martini in 3rd. Honorable mentions to whoever was sailing 1398 (suspect Ann Sousa but not sure) who finished 4th and to Jocelyn Cook in 5th.
So that wraps up the first Twilight series, which limped to the finish with just three total races (so no throw-outs). Finishing 1st was Steve Uhl with 4 points. Taking 2nd was Team Colsman with 11 points, and finishing 3rd one point back was Team Martini with 12 points. Honorable mentions go to Jim Taylor in 4th with 14 points, and John Casler in 5th with 15 points. Congratulations to all.
Out on the MRA line, 14 boats made it out for the second day of Series 2, or what some regard as the first of two dress rehearsals before the main event. Making their debut was Team Cormier / Dalton, though with old friend Shannon Lane filling in for Ken, who we are assured will be out for Race Week. Also out was Team Shoreman / Reynolds, making it out for just the second time this season. As far as I’m concerned, any day they sail is a red-letter day, as it’s always just a little more festive when they’re out there. Finally, joining us for the first time was North Sails’ Alex Cook and crew Laura McKenna, sailing Team Fava/ Nash’s boat. Alex and Laura sailed for BC and spend a lot of time team racing for EYC and sailing Vanguard 15s. Welcome Alex and Laura!
Mother nature dialed up a picture perfect, sun-drenched, chamber of commerce summer day. The forecast suggested a light 5-10 northwesterly with some sites suggesting it would back around to the south, and back around it eventually did. We sailed out to a light dying westerly, which gave up the ghost around 11:30, leaving many of us willing-our-way the last half mile to the race area. AP went up at 12:30 and we all waited for the breeze to fill in. PRO Susie Schneider did a great job keeping us in the loop up as she waited for pressure to build and the direction to settle down. Eventually, a shy, spotty, gentle, apprehensive little southerly developed, gradually strengthened and finally settled around 180. AP came down around 1:10 and off we went.
We got in two very solid races, which was two more than I expected. The two most impactful strategic elements from our perspective were pressure differentials and current. Oscillations absolutely played a part, but pressure differentials were more impactful. The puffs were righties and lulls lefties. Boats that were able to position themselves to benefit from righties with pressure generally did well, particularly in Race 2. The current also was impactful. The tide was going out hard during our two races, and it got stronger as we sailed up the track and out into the Boston-to-Gloucester flow, leaving boats approaching on port tack taking it on the nose and starboard approach being forced to over stand to get around the mark.
None of this confused Team Taylor even a little, as they continued their hot hand by putting up a 2-1 for 3 points to win the day. They’re sailing so very well right now, and hopefully can carry this momentum into Race Week. Taking 2nd was Team Shoreman / Reynolds, who rolled a 3-2 for 5 points. How ‘bout those guys, parachuting in kicking our butts. Well done. And taking 3rd with 1-5 for 6 points was Team Pandapas. Honorable mentions go Team Cooke / Kaznoski, with young (and talented) Wilson Kaznoski at the helm filling in for Evan Cooke, who finished 4th with a 5-3 for 8 points, and to Team Heffernan / Harsono who took 5th with 6-4 for 10 points. Congratulations to all.
By the way, in case you missed it, MRA collapsed the two lines down to one for this day, due reportedly to an insufficient number of RC volunteers to staff both lines. Susie did an outstanding job managing six different fleets on one line, not just getting races off, but finding a way to keep us all somewhat separated going up and down the track, and particularly at the corners. All and all, an exceptional piece of RC work that bordered on performance art. But the issue raises an important point, which is RC volunteerism. Over the course of the season, between the three clubs plus some unaffiliated volunteers, there must be well over a hundred folks who regularly give up their weekends so that we might play. I’m thinking that we might help contribute to the solution to this problem by setting up a RC reserve sheet, available to all one-design sailors and RCs, where sailors can add their names as RC reserves for specific days (like if your skipper is out of town but you still want to go out). That way, if a RC finds itself short for a day, as happened this weekend, they can simply pull names from that list. Let me know if you have thoughts on this. My MRA board days are well behind me, so I propose this only as an interested party.
So, in Cup competition, Team Taylor increase their lead at the top of the heap, with Team Frisch / Hourihan / Burke in 2nd now 22 points back. Team Pandapas regained 3rd over the absent Steve Uhl who dropped back into 4th. Notable is that Team Shoreman / Reynolds, whose crazy-busy lives have enabled them to sail just two days so far this season, are in the top-10. Talk about making it count. The top-10 are listed below.
Week 9 racing will include Twilight Series 2-1 on Thursday night, and the 2-3 races of MRA Series 2-3 on Saturday. The (unscored) CYC Cooke Sunday Series continues on Sunday July 21st, and remaining dates include August 4, 11 & 25.
Other News, Notices & Miscellaneous Scuttlebutt
Re-Rescheduled Mini-Clinic & Kattack – The mini-clinic has been rescheduled again in deference to the CYC Commodore’s Ball. So there will be no mini-clinic next week on the 20th. The new target is August 10th, so circle the date. However, we still plan to run Kattack on Saturday the 20th, so don’t forget to charge your phones Friday night.
CYC Porch Social – Thanks to EYC for hosting Fleet 5ers after racing Saturday. It was great to get folks together who don’t typically get to socialize after racing. Special thanks also to Nick Burke, who not only provided snacks but also organized us around a constructive conversation about what factors were most important on the course that day. Next up is the CYC, where we’ll do it again this Saturday the 20th. So after racing, head straight over to CYC.
Sportsmanship Update – To our knowledge, there were no spins this week, but we heard about one additional from last week. This from Martha Martini, “Hi Kim! Team Martini hit a mark in Saturday’s race and spun.🌪” Awesome, thanks for letting us know and for doing the spin. So below are the spin standings heading into Week 9, and remember, if you spin, send it in.
Shout-out to Joe Guglielmo – In processing the scores for this week’s RTTC, your Fleet 5 scorer found a minor issue on the MRA scoring site (scoring DNCs ‘registered + 1’ versus ‘starters +1’). A short email to Joe, who serves as MRA scorer, resulted in that issue being corrected in less than 5 minutes. How responsive is that? As Jim Whipple (MRA Scorer for over a decade) can attest, serving as MRA scorer literally defines a thankless job. So from Fleet 5, thanks Joe!!
Junior Race Week Registration – MJRW registration is here.
NOOD at Marblehead Race Week – Race Week is just three weeks away, starting on Thursday July 25th and running through Sunday July 28th. If you haven’t already done so, please register.
Race Week Party This year’s Race Week party will be Thursday evening July 26th, generously hosted by Jennifer & Steve Uhl at their home on Front Street. Larry Ehrhardt will provide the fleet bar. Keep an eye out for the evite.
Nationals 2019 – The 2019 Championship Regatta will be held August 21-24 in Hingham Bay, hosted by our friends at the Hingham Yacht Club. The NOR is available on the regatta website.
Need a Race Week Crew? – EYC member and former BC Eagle Alex Cook is interested in crewing on a Rhodes for Race Week. Email acook1700@gmail.com or give him a call at (339) 440-1912.
Looking to Crew – Jim Romano, who is part of the 2.4 meter group, would like to be added to our crew list. His email is Jim.romano@verizon.net.
Mail Bag
No mail this week
Don’t forget – CYC after racing this Saturday.
–kp (kpandapas@comcast.net)