Road To The Cup – Week 16
Happy Labor Day. Don’t forget that the 2020 CYC Around Miserys Race is this afternoon. Details below.
Five boats made it out Thursday night for what ended up being a pretty nice night for sailing. Attendance was probably a little light due to the earlier September start time. Here’s a rundown from John Casler.
“A nice night for one of the last Twilights of the year. No storms threatening, and a light but reasonable wind out of the south east – maybe three, gusting to four. With an earlier 5:30 start, only five boats were out. The course was set “21”, the can just off the mouth of the harbor, out and back, three times around. For the best start toward 21 with that wind, it looked like you had to be down at the end of the line toward the clubhouse, right near the rocks and among the smaller moored boats. Martha and David (Team Martini) timed that start perfectly, and never looked back the entire race. Well, maybe they looked back, but with smiles. 1775 was the only other boat starting down there, and rounded second, not too far behind, but distinctly behind. Martha and David stretched their lead going back in, and Timmy Dittrich in 1217 started to come on strong. On the second beat, with the wind lightening, Team Martini and Timmy D. got some remaining good air along the lighthouse side of the course, with David and Martha extending their lead and Tim slipping into second. That was the way the race finished, as the course was shortened to finish at the end of the second go round.”
So, congratulations to Team Martini for the bullet, Timmy D. in 2nd and John Casler in 3rd. Honorable mentions to Jocelyn Cook in 4th and to Stefan Thibodeaux who showed up a bit late (probably missed the earlier start time), but sailed the course anyway.
Just two more Twilights left!
Out on the MRA line, twelve teams came out for what, in any other year, would have been Day 1 of the Labor Day Regatta (aka MRA Series 4). That’s two more than the combined ten boats that showed up for Series 4 last year, so moving in the right direction. Two of those teams made their season debuts, including Matt Hooks & Rob Pascal and Team Pandapas. Crazy, right? “Better late than never,” was Matt’s comment, but what better commentary on this whacky season than last year’s RW champs and the never-miss-a-race Team P. both showing up for the first time on what would normally be the last race weekend of the year. But I digress.
The forecast called for spectacular conditions. Here is the direct quote. “WNW wind around 9 kt becoming SSW in the afternoon. Sunny. Seas around 2 ft.” Now that’s what I call a Bill Heffernan forecast, as it was in those conditions over so many years that Bill would come out and just spank us. Unfortunately, that’s not exactly what we got. We sailed out to an up-and-down northwesterly, but it never really trended left and stubbornly hung in there all day against a sea breeze, struggling to develop but just couldn’t get over the hump. The RC set up out around Halfway Rock, which proved eventually to be the center of convergence between the two breezes, prompting PRO Ken Adam to move us in a bit after Race 1, which worked, and we ended up getting off two races. Northwesterlies are always an adventure and this was no exception, with up and down pressure between 5 and low teens and oscillating through 20-30 degrees. But Ken and his team did an outstanding job playing whack-a-mole with the breeze and ultimately getting off two quality races.
The conditions suited Team Hooks / Pascal just fine, as they won their debut on a tie-breaker with 3-1 for 4 points. Mid-season form right out of the box! Well done. Taking 2nd with 1-3, also for 4 points, was Team Frisch / Hourihan/ Burke, this time with Nick at the helm and Peter crewing. Those guys are like the Patriots in that they rotate players and have a bunch of ways they can beat you. That, by the way, is about as high a complement as anyone will ever get from me. And finishing 3rd was the rusty Team Pandapas, who put up 4-2 for 6 points. Honorable mentions go to Team Taylor / Harsono in 4th with 5-4 for 9 points and Larry Ehrhardt in 5th with a 2-DNC for 12 points, which on a tiebreaker narrowly topped Teams Thornton and Noble, also with 12 points. Congratulations to all.
So, in Cup competition, we remain all tied up because as you know, there is no season scoring this year. But the table below has been updated to include all of the relevant stats. In the all-important category of races sailed, Team Sorlien / Thibodeaux climbs into the lead with 18. Timmy Dittrich holds 2nd just one race back, and Steve Uhl is one race behind him. Worth noting here is that both Stefan Thibodeaux and Timmy Dittrich have sailed virtually all of those races by themselves. There has to be some kind of ironman award for that! Tip of the hat to them both.
Week 17 racing will include a Twilight on Thursday evening and MRA Fall – Day 4 on Saturday.
Other News, Notices & Miscellaneous Scuttlebutt
Labor Day Weekend Race Around Misery – Just a reminder that the 2020 CYC Around Miserys Race is this afternoon (Sunday, September 6, first gun at 1 pm). You’ll find the Sailing Instructions and chart here.
Mail Bag
Hard to believe, but no one had anything to say this week.
Let’s be safe out there. Please don’t let down your guard.
–kp (kpandapas@comcast.net)