ROAD TO THE CUP – WEEK 1 – Rhodes 19 Fleet 5

Road To The Cup – Week 1

Top 10 as of 5/30/21

Honestly, who didn’t see this coming? When it comes to corollaries of Murphy’s Law, this weekend’s weather was a doozy – right up there with dropping your keys down a storm drain while unlocking the car. 14 months of lock-down followed by gradual improvement and cautious anticipation, and then the ultimate denouement of the Governor ending lockdown on the very same day as our first MRA race. Praise be. What could possibly go wrong, right? But I get ahead of myself.

Although we don’t score pre-Memorial Day Twilights, there was in fact one on the schedule. So here we go with John Casler’s first report of the season.

“It was neither a dark nor a stormy night. Coincidentally, low tide ‘fell’ exactly half an hour before the scheduled 7:06 starting siren. The wind conditions were comparable to what Twilight contestants remembered from last August. Fluky. Behind the starting line, boats were pointing in all different directions. Forward of the line, however, there were reasonable wifts of wind coming out of the north and the east at at least 1 or 2. The combination of the wind swirl and the swirls from the changing tide, however, required guts to pick a starting end, especially since the RC never set a course, at least so far as I could observe. I was out bailing 1775, which I was not planning to race. The boat, historically, has never gone well to windward without a mast. Apparently a consensus was reached between Martha, David, and the RC to call the whole thing off.”

Well, okay then. Thanks John. I wasn’t really sure of what a ‘wift’ was so I looked it up. In case you’re interested, here is the definition.

To move lightly to and fro; to drift. Chiefly with adverb, as on, around, etc.

Anyway, congratulations to Team Martini for showing the flag, and to RO David Graham for being on station and ready to go. The real beer can bullets fly this Thursday night.

Out on the MRA line – well, you know what happened out there. Nothing. The RC cancelled Saturday on Friday, holding out hope for a possible Sunday. That hope faded fast and they cancelled Sunday just a few hours later. It’s likely there are a few (batshit crazy) sailors out there who were disappointed and may have taken issue with MRA’s decision. Not me. I applauded the decision and assume most sane people did as well. While the storm wasn’t cataclysmic, two straight days of NE 25-30 makes for a pretty inhospitable sea state around here. I, for one, wanted no part of that. At the end of the day, it was all moot anyway because the clubs closed down their waterfronts.

So congratulations to the sailing spouses who got their family weekends back. Taking 1^st on the weekend is everyone who uses a race day punch card as part of their hall pass agreement.

So in Cup competition, with a weekend washout and no Twilight, it remains knotted at the top.

1^st	41	Team Sorlien
1^st	722	Team Shoreman / Reynolds
1^st	769	Rob Ferro
1st	802	Rich & Rosie Denton
1^st	982	Team Pandapas
1^st	1015	Tom Dailey
1^st	1137	Chris Adam
1^st	1210	Team Frisch / Hourihan
1^st	1217	Timmy Dittrich / Karl Renny
1^st	1228	Team Hoguet
1^st	1299	Team Felton
1^st	1316	Team Fava/Nash
1^st	1398	Sarah Sheldon / Ann Sousa
1^st	1466	Team Martini
1^st	1680	Chris Remeika
1^st	1683	Team Hooks / Pascal
1^st	1686	Jocelyn Cook
1^st	1775	John Casler
1^st	1782	Team Noble
1^st	1790	Stefan Thibodeaux
1st	1819	Eric Thornton
1^st	1925	Tim McCaffrey
1st	1926	Team Taylor
1st	1939	Team McNamara
1st	2435	Larry Ehrhard
1st	2495	David Rubin
1^st	2561	Walter Colsman
1st	2585	Steve Uhl
1st	2590	Team Berliner
1st	2623	Team Lane Heffernan
1st	2648	Team Cooke / Kaznoski
1^st	2651	Anne Marije Veenland

Week 2 racing will include Twilight 1-1 on Thursday night and the 2-3 races of MRA Series 1-1 this Saturday. Also this reminder that Twilight splits are as follows:

Series 1 – June 3, June 10, June 17, June 24, July 1, July 8

Series 2 – July 15, July 29, August 5, August 12, Aug 26, September 2

There will be one throw-out per series, assuming we get in five races for that series.

Other News, Notices & Miscellaneous Scuttlebutt

Don’t Forget To Register –You can register for Fleet 5 here, the Class Association here, and MRA here.

MRA Retracts Scoring Change – The MRA eliminated the scoring change we wrote about last week through MRA SI Amendment 1. So now the results posted here should mirror those on the MRA scoring page. Thank you MRA.

Reminder – No East Coast Championships – This coming weekend was to have been our East Coasts Championships in Manchester, but the organizers were forced to cancel. So don’t go sailing over there looking for a regatta.

First Fleet Party on June 19^th –Fleet 5 will hold its first party of the season after sailing on June 19^th, which will be virtual on Zoom. Keep your eye out for the invite.

NOOD at Marblehead Race Week – The centerpiece of our season will be held Thursday through Sunday, July 22-25, which will be here before you know it. EYC is hosting. A reminder that your MRA registration fee covers the entry fee, so you don’t have to pay more, but you do have to register. Unless I missed it, they don’t have the registration page up yet, but you can keep checking here.

Race Week Party While on the subject of Race Week, this year’s Race Week party will be on Thursday evening July 22^nd, generously hosted for the 35^th consecutive time by Jennifer & Steve Uhl at their home on Front Street. Okay, 35 times is a bit of an exaggeration, but it has to be at least 10-15, right? Anyway, circle the date!

Nationals Update – Our 2021Nationals will be held August 16-20, hosted by Fleet 5 and the CYC. You’ll find the NOR and other info here. The schedule includes measurement on Monday, practice race on Tuesday and then three days of more fun then you should be allowed to have with your pants on (Wed-Fri). The regatta committee needs volunteers for helping to measure boats and sails, staff the registration desk, and several other things. If you’re not planning to sail but are willing to make a few bucks chartering your boat, we can help you out there too. For all inquiries, please reach out to regatta co-chairs Elise Nash (elise.mazareas@gmail.com) or Kim Pandapas (kpandapas@comcast.net).

Measurement Days – We’re hoping to measure all local boats without a current certificate before Race Week. So if you don’t have a certificate or you’ve had any work done, please reach out to Fleet Measurer Stefan Thibodeaux at sjthibodeaux@gmail.com. You can check your certificate status here.

Spring Mainsheet – The 2021 spring edition of the Mainsheet is out, and you can download it here.

If You Spin, Send It In – Remember that we’re tracking penalty turns again this year, so if you spin, please send me an email after racing with the subject line ‘Circles’ and let me know how many fouls you committed for which you exonerated yourself on the water. I’ll tally them up, give an appropriately laudatory sportsmanship shout-out. To our knowledge, there were no spins this weekend.

Crew Available –Dave Leahy, who has been learning to sail at MIT for the past few years, has taken an interest in Fleet 5 and is looking for a crew situation for the season. You can reach him at dleahy76@me.com.

For Sale – Rhodes 19 #1643 Tricked out by Chris Small. Excellent condition. Incudes two suits of Doyle sails good for Saturdays/Practice, Raymarine Tacktick T060 Micro Compass, trailer +++. Contact Stuart Boyd at (978) 821-5369 or sboydr19@gmail.com.

Mail Bag

It seems folks were happy to see RTTC back in their inboxes. Most of the emails were like these two. The first from old friend JP Zonnenberg. “Great start to the season. Didn’t know you could make a newsletter so fun to read before the racing even started.” And the second from Chris Schreiber. “Good Morning Kim, you're at it bright and early! Enjoy this beautiful Sunday, get that boat going!”

We got a lot of mail on MRA’s scoring change, which of course has now been changed back. But this one from Rick Berliner underscores the potential for unintended consequences from those kinds of changes. “Hi Kim, MRA scoring: huh. Generally we in the quiet casual crowd who just register for whatever to leave options open. But if it throws wrenches into things for other people who miss a day, I should look at this for what it does to them.”

How do you like that? To quote Mister Spock in The Wrath of Khan, “Logic clearly dictates that the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.” Wow – Rick is pretty logical. Anyway, I suspect MRA’s original intent may have included a little incentive to get people out there more consistently, and yet here was a case where it might have resulted in someone not coming out at all.

One reader responded to my challenge in last week’s RTTC to identify the reference ‘No soup for you.’ Congratulations to Madam President Elise Nash, who correctly answered with this. “Ha – Seinfeld!”

Stefan & Julianna Thibodeaux have been deliberating on what to name their new boat. This from Stefan. “Julianna came up with a better name – Po’ boy. I like mine with soft shell crab.” So do I!

Finally, the last word goes to Tom Dailey, who clearly is made of sterner stuff than yours truly. He sent this in before this weekend’s sailing was cancelled, and for what it’s worth, he speaks for most of the Laser sailors I know. “Saturday looks to be a good old fashion honker. Back in the day, the old-timers would always go out no matter what. Now that we’re the old-timers, we should uphold that honor.”

–kp (kpandapas@comcast.net)