ROAD TO THE CUP – WEEK 8
Road To The Cup – Week 8
Top 10 as of 7/18/21
Well, it happened again.
Honestly, what more is there to say? We have now lost three straight Twilights due to weather. The last Thursday night we actually raced was June 24th. And now that it’s Race Week, there will be no Twilight this week either. So the next scheduled Twilight is Series 2 Race 2 scheduled for July 29th, which will have been over a month between beer can battles. Yikes!
Here is what PRO David Graham had to say about it. “I was not (am not) a happy camper over making the decision to canx last evening’s race, Kim! However, throughout the evening it was not possible to see even half the distance across the starting line, due to the thick fog!” We feel your pain Dave, and thanks for fighting the fight for us.
Out on the MRA line, 19 teams showed up for the final dress rehearsal before Race Week. The day featured a few debuts and several guest teams – please forgive me if I don’t catch them all. Chris Adam sailing with son Grant Adam, young Ashley Hoguet with her dad Ramsay Hoguet, and Team Berliner all made their MRA debuts. Ken Cormier & Jim McCully sailed Ken’s old boat 1790 for Stephan Thibodeaux, Jim Gabriel sailed 1217 for Timmy Dittrich, and Kyle Easton & Remy Hutchins sailed 1210 for Team Frisch / Hourihan. Kyle & Remy, by the way, were spectacular, winning Race 1 and taking 3rd in Race 3. If not for a tough second race, they could have won the day in the R19 debut. How awesome is that?
The forecast called for a light northeasterly that was going to clock from 50 to 90, and that’s pretty much what we got. Most of the clocking happened around 12:30 so PRO Ken Adam smartly allowed that to happen before getting us started. The one surprise was pressure, as we sailed in low teens versus the single digits we expected. Seas were surfable.
Taking 1st was Pete & the Kid, who put up an impressive line of 6-1-4 for 11 points. Pretty good outcome, as Pete had early concerns about the light forecast and needed to be talked into launching. Taking 2nd on a tiebreaker was Team Shoreman / Reynolds, who seemingly can just fall out of bed and go fast. They finished one point back with a line of 7-3-2 for 12 points. And taking 3rd, also with 12 points was Team Taylor, with a line of 5-2-5. Honorable mentions go to Team Lane, who took 4th on a tiebreaker rolling a 2-8-7 for 17 points, and Team Pandapas in 5th with a 4-7-6 also for 17 points. Congratulations to all.
So in Cup competition, Team Lane / Heffernan holds a 9-point lead over Team Cooke / Kaznoski heading into Race Week, which I heard someone refer to as our all-star break. The top-10 for the first half are listed below.
Week 9 racing will include the big enchilada – Race Week, which will run Thursday through Sunday. There will be no racing on Thursday night.
Other News, Notices & Miscellaneous Scuttlebutt
Eight Bells It is with sadness that we report the passing of Jim Whipple, who was a brother to Joe, friend to many, sailor, long-time CYC RC member, CYC Treasurer, MRA board member and MRA scorer for over a decade. Jim was a gentleman and a scholar, insatiably curious, meticulous in everything he did, and tenacious in always pushing to get it right. He did all of that good naturedly, respectfully and with a twinkle in his eye. He was a man of the highest integrity who had his own very unique charm. His contributions to Marblehead sailing have been tangible, additive and impactful. He meant so much to so many, including me, and it’s hard to imagine Marblehead sailing without him. A CYC Honor Guard will form for Jim’s funeral, which will be held at 11am on Tuesday July 20 at Star of the Sea Church – 85 Atlantic Avenue, Marblehead. You’ll find is obituary here.
Race Week Registration – If you haven’t registered yet, there is no hope for you. You should probably take the week off.
Race Week Party This year’s Race Week party will be this Thursday evening July 22nd starting at 6:30, generously hosted again by Jennifer & Steve Uhl at their home on Front Street. Like always, the party will be potluck, and if it’s anything like the last one, that means a lot of really good food. Let’s try to outdo each other!! And as always, thanks to the ongoing and, dare I say, herculean efforts of Larry Ehrhardt, Fleet 5’s most important asset – the fleet bar, will be in the house. And in case you didn’t know, Jennifer is the longest running winner of our ‘most gracious party host’ award, having won it now for 32 straight years. So we’re in for a treat. Please RSVP on the evite.
Measurement – Certificates are not optional. If you don’t have one or you’ve had work done since your last measurement, please reach out to Fleet Measurer Stefan Thibodeaux at sjthibodeaux@gmail.com. You can check your certificate status here.
If You Spin, Send It In – No fouls this week that we heard about, which is shocking considering the abundant and often snippy mark rounding chatter, which as you’d expect articulated differences of opinion as to rights, overlaps and such. I even heard the word ‘protest’ uttered, but to my knowledge, no one spun or went to the room. Shame…. Below is our season count.
Nationals Trivia Kerfuffle – Christina Pandapas recent nationals Trivia email about the closest nationals in history opened a lot of old Fleet 5 wounds. In case you didn’t see it, here it is.
The opening volley was sent in by Chicago’s Bob Bernstein, who wrote, “The photo finish in race 7 was between 1652 Bob and 1719 Peter. My wife did take a photo from the RC that proved that the RC made an error. White was second and Peter was third; not the other way around.”
Madam President Elise Nash responded with this. “Yeah, we won that event.” But Elise seems now to have gotten over it. “It's all good, it's how it goes sometimes. I was pretty angry about it for few years – and it still turns my stomach a bit. But it's good motivation to go out and beat those guys from down south every time I see them.”
Not my Brother Jim Raisides, who’s Instagram post kind of says it all. “Still hurts.”
Last word from Elise. “This was a favorite pic from the 2016 trip – Jim did it. We were coming home with that trophy or not coming home.”
And so they did.
Mail Bag
Tom Dailey wrote in to share his thoughts on Jim Whipple. “Thank you Kim for the update on Jim Whipple. Jim received prestigious recognition from CYC, but in 2009 he was also the first Laser Frostbite PRO, running races from a skiff in all conditions with another friend gone too early, Maura Power. I bet a lot of people didn’t know that, because the last thing Jim would do would be to herald his own contributions. He’s a terrific guy who has done genuine service for our sport.”
We checked in this week to see what had become of Rich & Rosie Denton, who you may recall have been fixing up their new boat themselves, including dropping the keel, replacing the ribs etc. Impressive, right? Anyway, here is what Rich had to say. “Thanks for checking in. Boat is about done, just need to rebuild the rudder, dry rig, and move it North. We have not been down to work on it much since summer started, but I’ll be down this weekend for what I hope is the last boat trip.” Awesome. Godspeed and look forward to seeing you on the line.
Ann Sousa wrote in with this suggestion. “When I arrived to bail out the boat Thursday before the next storm, the spinnaker was floating around the cabin in its basket. It occurred to me that we often don’t go sailing because of the spinnaker. Do you think there is enough interest and enough support to have a non-spinnaker division on Saturdays? Getting on the bow as one ages becomes less and less fun. If the townies are out we could sail to a shorter mark.” I hear you on the getting older part. I’m an accident waiting to happen up there.
My unofficial answer to your question is ‘probably not.’ I think we considered something like this a decade or so ago, and there was insufficient interest. It also would involve added complexity at the race management level – more starts, added scoring complexity, etc. But that is just one man’s view. I’m sure that Madam President will put it on the winter agenda.
Jocelyn Cook wrote in with this ‘Parkers’ update and a request for help. “James Ashton and I are increasingly energized by the growing public interest around the floated idea for revitalizing Parkers and the dream to carve out a space, amid its other uses, for the public at large to enjoy water recreation from the public parcel. With Town elections behind us and a new Fiscal Year underway, one of the most immediate ways you can help us gain momentum is to sign up here and attend at least one Harbor and Waters meeting in the next 12 months.”
What Jocelyn is doing here is nothing short of heroic, and this initiative deserves all of the support Fleet 5 can muster. I’m signed up. How about you?
Finally, in response to my crack about needing a lawyer after an alcohol induced trademark infringement, old friend Jerry Blouin wrote in with this. “As luck would have it, trademarks and alcohol were my specialties when I had a license–the lack of which, regrettably, requires that I decline the case.”
Also in reference to the picture sent in by Rick Saunders of his old boat with a hole in the side, Jerry had this to say. “As to the holing of Spot, my reckless proclivities mean that Spot has considerable experience with holes, scratches, cracks, dings and rule violation stigmata. The boat positively thrives on such adversity.”
–kp (kpandapas@comcast.net)