Road To The Cup – Week 10
Top 10 as of 8/1/21
Well, it happened again. The weather didn’t accommodate. Twilight PRO David Graham was out in front of this one, sending out a weather email in the morning, with the intention of running races despite the forecast of rain and 15+. (That, by the way, prompted this nostalgic-link from John Casler.) Later that afternoon, Dave called looking for guidance as the forecast had strengthened to 17+ and building. After the July Twilight drought we’ve had, I encouraged him to go for it, which he said he would do, but reserved the right to pull the plug if he felt that was advised. And at around 5:15, he did just that.
This is unprecedented in my 25+ years in the fleet. We’re 0 for July. The last Thursday night we actually raced was June 24th. Assuming we race next Thursday, it will have been six full weeks between Twilights. Imagine that. Next Thursday, by the way, will be Race 3 of Series 2, which is currently knotted at zero. For those of you looking ahead, the remaining races in our Twilight season include August 5, August 12, Aug 26 and September 2.
Out on the MRA line, 13 boats showed up for the first day of Series 3. That’s pretty good attendance for our annual post-Race Week hangover day, which traditionally has been a little light on attendance as many of us pay off our domestic obligations after four days on the water.
The forecast called for a moderate northwesterly in the morning, giving way to west 5-10 with sunny skies. That was pretty much the case, though the westerly crapped out towards the end of Race 1, allowing the BYC RC to finish us, but just barely. They hoisted AP and waited for the sea breeze to fill in, which it eventually did. They moved the starting line in a half mile and reset the course to about 200 and started us again. Under the circumstance, getting in two races felt like a win, so hat’s off to PRO Karen Tanenbaum and her team.
Taking 1st on the day with a 2-1 for 3 points was Team Pandapas, who seem to be carrying a little of their light air mojo out of Race Week. Finishing 2nd was Team Frisch / Hourihan, who picked Team Pandapas’ pocket at the finish of Race 1 to earn a 1-3 for 4 points. And taking 3rd on a tiebreaker was Team Lane / Heffernan, who rolled a 5-4 for 9 points. Honorable mentions go to Pete & the Kid in 4th, though this time with Pete’s actual kid Wilson Kaznoski at the helm, who put up a 4-5, also for 9 points, and Anne Marije Veenland-Lee in 5th with a 3-9 for 12 points. That 5th, by the way, is Anne Marije’s first appearance in the top five after steady improvement since commissioning her new boat earlier this summer. I guarantee it won’t be her last. Congratulations to all.
So in Cup competition, no Twilights and the MRA tie between Team Cooke / Kaznoski and Team Lane / Heffernan leave the gap between the top two unchanged. Team Pandapas pushed up a slot from 4th to 3rd. The top-10 are listed below.
Week 11 racing will include Twilight 2-3 on Thursday night, and the 2-3 races of MRA Series 3-2.
Other News, Notices & Miscellaneous Scuttlebutt
Nationals Update – With Race Week in the books, we can now all turn our attention to Nationals, which as you probably know, will run Monday through Friday August 16-20, hosted by the Corinthian Yacht Club. Here is the schedule.
Monday Boat & sail measuring, launching and registration
Tuesday Boat & sail measuring, launching, registration, practice race, annual meeting and postrace social and daily awards
Wednesday Boat & sail measuring, launching, registration, skippers meeting, Day 1 racing, postrace social and daily awards, catered dinner party at fleet at the home of Rebecca & Larry Ehrhardt.
Thursday Day 2 racing, postrace social and daily awards, party at CYC pool, raffle
Friday Day 3 racing, haul boats, awards ceremony.
Most of the info you need is on the nationals web site at http://2021nationals.rhodes19.org/. If that doesn’t get you what you need, please feel free to contact Kim Pandapas (kpandapas@comcast.net) or Elise Nash (elise.mazareas@gmail.com).
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 – We heard of no spins this week, but Team Rubin wrote in to let us know about one they did during Race Week for hitting a mark. Thanks to them for their sportsmanship, and for letting us know. Below is our season count.
Race Week Pictures – Just a reminder that Phil Smith got some great action shots at Race Week, which you’ll find here.
Mail Bag
We got a ton of congratulatory emails for Race Week, some pretty gushy, and Team P. is most appreciative, but we’ll spare you the detail.
There was an abundance of views and suggestions regarding last Sunday’s on the-water-cancellation, all but one with the request not to publish. This from Jim Taylor. “Hat’s off as well to those that I think made the right choice in canceling on Sunday. The conditions were briefly unsailable, gear busting, and potentially dangerous (one gust a bit over 30 kts?), and while it cleared just as predicted, there would not have been enough time to reorganize before the mandated ‘no race after 2:30’ time limit. And who among us would have been eager to trade places with our faithful RC friends in the signal boats and RIB’s?”
Jim went on to voice some frustration about the perennial great weight debate. “The top five R19 RW placings were essentially in reverse order of crew weight. While it was certainly not just having to drag 400 lbs of Taylors around the track that kept #1926 off the podium (a huge clump of weed in R5 and the pin end port tacker cluster $&#@ in R6 on Friday sealed that deal), it was intensely and understandably frustrating for the heavyweights among us not be able to race when we finally got ‘fat boy’ weather on Sunday.”
A couple of people wrote in questioning the decision-making process for awarding Race Week awards, including this from the Rockport fleet’s Rob Paterson. “Maybe you can explain? How is the overall NOOD regatta winner chosen? Just wondering why it wasn't you. You did more races, bigger fleet, same #1st. You clearly won the fleet. It is a head scratcher.” With respect to the Cressy and Fowle trophies, those are awarded by the Eastern Yacht Club. As to the Caribbean trip, here is what the NOR said.
16. PRIZES
16.1 Prizes will be awarded by class.
16.2 Each class winner is eligible for the 2021 Helly Hansen Caribbean NOOD Championship. The designated Challenger will be drawn at the conclusion the event.
And that is just what they did. They drew names from a hat.
Frustrated with Twilight ‘0 for July,’ Walter Colsman lobbed this in. “We used to have twilights Tuesday and Thursday nights. The beauty of that was that if there was bad weather one day, it was usually nice the other. And no one even bothered to go on the rainy days. And if there was a great week, then you had the opportunity to sail twice!! I think we tried Tuesday again a few years ago and it did not take off. But might we try Tuesdays as “make-up” days? I know there would be communication challenges, but not insurmountable. Just a thought.”
John Casler weighed in on that suggestion with this. “I like the idea of using the following Tuesdays as, so to speak, rain dates. Easy enough for me to say as an old retired guy with a blissfully clean schedule, but if the goal is to get a lot of summer sailing in in good conditions, this would help, without going to two twilights a week. (In the distant past, two twilights a week turned out to be a turn-out killer). One advantage is that it could help to avoid the temptation to try to squeeze a race in under poor conditions.”
He added, “My understanding is that last night's cancellation was very strongly advised by Jack Carney.”
Finally, Martha Martini sent in this shot with the header, “Excuse for missing RW.” Seems pretty reasonable to me.
–kp (kpandapas@comcast.net)