Road
To The Cup – Week 8
7/14/24
What You Need To Know
- The first race of Twilight Series 2 will be Thursday evening, first gun at 7PM.
- The final day of MRA Series 2 will be Saturday on the North Line, first gun at 1PM.
- Race week will start Thursday July 25th. If you haven’t registered yet, do it
here. - The fleet’s annual Race Week party will again be at the home of
Jennifer & Steve Uhl on Thursday evening after sailing. Details below.
Last Week’s Racing
Every now and then, the gods conspire to create a perfect sailing evening, and so it was for Thursday evening’s twilight. Six team made it out, including
Bill Colehower making his 2024 twilight debut in his new boat (1341). To confuse matters a bit, Bill was sailing with an old sail with the number 2485, which alert readers will recognize as
Team Fava / Nash. That, of course caused a little scoring confusion as, at game time, Joe was getting beaten by his kids on the tennis court and Elise was at a birthday party. Anyway, all straightened out now, and Bill plans to change the sail number
as soon as he can.
So as Steve Uhl was off celebrating his anniversary in Italy and
John Casler was otherwise occupied, our report this week is courtesy of
Walter Colsman.
“An hour before race time, it was blowing 17-20 with gusts to 25 at Children’s Island, however things eased off by race time. It turned out to be a beautiful evening, with brisk but manageable breeze. Six boats made it out, Walter
single-handing with the rest paired up. The course was 28 once around, which was a dead downwind leg and beat back.
Anne Marie Veenland jumped out to an early lead, but Walter managed to round the mark first. The fleet took drastically different routes back home. 2485 (1341) sailed a beautiful beat and nosed out 2561 at the finish, followed by 2651, 243, 1926, and
1466.”
So for the record, congratulations to Bill Colehower, who earned a bullet in his debut. Well done! We expect to see a lot more of him going forward. Taking 2nd was
Walter Colsman, whose willingness to tackle 15+ single handed is super impressive. It makes sense that with the lighter crew weight, he’d be fast downwind, but he also held his own on the beat. Tip of the cap to him. And finishing 3rd was
Anne Marije Veenland. Honorable mentions to Rob Ferro in 4th and
Jim Taylor in 5th.
So with that, Twilight Series 1 is in the books. We got in five of the six races, which triggered a throw out. Taking 1st with 9 net points was
Walter Colsman. Finishing 2nd with 11 points was Steve Uhl, and taking 3rd with 14 points was
Anne Marije Veenland. The series scores are below. Congratulations to all.
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Out on the MRA line, there was no racing again this week, this time due to fog. As you know, we weren’t planning to race MRA anyway due to our annual summer clinic, but regrettably, the same conditions that forced MRA to cancel also put
the kibosh on our clinic. What are you going to do? Fog is fog, and safety issues aside, it doesn’t allow for great pictures or video, which is an integral part of the clinic. I’d like to extend grateful appreciation to all the people who worked to make
this event happen, starting with event organizer Joe Fava, who worked on this for months. Thanks also to
Pete Kaznoski, Seamus Kraft, Stan Schreyer and others for their time and energy. Joe is considering possibly running the clinic concurrent with a future MRA day, with Stan filming and coaching between races, and a chalk talk on Sunday
morning. We’ll keep you posted.
So, in Cup competition, with no MRA this week, there are just slight changes to the standings driven only by Thursday’s Twilight, which as noted, now reflect a throw-out.
Steve Uhl retains a tenuous 13-point lead heading into week 9 and Race Week still to come.
This week’s racing will include the first Twilight of Series 2 on Thursday evening, first gun at 7PM, and the 2-3 races of MRA Series 2 day 5 this Saturday.
Other News, Notices & Miscellaneous Scuttlebutt
Race Week Registration – The Helly Hansen Sailing World Regatta, will be Thursday through Sunday, July 25-28. Register
here.
Ted Hood Regatta – Rhodes 19s have been offered a start at the Ted Hood Regatta, which will be held in Marblehead on Aug 16-18. You can grab the NOR and register
here. It will take a minimum of five boats for us get a start.
Nationals Registration –Nationals will be held this August 22-25 in Hingham Bay, sponsored by Fleet 46 and the Hingham and Hull Yacht Clubs. Register and pick up the NOR
here. Late fee kicks in on July 27th.
If You Spin, Send It In (aka Road to the Pie) – There were no infractions this past Thursday, and we’re not counting the clinic, so the standings remain unchanged.
Looking for Used Spinnakers – U. Mass Dartmouth needs a Rhodes 19 spinnaker or two. If you have one kicking around that you’d be willing to donate, contact
Bump Wilcox at Bump@newwaveyachts.com.
Boat for Sale – David Zingg is selling 1435, previously race out of Edgartown and Cape Ann. Lots of recent repairs, sails and trailer, but needs a keel job. Asking $5900. Email
davidzinggkites@gmail.com.
Mail Bag
Dave Graham wrote in with this. “I sincerely want to extend my deep appreciation to Fleet 5 for its participation in our Twilight Race series. It’s nice having the fleet as a standard participant in this long-standing and traditional
race series.” Thank you, Dave, for all you do!
Old friend Jeremy Bloxham, whose boat, by-the-way, has actually moved in his driveway, which is progress, sent in this challenge with the photo below.
“Name that One Design. Winner gets to send in next week’s challenge.”
Looks kind of like a Soling to me, but what do I know?
Complaints Department
Got Gripes?Don’t be shy. Unload at
kpandapas@comcast.net. The buck stops here.
-kp