Road
To The Cup – Week 11
Top-10 as of 8/4/24
What You Need To Know
- Twilights start an hour earlier (at 6PM) for the rest of the season
- The 3rd EYC pursuit race will be this Friday evening. Register
here. - The ‘Around Misery Island’ race will be Saturday August 17th.
- Today (Sunday 8/4) is you last chance to register for the Ted Hood Regatta – Aug 17-18. Details below.
- Time to register for Nationals, which will be August 22-25 in Hingham Bay. Details below.
Last Week’s Racing
There was no Twilight race this week due to Townie Nationals.
Out on the MRA line, on a beautiful summer day and for the third time in the last five race days, we did not race. But let’s hold that for a minute and start with attendance. Just six boats showed up, once again demonstrating what has
been termed the “Race Week hangover,” referring to the first MRA Saturday after Race Week when teams often take a mid-summer breather (or family vacation). One of those six boats was old friend
Frank McNamara, who put away his J70 for the day and dusted off his Rhodes. How awesome to have him join us? Now that the boat is rigged, we look forward to seeing “Ripple” more often.
The forecast was for a light southwesterly between 240 and 280 in the 5-10 knot range, with occasional puffs in the low teens. What we got was a fickle, up-and-down southwesterly that never really asserted itself, and was diminished further
by a ripping incoming tide that widened your angles on both tacks, with port tack particularly unfun. Light air with strong current on the nose is always a good time, right?
So here is how our day went. The RC set up initially in a spot that proved to be just beyond the reach of the southwesterly. At just before 1PM, they pulled the anchor and headed out a bit, hoisting AP while they set up the new course.
AP came down around 1:30 and they got started, with sequences planned for the IODS, Etchells, J70s & Vipers combined, and then Rhodes. They got the first two fleets off, but during the 3rd sequence for the J70s and Vipers, the breeze flipped northeast,
so back up went AP. Nothing in any of the models suggested a northeasterly would develop, but there it was. The IODs and Etchells were halfway down the run with chutes up, but at the starting line, we were seeing breeze coming from the opposite direction.
The RC set up their patrol boat at the leeward mark and initially put up a C flag, but they quickly thought better of it and went with an S to finish them there.
While we waited for those two classes to finish, the RC announced on VHF that they were calling it and that
“all fleets not currently racing” should head in. We interpreted that as a heads-up that N over A would go up with three sounds signals after the two fleets finished. It did not. We were close to the mid channel buoy when we heard the RC tell the
remaining two fleets that they would run another race for them.
Admittedly, it was a tough day to be a PRO, and certainly hindsight is always 20-20, but wouldn’t it have made more sense to finish the fleets racing and then make a decision for all fleets, and not just the ones who were fortunate enough
to start first? As it turns out, the northeasterly settled in and both IODs and Etchells got in a nice day of racing. We did not.
So, if you’re keeping score, including the four days of Race Week, Fleet 5 has raced just two out of the last five race days. Of the two we sailed, we got in only two races per day, so four races in the last five days of racing. Widening
the lens, since the start of July, we’ve raced just three of a possible seven race days for a grand total of six races.
Despite no racing, we have a tie for winning the day, with honors going equally to
Teams Lane / Heffernan and Uhl / Lane. The former went into the day leading cup scoring by a mere six points and the latter leading MRA overall by four points. Both were otherwise occupied and resigned to taking DNCs for the day, and both got
a welcome reprieve. Congrats to them.
So, in Cup competition, with no racing this week, the results remain unchanged. The top 10 are listed below.
Week 12 racing will include Twilight 2-2 on Thursday evening, and the 2-3 races of MRA Series 3-2 this Saturday (we hope). All fleets will be racing on the South Line. Don’t forget that twilights start an hour earlier after RW, so from
now on, the warning will be at 6PM.
Other News, Notices & Miscellaneous Scuttlebutt
Ted Hood Regatta – Today is your last chance to
register for the Ted Hood, which will be held in Marblehead on Aug 17-18. It will take a minimum of five boats to get us a start.
Nationals Registration –Nationals is 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 deadline has been extended to August 10th.
Thornton Uhl to Wed – We mentioned this last week, but this time in his dad’s words:
“Congratulations Thornton Uhl and Maria Gomez officially engaged July 27!!!”
If You Spin, Send It In (aka Road to the Pie) –
Walter Colsman reported a spin during RW. “I did a spin for infraction tacking too close to
Mike Lane.” Thanks, Walter for leaving it on the course.
Remember if you spin, email
kpandapas@comcast.net and let me know how many fouls you committed for which you exonerated yourself.
Mail Bag
Several people responded to Jeremy Bloxham’s second one design challenge (picture below).
Jim Taylor answered first, and even provided this schematic.
“This one’s easy, Luders 16. (In case of any uncertainty, the L16 on the sail is a dead giveaway). There is a fleet in Northeast Harbor, and probably nowhere else. The 16 refers to the waterline length. They are 26 ft long overall, and a bit like a downsized
IOD.”
Jeremy’s reply – “Spot on, of course. I hoped the BER on the sail number might sidetrack a few people. NEH were holding their international championships with a fleet of about 20 boats. Pretty little boats.”
Others who answered correctly include Frank McNamara and
Rob Paterson.
Complaints Department
Got Gripes?Don’t be shy. Unload at
kpandapas@comcast.net. The buck stops here.
-kp