Road To The Cup – Week 16

by

Road To The Cup – Week 16

9/7/25

What You Need To Know

  • The Fall Series will continue this Saturday September 13th & 20th.
  • The MRA Awards will be Friday October 24th starting at 6:30 at BYC.
  • The Fleet 5 awards will be Saturday November 8 at the home of Christina & Kim Pandapas.  

Last Week’s Racing

Saturday’s forecast was a bit hyperbolic compared to what we actually got.  The once proud but recently diminished National Weather Service suggested that by noon, we’d see a building southerly in the 15-20 range, with gusts up to 30.  In fact, they put their money behind it by declaring a small craft advisory through 8pm Saturday night.  Yes, a cold front was pushing in our direction, and yes, there was a reasonably high probability of associated thunderstorms (i.e. 20 knots with gusts in the 30s) when it got here, and yes, there were tornado warnings in western Mass.  But conditions at game time on Saturday couldn’t have been nicer – a 7-12 knot southerly with flat water and hazy sun.  Apparently, the front’s approach was slower, pushing out the fun stuff until Saturday evening.  But the bottom line is the forecasters botched the timing on this one, which is a shame, as it probably discouraged a few teams from heading out.  For what it’s worth, the pressure picked up after 3pm and the front passed through around 6. 

Anyway, the Fall Series kicked off with the RC setting up on Archers just south of the Archers Rock nun.  Making it out were five Etchells and two J70s, but no Rhodes.  The IODs and Townies had their own regattas going on, so Rhodes and Vipers were the sole no-shows. 

I suppose you could argue that Team Lane / Heffernan won the day as no one picked up any ground on them.  But the vast majority of us were losers for passing on such a great sailing day.

So, in Cup competition, no changes.  The top 10 are listed below.

Week 17 racing will include the second day of Fall Series this Saturday.  

Other News, Notices & Miscellaneous Scuttlebutt

Nominations for Outstanding Crew – The Richie Santos Outstanding Crew trophy is awarded annually to that crew who has demonstrated excellence over the season in a crewing capacity.  Nominations for this award must be in writing to the Fleet Captain, usually, but not necessarily, by their skipper.  Nominations will be carefully considered by a super-secret jury, who will weigh the evidence and select the winner based on merit, a bit of subjectivity and the humor and persuasiveness of the nomination letter(s), which will almost certainly be read aloud at the awards banquet.  Nominations will be accepted until October 15th.  Send your nomination to kpandapas@comcast.net with the subject line Outstanding Crew Nomination.  

MRA Awards – The 2025 MRA awards will be Friday October 24th at BYC.  The event will start at 6:30 pm and is free to MRA members, crew and RC.  The format is expected to be similar to last year.  Circle the date.

Fleet 5 Awards – The Fleet 5 awards “banquet” will be Saturday November 8th at the home of Christina & Kim Pandapas.  The event will be potluck, and feature both the fleet bar, as well as the final installment in Rosy Denton’sfirst season of signature cocktails.  Circle the date and keep your eye out for the evite.

If You Spin, Send It In – No spins this week, so the tracker remains unchanged.

Mail Bag

Name Those Sailors – We got two responses to our challenge to name the sailors in this shot? 

First was from Forbes Barber, who wrote, “I’ll let your fleet members work on the foreground Eagles.  The Crimson on the background is Clay Johnson, likely sailing with his now spouse Elise Dolbec.”  

The second was from old friend Ben Richardson, who answered, “Alden and Adam, with Harvard’s and former EYC member Clay Johnson in the background between them.”  

Well done to both.  Yes, the two handsome lads in the foreground are reigning national champs Adam Roberts & Alden Reid.  I have to assume the guy in the middle is Clay Johnson because both Forbes and Ben agreed on that.  As to Forbes speculation that Clay was sailing with Elise Dolbec, we’ll have to trust him on that.

Complaints Department

Got Gripes?  Don’t be shy.  Unload at kpandapas@comcast.net.  The buck stops here.  -kp