Road To The Cup – Week 13
Road To The Cup – Week 13
Top-10 as of 8/18/19
Five boats showed up Thursday night for what was, by all accounts, a perfect evening for racing. Let’s get right to it with this report from John Casler.
“Again another beautiful evening for Twilights, with a modest breeze out of the east. The dock house reading was 5-6 knots, and that felt about right. The course was to the nun off the Fort, then out to the nun in front of Children's, twice around. Of the five Rhodes who came out, Jocelyn Cook nailed the start and led all the way around, start to finish. Ann Sousa in 1398 got probably the second-best start, challenged all the way around, but never quite closed the gap that developed after the start. 1775 was the middle boat of the five, challenged at times, but never crossed either of the leaders, with Team Martini in 1466 nipping Stefan Thibodeaux at the finish for 4 and 5. There was a lot of tight racing, and a lot of tacking and covering, but people pretty much held their early positions all the way around both loops of the course.”
So congratulations to Jocelyn Cook on the bullet – well deserved. Congrats also to Ann Souza in 2nd and to John Casler in 3rd. Honorable mentions to Team Martini and Stefan Thibodeaux.
Jocelyn sent in this photo taken by her husband Adam Cook from the lighthouse. It really captures the magic of Twilights, don’t you think?
Out on the MRA line, it was a slow news day. The fog was thick across the harbor early on, prompting the RCs to hoist AP ashore at 10am and wait it out. The fog persisted through the morning and into the early afternoon, and by 12:30, everyone had had enough. The RCs fired off three with N over A and that was that. Hats off, by the way, to the RC’s, whose decision-making on this was exceptional. AP went up at 10am, which was early enough, not just to keep folks ashore, but in some cases keep boats on trailers. Putting a stake in it as 12:30 also was thoughtful, as it left racers the opportunity to salvage some of their day. Even had the fog cleared at 12:30, it would have taken us an hour plus in that light air to make our way to the starting area, so we likely wouldn’t have gotten a race off until after 2. Good decision making!
So with that, Series 3 whimpered to its anticlimactic conclusion after just three races; one on August 3rd and two on the 10th. Taking 1st was Team Ehrhardt, rolling a 2-1-3 for 6 points. The 1-3 in that goofy northwesterly last week was particularly impressive. Well done. Taking 2nd with an 8-4-1 for 13 points was Team Frisch / Hourihan / Burke, and finishing 3rd with a DNC-2-2 for 14 points was Team Dailey. Honorable mentions go to Team Pandapas in 4th with a 1-8-6 for 15 points, and to Team Taylor in 5th with a 4-3-RET for 18 points. Congratulations to all, though I feel compelled to point out that it’s a bit unusual to see DNCs and RETs make it into the top 5.
So, in Cup competition, Team Taylor, for the 2nd time this season, picked an exceptional weekend to be DNC. The top 10 are listed below.
Week 14 racing will include Twilight 2-5 on Thursday night, our next-to-last Twilight of the season. There will be no MRA racing on Saturday or booth racing on Sunday morning. Looking ahead, the final day of the Cooke Sunday series will be on the 25th, and MRA concludes on Labor Day weekend with the 2-day Labor Day Series on Saturday & Sunday.
Other News, Notices & Miscellaneous Scuttlebutt
Nationals 2019 – The 2019 Championship Regatta will be this week on August 21-24 in Hingham Bay, hosted by our friends at the Hingham Yacht Club. The NOR is available on the regatta website. Making the trek from Fleet 5 are Team Taylor, Steve Uhl, Team Kaznoski, Team Dailey and adopted Fleet 5ers Chris & Debbie Schreiber. Good luck to all.
Sportsmanship Update – There were obviously no spins this week, so no changes to the standings. Thanks to those on it for their sportsmanship. Remember, if you spin, send it in.
Labor Day Party – Our annual post-race Labor Day Party will be on Saturday August 31st, hosted by old friends Sloan & Charlie Pendleton. Like last year, this expected to be a mixer with our friends from the J70 fleet. Keep an eye out for the evite.
MRA Awards – Circle the date. The MRA has scheduled its annual awards party for Saturday September 28th at 6:30pm at the BYC.
Mail Bag
No mail this week. Go figure.