Road To The Cup – Week 6
6/29/25
What You Need To Know
- There will be no Twilight racing this Thursday July 3rd due to the 4th of July holiday.
- MRA Series 2 day 3 will be this Saturday.
- Register for Race Week here.
Last Week’s Racing
Let’s start with East Coasts, which was hosted last weekend by Fleet 45 and the Cottage Park Yacht Club. 16 teams from four local fleets crossed swords over the two days and six races in classic up-and-down Boston Harbor conditions. Of the 16 teams, six were from Marblehead, five from Winthrop, three from Hull and two from Hingham. I couldn’t be there this year so haven’t got much color to provide, other than reports that regatta chair Dave Hickey and his team put on an outstanding event.
Congratulations to old friend and Fleet 5 nemesis Dave Nelson, sailing with long time crew Ken Delpapa, who put on a clinic in consistency. Over the six races, they put up a line of 2-2-2-(4)-2-2 for 10 net points. Really well done. Right behind them just one point back was our own Joe Fava, sailing with Dan Gabriel, rolling a 1-4-(4)-2-1-3 for 11 points. And taking 3rd was Mike Lane, sailing with Renee Heffernan, with a line of (9)-1-1-5-7-1 for 15 points. Honorable mentions go to Team Shoreman / Reynolds in 4th with 16 points, and Joe Berkeley in 5th with 24 points. Congratulations to all. You’ll find the full results here.
One other thing worth mentioning is that, inexplicably, the NOR & SIs disagreed about whether there would be a throw-out. Regrettably, that ambiguity didn’t come to light until all races were sailed, chips were on the table and a podium spot was at stake, forcing all to hang around an extra two hours while the judges sorted it out. In the end, Corinthian spirit prevailed, hands were shaken and everyone lived to fight another day. A tip of the cap to their sportsmanship.
Moving on. Six teams made it out for Twilights under overcast skies and shifty conditions, but generally acceptable Twilight conditions. Making it out for their 2025 Twilight debuts were Team Shoreman / Reynolds and a gaggle of kids, Joe & Ben Fava and Timmy Dittrich. Welcome to all. Here is a summary from Steve Uhl.
“Six boats came out, including Joe Fava sailing with son Ben, and team Shoreman/Reynolds with no fewer than four kids aboard – definitely family night. The race itself was uneventful after starting a few minutes late due to a big wind shift from east to south and velocity greatly moderating. Our upwind beat from Fort Sewall to the green can ended up as a long port tack so there weren’t many passing lanes. As often happens, the wind died right near the finish, but didn’t really affect the result. Great to see the next generation out there.”
Jeff Shoreman weighed in with this clarification. “Just three kids onboard tonight – Ben & Charlie Shoreman and Sawyer Reynolds. Enough snacks for four kids though!” He also sent along the picture of Steve’s lead.
So for the record, taking 1st sailing solo was Steve Uhl, finishing 2nd sailing with five onboard plus a few pounds of snacks was Team Shoreman / Reynolds, and finishing 3rd was Team Martini. Honorable mentions to Team Fava in 4thand Timmy D. in 5th. Congratulations to all.
So with one race left in Twilight Series 1, here’s how things stand. Looks like everyone is racing for 2nd place.
Out on the MRA line, Steve Uhl won the day by a landslide, but I get ahead of myself. The forecast called for showers ending in the morning followed by clouds and SE 5-10 with lump. At around noon, it was still soggy with fog and limp flags draped around the harbor – not the festive conditions we’ve come to associate with the weekend before the 4th of July, but hey, this hasn’t been a typical summer.
Six teams ignored their better judgement and fought their way against the ripping incoming tide out to Archers, hoping to get in a little racing. PRO Bill Lynn, who is the second excellent “rookie” fielded by the EYC RC this season (Kate Dailey was the first), set up just beyond Marblehead Rock. He virtually split a gut trying to get off a race, and in the process was communicative, sought input and showed judgement. Regrettably, mother nature had a different plan. At around 2:30, conditions were still borderline but showing signs of life, so he went ahead and started us (after first asking if we wanted to give it a shot). Unfortunately, the breeze crapped out about halfway up the 0.4 mile beat, leaving the six of us bobbing in the lump trying to move. Judging from boats’ various orientations at that point, we all had decidedly different views of wind direction. So Bill shut it down, blew off three and sent us in.
So, while there were no scores to record, as I mentioned, Steve Uhl didn’t just win the day, he crushed it. As you know, he holds a healthy lead in both MRA and cup scoring but was likely going to give much or all of that back by taking the day off. Certainly, a sunny, sea breezy kind of short-course day could have attracted 10-15 teams and gotten off 4-5 races, the DNCs for which would have materially changed Steve’s picture. But the gods were with him, and he made it through his rare day off completely unscathed. Congratulations to Steve.
Last week, we forgot to rundown the results for MRA Series 1, so we’ll do that now. With seven races sailed over three race days and one throw-out, finishing 1st with 10 points was Team Uhl / Lane. Taking 2nd with 17 points was Team Lane / Heffernan, and coming in 3rd with 21 points was Team Gabriel. Honorable mentions to Team Taylor in 4th with 23 points (sailing just one of the race days), and Team Morgan / Rothwell in 5th with 26 points. Congrats to all. You’ll find the complete series scores here.
So, in Cup competition, Steve Uhl continues his assault, positioning himself beautifully heading into the heart of the season and Race Week. The top 10 are below.
Week 7 racing will include the 2-3 races of MRA Series 2 Day 3 on Saturday 7/5, which is expected to be on South Line. No Twilight this week. Happy 4th.
Other News, Notices & Miscellaneous Scuttlebutt
Race Week Registration Snafus – Lots of folks apparently had trouble registering for Race Week. The issue was that Yacht Scoring migrated to a new system and didn’t get all the bugs worked out. Those issues are now corrected. Here is a notice from Sailing World.
“Join us at Boston Yacht Club in late July for the century old Marblehead Race Week. Current classes include: J/105, J/70, 110 Class, Etchell, IOD, Rhodes 19, Town Class, ILCA, Viper 640, Star, and Lightning. The registration (new) is open and available. Early Bird discount ends on July 1st. Host Clubs include Eastern YC, Corinthian YC, and Boston YC. Register at https://www.sailingworld.com/regatta-series-marblehead/. If anyone should have questions related to registration, please do not hesitate to contact us at regattas@sailingworld.com.”
As always, boats registered for MRA pay nothing but must still register.
Nationals Measuring –If you don’t have a certificate, or if your certificate is out of date because you made alterations to the boat since the last time you were measured, please email Stefan Thibodeaux at sjthibodeaux@gmail.com to schedule a measurement.
Nationals Charter Boats Needed – The nationals regatta committee is looking for a few boats available for charter (see next item). If for some reason you plan not to sail Nationals and would be willing to offer it for charter, contact Jeff Shoreman at jshoreman@gmail.com.
Need Charter Boat – Liz Johnson from the Rhodes 19 Fleet 12, Chicago Corinthian Yacht Club, wrote in inquiring about a boat to charter/borrow/sail for the Nationals competition. She borrowed Rhodeo from Joe ONeil last summer in Hull, and just chartered a boat for the ECCs in Cottage Park. If your boat is available, Liz can be reached at babeand4boys@gmail.com” style=”color:rgb(149,79,114);margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px” target=”_blank”>babeand4boys@gmail.com.
Center Consoles Needed for Nationals – The EYC RC still needs a couple of center consoles to use as judge boats for Nationals. If you’re willing to help, contact Cindy Smith at race.committee@easternyc.org or Jeff Shoreman at jshoreman@gmail.com.
If You Spin, Send It In – No spins this week, so the tally remains unchanged.
A reminder that if you spin, please send me an email to kpandapas@comcast.net with the subject line ‘Spins’ and let me know how many fouls you committed for which you exonerated yourself.
Fleet 5ers Team Up for Thayer Trophy – Last weekend, the CYC welcomed six teams and over 70 sailors to the 5thrunning of the Thayer Trophy. Teams fought it out through a range of conditions over the three days. Several Fleet 5ers were involved in organizing, including two of the event organizers Christina Pandapas and Fleet 5 alum Peg MacMaster. Honorary Fleet 5er Forbes Barber served as PRO. Fleet 5ers who participated include Debby Nobel for EYC and Karen Finocchio, Yati Harsono, Christina Pandapas and Juliana Testa for CYC.
Mail Bag
No mail this week.
Complaints Department
Got Gripes? Don’t be shy. Unload at kpandapas@comcast.net. The buck stops here. -kp