The Nor'Easter is now in the books.
Saturday was most likely one of the best if not the best day we have ever had in Newport. We had a few new guys as well as a number of regulars. Six boats from MD, two boats from VT, Six from CT and one from RI made up our 15 boats. Cooler temps with S to SSW breeze 8-10 building a bit by the end of the day. The forecast for Sunday was for SW to W at 20-30kts so the plan was to push the racing on Saturday longer in hopes of making it to 18 races for the event. We sailed until 5pm and were able to complete 15 races so three short of our goal.
The fleet was tightly packed all day with the distance from first to last by at the finish not very far at all. Turns were done without pressing and there was not a single sour exchange all day. We had a number of spectators and a cheering section for Dave Brannings "Tomato" Boat. Lots of laughter and high fives between the top skippers. The crash boat went out a few times but not nearly as many times as last year and overall, the fleet handled gear failures quickly and within the holds.
As the day progressed, it looked to many like Dave VanCleef simply had the chops to stay in front in most every race posting 6 bullets for the day and a host of other low point finishes. The fight seemed to be for second as Ramos, Reinhart and Luscomb populated the slots from 2nd to 5th most of the day. Other notable mention needs to go to boats that appeared at the start for every race and finished every race. There were only a few that did not have a DNS or a DNF somewhere in the score sheet. Those were Mark Reinhart, JD Langdon and Al Dion. Al Dion lost his rig and some internal rigging when he hit the dock on the way back in from the last race before lunch. He indicated he was done for the day but when we looked his boat over, it did not look that bad… We changed rigs to his B and got his sheeting system repaired and he came out after lunch with some speed that no one else had. He was pretty happy he stayed.
Dinner was held at Coddingtons Brewery and I have to tell you that normally, in a 15 boat fleet like this, not everyone comes to the dinner so the reservation was made for 10. The head count at the skippers meeting was 11 confirmed and by mid day, that grew to 15 and by dinner, we had 18 all at the same table. What a great time.
Sunday, well... we all arrived at the site on time and got ready to sail with the breeze piping over the top of FT Adams. Wind gauges showed 8-10 with a few gusts to 15. This was 9 am. We decided to try to get our two races in at min and we began launching boats. By the time we had gotten our first start off, the gusts were closer together and higher. The fleet managed to make it around the first mark with VanCleef clear ahead by a 1/4 leg. By the time the fleet was all on the first run, a huge gust came and flattened the entire fleet in one shot. We are talking all boats on the course on their side and rounding up at the same time. A few narrow misses as they did that which caused a universal response which was "We are all done". With that, the fleet came in with no regrets and happy to still be afloat.
SO without getting the last three races, we only had two throw outs. The top four boats were very close in points and it came down to throw outs. Dave VanCleef sailed by far his best event with most races ending with a bullet. One or two mid fleets and a DNS which he could not toss pushed him out of the expected top spot. The other three were also close and what paid dividends were not bullets but consistency in staying near the top. After the scores were tabulated and checked, it came down to four boats with 8 points between them. Amazing.
The final points looked like this.
1 Chuck Luscomb 36pts
2 Dave Ramos 41pts
3 Mark Reinhart 42pts
4 Dave VanCleef 44pts
5 Al Dion 57pts
6 David Dellenbaugh 72pts
7 David Branning 80pts
8 JD Langdon 98pts
9 Tim Stone 130pts
10 Victor Oberg 143pts
11 Bob Shluger 144pts
12 Dave Hammett 148pts
13 Jon Pelly 169pts
14 Brian Kerrigan 174pts
15 Rodger Baldwin 185pts
- IMG_00481.jpg (78.18 KiB) Viewed 10519 times
From left to right. Dave VanCleef, Mark Reinhart, Dave Ramos, Chuck Luscomb, Tim Stone, Al Dion, JD Langdon and Bob Shluger.
Special thanks to Dan Crowley, our RD both days and Ron Rhault who assisted on Saturday. We would also like to thank Sail Newport and FT Adams State Park for their generosity in allowing us to use such an amazing site for our event.
See you next year,
Chuck Luscomb