2014 Thunder Mug Regatta

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2014 Thunder Mug Regatta

Postby Chuck Luscomb » Thu Sep 25, 2014 10:56 am

Greetings gentlemen,

The next installment of the New England Cup is just around the corner. Although I already have a working skippers list and nods from most that they are coming, we always can handle more people at this event. Huge lake with lots of course options and one of the few fresh water lakes with decent wind. Truly and enjoyable way to end the sailing season and start the building season.

NOR/Schedule and Entry will soon be posted on the Sailing Schedule page.

I realize after the NCR in Chicago, that we may not see our regular traveling group but hopefully they can make it.

Skippers list at the moment...

Jack Baldwin
Kevin MacLellan
Brian Kerrigan
Chuck Luscomb
Brian Jobson
Ron Rhault
Tim Stone
Al Dion
JD Langdon
Bob Shluger
Chuck
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Re: 2014 Thunder Mug Regatta

Postby Chuck Luscomb » Wed Oct 29, 2014 3:08 pm

Well, that was fun...

We had 12 Skippers sign up for the final event of the season and I say final because this was a late event this year and sometimes the weather does not cooperate this late in the year. The forecast was for light winds on Saturday but Sundays prediction was it was going to howl with winds in excess of 30kts. This put the skippers a bit on edge and thoughts of C rigs started to pour in. Well, no one has one except maybe John Skerry and he was not coming.

This was going to be pretty much a local event with only one or two skippers traveling the distance. Now Tim Stone, who drove down from VT, had a B rig but not a C. Eddie Wolfe, who drove down from Marblehead, had an A but no B. It was going to be interesting to see how the fleet dealt with the predicted winds.

Friday Night turned into a B rig/C rig building extravaganza at my barn. Instead of the planned practice sail, skippers congregated at my barn while rigs were built and fitted. My bride was putting together a wonderful meal for the gang and it was truly a wonderful night.

Saturday. We arrived to light and variable winds with no real direction. West was forecast but it just kept swinging 60-90degree shifts. Crazy.

Racing got underway and it was remarkable that the Start/finish line was exactly on the wind line where it shifted from a beat in one direction to a beat in another. So we decided to thumb our nose at mother nature and just sail the same course and it seemed to work out pretty well. Very frustrating at times and no lead was safe. There were no consistent leaders. Everyone had a chance at a bullet. Bob Shluger, Jon Pelley, Brian Kerrigan and Ron Rhault all had their moments. The vintage boat was no clue either. Both Bob and Ron were sailing boats that were more than 20 years old and were still quite quick. By the eighth race, the spread between first and last in the regatta was only 38 points. Crazy I know but everyone was sailing well, then not so well.

On or around 2pm or so, the wind swung around to the south and locked on with 10-12kts and very minor shifts. After the morning we had, we elected to extend sailing for an extra hour in the event we were not able to sail on Sunday.

So at the end of sailing on Saturday with no throw outs figured into the score yet, the scores looked like this...

1 Chuck Luscomb 39pts
2 Al Dion 40pts
3 Eddie Wolfe 54pts
4 Kevin MacLellan 64pts
5 Bob Shluger 68pts
6 Ron Rhault 75pts
7 Tim Stone 77 pts
8 Brian Kerrigan 78pts
9 Jon Pelly 89pts
10 Jack Baldwin 102pts
11 John Arkenberg 114pts


Sunday... Well Sunday about 4am, I was awoken to the sound of the wind going from nothing to about 40kts and it kept up for about an hour. All the while, I thought, we will not be sailing in this...
By 7am, it had all but quit and was very light. When we got to the pond, the breeze had built back up again to about 8kts but we were again seeing the massive shifts we had the day before. So, we left the marks right were they were and resumed sailing. The breeze slowly built as we sailed and as it did, the shifts and holes became quite frustrating and the finishing order was under no ones control. Around noon, the gusts into the mid teens and low 20s started getting longer in duration and at the break, a number of boats switched to their B rigs. Seemed to be a good idea for the high points but there were still a number of lulls and holes that seemed to be just as prominent. After a three race set and at the next break, two boats switched back to their A rigs. Not many noticed this but by the time the call for boats in the water came, there was just no opportunity for anyone else to switch back to an A. We typically enforce the 5min hold can be used for damage or break downs but not for switching rigs. We did not say you could not switch rigs, you just could not use a 5 min hold to do it. Since no one elected to chance the switch between races, the two guys with the A rigs had the advantage.

At the end of sailing, with 21 races completed and three throw outs for the event, the final standings looked like this.

1 Chuck Luscomb 32pts
2 Al Dion 49pts
3 Brian Kerrigan 73pts
4 Kevin MacLellan 88pts
5 Bob Shluger 94pts (won the tie)
6 Ron Rhault 94pts
7 Jon Pelley 118pts
8 Eddie Wolf 120pts (Did not sail Sunday)
9 Tim Stone 120pts
10 Jack Baldwin 132pts
11 John Arkenberg 137pts

The Mystic River Radio Sailors would like to extend a sincere thank you to all the skippers who came out and sailed this years ThunderMug... And a special thanks to our RD Bill Dempsey.

See you all next year!!!
Chuck
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Re: 2014 Thunder Mug Regatta

Postby breakwater » Wed Nov 05, 2014 6:41 pm

As always, thank you Chuck.
This is just an awesome place to sail, and great company & Competition.

Shockingly, there is no EC-12 B rig in my repertoire... and I paid the penalty.
That's partially what winter is for....

Most people hate winter, but I don't see it as anything other that just another season to play in. Time to break out some different tools, and we'll see you next year better prepared!


This photo is hardly much of anything, but it's something to the cause.
Thanks Again!
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2014 Thunder Mug
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