Skippers and Friends:
We firmed up the announcement for FYBOR X this past week and the current registrations are listed below. The regatta is SUNDAY, DECEMBER 6TH.
After Lisa Brawner announced a new Brownie recipe coming as well as the assortment of her YUMMY Christmas cookies, the registrations began to spike. It will be great to see Lisa for FYBOR X.

All you need to know:
1, No formal registration....email Dave Branning ([url]laserdave93@yahoo.com[/url]) and say "I'll be there."
2, Bring a $10 bill
3. Show up around 9am and plan to race at 9:45 am. Skip and Roni are running the show
4. Dress warm and prepare for fantastic Scott Todd Chesapeake Bay Crab soup with Corn Muffins....and drinks, brownies and cookies.

REGISTRATIONS AS OF 12/04
David Ramos
Alex Ramos
Doug Wotring
Bill Sysyn
Scott Graf
Harry Mote
Scott Todd
Dave Branning
Cape May Ray
Jim Flach
Domenick Bonanno & Judy, of course
Jamey Betz
Rick Boulay
Ryan Lippincott
Fred DeSantis
Mike Denest
Martin Besant
Stan Smith
John Santoro
Gidge Glenn is a maybe

THIS IS WHY WE DO FYBOR X
Annually the Mid-Atlantic Model Yacht Club gets together for a season finale: FIBOR....Freeze Your Butt Off Regatta. Sometimes there's ice and we don't race and sometimes it's just cold and we race. What we really do is have some great food and laughs with the friends we have been with the entire year. Without David Brawner leading us it's not the same but he would certainly want us to show up and carry on.....and we will.

An excerpt from the 2017 FIBOR regatta report was classic David Brawner: "As always at the FYBOR, the sailing instructions are fairly simple….arrive with a smile, leave with a smile. One addition this year was the requirement of an apology before doing a penalty turn. While the sincerity of these apologies was usually in question, the entertainment value was always there."

The Jim Flach picture of a snow covered David captures the essence of the craziness that was his legacy. The Florida guys look at us in December as just say: "Really? This is why we moved to Florida."

FYBOR X RACE REPORT & RESULTS

The tenth edition of the Freeze Your Butt Off Regatta (FYBOR X) was very successful as all the necessary planets aligned for the day. After a frozen pond last year, we welcomed soft water, clear sunny skies, brisk NW winds, a full fleet of bundled up and masked skippers plus great food. Eighteen skippers showed up to try and race in puffy winds, stay warm and just enjoy the end of our Mid-Atlantic MYC racing season, honoring our former leader, David Brawner. The wind chill put us in the mid 30’s for most of the morning so hand warmers and layers of clothes kept us comfortable.

David Ramos had Scott Graf and son Alex in the northbound car, pulling a trailer of boats, and all three finished in the top three. Must have been the coffee on the way up from Annapolis. We started the morning by using the CESS Pool heat scoring system (a David Brawner legacy) to keep the starting line volume to a minimum. At the break Alex Ramos held a slight lead over his dad, David, and Doug Wotring. Top skipper Jamey Betz was able to finish the first race but boat problems sadly kept him out for the rest of the day. He was a great help with the marks. As we evolved through six morning heats, there was some additional attrition, so the post lunch fleet was reduced to one longer starting line and a full fleet start. It worked and but further attrition ensued through the last six races of the afternoon. This was a crazy wind direction for this pond as a “double auto tack” was not infrequent so one had to be on your toes to avoid boat contact and maintain boat speed. Lead changes were frequent. David Ramos won the day handily as his two throw outs were a fourth and a second. He won by nine points over Scott Graft followed by Alex Ramos three points behind Scott. Results below.

The break for lunch was the high-light of the day as Scott Todd, famed Chesapeake Bay waterman, with help from Roni-Brandt-Simkins, treated us to his Chesapeake Crab Soup, chili, and cornbread. But wait, there’s more. Dom and Judy Bonanno eagerly brought additional chili, French bread and Skip Hall donated the drinks. Lisa Brawner addressed the fleet with holiday wishes at the skippers meeting and graced us with individual skipper cookie bags and additional bags of cookies for the top four skippers. Lisa also added a new brownie recipe that received high marks at our lunch break. Judy Bonanno presented the fleet with little sloop boat pins with FYBOR X on the sail. Thanks to all these generous and creative people for making it a spectacular day.

Thanks to Skip Hall for his crisp PRO leadership and to Roni Brandt-Simkins for scorekeeping and, of course, to Judy Bonanno for her scoreboard excellence and all her help with the lunch break as well as her videos and still pictures here: https://judybonanno.smugmug.com/Sailing/EC-12-regattas/FYBOR-Regattas/FYBOR-10



Results: 10 Races; 2 generous throw-outs
1. David Ramos 10
2. Scott Graf 19
3. Alex Ramos 22
4. Domenick Bonanno 26
5. Jim Flach 39
6. Cape May Ray 40
7. Bill Sysyn 42
8. Scott Todd 48
9. Doug Wotring 54
10. Mike Denest 57
11. Stan Smith 66
12. Tyler Raven 66
13. Rick Boulay 75
14. Fred DeSantis 88
15. Jim Latoff 95
16. Harry Mote 97 sailed three races and picked up all the buoys
John Santoro, boat problems
Jamey Betz, sailed one race; boat problems
Dave Branning, finish line RC

Dave,
Thank you for putting FYBOR X together and thank you to Scott, Roni, Dom, Judy and Skip for lunch and keeping the racing moving. Lisa, thank you for the cookies and keep those FL guys in line. We'll miss you. FYBOR is an excellent way to celebrate Dave Brawner's legacy and I hope there will be a FYBOR XI next year. The conditions were interesting, typical for Mt. Laurel this time of the year and I'm sure everyone will be making repairs to their boats, including me.