2012 Nor'Easter Regatta

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2012 Nor'Easter Regatta

Postby Chuck Luscomb » Tue Apr 10, 2012 7:22 am

Well folks, it is that time of year again here in the North East where we kick off our New England Cup Series with our first event of the year. The Nor'Easter will be held May 5th and 6th at FT Adams State Park in Newport RI. For those who have joined us for this event in the past, you know what its like most of the time. Winds ranging in the 12-25kt range for the main course and waves and tide are dessert.

Last years event had winds out of the South at 18kts at 8am when we arrived which slowly faded to nearly nothing by mid afternoon. Sunday, the breeze had swung around to the NNE and began in the mid to high teens and ending in the mid 20's. Waves..yes. Current..yes. Surfing from the weather mark to the leeward mark in an EC12? Priceless. After sailing was finished on Sunday I had the chance to ask John Skerry how he liked his first EC12 Regatta. His comment..."I will be smiling for a week". So are YOU ready to experience one of the premier RC sailing venues in the EC12 Class? We have room...

NOR and Entry forms are now posted on the regatta page.

The skippers list looks like this as of Thursday May 3rd

Dave Ramos Confirmed
Bruce Walton Confirmed
Al Dion Confirmed
Chuck Luscomb Confirmed
Brian Jobson Withdrawn
Jake Leo Confirmed
Jack Baldwin Confirmed
John Skerry Confirmed
Ken Koehler Confirmed
Biff Martin Withdrawn
Tim Stone Confirmed
Bob Greer Withdrawn
Kevin MacLellan Confirmed
David VanCleef Confirmed
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Re: 2012 Nor'Easter Regatta

Postby Chuck Luscomb » Thu May 03, 2012 8:26 am

As is usual in New England... it has been difficult to get a settled wind report for Newport for the weekend. They are calling for NNW at 11kts on Saturday with the breeze swinging to the East on Sunday at the same speed. We have seen this type of report close to our sailing date before and have had completely different conditions when we launch our boats. In other words... bring your B rig. if you have one... your C rig or if you have been to Newport in the last three years... your D rig.

The good news is that we have 11 Strong sailors on the score sheet so regardless of the wind direction or speed, it will be an exciting event. Although we have built this event up to seem nothing short of treacherous... we have never had a boat retire from the event due to damage nor have we had one sink. What we HAVE had is some truly exciting sailing in some of the most challenging conditions you will ever find in model sailing.

Are you ready to test your medal?
Chuck
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Re: 2012 Nor'Easter Regatta

Postby daramos » Mon May 07, 2012 12:46 pm

Newport and the Nor’Easter regatta lived up to it’s reputation as some of the most challenging (in my humble opinion) EC-12 Sailing in the country.

Race #3 Sat was one for the history books as current flow and lack of wind made for a race I will not soon forget. Mother Nature seemed to be playing with us as the wind made a temporary dropped in strength and the falling tide increasing the speed of the current all arrived together as the top five boats were trying to finish the race only to come to a standstill just shy of the line. Skippers had to be careful when and where they tacked because you would get swept back from the line in the tack. Boats mere feet from the line soon found themselves tens of yards from the line because of a single tack. Mother Nature must have heard our cries of anguish turn to laughter as we watched each other take a shot at the finish line only to fall short once again and decided that the tormenting was not having the desired effect be she gently increased the wind strength and allowed us all to finish.

Sunday started with the wind piping up to B rig strength and the notorious Newport waves built in height. A number of sailors put the B’s up while others did not trust that Mother Nature was done playing games. The later were correct because the wind faded a bit to solid A rig weather and the wave height lessened. But she was not done yet and she was just worming up. Over the course of the day the wind roller coastered up and down until in the middle of one race with Jake Leo way, Way, WAY out in front, the wind faded to nothing and did a 180 and then built giving the fleet a glimmer of hope that we would all catch him from behind but he was too fast and too far ahead and he held on to the win. Mother Nature decide that it was time to go all in and hit the gas and the wind did a steady but shifty build the rest of the afternoon and to keep us all interested tossed the tides current into the fray providing some of the most exciting hard fought races of the regatta.

I want to thank Chuck Luscomb for once again putting on a great regatta. John Skerry’s wife Judy for RD’ing Sat and Dan Crowley for taking the helm on Sunday.

I cannot recommend this regatta more highly. You will see some of the most challenging, exciting and rewarding conditions possible all located in Newport RI historical home of the AC and 12 Meters. Its not every day that a classic 12Meter, US17 Weatherly, runs by the dock under full sail to take a look at the little 12 meters. So next year put this regatta on your schedule to attend you will glad you did.
Hope to see you there.
Dave

Top results
1st David Ramos
2nd Chuck Luscomb
3rd Jake Leo
4th Bruce Walton
David Ramos
Chesapeake Performance Models
http://www.rcyachts.com

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Re: 2012 Nor'Easter Regatta

Postby Chuck Luscomb » Tue May 08, 2012 9:51 am

The Nor'Easter is now in the history books...

Mother Nature pulled another fast one on us. Totally unexpected conditions which just seemed to evolve and change as each day wore on. A good EC12 Skipper is able to shift gears as the conditions change but this was simply out of control. Wind shifts with constant changes in velocity from one moment to the next and the added current made for some truly interesting racing.

Saturday we arrived to zero wind speed with fog. The Race committee chose to hold off until there was at least a little breeze. The Tide was going out which meant that without breeze, your boat would go out too! The bad news was that the very little breeze we did get did not arrive until after noon. Once it filled in and the racing/drifting got under way, we were able to get a few races in before it died again. Dave did a nice job describing how Mother Nature toyed with us while we tried to complete one race. The tide adds an entirely new dimension to racing that you won't see too many other places. Dave Ramos and Dave VanCleef dominated while trading low point finishes while Luscomb and Leo duked it out for 3rd. We were able to complete 8 races before we quit for the day.

The standings were as follows...

1 D.Ramos 18pts
2 D.VanCleef 20pts
3 C.Luscomb 29pts
4 J.Leo 29pts

Sunday we arrived to Sunny skies and 5-6kts of breeze out of the NNW as forecast. Dave VanCleef did not return as he had not fully recovered from a spring bug. A course was set in a hurry so we could make up for lost time. As the racing got underway, most went to B rigs in hopes of taming the building chop in the harbor. No sooner did the first gun go off when the breeze began to die once again. After the first break, A rigs were the order and things seemed to settle down a bit. Just before noon, while in the middle of the first lap, the wind died completely from the NNW and then came up again out of the SSE. We had to remind everyone that the now weather mark was still a gate as boats rounded and headed for the finish line. Could it get any more interesting?

At the end of racing the final line up looked like this….

1 D. Ramos 27pts
2 C. Luscomb 44pts
3 J. Leo 50pts
4 B.Walton 53pts
5 A. Dion 93 pts
6 K. MacLellan 105pts
7 J. Baldwin 114
8 J. Skerry 123
9 D. VanCleef 128
10 T. Stone 147
11 K. Koehler 173


Thank you to everyone who attended and thank you to Judy Skerry, our RD on Saturday and Dan Crowley our RD for Sunday. A full report to be posted shortly...

Newport continues to deliver some of the most challenging sailing most have had the opportunity to experience. During lunch on Sunday, we had one of the more pleasurable sites and why we sail here. Check out the photos at this link….

https://picasaweb.google.com/1131442979 ... YvUme_X3gE

In one of the photos, you will also see a dark hulled yawl off in the distance. This is Gary Jobsons McCurdy and Rhodes "PALAWAN"
Chuck
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