Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Sonar Fleet 1 Newsletter, May 31, 2011

Sonar fleet 1
Noroton YC




Fleet Racing:


We held our first fleet race of the season on Sunday May 22. With seven of our fleet members racing in the Tappan Zee Challenge, we still managed to get four boats on the line. 


RC PRO Bill Thomson got in three races. In the end two boats finished with five points, the tie breaker going to Team 733 with (left to right below) Palmer Sparkman, Kevin Sheehan and James Howe. With them but missing from the picture was TK.




Memorial Day Series:


Turn out was big for our Memorial Day Series. We had 12 boats racing on Sunday and 14 on the line on Monday.


Sunday we saw enough breeze (5 kts out of the east) to keep the boats moving for most of the two races PRO Bill Crane was able to run. After the first day, Jim Linville and Team Fast Forward was in first. One point behind was Lee Morrison. In third was Bruce Kirby. 


The second day saw very light air but PRO Kevin Sheehan managed to get in another two races. For Monday, Lee Morrison finished in a tie for first with Bruce Kirby, with Jim Linville only one point behind. 


For the series, Team Fast Forward (Jim Linville, Peter Galloway and Jack Linville (not pictured) took first in a tie breaker over Lee Morrison.


Bruce Kirby with Howard Seymour and Britt Hall finished third.










Tappan Zee Challenge - The Tappan Zee Challenge was held on May 21-22 in Nyack, NY. Fleet one had seven boats competing in a field of 21. They managed to get two races in the first day before the wind died, and another 3 races in on Sunday. 


Skip Shumway, after finishing with two "9's" on Saturday, came away with a dramatic come-from-behind victory. Second and third went to the United States Merchant Marine Academy with Rick Dominique taking second and Midn. Joe Hoffman, in another day two come back, finishing third. After that, the next five boats, all from Noroton YC, were separated by a total of only four points. 


Full results are here:


Click to enlarge
Team Racing:


Noroton competed in the Oyster Bay Challenge on May 14-15. Here is a recap from team leader Alex Meleney:


Noroton finished 4th out of 5 teams at the Oyster Bay Challenge Master team Race.  NYYC#1 won the event with NYYC#2 second, Seawanhaka third and Nyack fifth.  While the weather was rainy the second day, overall the conditions were excellent for team racing with adequate and relatively steady wind.  At the end of the first day the team was tied for second despite some unfortunate referee calls and one problematic buoy rounding when the jib got wrapped. Unfortunately, the second day did not go well as the team had trouble getting off the line and made some rookie mistakes.  With only one victory in four races the second day, the team dropped to fourth.  


The team had fun and learned a lot, including that there is no substitute for experience in team racing.


To Protest or Not...


The following is a great article by Peter Wilson about how sailing rules are applied and compliance with the Fundamental Principle of our sport. This is Peter's perspective but I personally agree wholeheartedly and would welcome any feedback you would care to offer in the comments section below.


http://tinyurl.com/3dcn8zy


New fleet members:


We have a couple of new members this year. Andy Ross has chartered Dave Wente's boat and has already participated in this past weekends racing. James Antoszewski has brought in a new boat to the club. We hope to see him out on the line shortly.


Dry Sail:


All spaces have been assigned and names have been painted. The vast majority are even spelled correctly. Please do your best to put your boat in the proper slot. 


Fleet 1 Dues:


Pay up!


Up coming schedule:


Fleet racing every Sunday. Harbor start is 12:30
Saturday June 4-5 - LIS Championships hosted by Manhasset Bay YC and the USMMA. 19 boats are currently registered. There's still time. Register online at http://www.sonar.org/
Saturday June 18 - 6:30p Summer Solstice Party. Sigh up on the Noroton website.


Important Links:
New SCA Newsletter: http://sonarclass.blogspot.com/
Fleet 1 results: http://www.fleet1.org/
SCA Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/sonarclass
SCA Twitter page: http://twitter.com/#!/SonarClass