Friday, August 29, 2014

SONAR FLEET 1 NEWSLETTER

Wow... I can't believe it's been a month. Let's get caught up...

FLEET RACING:

August 3 (if I can remember that far back):

The first race was the Rear Commodore's race. 13 boats were on the line including a guest from Seawanhaka, #400 with Al Constants on the helm. With the breeze out of the SE at about 8, PRO Tom Ross ran a D2 giving everyone plenty of opportunity to win or lose.

In the end, the winner was Team 506. Team Fast Forward with Peter Galloway and Paul Steinborn finished second and Ed Sweeney's Team 454 finished third.

After that, Tom ran another two races, a D1 and a W1 to end the day.

Overall, with a very dominate performance, Team 506 won the day by taking the gun in all three races, finishing with just 3 points.

Second overall went to Team 454 who finished with 10 points while third went to Team Spitfire with 12.

Team 506: TK, Kerry Klinger and Scott MacLeod
August 10: No racing due to Noroton hosting the JSA Opti Championship (won by Noroton's own TJ Danilek)

August 17:

With many of our fleet 1 sailors in Newport for the Hinman Masters team race, we still managed to get a respectable 8 boats on the line.

Here is a write up by Scott Harrison, the day's winner...

Sunday fleet racing was tricky as ever as the Southerly and Northerly battled all day.  8 boats showed up and Pro Howard Vickery got 2 races completed. The first race was  a D2 in the Southerly which was fluky with velocity and direction changing often.  726, skippered by Paul Steinborn, Jr,  got pressure on the right edge on the first beat and gapped out to a true horizon job.  The Northerly arrived on the second downwind leg and we changed gears again.

The second race was a D1, with the 30 degree lefty at the start, which allowed the fleet to tack at the gun and lay the windward mark.  Downwind started as a skewed bare away, but the right filled in and the fleet was jibing to get to the lower mark.  772 got to the top first and lead the way.  Jack, 726, was a close second.

For the day...

772      3-1    4
633      2-2    4
726      1-5    6

Team 772: Peter Bang, Adam Westerman, Scott and Warren Costikyan

August 24:

The Grand Masters team race took a good number of fleet 1 sailors to Newport again this weekend, still, we managed to get 11 boats out racing. 

Here are two write ups, first by Scott Harrison, the second by winning helmsman Morgan Connor...

Scott: "Wow… what a day.  We left the harbor with a 10+ knot breeze out of the East.  Paul Norton set up a D2 which was proved to be a long race as the wind velocity declined to 6-8 knots with short, periodic shifts of 10 degrees.  The shifts were too hard to predict, and thus, either side of the course worked.  Mike Aingorn got the bullet followed by Harrison and Sweeney.

The 2nd race was a D1, and equally tricky, with the left and right working and  4 boats reaching the top within 5 boat lengths.  Team Raymond, with Morgan Connor at the helm, rounded first and held on, followed by Jason and Harrison.

In the end, 3 boats had 5 points,  with the tie breaker going to Raymond"

Morgan: "Eleven boats participated in this past Sunday racing.  There were two races the first at D2 and the second a D1. 

Race 1
With a short line and the current going out, it set up the fleet for a general recall as the majority of the boats were over.  On the restart the one minute rule was in affect and the RC extending the line.  The fleet was able to hold back and get off cleanly.  The pin was slightly favored, but the majority of the fleet tacked off the line and headed to the right side of a long first beat.  The top boats came out of the right hand side as the breeze shifted to the right.  Team Aingorn led around the first mark and held on to the lead for the entire race.  Ed Sweeney moved his way up the fleet and finished a close third with Scott Harrison and crew crossing ahead at the finish.  Team Raymond finished fourth with Team 360 in fifth.

Race 2
With the wind strengthening a little, and time running out on the afternoon, the race committee shortened the course and posted a D1.  The first beat was similar to the first race, with the majority of the fleet tacking off of the line and heading to the right-hand side.  Team Raymond and Team 360 found lanes across the middle on port tack and converged with the leaders out of the right about 2/3 up the beat.  With a slight shift to the left at the top of the beat, Team Raymond and Team 360 rounded the weather mark in first and second with Team 500 rounding third.  On the run, Team Raymond stayed out as much of the fleet continued on starboard jibe and headed towards the shore.  Team Raymond rounded the leeward mark in first with Team 500 rounding about 4 boat lengths behind.  The last beat was a fetch to the line with the current pushing us to windward. 

Team Raymond finished first with Team 500 second, Scott Harrison third, and Team Aingorn in fourth.

Team Raymond, Team Harrison and Team Aingorn all tied for first place on the day with 5 points.  The tie-break went to Team Raymond, with Team Aingorn in second and Team Harrison in third.

Thank you to PRO Paul Norton and his team for two fun races."

Team 654: Back row: Ryan Jones, Craig Jones, Morgan Connor, Jan Raymond.
Front Row: Future JSA Opti Champ Lila Connor.
Full fleet 1 scores can be found here: http://www.fleet1.org/

REGATTA NEWS:

The Sonar North American Championship was held on August 8-10, hosted by the Lunenburg Yacht Club in Lunenburg Nova Scotia.

21 boats, representing seven countries competed in this year's championship. Noroton's own Team Fast Forward (701) with Peter Galloway, Paul Steinborn Sr., Cooper Pellaton and Justin Marks won the event with just 13 points in 10 races (including two throw outs).

Team Fast Forward leading the fleet at the leeward mark.
Second place went to Eric Voss, the current World Champion from Rochester YC. Third went to a team from Great Britain.

While all boats sailed together, a group of boats in town for the IFDS World championships were scored separately, sailing in a non-spinnaker division. Winning that group was a team from Ireland.

Full results for the regatta can be found here: http://lyc.ns.ca/racing/racing2014/2014SonarNA.htm

Speaking of the IFDS Worlds... 18 boats competed in the Sonar class division. Winning the event was FRA's Bruno Jourdren. Second went to CAN Paul Tingley and third was Colin Harrison from AUS. The top USA boat was Noroton's Rick Doerr who finished in eighth place. The other American racing was Andy Fisher, also a Noroton member, who came in 11th.

Full Results here: http://www.ifdsworlds2014.ca/images/ifds/results//Sonar%20Overall%20Final.htm

TEAM RACING:

As mentioned above, Noroton participated in two major team race events this month in Newport, the Hinman Masters and the Grand Masters.

For the Hinman, 11 of the best teams in the country competed on August 15-17. Teams included New York, St Francis, Southern, Texas Corinthian, Seawanhaka and Eastern. A strong first day helped propel Noroton into the final four round. From there the competition was a little too much for our team, ending the regatta in fourth.

The Grand Masters was held August 23 - 24. Eight teams competed in this, the 4th year of the event.

The press release from the event says it best:

The NYYC Grandmasters Regatta has been held four times since 2010 (the event wasn't sailed in 2011 due to Hurricane Irene) and the team from Noroton YC, in Darien, Conn., has won it each time. This year it wasn't even close. After a double round robin, where each team raced every other team twice, Noroton stood atop the overall standings with a 14-0 record.

The road to winning the Grand Masters definitely leads through Noroton.

The 2014 Noroton Grand Masters team: TK, Kevin Sheehan, Susan Morrison, Steve Shepstone, Warren Costikyan, Karl Ziegler, Lee Morrison, Melissa Shepstone, Britt Hall, Jim Linville, Peter Wilson, Carolyn Wilson

The full press release can be found on the Noroton website: http://norotonyc.org/

AUGUST SUMMERY:

JSA Opti Champion, North American Champion, Grand Masters winning team, strong finishes in the IFDS World Championship and Hinman Masters... Noroton has had a very successful August.

Here is the remaining Sonar Class regatta schedule for 2014:

Atlantic Coast Championship, September 27-28, Noroton YC

FLEET 1 CALENDAR:

Labor Day Series: Sun-Mon, Aug 31-Sep 1
Kirby Cup: Noroton YC, Sat-Sun, Sep 13-14 (no fleet racing)
Atlantic Coast Championship: Noroton YC, September 27-28
Last day of racing: Sunday October 5