Sonar Fleet 1 News: Sonar Fleet 1 Newsletter, June 23, 2010

Sonar Fleet 1

Noroton YC

Long Island Sound Championships, June 19-20:

The following is a great write-up of the regatta by Peter Wilson...

Light air, strong current, and lack of predictable shifts and pressure lines made for very difficult racing over the two day event held at Noroton Yacht Club June 19-20. Twenty-eight boats participated, including three disabled teams and three teams training for the New York Yacht Club Invitational Cup Selection Series to be held this September in Sonars at Newport, RI. After two races on Saturday, Peter McChesney from Annapolis YC and Russ Silvestri from St. Francis YC were 1-2 each with top five finishes. Both teams were new to Sonars, but you never would have known it based on their competitive speed. However, after two more races in very light southerly winds on Sunday, the Noroton teams Sinclair/Wilson and Ed Sweeney rose to the 1 and 3 fleet positions, with McChesney hanging in to end up second just ahead of Ed.

Saturday’s first race didn’t start until after one pm when a light ESE breeze came in with the flood tide. McChesney and Silvestri had clear lanes at the start to get on the first port lift riding it all the way to the starboard layline in good pressure. While usually the left pays upwind in ESE breeze, there was more pressure to the south and these two had it figured out well. The runs were fast as the flood picked up, but the breeze lanes were thin and positions changed back and forth. The second beat again had more pressure right despite a port lifting breeze. On the second run the wind went south without much velocity and the boats that had gybed away from this shift to the north side of the course made out well. At the finish it was McChesney, Silvestri, and the other St. Francis boat.

The wind finally settled in from 195 at about 6 knots and a second race was started. The rapidly increasing flood current and a too pin favored line led to three general recalls before a black flag start with all boats in the clear. McChesney and Sinclair/Wilson had first row clear lane starts and dug left towards what appeared to be more pressure. Throughout the race these two were never more than a few boat lengths apart with the lead changing several times. At the finish Sinclair/Wilson got the gun by about a foot in a near photo-finish. Sweeney got the second of his two fourths, winning the consistency prize. As it was beer time and the light southerly was fading fast, the RC sent all ashore for a great steak and salmon dinner with continuous Elm City Lager on tap. At the end of day one, the top four boats (McChesney, Silvestri, Sinclair/Wilson, and Sweeney) were well ahead of the rest of the pack having two top five races. The difficult conditions with less ‘predictability’ had the other top sailors with one good and one not so good race.

Sunday morning was no better than Saturday morning with haze and zero wind and stable cloud cover. However at 9:30 a light westerly filled in so the RC sent us out hoping at a minimum to get the third race required to make it a series. Of course no sooner were all the boats out to the starting area than the westerly disappeared. Just after noon a light southerly materialized with velocity 4-7 knots. The fleet was off with a clean start, except that two of the leaders (Sinclair/Wilson and Sweeney) were OCS and had to restart well behind the fleet. Sinclair/Wilson with Brian Hayes spotting the pressure lines and Carolyn Wilson keeping the team calm and focused, was able to clear left while the majority of the fleet went right in an attempt to stay in less ebb, and with the left pressure rounded the first mark 9th. Silvestri sailed a great race working back from 5^th McChesney got caught too far right on the first beat and was only able to recover to 11^th. Sweeney could not recover from the OCS and finished 18^th. Sinclair/Wilson worked up to finish third, so going into what would clearly be the last race Silvestri was leading with 6 low points, Sinclair/Wilson had 9, and McChesney had 14. the first time around to catch the leaders and hold on to win.

The wind was still 4-7 from about 190 as the fleet got off to another good start. Galloway won the pin and headed left with Sinclair/Wilson 5 boat lengths on his hip. McChesney and Silvestri had poor starts at the pin but looked like they were able to clear and found good lanes going right. The left was favored again with more pressure and at the first mark Galloway led by a couple of lengths. He held his lead down the run and gybed back to center in front of Sinclair/Wilson as the breeze died to zero. With storm clouds 10 miles to the northwest, a light easterly filled in allowing Sinclair/Wilson to catch Galloway at the gate. The RC reoriented the course, but not far enough so it became a parade after that. Silvestri and his tuning partner were deep and had to catch planes back to the coast, so they dropped out on the first run and were towed in by their coach. McChesney battled back to 14^th which was good enough to put him a point ahead of Ed Sweeney after four races. Sinclair/Wilson’s first sealed the series victory with 10 points.

Tough and atypical Noroton conditions, and more like August than June, but nonetheless good racing. Thanks to PRO Greg Stevens and his team, and regatta organizer Bruce McArthur, and a special thanks to Kitty Brown for superb food.

Complete Results Here.

Fleet Racing:

On June 13th we held fleet racing in conditions similar to the LIS Champs...Light, shifty conditions putting a big premium on being on the correct side of those shifts.

Our PRO for the day, Peter Nightingale, and his race committee did a great job getting two races in. At the end of the day, our winner was Bruce Kirby and crew (L to R below) Wes Whitmyer, Adele Whitmyer, Bruce and Howard Seymour.

Oyster Bay Challenge:

Noroton YC participated in the Oyster Bay Challenge team race in Sonars, hosted by Seawanhaka YC on June 12th and 13th. Three teams participated, also racing was New York YC.

Skippers for Noroton were Lee Morrison, TK (Tom Kinney) and Steve Shepstone. After two days and 7 round robins (21 races) Noroton came out on top! A sail off race between NYYC and Seawanhaka resulted in NYYC taking second and the host club in third.

Peter Wilson's Rules Corner:

Here's another interesting rules question from Peter...