Sunday June 21:
The morning looked sketchy with little breeze and rain. But by the harbor start, the rain had moved on and a beautiful sunny day with a nice but puffy 8-13 kts out of Stamford greeted the 12 boats who made it out to the starting line.
PRO Scott MacLeod decided it was the perfect day to get some serious racing in, especially after the previous week. He ran four races, a W2, a D2 then two D1's.
As is typical in our fleet, three different boats took the gun in the four races.
Team 454 with Ed Sweeney, Tim Sweeney, Leo Schlinkert and Art Collins came in first in race 1. In race 2 it was Team 654 with Morgan Connor, Craig Jones, Jan Raymond and Gavin Watson. Races 3 and 4 saw Team Spitfire (360) with Karl Ziegler, Bill and Willy Crane, and Cecily, Logan & Eli Ziegler. Karl credits being able to keep the boat flat as the key to their victories.
Despite Spitfire's two bullets, the podium at the end of the day looked like this:
1st - Team 654
2nd - Team 726, with Paul Steinborn, Michael and Sara Aingorn and Elizabeth Steinborn
3rd - Team Spitfire
AS always, full results can be found here: http://www.fleet1.org/
 |
| Team 654: Craig, Jan, Morgan and Gavin |
Some thoughts from Jim Linville on the ACC regatta the previous weekend:
What a
disappointing weekend
Disappointing on so many levels: The weather was gorgeous, but the wind disappointed. It was lovely to be back on the boat
with Peter and Paul and Ched, but we sailed poorly and were sniping at each
other the whole time. It was
lovely to have so many Sonars racing at Noroton and great to see so much
enthusiasm in the Viper class, but disappointing to only be able to offer our
visitors one day of racing.
But none of the above merit this piece – I will lose no
sleep over the wind or the rust and grouchiness on our boat: all that is part
of the game. What I have lost
sleep over, however, is how Noroton might have lost sight of what our game is
all about. I am disappointed that
some of our members chose not to bother to show up for their race committee
assignments. I am disappointed
that some of our members seem to not feel that it is their responsibility –
even their obligation – to help police our self policed sport. And I am deeply disappointed that some
of our members temporarily lost sight of their implicit (and explicit – read
rule 2) responsibility to themselves, to our club, to the rest of their
competitors and to the sport we all love to sail fairly and honestly.
Let me be brutally frank – we are a bunch of amateurs,
has-beens, never weres. The very
best of us are old guys who used to be good. If you think the results of any of our races or regattas
matter in any significant way, you are wrong. We are, however, playing a wonderful game with (and against)
our dearest friends at a place where almost all of us have been sailing for decades,
if not generations. Trust me: when the history of sailing is written there will
not be even a tiny footnote about who won a weekend regatta at Noroton Yacht
Club. But I am deeply worried that
we might have gotten to a point where we can even imagine that our results
might appear to matter more than our conduct, that the rules of the game
somehow don’t apply to us, that somehow in the heat of battle we get to choose
what the rules are and how they apply to us based on our own narrow self
interest. Where the hell does that
come from?
Here’s what matters:
Having fun. Respecting our
competitors. Being respected by
our competitors. Doing your
best. Playing the game
honestly. Bringing new folks into
our sport. Being fair. Making the game fun for everyone.
We talk to our children about sportsmanship and we’ve got the Paul Elvstrom quote on a poster in the Junior Sailing Office (“You haven't won the race, if in winning the race you have lost the respect of your competitors”), so here’s the question: are we willing to sell any of that down the river for a couple of places in a weekend regatta? Is it OK to shave the truth if you’re doing poorly but not OK if you’re doing well, or is it the other way ‘round? Do we play by the rules at ‘big’ regattas but not in fleet races? I pray that the answer to all those questions is a resounding ‘no’ because if we even have to ask ourselves those questions we have sold out and are just dickering over price.
Noroton came close to getting the answers wrong last weekend. In the end folks did the right thing, even though the dance with the devil lasted for an excruciatingly long time – maybe too long. For myself, I say ‘thank you’ to those who backed away from temptation and did the right thing in the end. That is a tough journey and none of us should minimize it – admitting you got it wrong and taking your licks is a very, very tough challenge and needs to be respected. And to those of you who might be feeling self righteous right now, remember that there is not one among us that hasn’t shaved the truth or taken a shortcut along the way and all of us need to be reminded of our obligation to our competitors, our friends, our club, our children, and our sport to play it straight. We might not get it right all the time but if we give up trying we will all be the losers.
Noroton’s legacy is a great one: let’s all work together to keep it that way.
We talk to our children about sportsmanship and we’ve got the Paul Elvstrom quote on a poster in the Junior Sailing Office (“You haven't won the race, if in winning the race you have lost the respect of your competitors”), so here’s the question: are we willing to sell any of that down the river for a couple of places in a weekend regatta? Is it OK to shave the truth if you’re doing poorly but not OK if you’re doing well, or is it the other way ‘round? Do we play by the rules at ‘big’ regattas but not in fleet races? I pray that the answer to all those questions is a resounding ‘no’ because if we even have to ask ourselves those questions we have sold out and are just dickering over price.
Noroton came close to getting the answers wrong last weekend. In the end folks did the right thing, even though the dance with the devil lasted for an excruciatingly long time – maybe too long. For myself, I say ‘thank you’ to those who backed away from temptation and did the right thing in the end. That is a tough journey and none of us should minimize it – admitting you got it wrong and taking your licks is a very, very tough challenge and needs to be respected. And to those of you who might be feeling self righteous right now, remember that there is not one among us that hasn’t shaved the truth or taken a shortcut along the way and all of us need to be reminded of our obligation to our competitors, our friends, our club, our children, and our sport to play it straight. We might not get it right all the time but if we give up trying we will all be the losers.
Noroton’s legacy is a great one: let’s all work together to keep it that way.
Jim Linville, Past Commodore.
June 17, 2015. Thank you Jim for taking the time and sharing your thoughts and feelings. We appreciate it very much.
CREW TRAINING:
A BIG thank you to Scott Harrison for organizing the second on-the-water crew training session. We had five seminar participants come back to gain more experience. We're starting to see who's serious about crewing now.
Also thanks to Bruce Kirby, Tom Ross and Christi Hart for volunteering to take the students out. We couldn't do it without you.
The next on-the-water date is Saturday July 11.
FLEET COOK-OUT:
Because the forecast looked so iffy, we moved the date of our first cook-out to this coming Sunday, June 28, following racing. Please plan on hanging out with everyone to enjoy whatever the Raymonds have planned. BYOB!!!
FLEET 1 CALENDAR:
Fleet barbecue: June 28 after racing
July 4th Series: Fri July 3 (Commodore's Race), Sun July 5
Fleet barbecue: July 19 after racing
Marblehead NOOD: Eastern YC, July 24-26
Vice Commodore's Race: August 2
Canadian Nationals: Lunenburg YC, Lunenburg Nova Scotia Aug. 12-15
Fleet Barbecue: August 16 after racing
Labor Day Series: Sun-Mon, Sep 6-7
Kirby Cup: Noroton YC, Sat-Sun, Sep 12-13 (no fleet racing)
Sonar World Championship: September 16-20, Falmouth YC, Falmouth MA
Last day of racing: Sunday October 4
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