District 1 Championship

On Saturday morning at 10:30am we had eight boats (5 Hull, 2 Maine, and1 Newport) pretty much rigged and ready for launching. It was shapingup to be a nice day, though there were a few potentially menacing cloudson the distant horizon. Not to worry, the weatherman said it would allpass to the north. The sun was out and there seemed to be a steady windfrom the south/southeast at about 8-10 mph. We were all psyched to gosailing. Whoops, major problem...we discover that the hoist is dead.Tommy climbed the extension ladder to the hoist and confirmed from theburn marks and burnt motor smell that indeed the hoist was deceased.Scramble mode! Tom and I drove around for an hour to locate the yachtclub backup hoist but we couldn't find it (we went to the wrong house).Hmmm...can't have a regatta if we cant launch. Anyway, in the end,former 110er Greg Fleck came to our rescue with his boom truck to launchall the boats right on time. The regatta was showing some excitement atthe outset.I rigged my new main halyard system (tie line to head of sail, pull up,cleat it), which proved to work much better than my aluminum mastheadlock which failed during a breezy Sail Newport weekend (110 Atlantics).Everyone in Newport told me they stopped using masthead locks about 20years ago, now I know why.

Race 1: Sailing out to the starting line with Brother Fitty (Chris Clancy), thewind did a 180 to the northwest and increased 15-20 mph. After awhile,the wind seemed to be settling a bit but continued leaning right, so theline was favored to windward, which curiously, was the pin end. We hada pretty good start but Ross and Josh on Screaming Pelican moved out toleeward, crossed successfully, and were 1st at the windward mark, withus and the rest of the fleet right behind on this short upwind leg.Because the wind was continuing toward the right, the 1st few boatssailed low to where we sensed the leeward mark should be, but quicklyrealized it was a lot further left. Screaming Pelican stayed a littlelow. We reach up to grapple with the Bell Boys and were able to getinside position and rounded the leeward mark first, with the Bell Boys,Screaming Pelican, Annie and Stewart on Pow-Wow and the rest closebehind. The wind at this point was pretty much north/northeast so weimmediately flipped along with Pow-Wow and led a parade to the finish.

Race 2: The RC moved the windward mark a little right (not quite enough giventhe continuous righty). We had a pretty good start, could've beenbetter but we almost ran into Screaming Pelican bearing off down thewindward end of the line as they tried not to be over as the startinghorn went off. We ended up in lousy air so we cleared to the right assoon as we could. The Bell Boys flipped right on top of us so we droveoff to get clean. Wild Thing went right almost immediately off the lineand was doing well. The long tack was back to the left so we came backas soon as we could. One more short hitch up to the starboard laylineabout 3/4 up the windward leg and we were on the starboard tack layline.Wild Thing was first around the WW mark with us right behind. WildThing worked us up as we tried to affect their breeze off the wind. Aswe bore off for the mark we were able to get inside and round theleeward mark first. Again, with the righty now at Northeast, weimmediately flipped and it was a parade to the finish.

Race 3: By this time, the wind had swung right 300 degrees from the day's startand we had a nice northeasterly at about 12 mph. The RC moved and setthe best course of the day using government marks. The starting linewas heavily favored on the windward end. The Bell Boys, ScreamingPelican, and Wild Thing were in good position partly luffing up to theline at about 12 seconds. We were barging some so we ended up dipping 4sterns (Bell Boys, Screaming Pelican, Herb and Grandson on the OtherWoman, and Wild Thing) and stuck our nose up on the line a few secondslate...not our best start. Pow-Wow was to leeward and in front and theyeventually began to slow us down as they pinched us up. With everybodythinking right and the tide ebbing, we cleared to the right as most ofthe boats tacked off that way as well. As we sheeted in, the port tackjib sheet knot pulled through the jib clew and we lost the jib. So, wetacked back to starboard for a minute or two to fix the problem. When we tacked back we were on the port tack layline. The Bell Boys had anice start and sailed fast to a solid lead at the windward mark withScreaming Pelican, Wild Thing, and Pow-Wow grouped behind. We dipped Pow-Wow and very closely (a little too closely) lee-bow tacked on MartyBrown, Rick Maurice and the Other Woman tightly grouped together androuring in on starboard at the mark, rounding 5th. We closed the gapsome and stayed 5th trailing just behind Wild Thing at the leeward mark.We drove off below Wild Thing and Pow-Wow rather than tack. The BellBoys were in firm control on the right; they were going to win the race.It became an interesting race for the next 4 positions. Wild Thingtacked and did well sailing halfway out to the left. Screaming Pelican,Pow-Wow and my Brother and I on Jolly Giant sailed up to Bumpkin Islandon the right and tacked onto starboard; we tacked under and a littleearlier than the other two and benefited from the same progressiveheader that Wild Thing sailed into because they came flying back in onport and crossed just ahead of the whole group. Wild Thing hung it outa little too long on the come back and maybe overshot the finish just atad. Fitty and I were lucky to slip in and finish 3rd just behindScreaming Pelican. We sailed back to the dock just before the squall hit that didn't passto the north...a huge amount of rain in 30 minutes. HYC hosted a great Reggae party Saturday night...place was mobbed. Sunday was a bust...the wind came in just after the RC called it forlack there of. We look forward to the Nationals at CORK; the consensus is that we'llsee 15-20 boats....who knows maybe more. Could be epic. I'm lookingforward to seeing some folks and boats I haven't seen in a long time.Hope you all can make it.

By Steve Clancy 110/4