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See results below.
Thunder and Lightning marked the pre-dawn start of the Chesapeake Bay
Championships and the Area C Alter Qualifier at Miles River Yacht Club in St
Michaels, MD, but that rocky start turned into a fantastic fall weekend on
the bay. While several boats were rigged up on Friday, the forecast and
periodic showers pushed most folks into rigging up Saturday morning. They
missed a fantastic “Bananas Foster” dessert with the Prime Rib and Oyster
Stew Buffet on Friday evening at the club. (Imagine lots of brown sugar, 3
kinds of rum, butter and bananas sautéed and then flamed and served with
vanilla ice cream.) The sailing was just as sweet.
The rain tapered off by 10 and we had 3 good races under grey skies for the
afternoon in breeze from 5 to 11 knots. The 18 boat fleet consisted of 4
Hobie 16s, 3 Hobie F18s, 2 Tornados, 2 Hobie 20s, 2 Hobie 14s, a Hobie 18,
P19MX and an A cat. Roast beef wraps, fruit and cookies were served on the
water between races two and three. Bill Jeffers and Matt Keenan were
fighting it out for the lead and the racing up and down the fleet was close.
We gathered at Isabel’s Dock Bar at the Miles River Yacht Club for peanuts,
beer and a few Karaoke songs before breaking up into groups for dinner in St
Michaels (the cruisers kicked our ass at Karaoke this year). The famous Crab
Claw Restaurant was a popular choice for dinner on Saturday evening.
By Sunday the front had pushed through, the sun was shining, and the flocks
of migrating geese were noisy! The racing proved even more challenging than
Saturday with a bit more breeze and shifty conditions that meant lots of
gear changes. A spectator fleet anchored off of Saint Michaels to watch the
action at the A mark and the offset, saw how I personally managed to trash
two leads over Greg Scace and Dave Fornaro on their Tornado by blowing
tacks, including one less then 50 yards to the finish. Marcy Finnnas, my
great crew, managed to figure out a spinnaker cat for the first time and
what the words “Oh… a Tornado chute really loads up” mean all the while
doing a fantastic job getting us into position in the first place. She is a
trusting soul to hook into the back footstrap with the chute in her very
sore hands and me driving!
No team dominated the standings; Jeffers and Keenan continued sailing well
and each had collected two bullets but Mark Mudderman and Erin LaPorta on a
Hobie 16 and Ed Mills on his A cat had equally strong results for bullets.
Ed’s plan was to miss every shift in the first race on Sunday so that all of
the bad karma would be gone and he could sail fast later in the day…. He
grabbed both the gun and a first place finish over Olli and Kelly Jason on
their Hobie F18 by just 16 seconds in the last race of the day.
After racing, the neighbors were playing with their fleet of antique cars
and so the kids got to inspect the Chitty Chitty Bang Bang car first hand.
Mike Grisko noted that they only made 5 of these Stutz Bearcats. Meanwhile,
VP Dick Cheney’s Helicopter convoy zipped over us on the way to his home
down the river.
After the toys were put away, we enjoyed a great pot of chili and sandwich
platters in the MRYC Club house. Ernie Becker, our Principal Race Officer,
welcomed Suellen Gargalli, the MRYC Rear Commodore, to the podium who
thanked us for coming and extended another invitation to race next year. Her
suggestion was to come on Friday, enjoy the town of Saint Michaels and the
Friday buffet as well as the racing on the weekend. Ernie introduced and
thanked all of his Race Committee team, Bowie Rose, John Stumpf, John
Muehsam, Bob Hoskins, N&H Linder, DeNyce Becker, Bob Voyles, and Diana Mautz.
Ron LaPorta recognized all of the young racers in the fleet and called them
up for a hand of applause. Finally, I awarded the Bronze medals to Olli and
Kelly Jason on their Hobie F18; Matt Keenan, last year’s winner, the Silver
medals on his Nacra 17; and Bill Jeffers, the Gold medals for first place on
his Hobie 14.
Once again, I would like to extend my appreciation to the Miles River Yacht
Club and Ernie Becker for hosting us for a marvelous weekend. Hopefully we
can generate a few more boats for next year’s regatta.
Mark Schneider |
