Newport Regatta this weekend!!

Looking like we should have big numbers of both A-cats and F18s at the Newport Regatta this year. If you haven't sailed this event, you're missing out. Sail Newport is a fantastic venue and super supportive of our local F18 fleet.

Please contact me if you want to join us- I can connect people with crews, skippers, and maybe even boats.

Register here: https://sailnewport.worldsecuresystems.com/regattas/newportRegatta/

Best,
Jeff

Really wish we could make it planning on the NE100. Have fun!!

So nice to see the lawn filling with cats this morning! I'll be playing with some big boats offshore, see you at the party!

Mike

Mike, come say hi and get a free 'Gansett! We'll be down this afternoon.

Busy running Division 2, dealing with scoring and redress, etc. Hope to see you at tomorrow's party.

Mike

Mike, Can you post some A cat and F-18 results?

http://www.sailnewport.org/regattas/newportRegatta/2013newportregattaresults.html

Talent Rich environment - that is for sure. Great to see the large Viper and VX turnout.

Ended up being a very fun weekend- great to have so many performance boats on the lawn at Sail Newport. Between the A-cats, F18s, 49ers, and 505s the lawn was full of fast boats!

Saturday was a drifter with one very light race, and an epic 13 boat tow behind a Catalina 30.

Sunday was fantastic but tricky sailing with the RC knocking off 5 good races. Breeze was up and down, with large holes eating people on each leg.

Ben Moon and Hunter Stunzi stepped onto the Ronstan F18 and showed us all why they are two of the best catsailors around. Lots of fun having them up here, and I hope they come back. Bob Merrick was fast as always, and Sandra Tartaglino and Tripp Burd put in a soled regatta before leaving for Nacra 17 worlds.

Loved having the As on the course with us, the boats are just so beautifully efficient. Hope to see the momentum keep building!

Thanks for posting the results link, Bert.

It was great to see all of you under the tent. Wish I'd had more time to socialize. I have reported your suggestions and will continue to follow up.

On my circle, the Vipers provided the most entertainment. Several nasty broaches/capsizes on Friday, one ending up with two MOBs as the boat crossed the finish line, while a second boat simultaneously hit and took off with the finish mark. Fortunately, we had mark boat rock stars, so with two mark boats and a spare OA boat, we were able to minimize the confusion for the rest of the boats, in all of the fleets, coming to finish. I had several folks on the signal boat stating that they had never seen so much go wrong at once, and wondered how I stayed so calm and how we were able to come through it so cleanly. Again, rock stars on the RIBs, and really great mentors through the years...

The 5o5s were also fast, and the J22s and Stars enjoyed watching their rabbit starts.

Redress on Saturday for one Star that we finished on course, based on some bad info regarding their class rules. They got average points (definitely the right call), resulting in a 5.7 instead of the 6...

Our circle had the best wind (of the five circles) on Saturday. That's not saying much. Since none of our racing boats had engines, there was lots of towing (out and back in).

Sunday was tough. The wind came in much earlier than was expected, but after plans were in place for a delayed start. Again, long transit to our course (lots of towing) delayed our start time. Then, a math error that I didn't catch in time, resulted in abandoning for the first two flights. Further compilations with ground tackle limited our options to shorten the length of the course, and with a general recall in the Viper start of race 2, the last boat finished one minute after the time limit to start a third series of races.

No shortage of Bacardi all weekend! Wisely, I avoided that temptation last night. Today, I'm really, really tired.

Mike

In the A fleet we had one light air race on sat with 2 more races started but abandoned. Somehow I managed to blow out my main in a 6 knot puff...

On Sunday it started light and built all day to a perfect 12-15 knot sea breeze. RC ran 4 full course races and finished the day with a 1 leg sprint to the weathermark for a total of 6 races over the regatta.

Bailey White held on to secure 1st on a DNA, John Tihansky took 2nd on a Flyer, and Phil Kinder had a strong 3rd on a Evo II.

Thanks to the entire SailNewport organization for putting on a great regatta.

I heard about that sail (I work with your PRO a lot). That was you???

One-legged "race"??? Hadn't heard about that. How often do you see those?

Mike

Unfortunately, that was me. It split from leach to mast at the lower batten. It was obvious I was not going to be able to sail upwind back to the sailing center, so RC sent over a chase boat and gave me a tow in.

The race was short finished at the first weather mark. To be honest, we were ready to head in and had voiced that opinion to the RC.

Sail Newport is my adoptive club. They (we) want feedback to make the events better every year. Contact them directly, or I can forward it anonymously for you.

Mike

I have nothing but praise for the RC and organizers.

We brought 4 boats, drove over 1,000 miles (each way) for the event, and are already making plans to do it again next year.

Perfect, that's great to hear.

Mike

Newport is my favorite place to sail, aside from Put-in-Bay, Ohio. Unfortunately we always seem to have some bad luck at the regatta!

My only comment from this year would be for the grass to be cut shorter on the lawn so I don't lose my keys again... that was annoying!

At the PRO meeting on Friday night, Brad noted that the forecast for the weekend was the worst he had ever seen for the regatta. The culprit was a front that was parked to the south of us.

My circle was fortunate to be racing on Friday, with winds ranging from 12-19 knots, with higher gusts. We used up all of the good wind, LOL...

We were very lucky to have as much wind as we did on Sunday. As of 8:30 on Sunday morning, no one expected that.

Mike