Newport Regatta 2015

Who's in?

July 10-12: F-18s Fri-Sun, A-Cats Sat-Sun.

Link to all info: http://www.sailnewport.org/regattas/newportRegatta/2015index.html

Mike

Hope everyone is enjoying the holiday weekend. Long-range forecast looks great for Newport, register now and save a few bucks!

Looks like the F-18s may be racing with 12-metres on Friday, where else will you ever get to do that???

Cats will race on the fast boat circle during the weekend. Looks like three classes, so minimal traffic.

Mike

New RC team for the cat circle this year, BTW. Hint: the PRO is a cat sailor...

Mike

Won't be making it this year, have fun

Glad to hear it. Last year's cat RC work was less than stellar, but all in all a great regatta.

Weird wind today, northerly following a departing storm last night.

Forecast for the weekend is stellar, sea breeze (SSW) and sun!

Mike

The northerly is holding, three races are in for the F-18s, scores to be posted shortly.

Fourth and final race of the day in progress.

Mike

Unofficial results...

Race 1 winner: Ravi Parent

Race 2 winner: Bob Merrick

Race 3 winner: Oliver Moore

Around 10 boats racing, sadly I don't have crew names, will try to get those.

Mike

Unofficially...

Race 4 winner: Sandra Tartaglino

The fleet used up all the breeze from the northerly. The RC considered towing, now the southerly is starting to fill and they are arriving at the harbor.

Mike

4 different winners out of a 10 boat fleet. Sounds like close racing.

Results are up...
http://www.sailnewport.org/_literature_226114/2015_Newport_Regatta_Friday_Results_-_F-18

Mike

Goofy northerly here this morning, to invert into a sea breeze later today. Plan is to AP ashore for at least one hour, first start to be no earlier than noon.

Mike

Sorry for the dearth of info today. After a postponement ashore, we launched into a slowly dying northerly. By enduring the ensuing bake-fest, we had the fleet in position when the sea breeze filled and got in two good races.

Had some issues with anchors not holding, otherwise a great day. Scores are on their way to the web...

Mike

Results are up:

http://www.sailnewport.org/_literature_226123/2015_Newport_Regatta_Results_Div_4

Mike

OK, just wrapped up a redress hearing that I filed on behalf of Philip, due to an issue of the signal boat adrift and unable to correct position during the finish of Race 1. The jury decision is that Lars and Philip will both be scored in first place for that race.

Results will be updated tomorrow.

Mike

Wow, what a day! We're still wrapping up, but carnage so far includes one holed A-Cat, one MOB A-Cat, a leaking/holed F-18, and a dismasted F-18...

Mike

Holy Crap

Good thing I'm not paying any insurance premiums right now!

The holed boats were boat vs boat, interfleet collision in the middle of open water (not at a mark).

Results posted online have not yet been updated/corrected. They were corrected before the awards.

Winners:

F18: Bob Merrick / Tyler Burd
A-Cat: Joe Bello

We used up all of the clock to get four solid races for the cats today. The VX Ones elected to stop at three.

Mike

Joe Bello also stopped racing to retrieve the MOB, return him to his boat, and still won that race (and the regatta).

Mike

On a sail I loaned him so he could race, no less. The kid's good, but don't let him see this or it'll go to his head.

So, now your excuse for not winning all along is....???? Don't you hate when others use your stuff and show how fast it is? Bob Merrick did that with my old BRU Cat Hobie 16.

It was great meeting you after all these years, Todd. Lots of cleanup at the end of the day, so I ran out of time to find you before you left. Hopefully, the fleet views this year as an improvement. Feedback is always welcome and appreciated.

Mike

I could never get that sail to go in anything but a good breeze, but I expect the extra 65 lbs. of Cheeseburgers I carry doesn't help much either.
I'd definitely say it was an improvement. I let you know the issues I saw on Saturday evening. The chase boat folks (from all the courses) just need to pay a little better attention (head on a swivel). I had to dodge them more than boats racing on our course. Scared the crap out of them, by surprising them right off of their transoms, a few times.

Thanks Todd. I definitely passed that along, I think it's an experience thing. They mostly stayed off the course on Sunday (sometimes even when I asked them to get in there).

Two of them felt obligated to stand by distressed vessels regardless of where that put them (the dismasted and two holed boats). That made me a bit nuts at the time, but probably helped those sailors to not get run over.

This regatta has a history of being tight on resources. There was definitely nothing available for providing towing. My instructions were to anchor the dismasted boat off the course until after racing (the sailor refused and decided to float with the breeze and current until he was halfway up the bay, completely loony and borderline irresponsible). The sinking boats took a little more finesse...

Mike

They've fixed the scores, see main link above.

Mike

They always do. Such an inconvenience, those sinking boats....

Don't read too much into that. If there's a more pro-sailor PRO than me, I want him as my race officer.

All I really meant was, you can't anchor a sinking boat and tow it in later.

The F-18 found a nearby beach (on the Navy base, technically a restricted zone, but they greeted them warmly and helped with duct tape, etc.).

The A-Cat received a tow from the VX-One support boat.

With boats self-destructing in the lighter breeze, and with increasing wind as the day progressed, I wasn't about to allow any of our mark boats off the course, otherwise we would not have been able to keep those still racing safe. A judgement call that allowed four solid races, and one that I would make again in a heartbeat.

Hope to see you at this regatta next year!

Mike

hey, anyone who spends the day working so that the rest of us can sail gets my vote (and a free drink or two from me)...

But yeah, I don't think I've had to deal with that on my very few stints as support fleet...

Not many people do. I consider myself extremely fortune to have learned RC under PU, if for no other reason than it was on cat regattas, and major mayhem can be normal when it's blowing. Many clubs around here wouldn't be able to handle it, they can typically handle one problem at a time, but that's about it.

Mike

The issues I had with chase boats weren't when they were standing by sinking boats. That's certainly not a problem.
I 'm also pretty sure Lars (the A cat) got towed in (with bows up on the transom) by Andrew Gaynor. An Acatter that wasn't racing. He's on Team Oracle.The VX1 support boat was one of the clueless obstacles I was referring to.
All told I think you did a fine job.Passing out cold beers would've made it even better. Maybe next year.
I do believe the protest committee set a dangerous precedent in ruling both boats (A cat vs. f-18)at fault, when it was clearly a windward /leeward issue.

Thanks for the info, Todd. I did see Lars' boat, nose up on a power boat, drifting through the course.

I did not know the VX boat was in the course, or I would have spoken to them (when we spoke on Sat, you told me it was the mark boats). Sounds like I made a bad assumption that the racing support boat would not need to be coached.

I heard a completely different version of what led to the collision (from an unaffected sailor). I didn't see it happen, so I'm not taking sides. Besides, we all know that PCs have to determine facts based solely on testimony. It's not always a perfect science.

Mike