We had a glorious early Fall day yesterday for the second One Design Fall Series that included a start for the Classic fleet, with winds NW to NE at 3-18 andpredictably shifty, brilliant sunshine, highs in the low 70's, and the humidity
was a mere 57%!

Six of the Classic boats raced at least three of the four races along with sixFlying Scots and two Front Runners.

The six Classic Fleet members who started included:

• Richard and Neena Rodgers in their 14' Arey's Pond Cat boat
• Geoff Cahill in his yellow Beetle Cat boat
• Mark Powell in his Cape Dory 14' Handy Cat
• Jim Black and Carrie Russell in his beautifully restored red 1936 Snipe
• Happy and Kenzie Hubard in their Sakonnet, "Possum"
• Julia and I in our Sakonnet

The first two races had enormous shifts, from the NW to the NE, and wide variations in velocity across the course, making for very challenging conditions.  The third race bought more steady WNW winds of 12-18, the Race  Committee promptly reset the course, and the racing tightened up considerably.  Understandably, due to the rating splits, racing was close, boat for boat, between the two Sakonnets and the Snipe, and between the three cat boats.  In the third race, all three in the first group finished within 50 seconds of each other and the cat boats finished two minutes later, all within 3 minutes of each other.

Before the fourth race started, the wind piped up to the low 20's for an extended period and the two Sakonnets and the Snipe called it quits and headed home.  The three cat boats continued to race and all three finished the final race.
The final standings were:

1 -Mark Powell
2 -David and Julia
3 -Jim Black and Carrie Russell
4 -Richard and Neena Rogers
5 -Happy and Kenzie Hubard
6 -Geoff Cahill

The racers improved considerably over the day with Geoff Cahill finishing third in the last race versus a sixth earlier, Richard and Neena Rodgers improving from a sixth to a second, and Happy and Kenzie's order of finishes were 5th, 4th, and 3rd in the third race, a very solid upward trend.

Special thanks to the Race Committee who did an excellent job in some very tough conditions.  With two Mark Boats and Mr. Roberts as Signal Boat, they adjusted the courses to keep the lines and legs as square to the wind as was possible given the shifty wind.  Furthermore, to minimize wait time between races, they sent the faster classes on a longer "H" Course and the Classics on a shorter "W" and "W2" Courses, a very creative solution.

The PRO was David Clark who volunteered on very short notice, earlier last week to fill in for Brooks Zerkle who was sick.  Also on the Signal Boat was Cathy Clark as Timer and Scorer, Donna Alvis, Brad Miller, and Veronica Hinckle. The Club SeaCraft was skippered by David Hinckle with his daughter Emily and Alex Alvis as crew.  Wildcat was skippered by Don Woods with Greg Watt as crew. Brad Miller and Cathy Clark thankfully figured out how to score the Portsmouth D-PN Handicap system in Java Score, relieving me of performing this by hand.

The after-race social was provided by John and Yvonne Beery, with a wide variety of munchies, including shrimp, homemade brownies, dips and cheeses, along with the cold beer and soft drinks.

After the awards were handed out, I think I sensed a heightened level of enthusiasm for some more Classic Fleet racing this Fall.  As I said yesterday, Rob Whittemore had indicated to me a couple of weeks ago that the Club would be willing to expand the One Design races in which the Classics would be provided a start, if there is sufficient interest in the Fleet.  

I believe we had that yesterday, so I will endeavor to arrange to have starts for the Classic Fleet in two weeks on Sunday, September 23 at the FBYC One Design Invitational Regatta and again on Saturday, September 29, at the Indian Summer / Sail Against SIDS Regatta.  If the weather holds up along with the enthusiasm, we could try for a start on Saturday, October 20, which is our One Design Closing Day Regatta.

Thanks so much to all of the participants and volunteers that made yesterday such a success!

Best regards,

David R. Lee