2009 Fleet Scuttlebutt
6/25: Thursday Twilight Series: After what seemed like 40 days & 40 nights of rain we were all able to climb aboard our "arks" and get out for a race. A beautiful night and a bright breeze and a course of "19" "22" Twice Around. At the start of the start all were out with the exception of Frolic. With two minutes to the Townie Start and the background music to Jaws playing in the background Frolic was sighted making a beeline for the starting line with paddle out. At the sound of the starting siren it was Mark Maitland and Kristen Starke on Jean out ahead and first across the line. Wabi Sabi over in 2nd and Nolo's Bart Snow/Jonathan Tilton (Snow Skippering) in a close 3rd position. A reach to 19 where Bart snow dropped Nolo down in 2nd gear and powered past Wabi Sabi for the 2nd position. Rounding 19 it was a run out to 22 with a beat back to the starting pin. On the beat back across the harbor Bart Snow makes up the considerable distance upon Jean and overtakes Maitland/Starke to take the lead for the 2nd circuit. All the while Wabi Sabi was trying to hold her position in 3rd against the loud swooshing sound of Townie bow wake coming off of Elusive close behind. About the time we were all rounding 22 for the last beat to the finish Bart & Jonathan were calling for a launch (having crossed the line in first place) for a pickup at the mooring to take them ashore to the Bloody Mary's that waited for the victors at the CYC bar. Maitland/Starke held a solid 2nd place with the the battle of the night for 3rd and 4th place between Elusive, Wabi Sabi and Frolic. Elusive stayed high in the harbor (towards lighthouse point) while Wabi Sabi and Frolic stayed towards the right side (Fort Sewall). Wabi Sabi ends up getting "Janed" (defined: the zen and art of choosing the right tack and playing the right side of the harbor to overtake boats well ahead) by Elaine and her "harbor savy tactician" Jim Cooke by narrowly crossing ahead of Wabi Sabi to take the 3rd place with Wabi Sabi having to do 2 extra tacks to get around moored boats. Meanwhile, the stealthy crew of Frolic had made up for their poor start and nearly caught Wabi Sabi. Wabi Sabi was able to squeeze out Frolic taking the 4th position with Frolic in 5th and Third Time's A Charm in 6th. It was nice to see the Williams brothers out working out the kinks on 3rd Times A Charm in their first showing of the season. All in all a beautiful night to be on the water...especially if you were the crew of Nolo which appears to be unstoppable in its quest to for a sweep of the Twilight Series 1.
6/21: Sunday Morning Series: Wet & Yucky! No race! Reports say that Jim Cooke had to fight to put up the "November" flag cancelling the day's race.
6/20: MRA: With some trepidation about the weather and the forecast for potential rain and light wind 4 boats determined to take advantage of the break in the weather head out to the Brimbles Line. Making their debut appearance at this year's MRA was Frolic (Tip O'Neill & Dawn Crowe) and Double Zero (Connie Blake and Veteran Sail Engineer & Tactician Jim Cooke). The first race started out a C course but was shortened to an A course presumably for shifting wind. With the Pin End grossly favored the Patience started off in 1st and ended the same. Double Zero's Connie Blake took the right tacks and took a solid 2nd while Wabi Sabi and Frolic battled for a tight finish with Frolic narrowly edging out Wabi Sabi for 3rd. Actually, the only reason I knew the course had been shortened was Tip asking for room to finish since we were headed for the pin end that I was preparing to round with inside overlap thinking that I was in good stead...I should have known "if you think you're in good stead when battling Tip you should think again...look around and see what has changed. The 2nd race shook things up a bit with Tip & Dawn taking the top spot with Wabi Sabi narrowly edging out Team Martini on Patience for 2nd and Team Double Zero sliding back into 4th place. The last race of the day saw Team Martini taking the top spot followed by Frolic in 2nd. After a grueling tacking battle, Connie Blake and ace tactician Jim Cooke managed to best Wabi Sabi and took 3rd place. All in all a nice day of racing and many thanks to the BYC Race Committee for well run races with excellent communications.
6/18: Thursday Twilight Series: Rain, small craft advisory and cool temps keep the Townies ashore with no race. (Actually we all decided...if Jane's not racing then we're not racing without her!)
6/13: MRA: A beautiful day for the 1st MRA race of 2009 for the Town Class sailors. Unfortunately conflicts, injured backs and boats not yet in the water resulted in only two boats coming out to race: #558 Patience (Team Martini) and #2091 Wabi Sabi (Anderson/Casey). Light but steady winds predominated the day. Race 1. Patience hits the starting line just ahead of Wabi Sabi and maintains a lead throughout the "C" course to win. Race 2. An aggressive Team Martini is over the line early on the start giving Wabi Sabi a head start. You know it is not your day when a boat has to go back and restart and then still beats you to the windward mark and holds the lead on the "A" course to win. Congrats to Team Martini on their two wins. Many thanks to Gen for doing a great job in crewing on Wabi Sabi for the day and making my day with the hilarious "Rex Antrim Story"...6 inches...ha ha :)! Tip, get out here and give the Martini's some competition!
6/11: Thursday Twilight Series: Tilton Tops Tip! On a wet, dreary, Seattle looking night 5 boats gathered for a "21" "22" twice around race. After a confusing start by the race committee (the Warning Siren went off a minute early followed by miscellaneou siren sounds that presumably meant "Ooops we didn't mean it") Frolic (Tip and Bob) - in their first race showing for the season - crossed the start line 1st followed by Nolo (Jonathan @ the helm & Bart crew), Wabi Sabi (Me and Mike Robbins), Jean & Team Maitland (Peter & Mark Maitland - sporting racing stripes on their new sails - looking very fast), and Lille Venn (Rolf & Mary Ann Solstad). The breeze was steady but light. The route from "21" to "22" turned out to be a reach and Nolo - with Jonathan Tilton at the helm manuevered in for what was undoubtedly the "Tactical Play of the Night" by getting a better rounding at "22" slipping inside of Frolic and taking the lead. Positions continued to hold on the broad reach (no whisker poles flew this race!) back to the starting pin. Meanwhile Team Maitland made notable progress on several legs inching up on Wabi Sabi enough to put the fear of Maitland into Wabi's crew. One screw up and Team Maitland would have easily taken 3rd place. The race finished with positions holding true to the starting sequence with the exception that Jonathan skippered Nolo to its second 1 st place of the Twilight Series. Nolo is fast and the Tilton/Snow team seems unstoppable...but then again this was Tip's first night racing. It was great to see Rolf out there jumping in feet first to get some race experience. The Twilight Season is off to a great start with lots of drama ahead for sure as everyone settles into the groove and gets used to their new sails, settings and crew!
6/7: Sunday Morning Series: "Call the police someone got robbed"! Three boats made it out for the first Sunday Morning Race of 2009: Jean (Peter Maitland & Gen Casey) Lille Venn (Karen & Mary Ann Solstad) and Wabi Sabi (Dave & Tracy Anderson). The course was "28" "W" Twice Around. The breeze was light and shifty. At the start it was Jean over the line first followed by Wabi Sabi and then Lille Venn. All rumors about Jean being "one fast boat" proved to be true as Peter downshifted and pulled away leaving Wabi Sabi and Lille Venn in her dust. Positions held steady thru the first circuit. The course was shortened to "21" "18". On the way out to 21 Karen and Mary Ann slowly but surely inched up on Wabi Sabi and made "yours truely" a little nervous. On the downwind leg out to 18 Lille Venn stood in perfect striking position in taking Wabi Sabi's air and nearly road over Wabi Sabi. Rounding 18 (still in the same boat order as we started) things got interesting. Team Maitland approaching Marblehead Rock tacked over onto Port while Wabi Sabi stayed on Starboard almost all the way to light house point. Somehow after seemingly hitting every possible power boat wake head on Wabi Sabi had gained on Jean and after tacking crossed Jean's stern. A few more tacks by both sides left Wabi Sabi ahead of Jean and resulted in an unexpected win by Team Anderson on Wabi Sabi. I think Wabi Sabi got a dose of Jane Cooke's good fortune to pick the right place to be at the right time. Bottom line...Jean was robbed...they were faster, sailed better, and even looked better. Call the police! As for Wabi Sabi...Get out the WD40 'cause I felt rusty. Hopefully I can work the kinks out, brush the rust off and be ready for our next pairing with Team Maitland...cause' Jean is one fast boat this year! My hats off to Karen and Mary Ann for sailing a great race and putting a lot of pressure on us.
6/4The First Twilight Race: As I mentioned before Vegas odds were favoring Team Maitland until it was known that "The" Bart Snow was planning on skippering Nolo. With Bart entering the picture it was anybodies guess as to who would take home the first cup. At the start of the 22-19 Twice Around race it was Jean & Nolo across the line first on a broad reach that ultimately turned into a run towards 22. Lille Venn skippered by Berit Solstad and crewed by the birthday girl, Mary Ann Solstad crossed third and Wabi Sabi crossed 4th. I (Wabi Sabi) was honored to be joined by Berit's friend Rick who is an ace Ethchells sailor out of Vermont. Nolo was first to mark 22 closely followed by Team Maitland (who included Genevieve Casey - Doyle Sailmaker and crew to the stars). Lille Venn tacked onto port early followed by Nolo and Jean to go towards the right and Wabi Sabi remained on starboard as we were pointing high wanted to minimize the number of tacks. It appeared that going to the right side worked because we ultimately got set by the current and didn't make up much room for not having taken a tack to the right side. Jean slipped out ahead of Nolo on the next circuit and maintained a healthy lead approching 22 for the 2nd rounding. However, Bart expertly played the funky winds and two extra tacks by Jean allowed Nolo to edge her out for the lead at the final rounding of 19 and crossing the line in first followed by Jean, then Lille Venn and Wabi Sabi. Sorry Rick...I would have like to have done better for our first sail together but the competition was fierce, I was rather rusty and it is just plain hard to make up from a bad start. Congrats to all who were able to make the first race. I guess all is not lost as I did beat Tip...but that is only because Tip wasn't in the water! After the long solo sail up the harbor with my inflatible in tow I was happy to see there were pendants on my mooring float (Jonathan couldn't make the same claim) and was also pleased to gently glide in on my first attempt at picking up the mooring solo. After putting Wabi to bed and covering her up (now well after sunset) I rowed ashore to the commercial street dock to be greeted by Gen Casey and Peter Maitland who kindly waited after coming ashore earlier to help me get by inflatible on the car. What a great group we have. Thanks guys! A final note of best wishes goes out to Berit who leaves early tomorrow morning for an Alaska trip. Bon Voyage Berit!
6/4: Happy Birthday Mary Ann Solstad! Mary Ann celebrated her 82nd (or 83rd ...who's counting?) birthday by supervising the launching of 3 Townies at the CYC and then by sailing the first Twilight Race. The day's events started earlier in the afternoon where good team work and coordination amongst the various crews led to a flawless launch of Nolo, Lille Venn and Wabi Sabi at the CYC. Many thanks to Jonathan for sponsoring the launch and Peter Maitland for the use of his trailer to help launch Lille Venn. After the succesful launch followed the rigging in preparation for the first race just hours away.
5/31: Boats in the water as of May 31st: All Townies have been rolled and then rolled back with the exception of Jane' Cooke's Aufblitzen which was awaiting a special "teflon coated" bottom paint to come in from Switzerland's team Alinghi surplus. She should be rolled and launched later this week. We were all heartbroken to hear the "sickening crack followed by a crunch" while rolling Tip's Frolic back over. His starboard coaming gave way and will need some fiberglass repairs before launch. Boats in the water: Patience & Jean (just launched today!). Nolo, Third Time's A Charm and Wabi Sabi are expected in by Thursday morning (June 4) prior to the first Twilight Race. Vegas odds are 2 to 1 in favor of Team Maitland on pulling off the first win of the season! That of course depends upon whether "The" Bart Snow is onboard Nolo for her maiden race and if Tip is able to pull off the Fiberglass repair of the century and have Frolic in the water by race time! Stay tuned...lots of drama is building around this first Twilight race!