Thanks for a great season!  Many of you contributed to a fine season, we owe special gratitude to Storm & Cleody Snaith, Dona Menton, Jamie Ewing, Beth & Jay Lurie.  Also thanks to Jim Saxe for his organization and work for the Rear Commodore’s Cup cookout and to all the volunteers especially Loic, Cleody, Storm, & Dona. 

Thursday night was a great sailing night followed by a cookout, wine by Chris J, and music by Doug Latour.  It was a delightful evening.  I’m thinking more music next year...

Here is a reminder for this coming weekend.  Larchmont Yacht Club will have a Vanguard 15 fleet for the Leukemia Cup, September 10-11. 

Here’s Jamie’s write up from the Rear Commodore’s Cup:

Despite an iffy forecast, the Rear Commodore's Cup on Labor Day Monday turned out to be one of the best sailing afternoons of the summer.  The breeze built all afternoon, from about 5kts to about 14kts, while slowly going right from the S to the SSW.  PRO Phil Hood, supported by Mary and Korey Charles and Marshall of the club staff got in 7 great races with decent variation in the courses.  I was sailing with CPYC junior sailor James Kimball, and he guided us to the win for the day.  Second were Ken and Kurt Charles, and Bill and Julie Nightingale were third.  Fourth was our captain Serge sailing with his recently repatriated daughter Celeste.

One of the great things about Sunday sailing is the inter-generational nature of it, and I think all but two boats yesterday had skippers and crews who were at least twenty years' apart in age.  That was great to see, even if it sometimes means an early retirement if people are getting tired.

Also more than worth of mention was the volunteer team who led our contribution to yesterday's cookout: Jim Saxe, Dona Menton, Storm and Cleody Snaith, Loic Barbedette, and many others.  On the contrary, yours truly deserves chastisement for not pulling his weight at the cookout...

Many thanks also to Serge for organizing this year - there were some true highlights, including last Thursday's final cookout, with music from Doug Latour.

Next, and last for the season, is the Columbus Day regatta on Sunday October 9th.  In the interim, reach out and find anyone who wants to go sailing, or take the time to attend the Leukemia Cup down at Larchmont this weekend!

Cheers
Jamie
#1056

Really, Meg (Megan Booth) should be the one writing this, as we both believe that the way she tuned the boat before heading out was really fast.  Basically, we saw it was windy, and I initially moved my sta-masters down to 5.  Meg, remembering that we felt overpowered on Thursday night, tuned them down even further, to 3 1/2 - as low as we've ever been.  We sail at just under 300lbs combined, so we're pretty light when the wind gets north of 15kts, and we need to depower quickly. With winds gusting in the high teens, we figured going very low was worth a try.  After all, it's easier to loosen sta-masters on the water than it is to tighten them.

We soon had our answer - as soon as we turned upwind, be both immediately remarked that the boat 'felt right.'  That right feeling persisted through the afternoon, and though we brought the rig back to 5 for the one medium-air race, we soon were back down at 3 1/2 as the wind built later in the day.  At our very low setting, we could easily foot with the helm remaining neutral - we were sailing, not fighting, the boat.  That allowed us to continue to play the shifts, and the puffs, and the net result was a very strong day.   Thanks again to Meg for the tuning advice!

Our fleet had great turnout yesterday, with 11 boats and a very competitive fleet.  Despite the looming thunderstorms, Marc Jacobi and his team got off 6 great races in some of the best breeze of the summer.  There is one more Sunday left in the summer season, then the Rear Commodore's Cup on Labor Day Monday.  It would be great to end the Sunday season with two weekends of strong turnout!

Jamie
#1056

Inside, high tide, 11 boats, decent becoming really good breeze...

It started out as a shifty, holey and sweeping outgoing current evening, then the holes started filling in, but the shifts continued turning it into a really interesting session. On the beats pressure was good, but angle was great. Recognizing the lifts and headers, sometimes coming in rapid succession, was key. Knowing at the start if you were lifted or headed, and if headed, having the ability to tack right away was essential.

In the beginning it was Jay and Beth who did it best. Working it out, especially upwind, were Jamie and Megan. Salvaging good results from ho-hum windward mark roundings, yours truely and Dona.

We generally kept out of trouble on the beats, only rounding first once, but if we were a few places down at least the gap wasn't large. But on the runs, it was about looking over your shoulder to see where the darker streak was, or to see which of the boats on your hip was showing pressure. And then when you could, running off with it wing and wing. In the flat water winging was working at fairly low wind speeds, and even in some holes we would wing if we thought we were lined up for the next alleyway of pressure. But when we weren't lined up, we would often go to jib reach mode in the lulls to move laterally across the run to get in position for where we thought the breeze would fill in... and that's what it was about from our perspective. We were literally able to sail right by other boats five lengths abeam when we had pressure and they didn't, which was fairly often.

We also were paying attention to two other things on the runs: which gybe was favored in terms of the direction of the shift, trying to keep on the gybe that was headed as long as that didn't take us out of the wind, and the other thing was that the outgoing current was sweeping strongly left to right as you looked downwind... it would have been very easy to forget it and wind up having to reach in on port at the end unneccesarily.

New sailors joining us for their first Thursday night were Gabe and JJ, watch out for these college sailors, they're already sailing near the top of our fleet! Don't give 'em an inch, but do go out of your way to say Hi and introduce yourselves, it's great to have more good and fun folks on the race course and to sit down with afterwards as we did last night at the cook out.

Chris J
744

Despite overcast skies and almost no wind at 5:30pm, July 28th ended up being another great night at CPYC.  Richard Shattuck and Chris Kinner got in 4 long races for a competitive ten boat fleet.

The initial wind was out of the south, but at about 7pm it shifted to the southwest, where it remained until sunset.  Pressure peaked at about 8-9kts and slowly faded after the shift.

In the end, Meg and I came out on top, and if we were to figure out what made the very slight difference in our favor, it was probably sensitivity to the shifts upwind and downwind.  In the second race, almost a one-tack beat off the line on starboard, we took advantage of a slight left shift to step up the ladder, which got us to the mark just in front of the fleet.  Downwind, we paid close attention to our shroud telltales and weren't afraid to jibe (or head down), according to what they were telling us.  But overall, it was a really tight fleet, and anyone of five boats could have won the night, including Bill Nightingale (sailing with his daughter!), Mike Curtin and Meredith Killion, Chris J and Dona, and Storm and Cleody (who unfortunately got tagged OCS in the last race).  After racing, we adjourned to a leisurely-paced meal at Rizzuto's in Saugatuck.

At dinner after racing, the consensus was that we need to have a cookout, and next Thursday would work great.  Carrie Starr and Meg Booth will organize the food, though everyone is welcome to bring a side (or a little something to drink).  What's important is headcount - if you're planning on sailing next week, or just planning to join us at the cookout, please let Carrie <cbstarr9 at gmail> or Meg <meganpbooth at gmail> know by Wednesday night, so they know how much food to buy.  These cookouts are always a lot of fun - see you there!

Jamie
#1056

Thursday July 14th started out inauspiciously, with a southeasterly so weak it took the fleet over a half-hour to sail to the Seymour Rock flats, and then it cut out all-but-entirely after the first start.  Fortunately a surprisingly strong southwesterly filled in immediately afterward, and Chris Kinner got off 5 races before sunset, despite numerous general recalls due to the flooding current.  We were all treated to a brilliant sunset and full moonrise on our sail in.

Meg and I managed to win the day over a very good fleet, though it was tough to point to any one factor as being decisive, save enough boatspeed to rescue us from bad situations.  More importantly, the changing conditions made us alter our strategy a couple of times during the night, requiring us to have a quick debrief between every race.  In the end, having this strategic framework (simply a "let's work the oscillations and favor the right upwind and left downwind" or similar) allowed us to focus on sailing fast throughout.  It may have made the difference.  At the very least, some of our weakest days have come when we've gotten off-track and don't have these chats between races, so the value may come in focus more than even strategy.  And keeping focused through 5-8 races in a session can be VERY difficult.

Finally, make sure you volunteer for a night of RC.  If you haven't yet, speak with Serge to get on the list - last week, we did not have a volunteer RC, putting a resource strain on the club.  More importantly, you can't be scored for the season without RC duty.

Jamie Ewing

Back from a long trip, and with a nearly-mended Meg as crew, we had a wonderful day sailing yesterday.  Though only 6 boats were out, the 6-12kt SE breeze made for splendid sailing, and Mike McBride did a wonderful job ripping off races on RC.  It was definitely a day of smiles, as even the standard motorboat chop couldn't deter the fleet.

Ken and Mary Charles pushed us around the course, and it was great to see Dan Marques and Kemp Lewis mixing it up.  The fleet, though small, has been getting a lot faster and more competitive.  And did I mention that it's too hot to spend your Sunday afternoons on land these days?

Meg and I were able to make up a lot of distance downwind yesterday - particularly in the early going when the decision to wing or reach was more difficult (the late day was all winging conditions).  Some thoughts:
 
- Don't get caught in luffing duels.  We quickly passed two boats on one run simply by avoiding engagement.  Sometimes the right move is to jibe away from the mess.

- Communicate your angles.  In lighter, reaching conditions, Meg is continuously offering feedback regarding jib pressure.  If she tells me there's no pressure, I head up until there is some.  If she tells me it's good, I bear off until it gets light (and I use it as a decent proxy for winging conditions - if I can get so low that I can wing it before she totally loses pressure, then I'll just convert to wing-on-wing).

- Watch your overlaps and defend the inside.  A boat that reaches behind you can easily jibe into an overlap in light air, as the Charleses and we did to each other at least twice yesterday.  Watch that inside quarter, and defend.

Other than that, I think Serge is back this week, and we've got the usual treats of racing this Thursday and Sunday.  The Flying Scot NA's are in town, and the club is really decked out - come by and check out the scene!  Also, Thursday night is going to be a lot of fun with all the Scot sailors around as well - definitely worth checking out.

Alright, I guess I should hand the (stolen) mike back to Serge.  Hasta Thursday!

Jamie
#1056

note from Chris J: Early results from Flying Scots... Our own Melanie Dunham and crew Storm Snaith are the 2011 Flying Scot Womens National Champions!! Well earned congratulations are due!

Taken by Fleet Captain (and PRO Thursday evening) Serge Karpow and posted in his Picasa gallery...

picasaweb.google.com/skarpow/V152011

Here’s one individual’s take on the 2011 NEs sailed this Saturday and Sunday, June 25 & 26 at Cedar Point Yacht Club.

Regatta Report

Results

13 Boats, 5 Races, W-SW 5-8 knots, flat water, Jim Saxe RC

Race Report from winner of the day Brendan Kopp:

First of all, thanks to everyone who welcomed us back to the thursday night v15 fleet, I'm committed to being a regular member this season and I'm very excited about that!  It was cool to have so many competitive boats out there last night, and it made for some tight racing. 

A couple comments on what Mike and I saw, in no particular order:

For the first few races, the right had better pressure (definitely in race 1, 2, probably race 3 if I remember correctly).  the right also allowed you to keep starboard advantage on the very short upwinds, and hold the inside track on the downwind (critical because there weren't gate marks).  Even though the line was a bit pin-favored even in the first few races, we gave up some of that advantage in order to get to the right on the first beat, and tried to gybe around the top mark back into pressure and towards the inside on the run.  On the last beat the play was to send it right and finish right at the committee boat (this was true all night). 

For the last couple of races pressure started to fill more evenly across the course, and the pin was more favored than it had been in earlier starts.  So our plan changed to pin end starts where we could either tack and cross quickly if the right looked better, or keep going out towards pressure on the left, hopefully with enough speed and height to leebow or tack right on top of any boats coming back from even farther left than we were.  If boats farther left of us had gained enough that we were unable to leebow or tack on top of them when they came back across on port, then we would tack before they crossed us (leeward and ahead), giving ourselves a chance to work boatspeed all the way back to the mark, at which point we could tack directly on (or even a tiny bit below) layline and force them to make a tough decision--either duck us and round behind, leebow and probably foul us (by forcing us to luff above close hauled after tacking in the zone), or cross us if possible but have a delayed tack that forces them to round behind us anyway).  On the runs, getting to the inside was always critical, so when in doubt we went with a gybe right around the top mark. 

Don't have any comments at all really on boatspeed or technical stuff, as we are both newbies to the boat (just went out with whatever pin setting was there, I think 7?, and put tension on to whatever seemed right).  I don't think we had much of a speed advantage at all (We spent a lot of time looking around at the other top boats to see where people were sitting, how high up the board was, etc. etc. so we were basically mimicking boats around us who have more v15 experience).  That said, the one time I did feel a bit faster was once the breeze came up a bit I could get the boat going well pressing pretty hard on the jib, the coming back up to point when the boat had some power in it. 

Okay see you next thursday, thanks again!

bkopp

Click here for results

Schedule of Upcoming Events, all are welcome to sign up with Mike Curtin.

Tuesday, June 14. Show up by 6 PM at CPYC
Cedar Point YC hosts Riverside YC in V15s

Tuesday, June 21. Show up by 6 PM at CPYC
Cedar Point YC hosts New York YC in V15s

Tuesday, June 28. Show up by 6 PM at CPYC
Cedar Point YC hosts Larchmont YC in V15s

Just wanted to send you a quick note and see if any of your guys were planning on coming down to LYC June 11th for the first leg of the V15 Heineken Challenge.  Today is the last day to register at the bargain rate before it jumps, so I wanted to give you guys a heads up about it.

Hope that some of you guys can make it down it should be an awesome time and we plan on having a pretty solid party Saturday night. - Mike O’Connor (Regatta Chair)

Register online ASAP at http://www.yachtscoring.com/emenu.cfm?eID=514

Memorial Day was a perfect "first day of summer" at CPYC.  After a morning thunderstorm cleared out the worst of the humidity, the afternoon was clear, warm and featured a reasonably stable SW sea breeze.  Motorboat wakes were of course an issue, but there was generally enough pressure to power through them.

Sarah Hamm and I spent a little while before the first start looking around the course (so much so that we botched the first start) and noticed a current line curving from the left side to the north (upper right), where apparently the Saugatuck met the Sound.  We figured it would be faster outside downwind, as our VMG would be in the direction of flow, while upwind the middle was better.  As it turned out, there was also more pressure on the left/outside/south side of the course, and the holes were more frequent on the right/inside/north.  That pattern generally held for the afternoon, though the stabilizing breeze and weakening current meant that the middle became more manageable by mid-afternoon, and winging conditions downwind kept the corners out of play.  The only exception was a bizarre leeward mark rounding late in the day that saw the leaders trapped in a massive hole (and 100 degree shift) while those coming later could see it and avoid it.  Charlie Proctor and Madeline Gill kept us very much on our toes, particularly in two-boat tactical situations, and Jay and Dana Lurie were tough to match for straight-line speed.  All in all, it was a great start to the summer season, with racing heating up on Thursdays, Sundays, and in a week, Tuesdays as well.  Thanks to Joe Myers and his RC team for all their help yesterday, and thanks as always to Serge for leading the effort.

Jamie Ewing
V15 1056

With eight boats on the line, high tide and good breeze it was another great evening. Chris, the new Club Waterfront Director, was running races with Michael Curtin setting marks on the windward/leeward course in the harbor with a pretty well filled in southeast breeze.

Short starting lines put a premium on positioning and acceleration and Andrew Foster, sailing one of the newly renovated Club boats (thanks to Meg, Jay, Cleody, Madhavan and Chris) showed how it was done. Throughout the night Andrew and crew Amy Cubie had excellent speed, particularly on the runs, and gave eventual winner Chris J a good workout. Also sailing really fast and showing the cagieness we knew was lurking were Cleody and Storm (winners of race 2).

With the start line deep in the harbor and the weather mark set just north of the mooring field, the left seemed to be consistently better filled in. With generally even starting lines, the pin start/dash to the left usually let the left hand boats, mostly Chris and Cleody, tack and cross the boats that had started farther up the line and been able to hang and certainly cross the boats that hadn't gone left.

And it clearly was a pressure thing because down the run the right hand track (looking downwind) consistently paid -- even in the last race when I thought a good pressure band was finally coming down the other side Serge and Jamie made big gains on the right. Don't know if it was the the west side was blocked or what, but the east side of the harbor was definitely working. And another observation is that wing and winging was just not working all eve -- never felt like it was fast even though I thought there would have been enough wind to make it work, only fast winging I saw was Andrew with good speed in a nice pressure lane.

Other boats out last night with great moments were Serge and Jamie; each racked up strong second place finishes. And in a good fleet stacked with a lot of recent college sailing polish -- in addition to Andrew we also had Charlie Proctor and Madeline Gill out and Toby Welles with his son Henry who's looking just right in the Vanguard.

See you next week and don't forget to sign up for your Thursday Night RC duty!

Chris J
V15 744

Ok, it’s Thursday and the sailing season has begun and will swing into full bloom this Memorial Day weekend.  Why not start with Thursday night racing, tonight?  The forecast is 76 degrees, about 10 knots of wind, and clear.  Sunset is at 8:15 PM and high tide is about 7:48 PM.

We have superior RC tonight with first start at 6:30 PM.

Calendar Review:

Our end of the season blast is coming this Saturday, and early forecasts are for a sunny day with a nice northwesterly (we'll know more as the week progresses).  We have a lot of fleet volunteers helping out, and it will be a lot of fun (as it always is), and we're going to try to get some work on the fleet boats done before we go sailing on Saturday!

Here's our schedule:

0900 - fleet boat repairs
1200 - skippers' meeting
1600 - last start
1700 - cookout, fleet derigging, prizes!

It's always a fun time, and I hope to see everyone one last time this weekend!

Afterward, we'll have our usual fleet de-rigging fiesta, along with a cookout.

Other items to note:

- Storage: if you're not signed up for winter drystall storage (the same rate as summer, on the CPYC website), your boat needs to be out by November 15th.  But don't delay - it's much easier to do it now when everyone is around, and it's not too cold.

- Awards: The CPYC Annual Awards Banquet is Saturday November 6th.  Mark your calendars, and expect to hear more from the Entertainment Committee as the date approaches.

- Other sailing: Laser frostbiting starts this coming Sunday.  Find out more about it on the CPYC website.

See everyone Saturday!

Cheers
Jamie
#1056

Sorry for the delay in getting this out, but for those who were there, Monday was a great day of sailing!  Meg and I ended up winning, and I've tried to think about useful things to say about how we did it, but I haven't come up with any noteworthy theses.  Instead, I've just included some brief notes at the bottom of this email.  Also, if you read nothing else, please read the Adams Cup note by fleet member Madeline Gill - it would be great if our fleet could show her some real support!

Season recap: First off, I'd like to thank everyone for a great season!  We have an amazing fleet, and it really has been a privilege to serve as your fleet captain these past three years.  This season was, in my mind, the best in many ways.  Here are some statistical highlights:

• Double-digit qualifiers: We had 10 qualifiers on Thursdays - a first since I've been sailing with this fleet!  We averaged around 13 a night, which is phenomenal
• Racing Every Thursday: Seriously.  We sailed 15 Thursdays this summer
• 75 Races on Thursdays, for an average of 5 a night, and 55 races on Sundays and Cup days - 130 races in all - great work!
• RC volunteers every Thursday - great participation by fleet volunteers at all levels, including social and food sponsors
• Some great additions to our V15 'family': Mike Curtin and Carrie Starr, who got us back to holding Thursday night cookouts; Jim Saxe, who coordinated our contribution to the club's Labor Day picnic, Dan Marques, who was eager to assist at all times, Madhavan Thirumalai, whom I suspect will finally be buying a boat this fall :-), and plenty of others - particularly some great crews!
• 10 different Thursday night winners.  15 days, 10 winners.  Wow.
• Tight racing: the difference between 1st and 8th for the Thursday night series was an average of 1.4 points. That's insanely tight racing.
• 7 Sunday qualifiers.  (I'll call it 8, as Tim Maier would have qualified were he not on club RC for Labor Day) - that's great.  Overall, we had 13 different qualifiers this summer.

The net of all this is that our fleet is going in a great direction.  Next year might see some more regattas, and we still have

Columbus Day to go!

Columbus Day: Saturday October 9th is our traditional 'last day' regatta.  Jay Lurie has volunteered to be RC, and I owe the world an NoR.  It's free if you've paid your fleet dues for the summer, and it's always a lot of fun!

Informal sailing this fall:

Dan Marques and Serge Karpow have expressed interest in Sunday sailing, and I'm sure there are a couple others out there. Let one of us know.  Also, our friends at Larchmont sail until the week before Columbus Day, on Sunday afternoons (I believe it's a 3pm first start), and they have invited any of us to come down for an afternoon or two.  They can find boats to lend with a few days' notice.  If you're interested in sailing there on a Sunday or two, please let me know, and I'll put you in contact with their fleet captain, Pete Beardsley, who's also the class President (and sailed with us on Labor Day as well).

"Borrowed" parts plea

- if you might have 'borrowed' parts this summer, particularly from our fleet boats (like sheets, pins, etc), please return them.  We found our fleet boats had been pretty stripped dry last weekend.  Some of the parts on the boats (like my spare mainsheet) aren't even fleet material, so think twice before you borrow.  Please, please return any parts that aren't yours to the rightful owners.

Now for some great news:

fleet members Madeline Gill and Sarah Hamm have qualified for the Adams Cup in Wisconsin, but they need some help getting there.  Madeline asked me to send the following message to the fleet:

If you can offer anything to Madeline and Sarah, please do!  I know they'll represent our fleet well.

So that's about it from here.  Once again, please return 'borrowed' parts, watch for a Columbus Day NoR (and volunteers for food, etc, are always welcome to step up), and if you can find a way to help Madeline and Sarah, please do!

Cheers

Jamie

#1056

Labor Day Recap

Winds: S-SW (big oscillations), 3-8kts

6 races 15 boats

Sta-masters at 6 (should have been 7)

6 Races, PRO Tim Maier

Wacky afternoon dominated by big, long-term oscillations early.  The first race that was square became a one-tack beat in the second.  Reacting to the situation at hand was key.  Meg and I just tried to keep our heads up, in case any big changes showed up.  Late in the day, the southerly direction settled a little more (and almost died), and it appeared that the right corner worked just a little better, probably due to a geographic shift caused by Cockenoe Island. 

Washing machine

chop meant that a premium was on driving the boat: weight forward and keeping flow attached to the sails and blades.  The competition was great; we just luckily ended up leading at the end of the day (we knew it was close with Ched and Jay, which unfortunately meant that Ched was the recipient of a number of coverage tacks in the last race). - Jamie Ewing

I'm back at my computer this week, which means some more emails to send.  First, congrats to Serge and Celeste Karpow for sailing smartly and winning on a wonderful, breezy day last Sunday.  I'll keep it short and sweet, and just stick to the highlights:

Fleet-related:
- We have 3 Thursdays (8/19, 8/26, and 9/2), 1 Sunday (8/22), and Labor Day Monday left in our regular season.  Many sailors are close to qualifying but need to attend these last few days to get there.  Check the standings on the CPYC V15 web page.  Remember, CPYC season awards go as deep as 6 places with enough qualifiers!
- Next Sunday, 8/29, is our annual Special Olympics day (this is in lieu of racing).  If you can volunteer your boat, or better, your day and your boat, I promise you will be well-rewarded.  For those who don't know this tradition, we race inside, and we pair Special Olympians with sailors from our fleet on each boat.  It is one of our most fun events of the summer, and Jay Lurie has worked tirelessly through the years to ensure its success.
- Labor Day picnic: As always, the V15s team with the Thistles to manage the picnic on Labor Day.  Jim Saxe has kindly (masochistically?) volunteered to act as our fleet's liaison with the Entertainment Committee, and we'll be hearing more about this in the coming weeks.
- Columbus Day Regatta: this year it will be a little bigger than in the past (hell, V15 past champions Colin Merrick and Amanda Callahan are thinking about coming down).  We have the 9th and 10th reserved on the club calendar, and I'd like to form a core committee to make sure we do this right.  I don't want to change too much from past years - emphasis on end-of-season fun, minimal or no entry fee (thinking free for fleet dues payers, $15 for everyone else), real and silly prizes.  Let me know if you'd like to help drive this project; it should be a very minimal time sink.
- Thursday night cookouts: I'd really like us to have another post-sailing cookout on either the 26th or the 2nd.  Is anyone who lives in CT (and has a couple of extra hours in the afternoon) interested in buying supplies?  The fleet will reimburse you.

CPYC News
- Lobster and Reggae Fest this Saturday night!  Come down to the club and hang out with friends from all fleets, while eating bugs and grooving to a live reggae band.  See the CPYC website for more details and reservations (you should have received an email or two from the club on this in the past week).
- Labor Day picnic follows racing on Monday the 7th.  As always, we coordinate the 'labor' (see above), so you should be coming anyway...

That's about it from here.  See everyone on the water soon, and make sure you read Serge's report below!

Cheers
Jamie
#1056

Congrats to Charles Stanley, who beat 13 of us to win last night in a very shift northwesterly!  His very kind (and useful) report is below.

For those of you who weren't there, new members Mike Curtin and Carrie Starr organized an AMAZING cookout last night.  I am of the opinion we should do this more often, if not every week.  It just takes a degree of organizing, which is tough for me to do from NYC.  We have 4 Thursdays left: anyone interested???

Tomorrow night is the Blender Olympics, starting around 5.  As I won't be there, I've been lax about organizing entries.  Dona has offered to help organize an effort, but we really need someone who wants it to step up to the plate.  Email Dona directly.  Also, fleets tend to vote for themselves, so make an effort to be there, and vote for the Vanguards!

Racing as per usual this Sunday and next Thursday.  I'm out for the next week, sailing Lightning NAs.  See you when I get back on the 15th!

As I mentioned earlier this week, ACCs are at Amityville LI on August 21-22.  Big breeze, big fun.

Cheers-
Jamie
#1056

Charles Stanley's report:

Good night all round, with a total of 14 boats close racing, and well set good length courses by Toby and assistant Sean, thank you to them. With 4 races sailed there were no drops so consistency mattered more than ever. It looked like we were in for a good 10-15 knots but as we got to the course area the wind began to fail and most races were sailed in 5-10 in puffy (do you use that word?) conditions. I was sailing with my youngest daughter Sophia who does not weigh much so we were set to begin with on 5.5 for the first race and found we were under powered and ended up on 7.5 by the end, anyway rig set up was the least of the issues as opposed to being in the breeze, on the right shift and starting well.

All starts were starboard biased so helped getting away well off the line. My tactic was to approach on port and tack 30 seconds before hold up the weather boats dive into the gap created, that hopefully no one else went into, and sail away. It worked most times and sorry Chris as I had you done for twice. Although as usual Chris and Donna worked their way back, and the evening certainly presented plenty of opportunities to doing that for those with their heads out the boat, and with the nice length of course. Wind seemed to be coming more and lifting from the right, which I certainly missed a few times. But it was dangerous to be too far either side, so mostly I played around the middle and or going with the majority of the fleet taking the shifts as I could, which sort of worked. Downwind we were light – so that was good and fast!

In the end as the points show we just won and it could easily have gone to either Jamie and Mike, Chris was done in too much at the starts and would have been in the mix not for that, Madeline and Ken always seemed to be annoyingly around us, sailing very well!

Not so many nights left and I am cursing myself for not making the time as Thursday evening vanguard sailing is truly as good as it gets. We need to keep reminding ourselves and others of that. We should have 20 boats ever week! And most important my daughter enjoyed it so hopefully I can keep her as a crew.

Great sailing against everyone.

Charles

Just a couple of quick items this week:

1) RC - remember, you must do one night of RC to qualify for Thursdays.  Also, we still need volunteers for Thursday 8/19, so if you haven't done yours yet, let Dona (copied above) or me know.
2) Cookout tomorrow - new fleet member Carrie Starr has offered to pick up items for a cookout tomorrow night after racing. The fleet will subsidize most of this one, but bring a couple of bucks, and for the sake of a rough head count, please just quickly email me if you're in (particularly if you're not a Thursday night regular).  Also, if you have anything you'd like to bring for such a cookout, please don't hesitate. 
3) New dolly, in the box, half price.  Former CPYC member Chris Woods has a brand-new dolly (still in the box even) that he's offering for half the price of a new one.  If your current dolly is tired, poor, or yearning to breathe free (of the boat on top of it), this is a great and inexpensive opportunity to get an upgrade.

Racing tomorrow night (1830) and Sunday (1330) as per usual!

Upcoming Event: V15 ACCs are the weekend of August 21/22 at Narrasketuck YC in Amityville, on the south shore of Long Island.  You know what that means: big breeze, clear water, great fun.  Entry fees are $65 before this weekend, $80 thereafter.  Register here.  Away credit applies, of course, for this last major away event of the season.

See everyone for the cookout tomorrow!

Cheers
Jamie
#1056

First of all, congratulations to Jay Lurie for organizing a great Family Day!  We had 9 teams, some from other fleets, and all the racing was done well in advance of the nasty storms that blew through Sunday afternoon.  John Bainton and Cleve Rueckert deserve great credit for doing a magnificent job on RC that day.  Congrats to Jay and Dana Lurie for getting the lowest score for the day, a day on which all the families were winners.  This is something we hope to do at least once a year, and it's a real testament to the family participation in our fleet and at the club as a whole.

Otherwise, there's not much to discuss this week.  We have standard racing, as per usual, tomorrow night (1830 first start) and on Sunday (1330).

It's also that point in the year when thoughts turn to qualifying for the season.  We have sailed 9 Thursdays and 5 Sundays (including Cup days), and each have 6 scheduled days to go.  That means it will take no more than 8 Thursdays to qualify (of which your RC night counts as one), and only 6 Sundays.  Yes, even if you haven't sailed a Sunday or Cup day yet this year, you can still qualify by sailing every Sunday plus Labor Day.  Thursdays: even if you've sailed only 2 so far, you can still qualify.  It's worth it, not only for fleet prestige but also for awards potential.  CPYC season prizes go very deep: 8-10 qualifiers means 4 prizes; 11-14 means 5, and 15+ gets us 6!  Looking at the scores, most every potential qualifier could also potentially finish in the money this year, so it's really worth getting out. 

That's it for now - I hope to see everyone on the water tomorrow night (fingers crossed for the weather)!

Cheers
Jamie
#1056

Jay Lurie, Cleve Rueckert, et al did a great job getting five races in the dying breeze last night.  Hats off to new fleet member Mike Curtin, sailing with local stalwart (but fleet newcomer) Meredith Killion, who won the night decisively over 10 other boats.  His report is below.

As many of you know, this Sunday is Family Day, organized by Jay Lurie.  We have a lot of families that sail intergenerationally in our fleet, and this is a day to recognize them (as well as family friends who might sail along).  So bring a kid, and have fun!  The timing is a little early, to take advantage of high tide and sail on the flats.  The first start will be at 11am, so arrive around 10 or so.  We'll be done by 1pm, with ice cream and social activities for all.  This will preclude regular Sunday racing this Sunday.
            Also - we're inviting sailors from other fleets to this.  While it looks like we'll have enough boats to lend, if you're interested in lending your boat for this, please email Jay (copied above) or me - and thanks!

That's about it from around here.  Regular Sunday racing resumes next Sunday (Aug 1), and we'll have Thursday sailing as per usual this Thursday.

While we don't have any videos from last night's racing, I saw this cooking video today and thought you might enjoy it.

Cheers
Jamie
#1056


Mike's Report:
___________________________________
Here are my thoughts:

Having a great crew (thanks Meredith) and being out there for the
first race was the key to winning. The wind seamed to be stronger
coming down the left side of the course so we generally started down
by the pin end and worked our way left. Downwind we worked course left
to stay in the pressure gybing back and forth across the puffs. Clear
air and avoiding packs was also huge upwind and down in the light air.
For rig tune in light air it is nice to have a little slack in the
leeward shroud and the tiller should be neutral to a slight lee helm
with the boat flat and sails in upwind. Boom is generally horizontal
at this point. Big thanks goes to Jay and the rest of the race
commitee for running some great races in a dying breeze and making
sure my rudder was down.

Mike

Just a quick word: last night saw some solid racing, with the southeasterly playing the part of Lazarus, dying only to be resurrected in time to get in 5 races before sunset.  We had 11 boats, and the fleet appeared really competitive from my perspective on the RC boat.

Jay and Beth won the night, and while we're awaiting their write-up, I'll add the RC's observations.  They sailed fairly conservatively, never getting too 'wung out' on the sides of the course.  And they sailed faster, both for obvious reasons (they're light) and for less obvious ones (their boat trim - heeling, sails full, weight forward - was more consistent than that of any other boat).

We had pizza on the upper deck after racing, which was a lot of fun and will be repeated!

We're racing this Sunday, standard time / place / etc.  Serge and Storm are back, and I'll be there - will you????

The final reschedule of Summer Solstice team racing is this Tuesday vs NYYC.  6pm.  Come as you are, with or without crew.

Next Sunday will be CPYC V15 family day.  Parents and kids are very much encouraged.  We'll race inside from 11-1, and we'll be serving ice cream afterward.  Jay Lurie is the organizer, and I hope to see a lot of our family teams there!

Finally, in our educational installment - it's the 25th anniversary of the release of R.E.M.'s Fables of the Reconstruction.  They did get there from here.

Hasta Domingo -
Jamie
#1056

It was hot, light and full of motorboat chop, but PRO Brian Raney managed to get 6 solid races in yesterday for the 12 teams that showed up.  Special mention goes to the Charles family (Ken, Mary, Kurt and Korey) for fielding two boats among them!  Afterward, the Flying Scot class enlivened the picnic a little with their custom mojitos and painkillers, all to raise money for their NAs next year.  Meg Booth and I got lucky and won the day, and my report on it is below.

"Borrowed" items: before I get any further, I'd like to call everyone's attention to something I had heard a little of, but really came to head yesterday. Madeline Gill showed up at her boat and found it missing the following: custom mainsheet, jib sheet, cunningham, and transom bungees.  I've heard of the occasional thing missing before (usually 'borrowed' and forgotten to return - like stern plugs), but never so many at once.  I ask everyone here to not 'borrow' any parts unless they have the owner's permission, and even more importantly, to return them as soon as you are done, regardless of how cozy you are with the owner.  I sincerely don't believe they were taken with nefarious intentions in mind, though regardless, such episodes reflect poorly on us as a fleet.  The best solution is to have a spare in your own kit, but if not, check with the owner and return immediately.  Oh, and if you have Madeline's stuff, please get it back to her ASAP, as she needs it for Nationals this weekend.

Speaking of: Nationals are Saturday and Sunday at Sail Newport.  Registration is here, and it looks to be a fun event (you'll recognize CPYC locals in other classes, such as the Etchells, as well).  Away credit, of course, will be given for Sunday.

Otherwise, we're back to our regular schedule this week, with racing this Thursday and Sunday at the usual times.

Scores: I am aware that scores are not yet up online and am working to have this situation resolved ASAP.  Will keep you posted.

Oh, as for the Commodore's Cup: the 2010 V15 Commodore's Cup was sailed in a weak southwesterly, driven only by localized sea breeze thermals right at the Saugatuck entrance.  Our original game plan was to go left to maximize the benefit of the flood current, but those who went right seemed to hold the thermal better at times.  Other than avoiding the holes, a big-picture strategy was not as relevant as sailing well tactically.  To that end, we put a lot of emphasis on our starts (and the only races we did not win were one when we were rolled at the start and another when we were slightly OCS) and maintaining clean lanes.  With such little breeze, lanes were key - particularly on the runs.  Boat placement was key; we were careful to pick our battles when re-engaging with other boats.  Conditions were marginal for winging: we'd wing in higher pressure and reach if the pressure felt light.  Withe the proliferation of holiday-making motorboat churning up wakes in and around the course, keeping the boat moving was paramount.  We kept our weight very far forward (Meg at the shrouds, me as far forward as possible) to keep the stern from slapping, and we were aggressive with heel anytime slop came our way.  Storm and Dona also showed great speed, and Jay and his son sailed very smartly and fast.  At the end of the day, we were all happy to see the keg tapped - and mojitos being mixed - as well as the proliferation of July 4th staples.  It was a grand afternoon for all - and it certainly beat staying ashore, trapped in the a/c!

Cheers -
Jamie
#1056

After a short hiatus (respite?), your fleet captain is back with the usual bulletin.  It sounds like there was good fun over the past couple of weeks, including an insanely windy night last Thursday. 

First, some overdue welcomes:
As many of you know, Thomas Hood and Peter Eyes have been sailing with us on Thursdays after volunteering on RC all last year.  Welcome to the fleet! 
Mike Curtin and Carrie Starr just moved to Norwalk from Newport.  Mike works at Lewmar in Guilford, and Carrie works in NYC.  They just joined CPYC and have been sailing with us on the team racing Tuesdays, and I'd expect to see more of them on Thursdays and maybe Sundays as well - welcome aboard! 
Sean Andrew sailed at the Larchmont event a couple of weeks ago, and he's joined us once already.  Hopefully we'll see a lot more of him - hopefully soon as a junior member!
If you see anyone new around the boatyard, head on over and say hi.  Like so many other aspects of CPYC, it's great to see our V15 fleet growing - with sailors young, old and in between!

Now for general information:
Racing: this Thursday at 6:30pm and Monday at 1:00pm for the Commodore's Cup.  The picnic afterward is free for members (guests $8), and please RSVP to Rob Cohen by Friday so they can get a headcount.  Also, the Flying Scot fleet will be raising money for their North Americans at CPYC next year the fun way - by selling drinks!  They'll have painkillers, mojitos, and bottles of wine on offer.  We promise not to let the liquor control board know...
Race Committee: We still need volunteers for July 22nd and August 12th.  Remember - in order to qualify for the Thursday season, you have to do a day of RC!
Team Racing: we've had fun turnout, including Dave Meleney from Larchmont last night.  Our last SSS Tuesday for this summer is next Tuesday (July 6th) vs NYYC.  Arrive at 6pm, and we'll race til sunset.
Nationals: Nationals are NEXT weekend (July 10/11th) at Sail Newport.  I'm going; the Charles family is going; Madeline Gill is going...why aren't you???  Registration is $115, and it's located here...

I think that's about it from here.  Winners over the past couple of weeks get a freebie on write-ups, and I'll make sure scores are up online at some point this weekend, if not sooner. 

See y'all on the water -

Cheers
Jamie
#1056

Fleet member Richard Shattuck has uploaded some really cool videos of us sailing to YouTube:

Blasting around in 20kts on June 6th - note your fleet captain capsized at the start of the video.  Some great reaches and upwind form in here (particularly from Serge and Celeste). 

Team Racing Last Night (June 15) - with Jamie Ewing / Becca Dell commentary [teams are blue/black hull (Proctor / Bainton) vs white/red hulls (Shattuck / Curtin)].  Exciting finish, horrible camera action at the leeward mark.

Team Racing Last Night (June 15) - last race, John Bainton / Richard Shattuck commentary [teams are blue / red hulls (Ewing / Curtin) vs white / black hulls (Dellenbaugh / Proctor)].  Features a series of bonehead moves on my part on the run starting at about 6:20. 

Cheers
Jamie
#1056

V15ers -

Sorry to bug you with an extra email this week, but I wanted to get this out before I disappear for 10 days:

V15 Nationals are July 10-11 (the weekend after July 4th) at Sail Newport.  We will have the resources of a major regatta (the Newport Regatta), including substantial social activities, but V15s will be given their own course.  Registration in advance is $115 and includes two wristbands.  Registration is online here.  Team 1056 will be in attendance - let me know if you're interested too!

Also, Scuttlebutt linked this morning to coaching legend Ken Legler's tips on 'what could go wrong' in short-course racing.  It's a great primer for the type of racing we do, all with the bottom line of: avoid mistakes.  It's worth the five minutes it takes to read.  Click on the link for it.

We're going to have a nice small group for some team racing tonight, and the weather is perfect. Come on down - it will be a fun night of pick-up sailing!

Cheers
Jamie
#1056

V15ers -

First off, my apologies to those who showed up yesterday looking to sail.  It turns out there was a staff calendar mix-up which no one caught until it was too late.  Fortunately, you didn't miss much, as conditions weren't really good for racing anyway.  At any rate, we are all set for upcoming Sundays through Labor Day...

That said, we had a great Thursday - Ched Proctor got 4 longer races in a dying southeasterly, and we had 12 boats.  Steve Girling won the night without winning a race, and his very comprehensive (some might say delicious too) write-up is below.  I encourage everyone to take a couple of minutes to read it; his detail and thinking are unsurpassed.  It's also been really wonderful to have Steve and his charming daughter Lilly out with us this spring - we have a lot of families racing in our fleet, and it's great to see so many out there (just last Thursday, we had 4 boats: Luries, Snaiths, Stanleys, and Girlings - out with us!).

Thursday turnout has been averaging in the double-digits this spring - if you haven't made it out yet, you don't know what you're missing! 

Larchmont Regatta - your fleet captain was the only CPYC boat in the 22-boat fleet.  The solid RC got in 12 races down there, in a light southerly on Saturday and a decent easterly on Sunday morning.  Consistency was the name of the game - we finished 2nd, one point out of first, without ever winning a race (just like Steve did last Thursday).  Clean starts, open lanes, and sailing lower and faster downwind helped us immensely.  Our performance also goes to show how competitive our fleet is - old 1056 got 5th place in fleet racing here last Thursday!

Housekeeping:
- I'll be out of town (on the Bermuda Race) from this Thursday through Sunday the 27th.  Somehow I doubt anarchy will prevail in the interim.  I think first come, first served on club boats should work fine, given that we've not maxed out on them yet this year.  If you're in a club boat (or any non-standard boat), please identify yourself to the RC...
- We are racing this Thursday (6/17), next Thursday (6/24), and this and next Sundays (6/20, 6/27), all at the standard times.
- Team Racing: NYYC had to postpone their attendance (to Tuesday July 6th), so we're without an opponent this week. A couple of us are still planning on coming down and messing about internally: given the forecast, it could be a lot of fun.  Let me know if you want to attend an informal team racing night tomorrow night.
- Sail fast!  Attendance has been great this year; I look forward to seeing more reports of double-digit attendance on Thursdays and solid sailing on Sundays.

Cheers
Jamie
#1056


Steve's Report from Thursday:

Jay and Beth showed their light air form last night, winning all three races (and organizing dinner at Jasmine!).  Jay's comments stand on their own, so I'll get out of your way.  Just as a reminder, we're sailing Sunday (first start 1330), team racing at CPYC Tuesday (1800 - let me know if you want to attend or are willing to lend your boat). 

Cheers
Jamie
#1056

Jay's recap:

V-15ers -

Great first week, and congrats to Serge and Celeste Karpow for winning the Vice Commodore's Cup on a gorgeous, windy afternoon!  Their commentary follows these short messages:

Schedule: We are sailing tomorrow (first start 6:30 as per usual) and Sunday (back to our normal Sunday schedule, first start 1:30pm)

Team Racing: We had solid turnout at Noroton last night.  This Tuesday is the first of our three hosting nights, against Riverside.  Everyone is welcome to sail, and if you can't make it but would consider lending your boat, that's also great!  Email me if you are interested in sailing or lending your boat.  Also, Chris J has uploaded some pretty sweet links on the left side of the Team Racing page on the CPYC website (and check out the splash page too).

Larchmont Spring - June 12/13th - I've signed up, and you should too!  The link to registration is here.  For those who might need some family or gardening time over the weekend, the skippers' meeting isn't until 1300 (yes, 1pm) Saturday.  They sent 7 boats to us last year; it would  be pretty lame not to get at least 5 down there this year.

RC Duty - Dona asks anyone who has not signed up for Thursday RC duty to do so soon!  Also, if you haven't done it before, or are a little unsure, sign up with a more experienced person.  Contact Dona Menton (dmenton [at] gmail) for more details.

I think that's it from here.  The early forecast looks like potential thunderstorms tomorrow, but as we saw last week, the thunderstorms can easily skirt around us - and make for a great night of sailing!  We had 10 boats last week - how about 12 this week?

Cheers
Jamie
#1056
____________________________________________________________
Vice Commodore's Cup Report - by regatta winner Serge Karpow

For me it was just a great deep powder day at CPYC. 

-sk

__

V-15ers -

Our fleet rigging day yesterday was great.  While the sailing (15kts!) was a lot of fun, I in particular loved hanging out with so many new fleet members.  Dan Marques, Thomas Hood, Peter Eyes, and Jim Saxe - to name a few - were all down there and are looking forward to sailing with us this summer!

In the course of rigging the three fleet boats, we noticed that we were shy a mainsheet (actually, shy two mainsheets, but one was donated to the fleet).  If you happen to have an extra mainsheet that you could donate to the final fleet boat, good karma will follow you through this life.  Well, maybe not that long, but you'd definitely be building goodwill in the karma bank.

This Thursday night is our first Thursday!  Beth Lurie, along with a couple club volunteers, will be our Race Committee.  First start 1830.  Forecast looks sunny and mellow.  As it's our first night of sailing, I think pizza at the club after racing is in order.  I hope to see many old, and some new, faces there! 

Of course, pizza after racing is a handy reminder to get your dues in.  $50, payable to CPYC V15 Fleet, deliverable to Beth Lurie (who conveniently is our RC Thursday).

Also, Monday is the Vice Commodore's Cup, first start at 1300.  Afterward, there will be a club picnic.  As with last year, you can order a picnic 'upgrade' in advance.  See the email attached to the bottom of this message for further details!

Other items:
Fleet Jobs - Derek Jackson has offered to score us again this year, and it would be great if a more active racer could support him.  Also, our scratch sheet dates back to about 2005.  We could use an assistant scorer to update our fleet scratch sheet with proper sail numbers (such as Serge's and the Charles' new boats).  Also, there's an open call for Braumeister...

Summer Solstice Series - starts Tuesday June 1 at Noroton at 1800.  Everyone, particularly team racing novices, is encouraged.  Email Chris J or me if you're interested.  On the 8th, 15th and 29th, we're back here in V15s.  If you don't think you can sail, but might be willing to lend your boat (CPYC carries borrowed boat insurance), please let me know - we'll greatly appreciate it!

V15 New Englands at Larchmont - June 12/13th.  I'm going - are you?  It would be great to get at least 5 boats from CPYC to make the trip down to Larchmont for this easy regatta.  Registration is $60 before June 1, and the first start isn't until 1300 Saturday (and we'll be done by 1600 Sunday).  Away credit will of course be awarded for this.

Half-Price "Sick Day Series" fleet boat.  Last call if anyone wants to take charge of this - it expires May 28th.  We could sell an older fleet boat (I think I know of a buyer), but then we'd need to raise a good bit of the roughly $2000 difference.  I think it's a really great idea, but I can't drive it this week.  See the promotion in today's Scuttlebutt below:
    GET SICK: The LaserPerformance Sick Day Fleet Grant Program provides a brand new ‘fleet boat’ at 50% off. The program offers Lasers, Sunfish, and Vanguard 15s to worthy fleets to help recruit sailors off the couch and onto the starting line. Application deadline is May 28th, 2010. -- Details: http://tinyurl.com/24qluhc

Team Racing in Chicago???- CPYC local Jocelyn Pollak sent me an email today on this: the Windy City Team Race is June 19/20th in the home of Da Bears, Da Bulls, mayors for life, and the 44th President.  I know she'd be really psyched to see some CPYC peeps come out and play with her on the lake.  More details, including housing, potential charter boats, and social activities to follow from Joc...

That's about it for today.  See you Thursday night!

Cheers
Jamie
#1056

The forecast looks pretty good, and we're all ready to go!  Tomorrow, at the club, we'll have a fleet rigging and training day.  We'll assemble around 10 to put our boats together, swap tips, etc.  Then, if the weather's nice, we'll head out for an early afternoon tuning and training sail!  Come down anytime.

Racing starts this Thursday!  6:30pm first start.  Remember, to qualify you have to work RC at least one night.  Thanks to everyone who has volunteered so far - for those who haven't, please email Dona Menton (copied above) with your preferred date. 

The Vice Commodore's Cup is Monday, May 31st.  Racing starts at 1pm, with a cookout to follow.  There will be prizes for that day!

Don't forget your fleet dues!  They're $50, payable to CPYC V15 Fleet, mailed or delivered to Beth Lurie (copied above).  If the qualifying skipper is under 21, dues are $35.

Summer Solstice Series - for the second year in a row, Cedar Point has been invited to participate in the Summer Solstice Team Racing Series with other area clubs.  Everyone is welcome - particularly team racing novices, for whom this series is specifically designed.  After every night we'll have a pizza and beer debrief, so everyone can learn something!  Also, when we host, we'll be sailing in V-15s.  If you might not be able to make it, but would like to lend your boat out, please let me know.  We'll need volunteered boats each time we host!

The schedule is below.  Each night is a Tuesday, and we'll plan to gather around 6:
June 1 - at Noroton, in Ideal 18s - Chris J will be the organizer
June 8 - at CPYC vs Riverside, in V15s
June 15 - at CPYC vs NYYC, in V15s (last year, NYYC brought some awesome glasses for all participants!)
June 29 - at CPYC vs Larchmont, in V15s

Please email me if you're interested!  I'm forming a separate team racing email list, and anyone who's interested should be on it.  Come on down any Tuesday!

I look forward to seeing all y'all tomorrow or Thursday!

Cheers -
Jamie
#1056