What's happened at the Newport Regatta?

[Maurizio G]

On the official website there are the results for the Farr 40, the Frers 33, the Etchells, the Lasers etc, but nothing about the 18HT!!!

[Bill Vining]

They didnt post any of the division 4 results yet, they should be up shortly.

11 boats registered, 10 showed.

WF and Bob won.

Bill

[Hunt]

We will get a recap up soon. We had 8 races with great race management thanks to our Race Committee from Barrington (RI) Yacht Club.

Yeah, Bob and WF won ... Again! But they were tied with Peter going into the last race (and losing the tie breaker) so it was no blowout.

The highlight was Bill V's crew Coar winning the overall regatta sportsmanship award for diving in the water to pick up an empty water bottle during a start. Way to Go Coar.

[Peter]

Well, I'll add a little to Bill's succinct summary....

Saturday was a light seabreeze. Marginal single trapezing to marginal double trapezing. Us fat boys really never got to double trapeze. Nick went off to race his opti, so I picked up Bob Merrick to sail with me. The last time I sailed with Bob, I was a 14 year old junior instructor, and Bob was an eight year old beginner. Things sure have changed. Bob has a Olympic Silver Medal in 470's from 2000, and now he instructs me.

Back to the regatta....We started with a bang, actually three guns (firsts) in a row for the Gunboat. Bob/WF and Chris Brown seemed quick upwind, and usually were ahead of us fat boys at the weather mark. Then downwind, we'd wild-thing and always have the weather hull flying. We'd be going deeper at the same speed. If anyone was within 150 meters at the weather mark, we'd pass them downwind, especially when Bob/WF kept going around the 12 meter's weather mark, which they mistook as an offset (giving us one race). MIA were Miss Margherita and Miss Margherita, aka Kris and Hunt Stookey. Hunt broke off his new custom carbon transom hardware for his Marstrom rudders. The boat bitch (Hunt's other nickname) did a MacGuyver repair job with bubble gum, some explosives, and duct tape to get out for day two.

WF, after the first three races, was silent for maybe the first time in his life. I took the opportunity to point out to Bob Hodges that the difference was simply the crew, and that he really needs to find someone up to the task. We did not know at the time that WF had once again injured himself. His right arm was hurt somehow. No signs of any dirtbikes or huge jumps at Sail Newport. Well, the trash talk to WF seemed to be a great motivator, as Bob/WF won the next two races, while we got a 2nd/3rd. We let Chris Brown slip in there on one race. This left us tied at the end of the day with 8 pts each with Bob/WF. I think Chris Brown was at 14 points.

It was great to see 10 18HT's. And all but one were owners. The class seems to have moved on from its crack-like addiction to WF (well, Petrucci) supplied boats. And it was great to see the various sails now in use. The Irwin main on Gale's boat looked really nice. It looked like a more refined version of the Ullman main. Doug showed up with a mainsail that looked like Frankenstein on acid. A humungous square head, with neon class logo and sail numbers. Not sure it was a step forward, but a step indeed. Doug was consistently quick in Pensacola with the stock main, and we missed trading tacks at this regatta.

Day two dawned with promise that quickly disappeared with the wind. Our Barrington YC RC is amongst the best in the Northeast, and they made of the most of a dying NW breeze, that at times went NE, especially when WF was taking a flyer over towards it.

The first race was an epic see-saw battle. At various times I think four different boats were winning, and nearly every boat spent some time in the top five. Miss/Miss Margherita were blazingly quick in the light stuff. They have never been so fast. Kris seems to be finding her competitive kill-everyone let's win attitiude that has been dormant for so long. That and maybe a perfect Ashby Mainsail and Ullman kite have made a huge difference. Miss/Miss looked to break away with Bob/WF over the horizon, while we had our hands full with Mark Murray/Chalie Barmonde and Chris Brown. On the third lap, we broke away to a safe 3rd, and sailed to the new weather mark. Well out of hailing range, Miss/Miss and Bob/WF contineud on to the old weather mark. We all met up at the new weather mark. Them with kites, us still upwind. Bob/WF had some serious naviagtional problems and couldn't figure out which way to round the mark to make sure their string went around it. We rounded 1st with the Margheritas just behind us. Somehow we managed to stay ahead of these flyweights (100 lbs less!). Think Murray/Barmonde were third, Brown 4th, and Bob/WF 5th. WIthout a throwout, we were beginning to drink champagne.

That thought was short lived. The committee started three more races. Dehydration and a headache have me forgetting the details of the 2nd race on Sunday. I remember jibing around at the starting gun for a fabulous last place start. I think Bob said something like "you really need to work on your starts". And like that I became grasshopper. Bob got us back in the race somehow. But we could not catch Bob/WF and the Margheritas. A 3rd for us.

The next start, we had a one point advantage leading Bob/WF for the overall results. So we figured we'd hunt or be hunted. We tailed Bob/WF at the start. At 40 seconds, they tacked too close. It would have been easy to say 'protest' and add a 720 to their backward moving start in irons....but I would hate beating these guys on a rule infraction. So we let it go, and won the pin. We wanted the left side. Bob/WF went right, and they were all alone. Now about that NE breeze. It only showed up when Bob/WF went there. It never worked for anyone else. Amazing. They rounded the top mark with a huge lead. The Margheritas nearly caught them, and we held onto 3rd.

The RC started one more race. At this point, we're a point down on Bob/WF (with throwout). Once again, I had a magical start after fooling around with Bob/WF. We started on port, tacked to starboard, got rolled, looked like hell. Everyone went to the right, we went left for the last gasp of the NW. At the weather mark we had a huge lead, but the race was cancelled because everyone sailed into a huge hole along the shore, some put up asyms, and the RC took pity. A good dice roll, driftathon was just what we wanted!

Oh well, Bob/WF won by one point over us. If there had been no throwouts, we'd have won, which makes me feel good, but doesn't really matter otherwise. Chris Brown was third. Not sure beyond that. The Margheritas were lethal in light winds.

It was great to see Hugh Piggins out there with his crew Jim. Hugh's boat was finally unwrapped after a year or two in its original packaging. Gale and Jim were great to come up to sail. Very nice folks.

The class winning speed has moved on quite a bit since the winter regattas, and a lot versus last summer. A stock boat with stock sails seems off the pace now. There were two fleets in our class. Those with the Ullman or Ashby mains and Ullman spinnakers, and those without. That's progress in a development class.

And I think a lot is still being learned about the downwind speed techniques. I feel almost to the point where I understand where you go wild thing, then crew on the rail, then crew on the wire. Still need a few more regattas to refine though.

Finally, Bill Vining and Kor brought huge honor to our fleet. While starting, they were throwing their trash to the RC boat. A piece went the water, and Bill tells 'Hard-Kor' to go get it. Kor dives in, rescues the wayward trash, slam-dunks it into the RC boat, then swims like Mark Spitz to catch Bill, climbs aboard, then the begin racing after the fleet. For this effort, THE NEWPORT REGATTA awarded 'Hard-Kore' the VW AWARD for exemplary behavior, attitude, sportsmanship, and being such an outstanding character. Ample mention of the 18HT was associated with this award. CONGRATS KOR! This is the biggest award at the regatta. Unfortunately Kor had to go, so Hunt accepted for him.

Well that is it from my viewpoint. Missed seeing the boys from Chicago. And sorry to see Andy Herbick still ashore with recuperation from Doug's last beating.

Finally, CLint CLemens, one of the best photogs in the world, shot us on Sunday. WIsh we had more wind. Regardless, I will be getting off some prints to each of you who sailed.

Best

Peter

[Bill Vining]

Sail Newport put on another awesome regatta. The weather was great, the wind was good for Saturday and lighter on Sunday.

Everything was well done, the race committee was excellent, they started our class first and then got us off in between the Ensign and J22 and the other boats in our division. The last boat barely was across the line and the race committee was announcing our new start.

After finishing the fourth race on Saturday, we sailed by the race committee and asked for a couple of bottles of water. Cor (my crew) tossed the empty bottles into the race committee boat and one of them missed and landed in the water just off the transome of the rc boat. The racing instructions clearly state that any boat that litters is disqualified, so I asked the woman on the race committee boat, "Do you want us to get that?" She replied, "Well, yeah." Cor immediately dived off the boat and started swimming toward the committee boat. Did I mention that we were about 2.5 minutes into the start sequence? Cor grabbed the empty water bottle and tossed it to the rc. I gybed, sailed by Cor and dragged him up on the boat, gybed again, sheeted in and crossed the starting line just after the gun in decent position. At the time, it didnt seem all that interesting, but the race committee was impressed and Cor was presented with the "VW Full Throttle Award." At the award ceremony they made a big deal out of this and exaggerated the story a bit, but it was nice that the HT class was highlighted during the awards ceremony.

This is one of our best regattas and everyone should make plans to attend next year. It's worth it.

Bill

[Bill Vining]

Nice write up Peter.

Thanks

Bill

[Hunt]

Just a few reactions to Peter's report.

1. I firmly deny the title of Miss Margerita - that rests squarely with my tequilla loving but lightweight wife - and I am talking about alcohol capacity not poundage here. Peter has dicovered the entertainment value of buying her margeritas after sailing.

2. I love the family-friendly censor software on this forum. Yes, thanks to ... Peter of course ... I am now Kris' Boat-B-_-T-C-H which gets translated as "Pregnant Dog".

3. I think it great Doug went with a new and local sailmaker, rather than just follow the pack (Peter Really). I am not writing the sail off yet -- Doug could be creaming us all in a couple of weeks when he gets it truly dialed in. It has a HUGE square top which could in theory give even better puff response -- remember our rigs are pretty stiff. And very cool graphics which is what counts anyway. Anyway, good on ya Doug for trying something new and out of the box.

4. Bob and WF are either Brilliant or Lucky. In the last race Peter match raced them at the start and they were litterally going backwards (we had to sail around them). Everyone knew you had to go left -- it had been a race to the left corner all day. But WF and Bob were in the cheap seats with Peter leading the fleet to the left. So did Bob and WF see something on the right side or did they just throw a Hail Mary and get lucky? In my bood, better lucky than good anyday. Regardless, they came screaming out of the right hand corner with a big lead. Nice Job!

5. Peter is right -- we have learned a lot and the bar is getting raised. The new generation sails are definitely an improvement, but we are all learning to sail the boats better too. I still think that people new to the class will do fine with the Petrucci / Smyth sail program until they get up the learning curve. If they want to spend the money to upgrade right away, great, but personally I would wait a year.

6. I will hate to see Peter in Breeze - especially when he gets more time on the boat. He was hanging with us in the light stuff despite a 70# crew-weight disadvantage (not 100# Peter - you flatter us Fat Boy). So he will be really hard to touch when the breeze is on.

7. I love this class. It is a great boat sure, but more than that it is a great group of people who all help each other get faster. We would not be anywhere near as far along the learning curve without advice from Peter, WF, Bob, Chris and Jean Brown, and all the others who have helped us. I think part of what the RC liked about us was how much we all worked together. Thanks everyone.

[Bill Vining]

Cory Silken has posted photos of our class.

www.studio6x7.com

He seems to have documented all my screw-ups from Saturday. Nice shots of us shrimping the kite, and us on our side.

Great.

Bill

[Peter]

Geez Bill, I like the forward rake in this photo:

www.studio6x7.com/npt04/ht18/pages/silken_2004_07-10_454.html

[Bob Hodges]

I guess after reading Peter's and Hunt's regatta reports, WF and I are one pair of lucky dumb asses!

You guys were fast, we enjoyed the racing.

[Dumb a u eff WF]

Peter and Hunt,

Bob called out the right side early, before the match race scenario. The plan, messed up by Peter, was to port tack the fleet, starting at the port end and getting to the obviously greater pressure on the right.

W.F. "what mark?" Oliver
USA-3

[Hunt]

Darn! Fast and Smart -- now there is a killer combo. Nice call Bob! We sure didn't see it - we thought of port tacking but planned to get just above the fleet and lead to the left -- but then you guys started to dial each other up and we decided to stay clear and just start on Starboard.

And I didn't sense any sour grapes in Peter's post - I guess I am the sore loser for intimating that it might have been a flyer paying off.

Had a great time sailing and hanging with you guys as always. Hope you will come back and sail again soon.

[Peter]

First off, apologies to Cor for getting his name spelled incorrectly. It is C-O-R as Bill has now pointed out to me.

As for the dumbasses on USA-3.....it's pure respect on my part that you can make so many mistakes and still win. Every single race, you guys were leading, or in the race at the first mark. Wish I could say the same. WF's glasses must have been fogging up. If I didn't stroke you guys enough, sorry. It would sound just like every other 18HT regatta. As Bill said... Bob and Wf won. End of story. That can get a little boring in a small class after so many events. Don't be so sensitive!

[Bill Vining]

OK

Who paid Cory Silken to follow me around and document my screw-ups?

Fess up, Peter - it was you, right?


Bill

[Peter]

Shite Bill, you're everywhere! Check out another Vining classic shot at:

www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/photos/04/newport/

I had Clint Clemens shoot on Sunday...thinking that would be the better wind day. I think you were well behaved that day, right?! Tucker Thompson (TP2)and Cory SIlken are their own agents.