Arriving at the committee boat at 1750 in the warm westerly that had been blowing since Tuesday, we pulled the sails in to go upwind and found ourselves barely laying the pin.  We turned around to a offer friendly suggestion to PRO Dan Holt and he suggested that we be patient.  Sure enough, without moving either the boat or the pin, the boat was a few degrees favored at the 1805 start.  Summary: it was a tricky night.

How does he do it?? Jeff Smith hauled in two bullets and has all but put the first Wednesday Series out of reach for anyone else.  Despite the tricky conditions, he was in just the right place at the right time in both races.  Picking the far right corner, overstanding by a couple hundred yards and then struggling through the dead zone header at the windward mark was the winning strategy in both races.  The middle of the course was a bad place to be, especially in the second race as boats from both the left and right passed those who found themsleves there.

Bruce Morse in Bad Apple finished second for the evening and Pit Party with both Steve Fernald and Rich Ketchum on board turned in an impressive third.  Flying Circus was fourth and there was a five-way points tie for fifith.

Two more weeks left in the first Wednesday Series and the battle continues . . .  for second and third anyway, where Flying Circus, Bad Apple and Mr. Hanky all remain in contention.

–Howard

This is notice that we will be using the Etchells course configuration for next Tuesday’s racing.  The leeward mark will be an orange tetrahedron dropped to windward of the start / finish line.  The pin will not be a turning mark.

As I have been mentioning, because the 4th falls on a Wednesday we will be doing our weeknight series event on Tuesday July 3rd in combination with the Etchells fleet.  Warning gun for the first race is 1630 hours (4:30PM for you landlubbers; 2030 Zulu for you Navy folk)! If the weather cooperates, we’ll try to run 2 or 3 “weekend-length” length races.

 Dual fleet member Andrew Carey will be the evening’s PRO.  Following the sailing, there will be a Fleet 27 / 43 cookout at PYC.  It should be extra fun! See you all there.

–Howard

The Double Handed Regatta originally on our calendars for June 30th has been moved to August 4th due the difficulties of pulling things together on a pre-Holiday weekend.  This moves it closer to the traditional time that we have held the event.  The amended NOR is posted.

–Howard

I’m conducting a little test to see who has subscribed to this blog.  If you are a subscriber, forward this email to me or leave a comment and you will be rewarded the next time you see me at the club.  You will be further rewarded if you can reasonably prove to me that you’ve convinced your slacker crewmates to subscribe as well.

 –Howard

Here are the race summaries as submitted to Casco Bay Sailing for the first three weeks of the season.

(more…)

If anyone is interested in racing this weekend, I’ve recieveed inquiries from a couple of boats in the PHRF fleet looking for crew.  You can contact:

Mark Waite (Commocean) Cell 712 0952

Harry Hepburn harry@simonsarchitects.com

 –Howard

I’ve recieved emails from two people recently interested in selling their J24s.  I’ll copy the emails below.

__________

From: Bob Silva [mailto:bsilva@us.ibm.com]
Sent: Saturday, June 02, 2007 6:41 PM
To: carter@regattapromotions.com
Subject: Re: Downeast Regatta / District 1 Championships

Thanks for the invite.   My 1989 J24 is up for sale. I am asking $15,000. It comes with a Triad trailer and a new ( approx 3 hours usage) Nissan 4 HP  4 stroke motor. The hull is white and has the teak toe rails and the 2 tone deck, grey.  If there is any interest in the boat please reply to this email or contact me at 508-540-9714

Regards,
  Bob Silva
47 Burnham Drive
Falmouth , Ma 02540
_________________

From: Bruce McArthur [mailto:mcarthurb@thirteen.org] 
  Hey Howard,Hope your summer is off to a good start. Our first regatta is next weekend, 6/9-10. it’s the district 3 championships so I guess I’ll  get a good feel for where I am then.

I am also going to the Newport regatta in July. Will I see you there?

Anyway, I’ve put Volcano up for sale. Looking at a bigger racer/cruiser so I can include my family in my weekend plans for a change (they don’t like the J24). I posted the boat on sailinganarchy.com. It is in pretty good shape. Do you remember it at COC last year? Over the winter I added new dyform shrouds and 1×19 stays. I also bought a new set of sails which I won’t use before Newport. I am asking $14,000 including the sails and am willing to deliver her to Portland.

Just thought I’d mention it if you happen to know of anyone who might want to get into the sport or upgrade their J24 without the hassles of actually doing it. To get an older boat into the shape Volcano is in would cost a lot.

If you hear of anyone who is interested, my cell is 203-856-4452.

Thanks. Hope to see you soon!

Bruce

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UPDATE 6-8-07:  FYI. Dan Marston’s “Underdog” is also for sale.  Dan can be reached at 207-229-3985.