The Wind Gods At This Place Have Some Serious Issues

Everybody lining up for Chowder and Desert

This past weekend, Bernadette Levesque, John Houstle and Mark Stoughton ventured down to the Orleans Yacht Club for the Yankee Duo, two separate regattas, at the same venue, run by the Sherborn Yacht Club.  First up was Saturday's Chowder Cup. There were 17 boats on the line, and Massapoag was the second most represented club with 3 members represented, outdone only by the Bolton Lake YC in Connecticut, who sent four.

There were a total of 5 races run in winds that were shifty enough to make one pine for the steady consistency of Lake Massapoag. Forty degree plus wind shifts were common. Skippers would sail into holes in the wind and stop dead, while others less than 10 feet away sailed on as if nothing happened.  More than once skippers were heard pleading with or cursing the Wind Gods, while a few gave the fickle Wind Gods credit for the horizon jobs that they pulled on the rest of the fleet.

Sunday saw the Orleans Yacht Club's Just Desserts Regatta pick up right where the Chowder Cup left off.  The winds grew steadily weaker all day, and the no-wind holes got bigger, but the frustration level stayed just as high.  Five more races were run, and the results looked much the same as the day before.

Bill Brangiforte beat out Alan Beckwith for first place on both days, leading Alan to claim that he really wasn't letting Bill win.  Eric Woodman put in stellar performances in the fluky winds, taking third in the Chowder Cup and third in the Just Deserts, beating out Dave Davies, who missed the first race of the day because he was driving up from New Jersey after competing in a SANJL regatta.

As far as MYC skippers go, Mark Stoughton took 11th, John Houstle 12th and Bernadette Levesque took 14th on Saturday. Mark sailed alone on Sunday, taking 9th on Sunday.

The Yankee Duo wraps up the Sunfish Regatta schedule for 2014. Massapoag's Saturday Sunfish Series continues until October 11, and two weeks later, the Barrington Yacht Club Sunfish Frostbiting series begins.

Bernadette Extends Her Lead

Bernadette Levesque extended her lead in the 2014 Summer Sunfish series today by beating John Houstle in three out of four races in chilly, blustery conditions. Bernadette was able to get better boatspeed, particularly downwind, and outpointed John almost all day, and he said that it took everything that he had to beat her in the third race.

Full results are on our Results Page.

Next weekend, racing is cancelled as Bernadette and Mark are going to be participating in the Yankee Duo, two regattas hosted by different clubs at the same venue on Cape Cod.

Stormy Weather Skirts Massapoag as Kevin Buruchian takes the Annual Regatta

This was about the only thing that didn't happen while we were racing

A record number of Sunfish turned out for the 65th Massapoag Annual Regatta last weekend.  There were nearly 60 boats on the water in 4 classes, as the race committee more than had their hands full and had trouble keeping up.  A record amount of wind also showed up, with steady wind in the high teens and gusts recorded well into the 30's, making for survival conditions at times.  The shore crew did an outstanding job, handing out over 700 bottles of water to thirsty competitors, keeping the beer, food and ice cream flowing.

In the Sunfish class, a total of 9 races were held over two days. Kevin Buruchian, who outside of his throwout race never finished worse than 4th, took first place. Alan Beckwith (who claims he needs a new boat, but could have fooled us), finished second and Scott Greenbaum took third.

The MYC Saturday Sunfish Series resumes on September 13.  The next Sunfish Regatta is the Yankee Duo, two separate regattas run by two separate yacht clubs at the same venue on Cape Cod.

P.S. Out apologies for the late posting.  We at MYCSunfish HQ have been swamped this week, and are just getting to posting blog entries now.  Our writers have been taken to the woodshed for retraining.