MEMORIAL DAY WEEKEND AND SAILORS GET A BIT OF EVERYTHING

By Dan Muss

The weather forecast for the holiday weekend was for scattered showers and partly cloudy, wind light and variable from the southwest, temperatures in the low 60s. Saturday turned out to be a quite nice day and the wind was near perfect at 5 to 10 knots with puffs up to 15. Of course the puffs often shift 45 degrees which drive sailboat racers crazy. We can often see them coming so we’re ready for something. There are good sailors who can read the "cat’s paws" on the water indicating the puffs and know whether to expect a "knock" (unfavorable) or a "lift" (favorable). But I’ve never been able to do it reliably. The first race of the season, the Fred Steiding Cup, is a tune-up race where all boats start together and there is only one winner. That winner this year was Don Griffin with his wife, Barbara, crewing in a Flying Scot. The Griffins are a truly amazing couple. Don is 74 and they had just returned from a 10-day bike trip on the upper Danube in Germany. They left Munich at 12 noon on Friday, arrived home in Pittsburgh at 1:00 am, got 4 hours of jet-lagged sleep and arrived at Deep Creek for a Saturday, 9:00 am Racing Association meeting after which they rigged their ‘Scot and put it in the water. After winning the Steiding Cup race they had lunch and went on to come in second in the second race of the day – right behind Harry Carpenter, a two-time national Flying Scot Champion. And they still looked pretty chipper at the Commodore’s Reception that evening. Jane and Dave Mahan went out to sail the Steiding Cup with a brand new spinnaker from North Sails, the acknowledged leading sail maker for Flying Scots. They rounded the first windward mark, put up their new spinnaker and it tore into shreds. I believe North Sails will hear about this!

The second race on Saturday is then the first race of the Becker Cup Regatta. The second and third races are sailed on Sunday and the fourth race is on Monday, Memorial Day. The racing fleets have been renamed to be consistent with nomenclature used in other sailboat racing venues. The Flying Scot A Fleet is now called the Championship Division, the Flying Scot B Fleet (for less experienced sailors) is now called the Challenger Division and the Flying Scot C Fleet (for older experienced sailors who only sail one race a day) is now called the Master’s Division. Starting with next week’s races the Championship Division will be further divided into "Gold" and "Silver" Sections. Laser A and B Fleets will also be designated "Gold" and "Silver". At the start of the first race of the regatta the committee boat was heavily favored and we crossed a few seconds late but well to windward of the others. So I had "Nemesis" (my old rival) by about 4 boat lengths. But that old fox crept up, passed us and never looked back. At the second mark I had a "senior moment" and rounded the starting mark, which was still in the water! (How I did that I do not know. The starting mark is a tall, skinny pole and the course mark is a tetrahedron.) My crew, Barbara Elster, let me know about it and we turned around and headed correctly once more but we slipped back into third place. But then the second place boat, sailed by Marty and Iris Nahemow, had somehow gotten into "irons" right at the mark. (That’s when a sailboat is head-to-wind with no helmway. The only way to get out of irons is to back-wind the sails to achieve reverse helmway and steer to one side to fill the sails.) So we passed them and finished second. On Sunday there was a light breeze out of the southwest and we were in third place as we round the second mark. We seemed to be in a terrible position, close-hauled with the two boats ahead of us to windward blocking our air. Then we were all knocked and they tacked away. I decided to hold the unfavorable tack to get away from them and lo the failing breeze shifted back. Then the breeze died completely as the entire fleet sat and bobbed. But we were near shore and got a few zephyrs. At that point the thermals came from every direction as we constantly trimmed and re-trimmed the sails and moved the centerboard up and down. But we had moved out about 100 yards. The race committee then shortened the course to finish at the next mark so we got our first win of the season as the air came up ahead of us. Ted Rissell in "Nemesis" finished second and we were tied going into the last race on Monday. Monday morning it was cold (our outside thermometer read 48 degrees), cloudy and threatening rain. We bundled up and were prepared to sail. But the other two Master’s ‘Scots voted with their feet not to sail so it was up to me and Ted. Ted said that he’d rather not sail so we did not go out. (The tie-breaker in this case goes to the boat that finished best in the last race.) In the Challenger Division there was a hot battle between Dave Bertsch with his son Brian crewing and Karl Rath with Jim Munford crewing. Bertsch had been ahead but Rath was in front going into the last race. There was a confused start as the wind puffed up in short bursts. Bertsch was about 50 yards behind as he started but managed to pull out and finish second to beat Rath for first place in the Becker Cup. The young team of Nate Coraor and crew Rachael Schubert came in first in that last Challenger race. At the awards ceremony on Monday Charles and Sarah Buffington were walking on air as they accepted their 2nd place trophy behind Harry and Carrie Carpenter. It’s the best they’ve ever done and against the best sailors we have. Well done Charles and Sarah!

Race Results Steiding Cup: Don Griffin with crew Barbara Griffin in a Flying Scot.

Becker Cup Regatta:

Flying Scot Championship Division: Harry Carpenter with his daughter Carrie as crew won first place as Charles Buffington with crew Sarah, his bride, grabbed second place. Don Griffin and crew Barbara Griffin won third place; Meredith Dodd with her sister Ashley and friend Alex Kandabarow crewing took fourth.

Flying Scots Challenger Division: In first place we had Dave Bertsch with his son, Brian, crewing and Karl Rath and his crew, Jim Munford, got second. In third place was Scott Parry with his grandfather, Tom Scannell, as crew and mentor. And in fourth place we have Jack Seelig with his wife, Layne, crewing.

Flying Scots Master’s Division: Dan Muss and crew, Barbara Elster, took first in a tie-breaker; Ted Rissell and crew Carol Muss were second.

Laser Gold: Bruce Spinnenweber was first, Tom Johnson won second and Eric Silverman got third.