Atlantic Coast Masters Championship
New Bedford Yacht Club
June 18-19, 2011
Friday’s weather could have turned off anybody from driving long distances to New Bedford – it rained intermittently all day long. However, those 41 sailors who were not deterred were treated to the legendary sailing conditions that Buzzards Bay is known for when a warm and sunny day generates a SW sea breeze of commonly 20+ knots. Saturday’s race day #1, was one of those days, although the sea breeze only made it up to 15 knots. Since the forecast for Sunday was not as favorable, the RC announced at the skippers meeting that they would try to run more than the scheduled 3 races for the day – and they did, stopping after 5 races. The courses were wwd.-lwd. twice around with a short reaching leg from the lwd. gate to the finish line off the bow of the committee boat.
As predicted, Sunday’s sailing conditions were challenging due to a cirrus cloud covered sky preventing the development of a sea breeze strong enough to overcome the gradient northerly, which pretty well hung in until the cut-off time of 3 p.m. Being also an offshore breeze, the wind fluctuated wildly both in speed and direction to the extend that it caused a start delay of over an hour and four postponements only minutes after the start. Finally, a N 10-5 knot “window” opened for what turned out to be the only race of the day. A second race had to be abandoned half way up the first beat when the battle between the northerly and southerly winds reached a stalemate. The beer boat offered a welcome relieve to the sailors, spread out over a wide area in search of the elusive private breeze advantage.
An insufficient number of pre-registered Radials meant that rig-switching was in effect, which only one sailor tried to make use of by switching after the first race. The age divisions were represented by 3 Apprentices, 18 Masters, 12 Grand Masters, and 8 Great Grand Masters. There were 4 women racing across two age divisions.
Congratulations to the 2011 Atlantic Coast Masters Champion, Andy Pimental (M) who beat out Peter Shope (M) on a tie-break.
The top three divisional winners are:
Apprentices: Ben Richardson, MA; David Armitage, RI; Brian Fisher, RI
Masters: Andrew Pimental, RI, Peter Shope, RI, Mark Bear, MA
Grand Masters: Jorge Abreu, DOM, David Frazier, CT, Gary Orkney, CT,
Great Grand Masters: Peter Seidenberg, RI, Joe Van Rossem, CAN, Amnon Gitleson, CT
Women: Lynn Shore, RI, Susie Pegel, WI, Judith Krimski, MA
For the overall and divisional results see Results
-Peter Seidenberg
