2024 Regatta Schedule Updates
It's October, when all the windward marks turn into pumpkins, and it's scary downwind in the spooky fall breeze. The developing schedule is posted on the D7 website and at the bottom of this newsletter. Here are the latest calendar updates:
Hyannis YC Oktoberfest Regatta 2024. October 6th
Register here. Join this fun fall event with a regatta potluck to warm you up after a day on the water.
Cedar Point Fall One Design Regatta, October 5-6.
Oh Yeah, the kids in CT are ready to play. Join them for this competitive two-day event. Zip around with International Canoes and Flying Scots. Register here.
Do you have an event planned but don't see it on the calendar at the end of this newsletter? Please let me know: laserd7@gmail.com |
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District News
We have a 2024 Grand Prix winner!
In this second year of the D7 Grand Prix, we hit some good milestones. All six states participated! Thanks to Wickford YC (RI), Kollegewidgwok YC (ME), Stone Horse YC (MA), Mallets Bay Boat Club (VT), Lake Sunapee YC (NH) and Duck Island YC (CT). Thanks to all the race organizers who made this happen.
Across all six regattas, 118 sailors participated in one or more regatta. That's outstanding! We are becoming good road warriors. I am happy to report that first place goes to Dave Crawley, who deftly switched it up between ILCA 6 and ILCA 7 fleets over four of the six regattas and earned a cumulative score of 327 points. Dave wins a free tuition to the International Sailing Academy, a $2,600 value! Buen Viaje, Dave. Second place goes to Adam Cook, who scored a cumulative 232 points over four races. Adam wins a $100 certificate to US One Design so he can upgrade and catch Dave next year. Rounding out the podium from the deep north of Blue Hill, ME, where the lobster rolls tack, is Jeff Beckwith scoring an impressive 228 cumulative points over just three regattas. Jeff wins a $100 certificate to Southeast Sailing, the fabulous rigging folks across the Pond. Next year, he can sail with a British accent, which is known to be very fast.
Here's our top ten, but kudos to all 118 sailors who hit he road:
| | 2024 D7 Grand Prix | | | Sailors receive a percentage score for each regatta based on their place (1st place scores 100, etc, and 0 points for not attending) | | Ranking | First Name | Last Name | Wickford | TB S. Evans | D7 Champ | M. Bay | Sunapee | Duck Island | Total Score | | 1 | Dave | Crawley | 100.00 | 52.63 | 87.50 | 0 | 0 | 87.5 | 327.63 | | 2 | Adam | Cook | 66.67 | 42.11 | 61.54 | 0 | 0 | 62.5 | 232.82 | | 3 | Jeff | Beckwith | 61.11 | 84.21 | 0.00 | 0 | 0 | 83.33 | 228.65 | | 4 | Ledyard | McFadden | 55.56 | 89.47 | 69.23 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 214.26 | | 5 | Dave | Frazier | 0.00 | 73.68 | 0.00 | 0 | 50 | 75 | 198.68 | | 6 | Frederico | Bediaga | 100.00 | 0 | 0.00 | 0 | 0 | 95.83 | 195.83 | | 7 | Jamie | Carter | 94.44 | 100 | 0.00 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 194.44 | | 8 | Sean | Giunness | 88.89 | 94.74 | 0.00 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 183.63 | | 9 | Britt | Hughes | 27.78 | 0 | 0.00 | 0 | 0 | 91.67 | 119.45 | | 10 | Don | Packard | 33.33 | 0 | 75.00 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 108.33 |
Note on scoring: You may see two sailors scoring the same in a single regatta. This is because that regatta had two fleets (ILCA 6 and 7), but being a Yankee I didn't want to waste a perfectly good spreadsheet column. For 2025, we'll be nuancing the system to give a bit more credit for fleet size, but it's still going to be mostly about hitting the road and sailing in awesome places.
MarbleNukes! US Masters is a honking affair.
The top ILCA 6 master in the just finished US Masters at Eastern YC was Jamie Carter. Jamie happens to work for NOAA and is now developing a new forecasting theory for Nor’easter storms. Step 1: Schedule a laser regatta at EYC. Step 2: Predict a big storm! It happened in 2016 when EYC hosted the ILCA North Americans and again in 2019. This year was no exception.
Ninety four sailors from across the country, Canada, and the Caribbean faced a 20-25 knt breeze with gusts well into the thirties. The seas were 8 feet with washing machine chop on top. Under the intrepid leadership of PRO Franny Charles, three races were sailed on Friday. Even Clay Johnson, the eventual overall winner in the ILCA 7, went swimming. After a day off to let things settle on Saturday, the fleet sailed three more races on Sunday in slightly more civilized conditions of six foot seas and winds in the high teens with gusts into the 20s.
The time on shore was equally sporty, with two great dinners, free massages from StretchLabs, and a very special celebration of ILCA Legend Peter Seidenberg, whose years of dedication to ILCA sailing have made masters sailing what it is today. If you haven't gone to a major master's event, don't miss the next one!
See the full results here. |
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This month we are continuing the theme of building a fleet after Nat's great article last month detailing the success at American YC in Newburyport, MA. There is nothing more important to the future of the sport we love, and no better boat to do it in than the ILCA. Dave Penfield, fast guy in his boat, Touch of Grey, knows a few things about sailing and getting people on the water. Dave and a group of like-minded volunteers at the Hyannis Yacht Club have been hard at work. Here are some words of wisdom.
Building a fleet in Hyannis. Top Ten Tips!By Dave Penfield
We have worked on sustaining and growing our local fleet at Hyannis Yacht Club. We race on Thursday evenings and Sunday mid day from June through September. Many of the following ideas we picked up from other clubs, and we have tested them all with positive results. Hopefully in this list there might be something that your club has not already tried. - Simple and cheap awards [ie. glasses with fleet logo or ILCA image] distributed while everyone is still around de-rigging. Awards should be creative and for fun reasons [top junior under __ age, most capsizes, most circles, best start, surviving your first day, etc] Folks who don’t usually end up on the podium need to be targeted, and especially the younger sailors seem to cherish their awards.
- Ask the winner of the day to share what they thought made a difference, again while everyone is still around ASAP after racing.
- Have loaner boats available for competitive sailors from other fleets in your club, juniors, sailing instructors, and non club members. We were very fortunate several years ago to be able to borrow boats from the 413 Frostbite fleet, and our club subsequently decided to build our own loaner boat fleet based on that success. Old serviceable hulls abound and owners who no longer use them can be talked into a donation, and our foundation then has fixed them up. And some fleet members will loan their boats when not sailing. Make sure there will be a responsible point person and a budget for ongoing maintenance. We have loaned up to eight boats for a single day of racing, the benefit is obvious.
- Organize race clinics for the fleet, get your top sailors to volunteer to teach. We have in the past brought in a professional coach for a more formal multi-day clinic, but 2-4 hour home-grown session[s] especially at the start of the season has proven valuable for our fleet and is much easier to organize and to schedule based on conditions. When racers see personal improvement they are more excited about participating for the rest of the season.
- Have an intro to ILCA clinic. We set some up right after our Sunday races, using the racers' rigged boats and their owners as personal instructors. It is surprising how many club members have curiosity but need a little push to try, making it safe and easy seems to capture them. This has helped get new adults and juniors into our fleet. A quick how-to on survive tacking and a gybing dry land demo, followed by about an hour of supervised sailing in good conditions is enough to get most people stoked to sail an ILCA.
- Add ILCA sailing to your youth program [if not already doing it]. Best to have two options, an intro class just focused on fun sailing, and a race class. You will need a supply of 4.7 and 6 rigs and sails to do so. And then make it easy for the race class to sail in the fleet races.
- With fleet permission, encourage the race leaders to circle back after finishing and coach the boats struggling at the back of the fleet while they are still racing. Obviously this is not “legal” per racing rules, but our fleet has welcomed the plan. Alternatively, on a rotating basis have top sailors spend a day in a RIB coaching the back of the fleet, [give the “coach” first place finishes for the day if you score a summer series]. It is very important to support the sailors who are most likely to get discouraged and thus not return. And getting them faster/better improves the racing for everyone.
- Regular dialogue with the RC. They are often volunteers who have not sailed ILCAs, and are helped by feedback and training. For example, we have done on water demos for our patrol boat operators on how to assist boats capsized/turtled, or broken down. Feedback about start line length, courses, etc. can all be helpful to the RC, make sure they agree ahead that it is collaborative rather than critical.
- Use sailing program instructors to augment race volunteers especially on windy days. Their youthful strength and knowledge makes a difference between cancelling or continuing to race.
- If you charge a fee for racing, waive it for the first few days for someone trying it out.
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2024 District 7 Regattas as of 5/31/24 | Date | Counts towards D7 Gran Prix? | Notes | Under the Rope | NEW DATE APRIL 14TH | | Eastern YC, Marblehead, MA Show up at 11 AM & register on site. Prizes and party afterwards. Contact tomdailey15@gmail.com | Peter Milnes Regatta | April 28 | | Fleet 413, Newport, RI | Portland Pilot | Canceled | | Portland YC, Falmouth, ME | ILCA Nationals | June 6-9 | | New Bedford YC, Dartmouth, MA, | Wickford Regatta | June 8-9 | Y | Wickford YC, Wickford, RI | John Bentley Regatta | Canceled | | New Bedford YC, South Dartmouth, MA | Newport Regatta | July 13-14 | | 40th Anniversary! Very cool event | True Blue Spencer Evans Regatta | July 20-21 | Y | Kollegewidgwok YC, Blue Hill, ME | Hyannis Yacht Club Regatta | July 27-28 | | Hyannis, MA | Helly Hansen Marblehead Race Week | July 27-28 | | Eastern YC, Marblehead, MA | Buzzards Bay ILCA Masters Championship | August 3-4 | | New Bedford YC, South Dartmouth, MA | D7 Championship | August 10-11 | Y | Stone Horse YC, Harwich, MA | Malletts Bay Boat Club Regatta | August 17-18 | Y | Colchester, VT | Lake Sunapee Yacht Club | August 24-25 | Y | Sunapee, NH | Massapoag 75th Annual | Sept 6-8 | | Sharon, MA | Duck Island YC ILCA Regatta | Sept. 7th | Y | Westbrook, CT | Ponce De Leon Regatta | Sept. 8 | | Eastern YC, Marblehead, MA. Show up at 11 AM & register on site. Prizes and party afterwards. Contact tomdailey15@gmail.com | New England Masters | Sept 14-15 | | Wickford YC, Wickford, RI | US Masters | Sept 20-22 | | Eastern YC, Marblehead, MA. Registration is open! | Cedar Point Yacht Club Fall One Design Regatta | October 5-6 | | Cedar Point YC, Westport, CT | Hyannis YC Oktoberfest Regatta 2024 | October 6 | | Hyannis YC, Hyannis, MA Great annual event! | Turkey Bowl | Nov. 24 | | Eastern YC, Marblehead, MA Show up at 11 AM & register on site. Prizes and party afterwards. Contact tomdailey15@gmail.com | D7 Gran Prix races in green. Sail as many as you can and win points for great prizes |
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