CR-914 Nationals

CR-914

2002 National Championship Regatta

Over the weekend of October 25-27^th Larchmont Model Yacht Club hosted the CR-914 class’s 2002 National Championship Regatta on the grounds (and in the harbor) of its parent club, the historic Larchmont (NY) Yacht Club. A total of 32 sailors from 10 states and five nationalities competed. This three-round event crowed a new class champion; but not until 120 races had been sailed.

As sailors were expected from distant ports of call, the regatta was scheduled over three days. Friday afternoon was registration of all entrants and informal practice races. It was a spectacular fall afternoon with the sun warming the chilly air to the mid-60’s. On the Club’s Victorian veranda, the central staging site for the regatta, dozens of tables were set-up with power cords, toolboxes and scores of 914’s being tuned-up. Immediately the participants began to experience one of the great joys of the sport: arriving at a regatta and rekindling old friendships while making new ones. For those 914 sailors in the Northeast, Larchmont has become a central meeting ground where people from New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maryland, Missouri, New Hampshire and Virginia gather annually for LMYC’s annual spring regatta. The Nationals cast an even wider net.

As the sailors arrived at the Club, cheers arose as more and more familiar faces were recognized. After all, there were months, if not years worth of sea stories to be caught-up on. Most of the “usual suspects” were on hand with one notable exception. Thursday night, class secretary Chuck Winder e-mailed Larchmont regretting that a troublesome heart was going to prevent his from traveling from Marblehead to compete.

An aside: Chuck reported he had had a 5-way bypass in the early 80’s and it was acting up. While his doctor had him on monitors, precluding his traveling, those at the event were puzzled that 1) Chuck actually had a heart and that 2) there could be five ways to bypass it. Chuck was missed greatly and, happily, reported he is back in the water sailing again.

One of the aspects of LMYC’s regattas that allow them to run so smoothly is the fact that the people who act as volunteer committee have all done it many times in the past. That was no exception Friday afternoon as Sara Lynn, Joan Watt and Dee Dee Luckett warmly greeted arriving sailors at the registration desk. Each competitor was given his registration package and a rather sporty tangerine regatta cap. Once tuned-up and weighed-in, the boats took off for the water to see how they matched-up against some of the class hot shots. Sailing off one of the club’s stationary wing docks, Ruth Campanili was running windward/leeward races for over 25 boats split into two divisions. It was a sight to see: two dozen identical boats sailing together. Classes that have 10-12 boats at a “big” regatta would dearly envy that sight.

At about 4:30, the boats were pulled from the water and stowed for the night. Hosts were matched with out-of-town guests and everyone went home to prepare for the night’s barbeque.

The Club’s newly restored Junior Club House served as the site for Friday’s informal barbecue. There was the threat of “severe weather” (a Weather Channel technical term), so the club set-up a small tent beside the Jr. Club House with a huge gas grill beneath it. Because the job of grilling for 60 hungry sailors, volunteers and family members would be a big job, the Committee appointed Dave “Big Dawg” Ramos and Chuck “Too Tall” Luscomb as the official grill masters. Chicken, dogs, burgers, tons of salads, cookies and brownies all to be washed down by an endless supply of Saranac Pale Ale, contributed by participating event sponsor Matt Brewing Company, soda and a case of wine. At the end of the evening, the only severe weather was to be found inside the clubhouse where a severe party front had set in.

It rained cats and dogs overnight and the forecast was for a rather “damp” Saturday with winds ranging from 20-30 knots. Neither condition was conducive to neither model sailing nor model sailors. However, as everyone arrived at the Club around 8:30, the rain was subsiding and wind had fallen in strength to the high teens. While at the top-end of a 914’s racing range, it was decided to hit the courses on time. Sailing started following the competitors’ meeting at 9:30 and the traditional cannon shot from the front lawn. As the first two divisions hit the water for the Preliminary Round the rain stopped and conditions began improve.

The plan was to have each of the four 8-boat divisions sail a Preliminary Round of six races. The East dock had stiffer winds than the West dock; but both courses kept the crash boat teams on their toes as marks had to be reset, and reset and reset. Those who competed realized quickly how important it was to have these guys sitting out there at the ready to fix a course or retrieve an errant boat. Thanks to Jake and Rick Estabrook, John Irving, Peter Gable and Chris Allen for manning the inflatables so competently.

Another aside: Also being sailed this weekend was the Manhasset Bay Fall Series -- for boats bigger than 36”. They were all out in the Sound bouncing around and ended-up postponing their start for two hours due to high winds. As all the big boats returned to their moorings, the 914’s continued to race with great skill and a bit of smugness. MBYC was using the same channel as our Committee radios and we had to restrain shore side coordinator Pat Guerin from radioing MBYC’s committee and informing them that WE were still racing! ;-)

When all four divisions had sailed, we could already see who the big guns were going to be. The top and bottom halves of each dock’s divisions were combined for the Qualifying Round seedings. The standings after the first round were as follows:

Preliminary Round Results

Place, Name, Score, (Bullets)

Division A

1, Elliott, Graham, 6, (5)

2, Ramos, Dave, 8, (2)

3, Martin, Dick, 14,

4, Buchanan, Hank, 20,

5, Godel, Pablo, 28,

6, Bolton, Darren, 31,

7, Martin, Biff, 31,

8, Mehlich, Bob, 31,

Division B

1, Freeland, Ernest, 7, (4)

2, Heyns, Terrance , 10, (1)

3, Burbeck, Joe, 13,

4, Padin, Buttons, 15, (1)

5, Beck, Rick, 26,

6, Wey, Tom, 28,

7, Tucker, Paul, 35,

8, Harris, Walter, 37,

Division C

1, Becker, Geoff, 5, (5)

2, Jobson, Brian, 12,

3, Kavs, Sasha, 20,

4, Herregods, Bruno , 24,

5, Masini, Bob, 25,

6, Hodgson, John, 27,

7, Campanelli, Rocco, 29,

8, Wullschleger, Sears, 36,

Division D

1, Olsson, Eric, 9, (4)

2, Schinto, John, 12,

3, Luscomb, Charles, 15,

4, Monte Sano, Bizzy, 22, (2)

5, Lynn, Dave, 23,

6, Gurnell, Jamie, 25,

7, Maiese, Mark, 31,

8, Sutton, Ken, 45,

By the time the Preliminary round was completed, it was time to break for lunch. But there wasn’t much time for that third hot dog as the first two divisions were quickly identified, frequencies changed as necessary and sailing resumed. Another six race series was sailed by each division in winds that had moderated to the 10 – 12 knot and shifted to the northeast. The objective of this round was to sort each dock’s two divisions into finishes 1 – 16 with the top four from each combining for the Championship division and the subsequent quartets combined for the three remaining divisions. The key is that everyone kept sailing, sharing racing yarns, fixing each other’s boats and having a great time.

About 3:00 the Qualifying Round was completed and Chief Scorer Jay Nashawaty and her able ably-bearded assistant, Sasha Kavs, had completed the scoring and created the four divisions for the Finals. The Qualifying Round finishes were as follows, and you can start to see how some of the big guns were already having their way with the rest of the fleet:

Qualifying Round Results

Name, Score

Division A

1, Ramos, Dave, 6, (4)

2, Elliott, Graham, 13, (1)

3, Martin, Dick, 17,

4, Buchanan, Hank, 19, (1)

5, Freeland, Ernest, 19,

6, Heyns, Terrance , 22,

7, Padin, Buttons, 31,

8, Burbeck, Joe, 36,

Division B

1, Martin, Biff, 7, (4)

2, Bolton, Darren, 9, (2)

4, Godel, Pablo, 14,

3, Tucker, Paul, 14,

5, Beck, Rick, 21,

6, Harris, Walter, 30,

7, Wey, Tom, 36,

8, Mehlich, Bob, 42,

Division C

1, Becker, Geoff, 10, (3)

2, Luscomb, Charles, 12, (1)

3, Olsson, Eric, 13, (1)

4, Jobson, Brian, 17, (1)

5, Monte Sano, Bizzy, 20,

6, Kavs, Sasha, 22,

7, Schinto, John, 28,

8, Herregods, Bruno , 38,

Division

1, Maiese, Mark, 8, (4)

2, Gurnell, Jamie, 12, (1)

3, Masini, Bob, 15,

4, Wullschleger, Sears, 16, (1)

5, Lynn, Dave, 20,

6, Campanelli, Rocco, 21,

7, Sutton, Ken, 43,

8, Hodgson, John, 44,

Ok, another aside: One of the lesser appreciated a detail of running a 4-division regatta is managing who sails on which frequencies. For years, Dave Lynn has been sorting much of this out. This year, however, Sasha Kavs, proving he doesn’t have enough to do, created a computer program that took scores, ranked them, sorted for the next divisions AND determined which channels needed to be changed…and to which channel. The contributions Sasha and Jaye helped make the regatta all it could be.

In past LMYC 2-day regattas, we never got to sailing “for the money” until Sunday morning. But this being the Nationals, we wanted to maximize the number of races actually sailing for the silver. So, at about 3:15 racing for the Championships began with each division getting in its first six Finals races before calling it quits at 4:40. The wind had moderated to 8-10 knots, the sun had broken through the cloud cover and the harbor became a majestic panorama of fall colors and bright, contrast filled sky. Go to the LYC Website and see what the later races looked like.

After 18 races for each division, a total of 72 races started, the sailors and our weary race committee, crash boat crews and Tom Spelman, the official LMYC launch driver, headed back to the shore. Boats were patched-up as necessary, hurt feelings mended and all gathered around the flagpole to crack open the keg of Saranac Pale Ale. Not a bad way to end off an exciting and packed day of sailing. Jaye calculated the scores and everyone went home to change for the formal dinner.

Ah, the formal dinner. Cocktails and more Saranac were abundantly served in the Shaffer room. Oh, and yes, Raffie the barman, mixologist supreme, mixed up three gallons of Grog which was quite ceremoniously served, or should I say “pumped,” our of Binky Hoffmann’s impressive oak cask. The player piano and some of the competitors were doing their best renderings of Sinatra. Then it was on to the sliced turkey, a succulent ham, chicken Marsala and all the fixings. Not a bad meal for a bunch of cleaned-up sailors. From the casual observer’s perspective, nobody appeared to be going hungry.

After dinner, LYMC Commodore Buttons Padin shared some of his usually pithy comments about the day’s sailing, thanked all those in attendance, and announced the latest addition’s to LMYC roster of Honorary Members. In this instance, they are all people who have volunteered at our regattas over, and over, and over again. You’d have thought they had wised up by this time. They are: Pat and Betty Guerin, Sara Lynn, Melanie Buenvenue, Joan Watt and Tom Spelman. Initiation fees and first five years dues invoices will be mailed shortly to all inducted.

On a more somber note, Buttons also asked everyone to stand and toast Hugh Fletcher, a longtime LMYC and RC sailor who passed away over the Summer. Hugh will be missed but is probably smiling down on the regatta as teenage Paul Tucker was racing Hughie’s 914.

That night, we were fortunate to turn the clocks back one hour and we all decided to get to the club early and start as soon as possible. Nice idea, terrible execution. I guess too much Grog!!! As it was, we did get off as scheduled at about 9:00 and started what would be two rounds of six races for each division. The wind had shifted to the north and decided NOT to remain steady. Timed starts often became demolition derbies as blasts would hit the fleet just seconds before the start. Nice favored side start and WHAM, you went from the front to the back of the pack. After the two seeding rounds, the four divisions had sifted themselves whereby everyone was sailing in parity skill groupings. As such, there was no room for error. You make a blunder and, KAPOW, there were three boats to capitalize upon your mistake.

The East dock suffered more shifts but the West dock suffered being further in the lee of the club. Next time, we’ll shift the West dock out of the shadow of the Club in northerlies.

For the finals round, LMYC’s Rick Beck had his way with the division. After sailing 18 races, Rick had gotten seven bullets and his three throwouts were all thirds. This writer is surprised that Dave Lynn and Rocco Campanelli, in second and third, didn’t nudge Rick into the water when he wasn’t looking. Nice racing Rick. Tom Wey also had a good go of it with a pair of bullets of his own.

Division D

The C Division was as close as it could get. Marblehead’s Biff Martin, still sockless, just nipped Mark Maiese from Essex by a single point. This was a pretty competitive fleet with Pablo Godel from Cincinnati (Argentina really) beating Chicago’s Darren Bolton (sailing his Boxing Roo ‘cause he’s from Down Under really!!) with three bullets between them, and Essex’ Jamie Grunnel (The British Bulldog), who finally got his 914 dusted off, only slightly off the pace. Biff, Mark and Jamie have all sailed a number of LYMC events before and it was good having them back. Pablo and Darren were new faces and welcome additions.

7, Wullschleger, Sears, 70, 4, 5, 5, 5, 4, 6, 1, 6, 6, T7, 2, 6, 5, 5, 6, T7, T7, 4

An indication of how the competition was in the B division is that every one of the eight sailors won at least one race. As it turns out, CBMRA’s Ernest Freeland won the most races and just nipped Terrance Heyns by a point. Erine, a repeat visitor to LMYC with his wife Amanda, showed great consistency. Terry, a one of two sailors Jamie Grunell brought down from Pilot’s Point, is fairly new to model racing…but you wouldn’t know if from his performance. Terry and his Division B mate Bruno Herregods both hale from South Africa so they, and Bruno’s wife Kate, get to split the award for being the furthest from home and still able to sail. (Watch Darren challenge that Australia is actually further away!) Riverside, CT’s John Shinto was back for his second LMYC event and finished third with three bullets followed by LMYCs Bizzy Monte Sano.

Yes, another aside: Saturday afternoon, during one of the final races of the day, Bruno and Bizzy got tied-up a few times on the course. Bruno, the burdened boat, received his admonishments from the judges (and other sailors) and went about his business. Now, the next morning, rather than grumbling at each other, Bruno and Bizzy were acting like brothers, laughing and joking like lifelong friends. It is either another example of how sailing creates new friendships…or that Bizzy is too old to remember he never had met Bruno before!!! J

1, Freeland, Ernest, 39, T6, T5, 4, 3, 2, 4, 3, 4, 2, 1, 5, 1, 1, 4, 2, T7, 2, 1

2, Heyns, Terrance , 40, 4, 3, 3, 2, 3, 2, T9, 2, T7, 3, 6, 4, 2, T9, 1, 1, 1, 3

4, Monte Sano, Bizzy, 58, 2, 1, 7, 4, 6, 6, 4, T7, 1, 5, 4, 2, 4, 5, T9, 2, T7, 5

8, Herregods, Bruno , 78, 1, 6, T8, 7, 5, 7, 7, 5, 5, 6, 7, T8, T8, 2, 4, 4, 6, 6

Division A is where they were sailing for all the marbles. These are the guys who finished in the top four of their divisions both the Preliminary and Qualifying rounds. In this crew you have Big Dawg Ramos, past National Champ, CR-914 Distributor and one heck of a fast sailor. You also have Team Lewmar’s Chuck Luscomb, back for his second visit to LMYC and the one whose boat speed clearly indicated that he has been spending WAY too much time fooling around with models for someone who makes a living selling yacht winches that weigh more than all the fleet’s boats combined. Graham Elliott, hailing from Manchester, England via Texas (can’t these guys stay at home?) had a good-looking yellow boat with just as good-looking speed. MM3M’s Dick Martin had proven he’s no slouch and LYC kid-grown-up, Brian Jobson, was back to show he still knows his way around the Larchmont Harbor. And that’s not to mention LMYC’s Hank Buchanan and Eric Olsson who have proven they are good competitors over the long haul. Oh, yeah, last, but not least, Geoff Becker, a college sailing coach from Maryland who has been hanging out at Big Dawg’s operation in Annapolis. Boy, this writer was really relieved to have made it safely into the B division.

When the dust cleared, it was Geoff Becker who ruled the Regatta. With eight bullets in 16 races he was consistently in the top four. (I guess he had some kind of a brain freeze in race 6 or he was thinking of his wife Laura and young son on short messing with his tool box or something.) Geoff finished with 28 points, a boot load ahead of Dave Ramos who sailed a pretty smart regatta himself. Dave, always glad to have you and thanks again for grilling for us. In third, Graham Elliott, a fine competitor and great new friend, who certainly made a positive statement at his first trip to Larchmont.

What, another aside? Graham made one comment that struck home for all our volunteers. He had read reports of previous LMYC regattas and, as they tend to be a bit over the top, expected a lot…but what he found far exceeded his expectations. Graham, come back again soon.

5, Luscomb, Charles, 67, 4, 4, 5, 2, 3, 1, 7, 7, 6, T8, 1, 5, 7, 7, 1, T8, 7, T8

Sailing concluded about 1:00 Sunday afternoon as the sun finally had warmed things up. But the Chili buffet that met everyone, alongside the Saranac keg, put a smile on all faces. The prize table was set and Penny Langone’s Gifted has again exceeded all expectations with the array of silver to be presented. The top three finishers of Divisions B, C and D each received silver brandy snifters…the top placers also receiving a case of Saranac Pale Ale. The top three finishers in the Championship A division received Champaign coolers and rather natty green Saranac bomber jackets…sorta like winning the Masters in that other sport.

As noted earlier, Class Secretary Chuck Winder had to miss the event, but before the awards were presented, a cell phone suddenly appeared and everyone was able to personally pass along their regards to the Chuckster. We’ll get him back next time.

So much for the sailing report. Now two other important notes. First, everyone who sailed in the regatta expressed a huge note of thanks to the 28 volunteers who gave of their time to run the event. From the registration desk, to the scoring, the race committees, the launch / crash boat teams, and the superb on-dock judging. What a crew. And that’s not to overlook the Club staff of Assistant Manager Marty DeRose, Waterfront Manager Scott Seaver and Chef Robert who all went above and beyond to make sure the event ran smoothly and optimized its fun quotient. Who were all these volunteers, you ask?