by Mark Kondracky
The New Haven Yacht Club hosted the thirty-seventh Mayor's Cup. Thirty boats came out to try to win the cup but even more was at stake. This was the cut off date to qualify for the Lloyd Phoenix Championship. This year the championship will be held in California and our Area B will have one representative. While the entry will be chosen from the two yra's from Area B by resume, ECSA will submit it's candidate based upon the point total up to August 8. Last year's representative was Secret. owned by Bruce Kuryla. He is a contender again this year (see previous article). With a victory in the Windjammer's overnight among others, Dr. Evil, owned by Tom Treat is also in the running. Rumor has it that the winner of today's event would garner the most points and be ECSA's candidate. With high stakes, these two boats came out to settle the score.
Conditions were perfect with a building southwesterly at the 11:00am first warning. The course was a long beat out to Round Pond off of Milford, followed by a spinnaker reach to the middle breakwater and then a run down to the starting pin. After rounding the start pin to starboard (as clearly stated in the sailing instructions) it was a short beat back out to the NH buoy and then a run to the finish. At the start Secret started near the pin on port, but soon tacked to starboard as did most of the class. As the class headed out towards the breakwater the breeze built along with the chop. Skibereen took a hitch over toward the Milford side of New Haven Harbor. At the windward mark, Secret rounded first followed by Maximus and Skibereen. I was aboard Maximus. We had a great set and headed for the middle breakwater. The wind built to over 17 knots and we saw another boat broach. After a jibe, we headed to the starting pin. It was a short beat back up, then a jibe set and headed for the finish.
Meltemi, the eventual class B winner, was headed up wind with a reef. Afterwards Gene Festa, the owner, commented that this was one of his favorite venues. "We finished just before the wind began to die." Many of the boats in Classes B, C and D had to wait for the wind to build to finish. We were keeping time on the other finishers in our class. The corrected results showed that Dr. Evil edged out Secret by one-one-hundredth of a second. With the Lloyd Phoenix on the line it doesn't get any better than that.
Special thanks goes out to Wayne Feenton for organizing the event. Also to Frank Pannenborg and Dave Stern on Avocet for volunteering. Liquid refreshments and platters of food were served by Dave and Jen Brinley. Great job.
1. Dr. Evil
2. Secret
3. Dragonfly
4. Maximus
5. Skibereen
6. Dilemma
7. XSNRG
8. Orca (retired)
1. Meltemi
2. More Magic
3. Defiant
4. Banshee
5. Intrepid
1. Savage
2. En Charette
3. Wasabi
4. One up
5. Kari
6. SPQR
1. Park Place
2. Golden Rule
3. Esperance
4. Anneliese
5. Zephyrrr
6. Bruja (retired)
1. Firefly
2. Leda
3. Newfie Bullet
4. Sounder DNF
