March 28
by Mark Kondracky
It was a cold and windy day. To make matters worse there were no little chocolate doughnuts to be had. The reason? Upon arrival to my sisters abode, her pet parrot Echo, escaped when I opened the door. With Echo flying outside along the beach and potentially becoming osprey food, there was no time for her to make any treats for the frostbitters. Claudia sends her apologies. But for a while it looked like no doughnuts would be necessary. When I got to Essex Yacht Club none of the Etchells had been launched. I unloaded the gear from my car but waited for the decision before starting to rig. It didn't look good but as enough people filtered in it looked we had enough boats (foolish people) for a JY class and the lasers. All the JY sailors tightened their rigs, launched and headed out for Fair and Square which was set up closer to the West side of the river. JY Fleet captain Steven Brookes was sailing with a friend new to dinghy racing. Talk about baptizium by fire. The lasers had five boats as well, including Vicky Stump, winner of the fall JY class. Vicky commented that on a day like today, she would have felt more at home on her JY. The wind was blowing out of the Northeast around 22 knots.
In the first (out of 6) JY races the course was B.S. (windward leeward for those of you familiar with the sailing instructions). There was a capzise on the starting line to windward of us which created a bottleneck. Unaffected, by the capsize, we were first at the top mark and went wing on wing for the run down to the leeward mark. A couple of the JY's and a number of the Lasers were unfamiliar with the SI, and sailed through the starting line on the downwind leg, resulting in disqualification. Kevin Gillman won the second race. Before the third race, I sailed by Fair and Square to remind Tom Carse to snap some pictures with a disposable camara I gave him. At the start of the third race Kevin Gillman was to leeward and he pushed me up over the line. So not only was I over early, but Tom had gotten this on film. After racing, Kevin told a funny story of a competitor who responded so slowly to UP UP UP that it was very frustrating. He would say "You....Have.... To ..... Give ....Me..... Room...... and ....Opportunity......."
In the fifth race, we were in second place. We rounded behind Kevin and after a belly busting tacking duel, we came back at Kevin on Starboard. A slight header before the tack gave us the advantage. Kevin couldn't cross and we went on to win. In the Final race we were in a similar position with Bob Bruno. After our final tack, we both headed to the pin with Bob in a lee bow position. If he could make the pin he would win, but he couldn't fetch it nor could he tack to port. He tried to squeeze over the line throwing in
two tacks, but fouled me and hit the pin. After a tough but FUN day of racing we headed in for soup. Steve and Crew had survived without incident. In the Laser fleet, Clinton Hayes (who read the sailing instructions) beat his dad Paul Hayes.
