Saturday, September 15, 2012

The Harbor Report: It's going to be a great weekend on the water


                                                                 This weekend's Championship Regatta features Harbor 20s Racing at M Mark. 

I cannot explain to you in words how excited and nervous I am about this weekends Club Championships at the Bahia Corinthian Yacht Club. The event will be sailed in Harbor 20’s with the Family division taking to the water on Saturday and the Championships Division sailing on Sunday.



The family division is all about the photo opportunities, encouraging club members to grab mom and dad and go for a sail an spend the day at the yacht club. BCYC members with Harbor 20’s and non members have allowed the club to use their boats for both events. A total of 12 boats will be in the event, with two round robins of 3 races to decide on who will move on to championships.18 teams have entered the family division and will be competing for the new perpetual trophy donated by Pomeroy family. All entries will be receiving a framed photo of their team and one team that shows the most sportsmanship will have a chance to win the prestigious  “Corinthian” medal.  The first flight on Saturday will be starting at 1200 off of M mark and if the weather is permitting will be finishing in front of BCYC with the winner of the race receiving a cannon blast at the finish. If all goes as scheduled the Family Championships should be starting during the 3:00 hour. Looking over the family enter list it appears the family’s to watch for having the “most fun” is to close to call. My guess is that the Foster, Hawkins, Bacon, Mills and Pickell family’s are going to have the largest smiles on their faces.

                                               Championship Division Perpetual Trophy donated by the Madden family

Starting at 1100 Sunday all the smiles will be gone and the 22 teams will have their “game faces” on as the first flight of 12 teams heads out to M Mark for 3 races. The qualifying flights are the hardest part for me. If I can make the cut and make it into the Championships the stress will be lifted and I really wont care how I finish in the Championships, yea right! My mind set at this point is that I know I am going to have a good time because I am sailing with one of my best friends Dan Rossen. Thats right the kids are back in the house, with Dan being “The Problem Child” and me as “Only Child”, these are the names of our boats, we got the “good time’s” already covered. The competition is no push over and the entry list reads like a world championships regatta. One privilege of being our towns harbor columnist is that I am going to throw some bad mojo dust over the fleet by acknowledging the favorites in the paper. In my opinion Mark Gaudio will be the favorite to win Championship Division Perpetual Trophy donated by the Madden family, but he is going to have his hands full with Mike Pinckney, David Levy, Eric Mayol and Erik Shampain all wanting to be the first name on that new perpetual trophy. One of the best parts about sailing in Harbor 20’s is that anyone can win on the right day and some of the Harbor 20’s fleet 1 members will be sailing very consistently like Peter Haynes, Karl Pomeroy, Guy Doran and Jim Kerrigan.  Like I said already, anyone can win this battle, and it would not surprise me if one of the other ten teams, I did not spread any bad mojo dust on, takes home the gold. 



After the races on Sunday, around 6:00 PM, the awards will be handed out, dollar beers will be flowing and all the “only if” stories will start being told by the sailors. Everyone in the harbor is welcome to come down to BCYC and observe the festivities and consider joining “The friendliest club in the harbor”.
Special recognition has to be given to Commodore Tom Madden for chairing this event, Paul DeCapua for leading the race committee and Lori Everson for putting together all the awards. Along with the entire membership of The Bahia Corinthian Yacht Club. This is going to be fun, hope you can come down and check it out.

Sea ya



LEN BOSE is an experienced boater, yacht broker and boating columnist.

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