Thistle East Coast Fall Series

NYACK Regatta

Full results

The air was crisp. The wind was brisk. 18 boats made the treck over to Nyack for the new timeslot of the Lo-Gerfo memorial. I think the long distance award went to Craig Koschalk who drove in from the midwest to sail with Joe McCorkell. The forecast was for a honking good time but the RC went out in the boat and said it wasn't that bad so out we went. We put the boat in and hoisted the main in a light westerly - parallel to the dock. Just when we were about to shove off - wham - nasty puff from the north - against the dock. The main fills, the boat sails forward, snags the mainsheet on a dock cleat, and starts taking water over the lee side. We dropped the main. Having gotten our minor drama out of the way, we sailed out under jib to see John Baker sailing back towards the dock with the jib down, three on the rail, and the main ragged. "It's too much - we're headed back". This from the great and powerful John Baker. We continued anyway. As we got clear of the mooring field we got a good look at the fleet. They were headed back too. We threw in a gybe and headed back, still under jib, and moving quite well. The forecast was for more wind, so they wisely cancelled for the day. Joe McCorkell had broken his diamond wire in the brief sail, and his mast wasn't looking good. It was still in one piece, but it had a bit of a kink in it.

Back at Midwinters last year, Doug Laber had approached me about a plan to develop a standard #2 main for the class. His idea was that if we could agree on a standard cut, folks could cut down their old mains and we would start to build up a critical mass of people with the new smaller sail for heavy air. Once critical mass is reached, a proposal could be made to the class to make the smaller main legit, and the race commitee could require that it be used if the conditions warranted it. It only takes about $100 or so to cut down an old main to the new spec. But I digress...

So back at Midwinters Doug had handed me a demonstrator version of this proposed #2 main. Seeing as it was blowing well over 30, and John Power wanted to go sailing, we decided to try it out on his boat because it's fiberglass and self-rescues better. Ted Burger, a young guy from CPYC, hopped in the boat with us and off we went. The boat was still lively. We had some incredible screaming planes. We could still go upwind despite the weather. The helm was balanced. There was another Thistle that came out with a Snipe main. It was about half the size of our cut-down. It looked like we were having far more fun, and we sailed right by. We managed to resist the urge to pop the chute, and the only time water came over the rail was when a killer puff hit and John refused to put down his beer. The fact that we had about 650 lbs on the rail probably made things a little easier.

Back on shore we had a delicious BBQ dinner. As we were all chewing, George Little came in and introduced our unscheduled entertainment for the evening, The Label Reader. Folks selected some objects, and he read the labels in a most unusual manner, with extra emphasis added. John Power asked if he would read one of the labels on his clothing, and the response was very enthusiastic. I've never seen John run so fast. Everyone thought the guy was a friend of George's but it turns out George had only met him moments before at the keg, when the fellow had asked for an introduction so he could do his schtick, as he wasn't comfortable performing in front of strangers without one.

Having gotten the evening off to such a rollicking start, we set off for the Hill of Booze. There was an initial stop at OD's, where Marseli distinguished himself as only he can. Then we went to some new bar that had a nice mahogany decor and lots of fresh meat. Then an excellent Jazz bar. Some folks made it further, but that was it for me.

The next day we were all ready to go, but the wind wasn't. Having been thoroughly sold the day before, I ordered my own version of the cut down main so I could pass the demonstrator on to other curious folks. We drifted out, and the current began taking us to Albany. The chase boats came and rounded people up and towed them to near the commitee to wait for wind. A light southerly came, and the race was on. We pulled the trigger late, and starved for air. It was a twice around, and the current was ripping, so the plan was pretty easy - stay right upwind, go out into the river down. Everybody figured it out. Bill Wilson took the bullet, followed by Tom Lawton and John Baker.

The waiting had run out the clock, so we all sailed in and packed up. The trophies were awarded, and we were away.

We, at North Sails One design,
are proud to support the 2006 Thistle ECFS !

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