Thistle East Coast Fall Series

Rochester Regatta

Full results

The schedule was final. Rochester would be the first regatta for the East Coast Fall series. Now, all we needed was crew. Luckily, the week before, Ken Martin sent out an email saying … if anyone wants a big boy to sail with, drop me a line.

Seeing as Ken is an enjoyable guy and an up-and-coming skipper at our club, we said lets show him the joys of the road. A quick email and the deal was done.

The plan was to sneak out of work at 4:50, run up to grand central, catch the 5:17 to Tarrytown where Kimberly and Ken would meet me with boat in tow. We had also kindly offered to provide a ride to the great and powerful, Princesss Sarah Hatsell. It seems that Sarah had earned this title by refusing to sail as a forward unless the shrouds, gratings and 45’s on the boat are padded like Enron’s financials. Even after Scott Latham had offered to prepare the forward area in this manner Sarah had prevailed upon her cohorts and established her rightful place as middle crew and master of her domain. Eric Styan was relegated to the front, and Scott would follow along in the back seat of 1329.

Sarah and I arrived at Tarrytown station at 6:06 and were pleased to see a red vehicle emerging into view from the road to the train station. But, alas, there was no boat behind it and it was not our trusty ride. Then we waited – for Godot. The phone call came: ‘We’re lost”. I replied, “Well, where are you?” Answer: “We don’t know.” My reply “So, how do you expect me to help?” After some additional research, a local map of the area was found, a suitable path into the train station communicated, the location of the vehicle discovered and the rendezvous completed. The great trek North and West began.

We contemplated the forecast. NOAA was saying 0-6 knots from the North. Our all-up weight was 560 lbs. But, we knew that Rochester would provide good hospitality and the trip would be worthwhile regardless. We chatted about the week’s news and stopped for a quick bite at the rest area on 87 North. The fleet split … with Kimberly, Mike and Sarah heading to the Sbarro’s on the right while Ken headed left to Burger King. The Sbarro’s line was lifted and we were quickly through with salads and pasta. Ken seemed to have stepped into the hole from hell with us nearly having completed our meals before he had ‘had it his way’. I understand that there may be a follow-up email and a brief presentation at the next board meeting.

The trek Northward continued. Ken fired up ‘Layer Cake’ on DVD on his laptop. However, the cabin noise as a result of the vehicles’ high speed was more than the tiny speakers on the DVD player could overcome. When subtitles were turned on, the screen went blank (thanks Microsoft). So, the movie was discontinued. Next, we tried a George Carlin CD most of which was humorous. Other parts were stunningly offensive. In the end, we had to resort to conversation and the oldies station (upstate New York reception).

We pulled into Rochester around midnight just as Ken scared us with stories about the faltering Rochester economy and increased gang violence resulting from the Xerox and Kodak layoffs. The news was also hot with the exploits of ‘Bucky’ – the convict that escaped on the 87th day of a 90 day sentence with a can opener. Bucky had been receiving support from various people in the area. We were told that some area restaurants were even offering ‘Bucky Burgers’ – that were only available ‘to go’.

As we pulled off the highway, dropped off the boat and found the hotel, we found the area to be quite nice with modern, up-to-date malls, stores and the club being beautiful and scenic, as expected. There was no evidence at all of the frightful scene Ken had painted.

The weather channel told us that the forecast had been upgraded to 10-15 knots from the North. We rejoiced as these were conditions far more appropriate for our team. After enjoying the continental breakfast at the Holiday Inn Express, made a quick stop at Starbucks so Ken could get a handle on his DT’s, and headed down to the club.

There were 24 boats. There was a possibility of thunderstorms and the races were postponed for a bit. There was a second front that was forecast to come through a few hours after the first. A decision was made to race in the Bay rather than going out to the Lake. After we all caught up on the news with our friends from out of town, it was time to launch.

Rochester only has one hoist. However, the setup is made more efficient by a clever arrangement that allows the hoist to service boats from either side so that while one boat is lifting, the next can be on station preparing to lift and there is no waiting while trailers are yanked in and out, bridles are fumbled with, etc. We paddled over to the docks, locked in the rudder, set the sails, and were away. The wind was from the North West (sort of) and the weather mark was up by the bridge. It was puffy and shifty with holes galore. The wind averaged about 15 knots.

For the first race, we did a port tack approach and found a nice spot a third of the line away from the boat and we were off. Our speed was decent. The boat to weather had a little bit more momentum off the line and footed down on us effectively snuffing our start. We played the lower right and then the upper left. Up at the weather mark, there was a big hole on the starboard layline. The trick was figuring out what to do with it. We tried coming in to the layline about six lengths from the mark. We tacked to starboard and watched six boats come in on port in front of us before we could close the gap. We then headed downwind and realized that we had not checked the course. Luckily, we had let a number of other boats go ahead at the windward mark to show us the way. We caught a couple and lost a few in the wacky shifts.

For Race #2, the wind had clocked right about 30 degrees putting the mark by the right footing of the bridge. This time as we went up wind, we decided that we would not get caught in the hole again and went left to come in on port tack only to find that the hole was not as deep as it had been previously and allowed a line of five or six boats to come up on starboard – shutting us out. We knew at this point the wind was clocking right and would, on average, continue moving right for the rest of the day. We had continuously seen shifts of up to 45 degrees that lasted up to five minutes – a long enough period of time that we could not simply go right and expect the wind to reward us. Again, the craziness caused us to lose some boats and gain some others as we went around the course. But, we did improve on our position at the first weather mark.

Race #3 saw the RC move the weather mark even more right to under the sand bluff to the right of the bridge. We positioned ourselves for a boat-end start and were able to win the boat for a nice launch. We went left for the pressure as those behind us that had lost out on the start went right for clear air. As we worked up the left hand side, we saw that Baker and Ingham had come off the line at the pin with speed and were the leaders on the left. We worked back right only to find that a righty had come in and all of the fleet that had gone that way at the start had made huge gains relegating us to the middle. As we went around the triangle, we went high on the second leg to keep our air clear. Suddenly, we were slowing unnaturally. We looked over to see the shallow water markers that we had missed previously, then we looked down to realize that the centerboard had not only hit bottom but had been dragged back in the trunk so that the rollers were all the way back, but the board was up as far as it could go. The board could not be fully retracted in this position. How to get out of this? Luckily, the soft bottom combined with the judicious application of brute force allowed us to move the rollers back forward to their proper position, retract the CB fully, and escape. Unfortunately, we lost several boats during the episode.

In Race #4, the pressure was maintaining or building and many teams were getting tired from hiking in and out in the puffy 18-knot wind. We played the hole at the weather mark better this time by coming in on port and hitting the mark before the crowd arrived. We spun our 360 in the middle of the crowd and then proceeded to chase the fleet around the course. Then we headed in for the day. Ingham was in the lead with 3 bullets and a 4th. The usual Niagara Frontier suspects were in hot pursuit – Baker, Kaukeinen, Wilson, Gesner but not necessarily in that order.

Dinner was a delicious Brazilian basted turkey barbeque, sweet and juicy corn on the cob, boiled potatoes in butter, and excellent veggie lasagna. The wood stove gave the air a sweet aroma of an era gone by, but the ice cream bars for desert were decidedly modern. Dave Foster put the New York Dolls on the sound system, and turned it up so all could hear. After a few songs, Jim Tompkins turned it down a bit, so that all could hear. After a few more songs, Dave turned it up again. The kids had a nice bonfire going down on the beach. Jim and Pat Tompkins had us all jealous with tales of their upcoming African safari. The race committee told us after beers and cocktails that their goal for the day had been to “bring us to our knees”, and judging by some of the competitors, their efforts had not gone unrewarded. We headed back to the hotel after being admonished that next year the hotel would not be required as we had friends to stay with.

In the morning, we heard that Bucky had been caught. He had finally run out of places to hide and turned himself in. The weather was again forecast to be light, but by morning it had been upgraded to 10 to 15 from the north. We delayed half an hour on-shore while we waited for the wind to make it from the lake to the bay. The big bluffs on the northeast shore tumbled the wind as they did the day before, so the puffs and shifts were still there, but the pressure was less than the day before, so there were more holes, and bigger. The RC tried to start a race, but the wind shifted left to where we could barely lay the pin. Then a puff came and half the fleet was over. A general recall. There were a few more generals, and then things steadied out. The pin was still favored, and it was clear there would be a crowd, but we felt it would be worth it. We narrowly escaped some light and incidental contact, and were off. The left looked good, but we got knocked as we tried to come back to the rhumb line. So we went back left. And then tried to come right again. There was no avoiding it – the port tack was awful. As we approached the weather mark we saw a pile-up developing. We went a little high and made it around without incident. The randomness continued. It rewarded gear shifting and boat handling, and straight-line speed was of very little value. We held our position until the last leeward mark, but the fleet was compressing behind us. On the final beat we went right until we fell behind a pincher. As we came back left, a whole bunch of folks crossed that had been behind. The left had paid.

There was one more race. We came across on port looking for a hole. There weren’t any. The gun went off, and we were 2nd row. We tacked under the least dense spot to avoid the other 2nd –row starters and made our way up the course. We went left for a ways, then as the fleet started going right, we stayed in phase. We had a decent rounding, and a very nice run where we caught a few folks by going course right. There was bit of a pileup at the leeward mark, but we escaped. The rest of the race was similar – the shifts were huge, the differences in angles were huge, and somehow the fleet stayed tight except for a few folks who managed to escape to the front.

Back onshore we pulled our boats and packed up for the trek home. There was a great lunch with leftover veggie lasagna, make your own sandwiches, and soup. Bobby Bryant got a piece of lasagna for himself and one for Linda. She already had one. He had to eat the second piece himself but didn’t seem to feel bad about it. Bill Wilson told us a story about the importance of attitude and perseverance while racing. Some years ago he and Baker were chasing down another competitor during a race in blustery conditions. As the other competitor increased their lead to almost a full leg of the course, Bill’s crew began to shut down. “What’s the point – we’ll never catch them”. “You never know what could happen”, says Bill. “They could break their mast or something”. Just then, the lead boat’s mast collapsed. “Wow!” Said the crew. “How did you do that?” Then, after contemplation “…Can you do that to Baker too”?

So if this story is any indication we have a Jedi in the class, and a princess. From earlier episodes we know who Yoda and Luke Skywalker are. The obvious next question is – who are the other characters? Han Solo and the Wookie are still up for grabs!

I hate it when folks don’t stay for the awards, but there were a handful of protests and we had hours to go before we slept, so we snuck out. The ride home was thankfully uneventful, other than the fact that Ken had some cool electronics that allowed us to write large portions of this article in the car. All in all, a great weekend and a great regatta. Many of the folks told me they were psyched to be part of the East Coast Fall Series and were planning to come down and join us for some more sailing, so keep your eyes open for some Niagara Frontier hotshots. I don’t have the results as of this writing, but they should follow shortly.

Next weekend is Sayville. Bring your lawn games! The forecast is for a classic Sayville sea breeze. What could be better?

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

For more information on Thistle sails, contact the North Thistle experts.