Larchmont
Spring Invitational Regatta
Annual Regatta
featuring team and individual competition - April 15 & 16
As Reported by Buttons Padin
In 1995, model
boat racing returned to Larchmont Yacht Club after
an
absence of, oh,
perhaps, sixty-five years. That
following Spring
(1996), Larchmont Model
Yacht Club was reorganized and the first Spring Invitational
Regatta was held. Twelve boats
competed off the
front dock and, as history
reports, a good time was had by all.
Over the next
four years, both the LMYC and its Spring
Invitational Regatta have grown to
become integral parts of the U.S. CR-914 class.
This year, 35 sailors
congregated for two days of racing in Larchmont Harbor
to determine this
year’s Champion. It is at the
Spring Invitational
that the LMYC Challenge
Trophy is also competed for. The
following
highlights the various elements
of the event that have come to make this one of the premiere model
sailing events of the year.
II.
The Competition
As in past LMYC
regattas, the racing was divided into two
separate series: the
qualification series on day one, and the Championship
series on day two.
Upon check-in, competitors were assigned to divisions for
Saturday’s racing with each
of the four divisions comprised of sailors of all
levels.
Saturday’s
sailing started right on time with the LYC cannon
reporting the harbor start.
Racing was conducted on pairs of docks moored in
the harbor with circles of
marks surrounding each. Launches
ferried each
division (8 - 10 boats each)
to and from the docks for each heat.
With the perfect breeze out of
the east at 5 - 8 knots, each division sailed three
heats totaling
fourteen races.
In the Red
division, Class Secretary and LMYC Commodore
Buttons Padin came out on top just
nipping Essex’s Jamie Grunell and Ernest Freeland.
Blue found Howie
McMichael winning the day with two National Champs
Dave Ramos and Kevin Dooley
close behind. Tim Magnus, Jim Thompson and
Jose Venegas won the Green
division after a hard fought series. White saw Dave
Van Cleef make a
horizon job of the division with Biff (I’m still not
wearing socks) Martin
nipping Hank Buchanan by one point. Full scores are
at the end of the
report.
Conditions were
near ideal for CR-914 racing. With
enough wind to
get the boats moving
without being overpowered, a manageable chop and limited
sea weed in the
water, the conditions allowed a fair test of sailing.
It should also be
noted that the attitude on the docks reflected the
high spirits of the
sailors themselves. For many of the
visiting
sailors, this was their fourth
time sailing at LMYC (including last
November’s Nationals).
Sailing “among friends,” the chat on the docks
demonstrated just how much
fun model boat racing could be. Sea
stories were
constantly being swapped,
psyche-outs were the order of the day and the jovial
manner in which every
racing misstep was noted created a fun atmosphere
for all concerned.
This positive
attitude was also manifested in the fact that no
protests were lodged
either day. Sailors did their
penalty turns with a
minimum of grouching and
the on-the-dock judges quickly resolved any
disagreements..
As such, racing
was optimized and sea lawyering was virtually
nonexistent.
Rob Dailey and
Hans Owen on Saturday and Charlie Ulmer and Bill
Kelly Sunday ably
handled on-dock judging. These four
sailors set
great courses, managed the
overall operations on the racing docks and helped
deliver top-notch model racing.
If Saturday’s
conditions were near ideal, Sunday’s were
nonexistent. Setting out at
9:15 sharp, the second and third divisions needed
two hours to complete a
single heat of six races. Judges
Ulmer and Kelly
were constantly
resetting marks as they and the competitors
battled the wind as it boxed the
compass. For those on the water,
frustration was
the word of the day as those
in first often soon became last. These races
couldn’t be considered true
tests of skill (as is too often the case with any
sailing in extremely
light airs). But, hey, if you want
a sure thing, buy
some tech stocks!!!!!
For those of us
on the shore during this period, it was a rare
sight— literally.
A dense, low fog set in from the east encompassing the breakwater.
As it moved toward the middle of the harbor, it
partially engulfed the
east racing dock. From the shore,
however, you
could see the tops of the
trees on Satin’s Toe? but nothing else. The view was
both breath taking
and eerie.
To add to this
eerie effect, Marblehead’s Tim Sullivan was
overheard telling a fellow
sailor, “I’ve got my pipes in the car.”
Not thinking he was talking
about Prince Albert in the Can, we quickly realized
what Tim meant.
Soon, there was Tim strolling up and down the seawall
literally wailing on his
bagpipes. To say the least, this
wonderful sound
caught the attention of
those on shore as well as a sea. We
chalk that up to
just one more memorable
moment from this regatta.
Finally, about
11:30, with the first heats competed, the fleets
shifted..
The wind had
filled-in a tad but it was still shifty.
Charlie Ulmer, directing the
Championship Division, had Rick Estabrook and
the crash boat working overtime
setting and resetting marks to insure this
division had the best courses
possible. Setting windward/leeward
courses with
offsets, the marks to
starboard separated the men from the boys.
(I haven’t felt so young for
years!) But, like many races
(perhaps not with the
Whitbread), winning the
start is everything. Then, being on
the right side of
some nasty shifts
made-up the other part of the racing tactics as did
avoiding the killer
seaweed. Dave Ramos and Tim Magnus
were unstoppable both
on and off the wind.
Despite some bumps and taps, with all involved during
their turns, Tim came
out on top of Dave by one point after seven
races. Completing the
CBMRA sweep was recent Newport ex-pat Dave Van Cleef.
The second
division fought hard in the light airs and found Kevin
Dooley, recovered from
bad servos on Saturday, taking the top position
followed by Jamie Grunell
and Jose Venegas. This is Jamie’s
third time
sailing with us and the third
time he has finished second in the second division.
Next time, we’ll
just go into the event with his name on the trophy
already.
The third
division was taken by Mr. Vintage Boat, John Snow
followed by Rocco Canpanelli
and Eric Olsson. More on John later; but Ruth
apparently didn’t help
Rocco too much calling the line and Eric had his dad,
Carl, on the radios in
the middle of a start trying to tell him about some
pager message he got.
Eric kept his cool and won the race!
In the fourth
division, Pipes himself, Tim Sullivan, came through for Marblehead
taking first, followed by LMYC’s Paul Tucker, Nick
Langone and Hugh Fletcher.
Hugh was heard at one time saying that if anyone
fouled him on his way to
his bullet in race three, he’d “roll over your
toes!”
In the end, the
Race Committees ran 79 races. By
the time the
Committee hit the shore
Saturday afternoon, they passed right by the beer and
went for the brandy
(yes, Elizabeth, it was a bit nippy out there after
the first three
hours.) Sunday offered its own bag
of headaches in
terms of on and off rain and
just generally unpleasant weather.
As it was, the
Sun finally popped its head out about 1:00 Sunday,
just in time for the
awards ceremony. Silver cups were
awarded to the
top three finishers in
each of the Sunday divisions. In
addition, thanks
to www.eHobbies.com the top three finishers in the
Championship
Division received battery-powered
Dermal tools. Thanks go to John
Sallot at
e-hobbies who arranged for the
Dremels and the great hats, shirts and stuff we all received at
dinner. Again, I encourage you all
to visit www.eHobbies.com
and see some of the
neat modeling stuff they have. Tell
them that John
sent you!
As mentioned
earlier, there was a second competition run
simultaneously Saturday the
racing for the LMYC Challenge Cup.
Five teams
competed: LMYC, MMYC, CBMRA, the
Storm Trysail Club and a renegade team made-up of
solo sailors from
other clubs. In the first year of
competition, the
sponsoring club had its
way. Last year, Marblehead nipped
the others.
This year, in a preview of the
Nationals, CBMRA eat everyone’s lunches and were
cheered to their
victory. In that only the winner
gets bragging rights,
we’ll leave the
embarrassment of reporting the other clubs for another day.
Nice going Ernest,
Big Dog (Dave Ramos), Tim and Dave.
III. Volunteers
Now, with all
the racing and all the moving around, all involved acknowledged
that the Spring Invitational would have been a bust if
we hadn’t had
over twenty volunteers working the event.
When
we all arrived Saturday
morning, Joan Watt, Sara Lynn and Allie Padin greeted us
all with smiles and
information. Pat Guerin ran the
shore side logistics
again (his third time) and
kept everyone on schedule and up to date on the
latest status of
events. Jaye Nashawaty, part of the
Marblehead
contingent whom we have conned
into doing our scoring for us for the last four major regattas, did it
again. When was the last time you
sailed in a
regatta and had the scored
posted five minutes after arriving ashore.
A class act!
On the water,
Ruth Campanelli, Melanie Buenvenue, Betty Guerin,
Miranda Hodgson and,
yes, Uncle Marty Zavell got the races started,
finished, recorded and
reported without a hitch. Bob
Hughes took great
photos despite
Saturday’s lousy conditions. Bob
Purcell, John Irving, and
Rick and Jake
Estabrook manned the crash boat, moving marks and
retrieving those boats that found
out that “wet electronics are not fast
electronics.” And I must reiterate
out thanks to the quartet of judges, Rob
Dailey, Hans Owen, Charlie
Ulmer and Bill Kelly who set the courses and
insured we all minded our P’s
and Q’s while on the course.
After four
events run on outside docks, we have the process down to
a system whereby
we get the max racing with the minimum of fuss.
Now, in addition
to the racing, there were some interesting
shore side activities.
First, thanks to LYC’s chief barman Ricky, our event
was blessed with a
“severe liquor front” blowing through.”
With kegs of Miller Lite and Sierra
Nevada flowing freely (literally) for the
competitors and guests, there
wasn’t a dry whistle in the house (except for Paul
Tucker and Matt DuMoulin
whose mothers would have had our heads if they got into
the sauce).
We also came across a case of Mt. Gay rum, which allowed us
to have near-free
rum drinks at cocktails with the balance serving
as prizes for the Saturday
Divisional Winners. And, yes, we
did find one
extra bottle for Jaye
recognizing her contribution to this, past and
future regattas she has
scored (and will score) on our behalf.
At the Dinner
Saturday, after some pithy remarks leaving no ego
intact and no competitor
unrecognized, and the passing our of the great hats
and t-shirts
eHobbies sent us all, Commodore Buttons Padin announced
the introduction of
two new honorary members to LMYC.
The first was
Ruth Campanelli
(Ruthie to us), who, week after week, acts as our Race Committee.
Without her contributions, our weekly racing would be
far more of a challenge.
The second
honorary membership was bestowed on Penny Langone.
Since the LMYC started
racing five years ago, Penny has work as our
one-person prize patrol providing
trophies and awards that are fit for boats well
over 36” in length.
And she even got husband Nick his new boat which mad
him (and all of us)
happy! Congratulations to both
ladies.
Now Ruth said
the next morning, “I
guess now you ‘own’ us now.” Well,
in reality, you two
both own US!
The final
presentation caught the usually verbose Commodore
speechless. After the
honorary memberships were announced, Nick Langone
presented Buttons Padin a
Greg Worth built half model of Sea Dog, the LMYC
flag ship. The accompanying
plaque indicated that this was in appreciation of
efforts on behalf of the
LMYC, etc. (Editor’s note:
I deeply
appreciate this marvelous gift.
I will treasure it always. Thank
you all for
contributing and to Nick and
Penny for having the model made.)
The final note
of Saturday’s entertainment was a stunning slide presentation by
Marblehead’s John Snow, President of the American
Vintage Model Yacht Group. Over the winter, John
obviously didn’t get out
of the house very much
because he was able to dig-up records of the
original LMYC dating back to
1932. Names like Olin Stephens and
Starling Burgess
were attached to
models our forefathers raced in these very same waters
under the same
moniker. John’s presentation was
enhanced by the marvelous vintage M boats
he and Biff Martin had on display (and
occasionally in the water)
throughout the regatta.
Thanks John
and Bill for sharing the tradition of
this new sport we have grown to love.
One other very
special thing happened. Herb
McCormick,
yachting writer for the NY Times and
Editor of Cruising World, joined us to watch the
sailing Saturday.
Back from watching those “other” races in New Zealand,
Herb foun this
racing had a lot to offer. Herb
wrote a half page
article on the event (including a great pix of the British Bull Dog, Jamie
Grunell from Essex) in the Sunday April 23rd Edition.
His comment to me in
a follow-up conversation
was, "Glad you
liked reading the story as much as I enjoyed writing
it. The Larchmont Model
YC is a refreshing change from the Am Cup and other
stuff I usually cover
and, in many ways, has much more going for it. Anyway,
I had a good time
checking out the regatta and am happy it all worked out.
Hey, I make take you up
on that offer to join in the racing sometime!”
Herb, thanks for
writing about it and thanks for adding to the
overall level of fun on
the docks!
On behalf of the
Larchmont Model Yacht Club and the Larchmont
(non-model) Yacht Club,
thanks to all who contributed their time, enthusiasm
and resources to
once again make the LMYC Spring Invitational a
regatta people will be talking
about for months to come.
One final note,
John Snow has already asked how we intend to
celebrate next year’s 70th
Anniversary of the Larchmont Model Yacht Club.
John, just wait and see!
Sail fast,
Buttons Padin
