2006 Sweet Corn Regatta
August 5 - 6
Wrightsville PA
by Bob Astrove
and Nabeel Alsalam
There were 17 boats. Winds on Saturday were 5 mph,
which certainly played to the old boat's strength. There were reasonably
long windward / leeward courses with start finish line in the middle. The
first two races were 5 legs and the last 3 were just 3 legs.
Bobby's finishes were 1,5,11,2,2.
Nabeel had 4 good races and one not-so-good one: 2, 2,
1, 14, 3 which gave him 22 points, good for 4th place. Bobby and
Frank Hanson both had 21 points and finished 2, and 3, respectively.
Carol Park sailed great and was the clear winner of the regatta with 13
points -- she had 3 firsts.
The steaks were yummy. The sweet corn was incredible. Two kegs of
Labatts Blue and Yeungling were on tap. A nice singer entertained us.
The air was cool and dry. My crew and I stayed with Scott Imm's
family's beautiful B&B over in Lancaster county. What a treat!
On Sunday we ghosted out 100 yards from the club, floated around for a
couple of hours, went in, and an hour later the race committee
abandoned further racing.
More commentary by the Race Committee:
Seventeen boats turned
out for the eighth running of the SYC Sweetcorn regatta.
We held a Skippers meeting at 10:30 sharp in the
pavilion of the Susquehanna Yacht Club. All the while anxiously and
nervously looking over our shoulders at the river for the assurance of
wind.
The extreme hot weather had broken with the arrival
of a front that moved through the day before leaving a moderate breeze
coming down from over the hills in the NNE by N.
There has been a dearth of wind so this most welcome
breeze seemed promising. It turned out to be an oscillating but steady
northern flow at times reaching ten knots but mostly in the vicinity of
six.
At 11:15 the committee had the marks placed at 3/4
mile intervals, and the first gun went off. John Heffner and his wife
Julie who came from Havre De Grace to be committee warned us to take our
lunches aboard as he would sail us till we ran out of wind. We sailed
five legs on an H course with the start finish line 1/3 of the way up
the windward leg. This gave a chance to all those who had mediocre
starts to claw their way back up into the running.
Bob Astrove from fleet fifty with his son and another
youngster who had never sailed before on a lightning showed us all how
it was done, winning the first race handily in his woody, Hull number
7603. Nabeel Alsalam took the second race, (Oh woe is me, it looked like
the visitors were going to do it again, take the trophy home with them.)
But Carol Park came from not too far behind to rally with three
bullets. Her last start was a picture perfect Port tack over the fleet,
just clearing Jason Werner by two feet. (Way to live dangerously Carol.)
Bob Astrove sailed into second sporting a 1,2,2,5,11;
Frank Hanson took third place honors with a 4,4,3,5,5; and Nabeel
Alsalam had a very good showing w/ a 1,2,2,3,14(ouch),
Thanks go to Bill Remorenko the Regatta
Chairman and his wife inda for producing this fine event. Thanks to
Steve Naudel for the outstanding breakfast fare, as
well as Sue Mikell and Carol Shue for the great steak and corn
roast. Also Gary Hoffer for making the place look so neat and clean,
Gary Babin and the U.S. Coast Guard Auxillary, for acting as crash boats and
last but not least the participants who came to make this all possible.
Here are
the resuts.