2015 DN EASTERNS REPORT AND RESULTS
Photo credit Doug Raymond
Ok Folks, the regatta is in the books and it was a beauty! Big ice, big breeze, and a big fleet all combined to make this the best Easterns in quite awhile. At one point I counted at least two dozen boats on the line- easily the best turnout we’ve had in ages. So a big round of applause to all who showed up! We had a lot of familiar faces, some returning class veterans and some new racers in the group as well- Well done to these guys for jumping in at the deep end-
It’s kind of a blur but I’ll do my best here….
The place was Shelburne, VT- found and scouted with great expertise and detail by the one and only Paul Gervais and his loyal dog Sailor, the biggest, coolest lab ever. Thanks to Paul for that and for not going ballistic the next day when the authorities told him that Sailor couldn’t hang out at the launch site. The ice had a bit of texture due to late season weather stuff but was safe enough once you crossed a pretty impressive pressure ridge. No planks needed, a good omen.
Yes, we had breeze- plenty, easily into the 20+ knot range. The first race brought some drama as there was one pirouette executed by Jack Goritsky that left him with a bloody nose and a bruised arm. His rig was temporarily fixed with a pair of Vise-Grips that he keeps in his boat and he was good to go-
Ron Bouchard and Andre Baby, along with John Zimmerman later in the day ran races and kept score- The flags are stranded in the back of Steve Madden’s car so we used a genuine burlap sack donated by Chris Miller for a checkered flag. Possibly the first DN racing in history that can call lap three the “burlap lap”.
Anyway the racing was fast and furious- Jim Hadley is getting back into DN racing after a hectic few years of hurricanes and fatherhood- hasn’t slowed him down a bit as he was fast and fearless in the breeze as ever! Great to see him back on the course. He and your author had several close races- as I said at the time we passed the lead back and forth like a doobie at a Grateful Dead concert!
Not a day for the faint of heart or people with any degree of common sense so a few sailors decided to err on the side of caution and keep boats and bodies intact for Sunday.
When the dust settled and the seventh- yes the seventh!- race was done we had the luxury of getting the scores done from a world away- Loretta Rehe and Deb Whitehorse are out in the
Nevada desert near Vegas scoring a land sailing regatta and said to send photos of the score sheets and they would do the tally- Have to love A) them for making the offer and B) smart-phones for making this possible. How these two could possibly be bored enough in Vegas to do this is beyond me (pretty much everything short of outright murder is legal there) but we are very grateful that they took a break from gambling and God knows what other distractions that town has to offer to let us know what happened with our little regatta on the other side of the continent…. Thanks ladies! Hope you are staying more or less out of trouble….
Speaking of results….
Not yet. Also have to thank Eben Whitcomb and Chad Atkins for motivating this one- they sorted the bulk of the details along with a slew of people too numerous to list here- you know who you are and thanks one and all!
-NEIYA Vice Commodore John Stanton finished enough races to take 14th before his boat decided to race off without him- apparently it jumped the pressure ridge with no problem and ended up basically in the woods miles away- not bad! Of course this begged the question of whether or not his boat was faster with him not actually in it…
-Chris MAyer (US 4596) was just ahead in lucky 13th
-John Millbank and Fred Steinbaum took 12th and 11th (close regatta, only a few points apart)
-Warren Nethercote showed serious cajones for a lightweight and took tenth-
-Chris Miller showed up in a slick new CSI boat and got dialed in enough to take 9th- watch out for this guy over the next few seasons, he’s gonna be going real fast real soon- as soon as he gets his chocks glued back on!
-Joe Meade sailed well to take 8th- he’s a big guy and I’m sure this didn’t hurt this day! HE had a Go-Pro camera rigged up, hope to see some footage from that bad-boy soon-
-Peter Van Rossem was 7th- he was top Canuck sailing an Atkins-built hull he picked up a few years ago- he’s another one getting faster and faster-
-Don Brush used his experience and guile to take 6th-
-Guy Lovejoy is returning to the class and I guess his practicing with Joe Meade is paying off as he won the tiebreaker with Don to take 5th spot-
-Chad Atkins hasn’t been able to sail much this season but ripped up the course in his very nice new home built boat and took fourth.
-Eric Anderson was a red blur as he was able to edge out Atkins for third-
-Jim Hadley pushed hard and as I said earlier he was fast and fearless as ever- he is going to be back to his old form next year and will be on the podium a lot- great to see him back- He has a tuna stickers on his boat and having him on your tail makes you feel like a baitfish!
-Your author finally listened to a bunch of experts (including three -yes, three- World DN Champs) who have been telling me for years that my boat is set up too stiff- so I set it up for a more user-friendly mode and it worked well enough to get out front- lots of close finishes and an awesome day had by all I think! Complete results below-
2015 Eastern Regional Championship - March 28 - 29, 2015 Lake Champlain Shelburne, Vermont Gold fleet -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Pos Sail# Name Race> 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Points -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 US 5224 THIELER, JAMES 1 1 ( 1) 1 1 1 1 6.00 2 US 1188 Hadley, James 2 2 2 2 2 2 ( 4) 12.00 3 US 5193 ANDERSON, ERIC 4 4 (DNS) 3 3 3 2 19.00 4 US 4487 ATKINS, CHAD (DNS) 3 3 4 4 4 5 23.00 5 US 4638 LOVEJOY, GUY 5 ( 10) 4 5 5 6 8 33.00 6 US 4009 BRUSH, DON (M) 3 6 5 6 6 ( 7) 7 33.00 7 KC 2766 Van Rossem, Peter (S) 7 5 7 8 ( 8) 5 3 35.00 8 US 637 Meade, Joe 6 8 6 7 7 ( 9) 6 40.00 9 US 5415 Miller, Chris 8 7 8 10 ( 10) 8 10 51.00 10 KC 3786 NETHERCOTE, Warren 9 9 9 9 9 ( 10) 9 54.00 11 US 5512 Steinbaum, Fred 11 12 11 12 13 12 (DNS) 71.00 12 US 4110 Millbank, John 10 11 10 11 11 (DNS) DNS 74.00 13 US 4596 Doe, John DNF 13 (DNS) 14 12 11 DNS 92.00 14 US 5023 Stanton, John (DNS) 14 12 13 14 DNS DNS 95.00 15T US 5482 Merrill, Doug DNS DNS (DNS) DNS DNS DNS DNS 126.00 16T US 5476 Haag, Robert DNS DNS (DNS) DNS DNS DNS DNS 126.00 17T US 4272 RAYMOND, DOUG DNS DNS (DNS) DNS DNS DNS DNS 126.00 18T US 5478 Goritski, Jack DNS DNS (DNS) DNS DNS DNS DNS 126.00 19T US 4626 GERVAIS, PAUL (S) DNS DNS (DNS) DNS DNS DNS DNS 126.00 20T KC 4360 BABY, ANDRE (GM) DNS DNS (DNS) DNS DNS DNS DNS 126.00 Scoring system: IDNIYRA Worlds
The post race party started at Buono’s, a good Italian joint across the street- the party raged into the wee hours and may or may not have involved excessive drinking, certain illicit chemicals, one fight, and some very nice women who were either local pros or waitresses with really terrific attitudes. The cops were also very professional and everyone was bailed out by morning.
Aw, who the hell am I kidding? Dinner was great and I don’t think anyone stayed up beyond about 9:30 and the drugs of choice were one or two beers and/or Advil. We were a tired crew!
Thanks to all for making the trip- great to see everyone! New England report tomorrow- Thanks to Doug Raymond for the photos-
T
New England Ice Yacht Association 