Star Fall Regatta Report

Fall Regatta Results

We did our fall regatta a bit differently this year just to change things up. All those that wanted to participate were given a teammate based on their place in the Season Championship scoring. The competitors were placed in two fleets based on their finish place with the higher placing boats in A Fleet and the lower in B Fleet. The boats were then paired into a team with one from the A Fleet and one from the B fleet with the highest placing A Fleet member paired with the lowest placing B fleet member, etc. The score for the regatta was the total score of A+B. Awards were given to the first place A Fleeter, first place B Fleeter and the first place team of A+B. The awards were coveted five dollar gift cards to West Marine. This was the plan.

Of course the best laid plans never seem to work out as planned, since this type of regatta require folks to tell the organizer if they plan on participating and many don’t seem to realize that they actually have to communicate their plans. Second, it requires those that say they are planning on participating, to actually show up. Early in the week there were going to be 10 boats, 5 teams. As the regatta approached it was down to 8 boats, 4 teams. The night before the regatta is was down to 7 boats, 3.5 teams. The day of the regatta it was down to 6 boats, 3 teams. So, it was a smaller group, but a fun group in the end with very close racing.

As the organizer of such an event you just have to roll with it, as last minute changes to teams are made and people drop out and in. It was decided at the competitors meeting that, since it was a smaller group than planned, there would be one start for both fleets instead of two starts. However, the most important part of the regatta, for which there could be no compromise, was the choosing of a team name. To be eligible you had to have a team name. Although it was a small group of sailors, I must say they were a clever group when it came to team names.

We were able to get in 3 races in a light 2 to 4 knot Northwesterly breeze before the wind shut off at about 1530 as the third race was ending. The racing was close and the course length short. The winning team was Would Win with a team score of 9 points; the Winner of A Fleet was Jeff Causey and Caitlin Coleman-Holder with 5 points; and the winner of B Fleet was Catherine Hovell and Dave Martin with 4 points. Congratulations to Team Would Win for their spectacular results in the final regatta of the year, and a clean sweep of the awards with fabulous prizes. Also, thanks to Alex Bromen and Brandon Raftery for their help with running the races.

Norman Smit, Star 7094, Tantalus