Fleet 1 Captain Kevin Keogh and Dave, SCYC Director of Sailing

Welcome Reception at SCYC

SCYC owned Harbor 20 to be used by Fleet 1 docked in the Windmill Harbour

Friday, March 26, 2011

Hilton Head, South Carolina

The Harbor 20 Fleet 3, based at the South Carolina Yacht Club in Hilton Head, welcomes the Fleet 1 delegation for the Annual East / West Challenge:  A 2-day team low-point regatta. Sailors will be awarded points based on their finishing position (eg: 1 point for first, 2 points for second, etc…) and the team with the lowest total points after the two days of racing, wins.  The winner becomes the recipient of the East/West Challenge perpetual trophy currently held by Fleet 1.

Friday night, the Yacht Club and Fleet 3 hosted a welcome reception including cocktails and appetizers followed by dinner in the club’s restaurant.

On Saturday, the racing begins with an anticipated 4-5 races on a windward/leeward course. The weather is forecast as 75 degrees with winds from the S to SSE at 10-12 mph. Sunday’s forecast is for 77 degrees, partly cloudy with chance of thunderstorms and winds at 10 to 20 mph.

Feet 3 sailors have opened their homes to the Fleet 1 sailors while the Club has put together a social, eating, drinking and sailing schedule to fill up the weekend.

East Coast Sailors are: Gary Gleason, Marvin Carlson, Joe Highsmith, Domenico DeSole, Tommy Webster, Ned Nielsen, Paul Miller and John Rumsey.

West Coast Sailors are: Terry Gleoge, Bryon Capps, Peter Haynes, Nik Froehlich, Rolly Pulaski, Ann Donat, Ed Kimble, Anne Kimble.

Race Committee is: Kevin Keogh (Fleet 3 Capitan), David Wilson, Muffy Schulze, Rick Schulze, Bob DeVeer.

Saturday, March 19, 2011, Bahia-Corinthian Yacht Club

Twenty-two Harbor 20’s participated in the 2011 Lorin Weiss Memorial Regatta #1, hosted by the Bahia-Corinthian Yacht Club. A total of 10 races were started (5 for the A fleet and 5 for the B fleet) with shifty winds at about 8 knots (11 knot gusts) for the first couple of races. After a short lull, the wind picked up to about 11 knots (with 14 knot gusts) for the last couple of races.

After the race, awards were given to the winners of both fleets, and snacks provided by the BCYC. Race results can be viewed here.

Fleet A Winners 1st Place: Bill Menninger 2nd Place: Tom Schock 3rd Place: Karl Pomeroy

Fleet B Winners 1st Place: Guy Doran 2nd Place: Gale Pinckney 3rd Place: Lee Sutherland

Daylight Savings Time started Sunday, March 13, and Balboa Yacht Club is kicking off our evening sailing this year early with the introduction of the Harbor 20 Spring Series.

This informal series starts next Wednesday, March 16 at 5:30 PM.The start will be in the vicinity of “M” and “N” marks in the main channel.

Many thanks to Len Bose, author of “The Harbor Report” columns in the Daily Pilot for instigating this activity!

There is no cost, and you can register online here, which will help BYC know how many boats to expect.

There will probably not be a Notice of Race or Sailing Instructions, as the idea is to keep this really informal and fun. Be there, and get a jump on 2011 evening racing!

This past weekend, NHYC held the annual W.D. Schock Memorial Regatta. The regatta includes one-design racing for Lehman 12 (A and B Fleets), Lido 14 (A and B Fleets), Harbor 20 (A and B Fleets), and Harbor 25 boats on two consecutive days (Saturday & Sunday) in March each year.

Naturally, we were blessed with great spring type weather (about 70 degrees on Saturday and 66 on Sunday) with sufficient winds on both days to complete 7 races for the Harbor 20’s. The A Fleet had 12 participants while the B Fleet had a record 18 participants for a total of 30 Harbor 20’s and 14 races over the two-day event, which included a buffet dinner on Saturday night.

A first for the Fleet, Newport Harbor Yacht Club provided each boat with a transponder so that their track over the coarse was recorded and could be watched live, or played back to review the race. Below is a clip of Fleet A, Race 1.

The full race can be viewed on on Kattack.com.  Results of the regatta can be downloaded from the NYHC Website, here.

The Winners were: (all of us, for a great weekend!!). But really, the winners are:

A Fleet:

1st Place: Skipper Terry Gloege and Crew Byron Capps

2nd Place: Skipper Tom Schock and Crew Jane Schock

3rd Place: Skipper Bob Yates

Terry Gloege, Tom Schock, Betty Schock, Byron Capps (photo courtesy of Bob Yates)

B Fleet:

1st Place: Skipper Walter Johnson and Crew Karen Pierce  (promoted to A Fleet for winning a 2-day regatta)

2nd Place: Skipper Helen Duncan and Crew Audrey Nye

3rd Place: Skipper Jack Cannon and Crew Phil Crosby

Tom Schock, Betty Schock, Walter Johnson, Karen Pierce (photo courtesy of Bob Yates)

We asked Emile Pilafidis, #209, who recently qualified for A Fleet and experienced his first A Fleet regatta, to share a bit about his experience sailing in the A Fleet for the first time:

I advanced to A from B with my results in the Midwinter Regatta in February; ended with a first place finish in Bs, a result I hadn’t expected!  I got a number of lucky breaks during that regatta, and at the end I was on top by one point over a three–way tie for 2^nd-4^th, and by two points over 5^th!  So close!

Needless to say, my expectations for the Schock Regatta this past weekend, against other As, were minimal!  But I did agree on an objective with my crew, Alice, that it would be great not to be in last place for the regatta!

So with no pressure and no expectations, we began the regatta, with one core strategy, namely, to try and follow Tom Schock!  As it turned out Tom got tangled up at the start of the first race, and I had to quickly decide to follow other boats!   The strategy worked better in the second race, and after the first two races in light air, I found myself in sixth place out of twelve boats!  This of course didn’t last long, since we came 12^th and 10^th the next two races, despite having sailed without making any major mistakes.  We just were not as good at the start or as fast as the others.   At the end of Saturday, after four races, we were next to last, but only a couple of points behind three other boats, and feeling quite ok!

On Sunday we realized there would be a throw out race which sounded like a plus for us, and started with the same plan in mind!  Yet we quickly realized that Tom was the wrong target, since he got so far ahead winning races 5 and 6!  We tried to sail close to others, but ended with an 11^th and a 10^th.  At the final race, we crossed the start line in decent order, continued on starboard tack to near the C mark, tacked twice, reached the mark in the first group of boats, and followed Tom and Terry Gloege all the way to the D mark, while noticing Bob Yates and Nick Froehlich sailing slightly faster on the right side of the course.  At the finish line we ended behind all of them in fifth place, yet with our best result of the two days.  Later we found out that we had finished 10^th overall, and were thrilled!

Reflecting on the experience, my take-aways are that is good to have a plan but need to be very flexible, that is crucial not to make major mistakes in the course chosen, and that it is so much more fun to sail in the middle of the fleet or higher and not way in the back!

Oh yes, and that it will be a great learning experience and a lot of fun racing with As!

So we intend to enjoy our year as As, and hope to get lucky again at just the right time so we can extend our stay!

Emile Pilafidis, Party Globe # 209

The Harbor20 Association would like to thank the NHYC for hosting the event, and specifically to Jennifer Lancaster, Charlie Underwood and all the Race Committee volunteers for hosting an excellent W.D. Schock Memorial Regatta again this year!

If you are registered to race in the W.D. Schock Regatta this weekend, please note: There is a mandatory check in from 8:30 am until 10:45am followed by a mandatory Skipper check in at 11am.

The first warning is schedule at 12:00pm

At the check in, all race participants will be issued a transponder to carry on their vessel which will record their track in real time which spectators will be able to watch on a monitor in the club! This transponder will track the actual course taken by each vessel as they race the course allowing spectators to watch the action as it happens.  Each vessels track will be identified by their sail number as they move up and down the course against the competitors.

After the race, the entire races will be replayed so competitors can analyze their strategy and tactics – and eventual results.

Please make sure you arrive at the NHYC prior to the mandatory 10:45am check in to receive your vessel transponder.

The NOR’s, Entry and other information can be found here

This weekend, the Newport Harbor Yacht Club will host the annual W.D. Schock Memorial Regatta. The Regatta  includes one-design racing open to Lehman 12, Lido 14 (A and B Fleets), Harbor 20 (A and B Fleets), Harbor 25, Schock 35, and Santana 20 boats on two consecutive days (Saturday & Sunday).

Entry is available online here. No entries will be accepted after 1800 on March 4, 2011 (Friday).

More information and all racing documents can be found on this website here, or on the NHYC Website.

Harbor 20 A & B Fleet Winners

Congratulations to Bill Menninger and Emile Pilafidis for winning the Harbor 20 A and B Fleet SCYA Midwinters held on February 19th and 20th.

Bill Menninger was awarded the Phillip S. Ramser Perpetual Trophy while Emile Pilafidis was promoted to the A Fleet for winning a two-day High Point event.

The full results of the race can be viewed on the Harbor 20 website on the Results page or downloaded from the BCYC Results Page

Thank you to the Bahia-Corinthian Yacht Club for hosting the Midwinters for the Harbor 20’s and a special thanks to the BCYC Race Committee.