# 278 SOUTHERN BAY RACING NEWS YOU CAN USE
on Monday December 12, 2005 08:26PM
Mark your January calendar: Get ready to
Sizzle in '06 !
Southern Bay Racing News You Can
Use Racing Rules Seminar - January
28, 2006, Saturday, 0900 - 1500, at Hampton Yacht Club. Fee of
$20 defers cost of materials, refreshments, and
lunch. Seminar presented by John McCarthy. For info or
to register now, contact John or Lin McCarthy at (757)
850-4225. Early registration is strongly advised since seating
is limited.
NEW YEAR'S MADNESS RACE - Sunday, January 1,
2006. Co-sponsored by OPCYC and HYC. If you enter NLT 5 PM
Saturday, December 24, Christmas Eve, you will save $10 on the entry
fee. Start the day with a hot breakfast at HYC (opens at 0900) - breakfast
is available for all at a nominal charge (skipper's breakfast is included
in the entry fee). Mandatory skippers meeting at 1000 at HYC. The race is
a staggered start race, beginning off the HYC docks in Hampton Creek, going
about 6 miles, usually around Hampton Bar, and finishing between the OPCYC pier
and G "3" Phoebus channel. First WARNING is at 1125 with first start
at 1130. Now, here's the really important stuff: the post-race party
starts at the OPCYC clubhouse at 1530 and includes plenty of great
food and drink, such as: hot mulled wine, Irish coffee, incredible hot
chili, black-eyed peas ( a New Year's good luck requirement), cold champagne for
all present and more. For info contact Jeff Rogers at (cell)
449-2931. If your boat is in the water, or you have access to a
boat, for goodness sake, DO THIS RACE. It's a great way for a racer to
start the year!
Southern Bay Race Week T-shirt Design Contest -
deadline is THIS THURSDAY, December 15 - first place
prize in each category is $150 (cool Goslings / Black Seal Cup gear for
first and second place). A hand drawn entry is
fine. Quick - get your idea on paper and turn it in - who
couldn't use $150 at this time of year? And, come June, YOUR T-shirt
design will be sailing all over the Chesapeake Bay and beyond! For info,
contact Leigh Morgan at leigh.morgan2@verizon.net
To Fiddler's Green - Harold "Hal" Sutphen
(1935 - 2005) passed on last week while visiting a close
friend in Hampton. Sailors in the Chesapeake Bay area and far beyond
have known Hal as a naval officer, a sail training skipper, a writer, a
teacher, and in many other capacities. Many will remember him in his role
as a key man in the Caribbean 1500 Cruising Rally and other Cruising Rally
Association events. Hal's special, unquantifiable talent was to
gently calm sailors' fears and apprehension and, by sharing
knowledge, to instill the gift of confidence in each person he
encountered. Hal, along with his wife Helen, made his home on
Virginia's Northern Neck. A memorial service is planned for
3 PM, Thursday, December 15th, at St Andrews Presbyterian Church, Kilmarnock,
Virginia. A reception will follow at the Rappahannock River Yacht Club in
Irvington.
GREMLYN joins the fleet: Greg and Lynda
Cutter have a new boat almost ready to be splashed.
Gremlyn is an Elliott 770, a 25' asymmetric chute rocket, fresh
out of the factory in Georgia. Greg and Lynda towed her home Thanksgiving
weekend, and they and the crew have been putting finishing commissioning touches
on her. Greg says her debut is planned for the New Year's Madness
Race. She will wear the old Gremellyn's sail number, since the
C&C XL30 was crushed beyond repair when she was knocked off her
stand during a severe squall earlier in the year. CBYRA agreed to allowed
the Cutters to keep the number and transfer it to the new boat because the
old boat is fiberglass dust. Yes, the names are spelled slightly
differently. CONGRATULATIONS to the Gremlyn team - nice to
have you back on the course.
Mark your January calendar: Get ready to
Sizzle in '06 !
Key West Race Week - January 16 - 20, 2006.
Remember, Strictly Sail Philadelphia will not
happen in 2006. The show, which used to be in Atlantic
City, and was favored by a lot of southern Bay racers who saw the trip up the
Eastern Shore and across the Delaware Bay (by car and ferry) as a great January
diversion, will run in Philly, January 18-21,
2007.
Last week's mention of the Winch Buddy@ winch
turner sparked reader interest in racing gear developments. Here's another
piece of gear that may bring some squawks from other quarters. Good
and dependable Windex@ now offers an option that has a "bird-proof
" spike on the top. Designers may be operating on the same theory
as those colonials who spiked Blackbeard's head on a pole
to discourage pirate attacks. Surely an impaled gull at the top of
your mast will discourage others, but it does seem to be a severe impediment to
speed. It's that reduce-weight-aloft thing.
Winter Solstice occurs at 6:35 P.M. (GMT) on December
21st - For us racers that means that every day after 1:35 P.M. EST
on the 21st (a week from this Wednesday) we will be gaining more
dayLIGHT in the day. And, that's all good. Celebrate by buying new
socks to wear in the cold and burn in the Spring!
J24 Racers are planning already for
2006. Credit Alan Bomar (roundabout) and
Dave Taylor ( @#$%&!!! ) for organizing early
January SOCIAL gathering and fleet planning discussions (January 7, 2006, likely
date). High on the topic list is Southern Bay Race Week
(June 2,3,&4, 2006) - a J24 one-design fleet at the event - the more the
merrier. Contact Alan at (757) 810-4518 and Dave at (757)
344-5292.
MURPHY'S
LAW: Bells now jingle and friends all mingle;
the geese are gettin' fat and the punchbowl is where it's at; and the
Murphster hopes that Kris Kringle has sails of kevlar in his pack ... for
you and yours. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!
/S/ Murphy the Racing Beagle, the sailing
spirit in us all.