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Greetings!
Did July disappear or what? Looking forward towards the Fall we will be ramping up for the Melges 24 North Americans as well as the fall big boat events. Mark your calendar for October 8th and 9th which will be the Harvest Regatta Weekend and Fundraiser. But for right now, take advantage of the spectacular weather and lets go sailing.
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| Oakcliff Invitational Wrap Up
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The 2010 Oakcliff Invitational Clinegatta had three very good days of
warm winds surrounding two not so good days. The field was very competitive and the tricky and varied
wind conditions were a true test of all-round sailing ability with a dash of
patience and endurance thrown in.
In the end the young New Zealand Team skippered by William Tiller came
out victorious in the 2-0 finals against top US Sailor and clinic leader Dave
Perry. The first race of the
finals saw many flags and an overlapped finish. The second and final race was started just before the regatta time limit expired and was somewhat less dramatic.
Coming in third was Jon Singsen sailing with cadets from the
USMMA at Kings Point who bested Olli-Pekka Lumijärvi of Finland. The other four in order, Klaartje Zuiderbaan sailing with her sister and
two extraordinary female sailors, Natalia and Lee Icyda of the US. Klaartje's team
was supplemented by Oakcliff acorn Colin Leon and then Eric Barreveld who coincidentally is fluent in Dutch. Oakcliff Supporter Mike Qualio
and a mostly family team came in 6th, followed by Kevin Dooley and
Doug Shannon.
One thing to take notice of was that 5 of the 8 teams had women and 7 teams had Oakcliff Team Members on board. The winning team featured Oakcliffers Ronnie Saccardo on the bow and Mike
Tolsma in the pit. Mike is an up
and comer who is an accomplished rock and mountain climber and since May has
set his sights on sailing. He
began with Oakcliff on the Ker 50 where his answer to virtually any questions
was, no I've never done "X" but
I'll learn. Mike epitomizes the Oakcliff mission of raising the level of sailors
and sailing in the US. We are lucky to have this combination of talent and awesome
attitude in Mike and many other Oakcliff team members.
Finally as with all major events like this it could not be
done without great staff and volunteers.
100 % of the Oakcliff staff who were on-site pulled double duty by
competing, as well as assisting in the organization of the event. A special shout out to Kevin Dooley. We had hospitality extended to our out
of town competitors and officials by the Storrs and Hildebrant families. Chief Umpire Bruce Cook led a team of
umpires and Race Committee Todd Fields, Caroline, John Mooney, Anne Mooney, Danniel
Gallo Chris Dundon, Dylan Bush, Aidan Vascatto worked tirelessly to chase the
fickle winds.
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Big Boats
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 All of the boats are coming home. Oakcliff Ker 11.5 will be trucked back from the Great Lakes with a great record of 1-2-2 for the Chicago Mac, Port Huron Mac and Harbor Springs Regatta. The reports from the sponsors are all very positive on the boat and on the Oakcliff Team members.
The Ker 11.3 is back with a new bottom job and ready for training. The Melges 24 schedule will be posted on the Oakcliff Calendar later today as well as the sign up for those interested in the Vineyard Race. August weekends will be reserved for Match Racing on Saturdays and IRC and Melges training on Sundays.
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Speaking to Sea Scouts
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Last night, I spoke at the Sea Scouts, Fifth Annual William I Koch Cup which
this year is being jointly hosted by the Coast Guard Academy and Connecticut College which are located across a highway from each other in New London CT. I was told that Connecticut College used to be all women and
the Academy used to be all male but their convenient location allowed for
plenty of social interaction at 'dances and such'.
We have come a long way. It was wonderful to see such
diversity in this elite group of Sea Scouts which happens to be a coed division of Boy Scouts of America. This was one of the natural points in my presentation. Another topic that dominated
the questions and answers was safety.
We discussed how important safety harnesses are - at all times, as well
as medical care and stitches and simple surgery offshore. I included the story of French single-handed sailor Jimmy who
bit his tongue off during a jibe and had to sew it back on with advice being given over the SSB radio. I was greeted by a lot of ewwwes. I went on to explain that he must have
done a good job because a few years later, my friend had kissed him and
couldn't notice the scar at all.
Lots of giggles :-) Overall the energy of the evening was plentiful enough to
fuel my 3 hour return trip to Oyster Bay, via Ferry and highway. What a cool group of young people and
very likely some future Acorns will come from this group. |
