This weekend The Sunfish Class held the NY Downstate Regionals at Mattituck YC. It was one of the largest Sunfish Regattas in the nation with 51 competitors. Sailors from Massachusettes, Connecticut, NJ, New Hampshire, Brazil and Ecuador came to compete in the prestigious race. As usual Wet Pants sent a good contingent of sailors to mix it up with the best in the class.
Eight races were sailed in the tricky moderate breezes, which ranged from a northerly to westerly. Getting off the line and being able to manage the large shifts was crucial for success. Vito Mannino, new to the Sunfish has been very active at the club racing every tuesday and many weekends locally. He kept sailing and improving with each race. After several hours of racing a day, he said, “my muscles are sore, they are not used to this.”
Joe Valente, dad of Nick, towed out a full trailer of Sunfish and after the racing headed back to drop the trailer and drive down to South Carolina… his efforts helped many of our sailors to get to regattas and his help getting boats out of the water is much appreciated this summer! Thanks Joe!
Another Wet Pants member Joel Furman, ended the first day solidly with an eight and ten, but couldn’t sail the second day. Junor Conrad Colle and Ryan Messina both had some difficulty starting in the big fleet, but sailed well. Much of the time the wind shifted at the starts making almost impossible to make the line if you were caught in the second row. Conrad edged out Ryan by only a four points.
With the up and down conditions, Gerry Hesse saw some of his finishes the same way. He had a couple of outstanding races, scoring 8th and 9th, especially when the light shifty stuff was around. In Gerry’s best race he was in second place for most of the race eventually being ground down by only a few sailors.
Peter Wells, who can never make it to Tuesdays because of work, always shows up with his game face on the weekends when sailing. With a fifth and a ninth, Peter sailed well and finished 14th in the 51 boat fleet…
It seems as if Brian McGinnis and myself always are around each other when we are on the race course. The regional proved no different as we both ended with 65 points for the regatta tying for eighth place. Brian’s best race was a third and mine was a fourth giving Brian the edge on the tiebreaker.
Two Wet Pants members left the regatta with some hardware. Nick Valente continued his ascent up the ranks of the fleet as he finished the regatta strong and never gave up when the winds got stronger. He took Second Junior in his final NY regatta of the year. He will be heading back down to South Carolina to go back to High School… Great job Nick!
First time I sailed with Dan Hesse on the North Fork was about nine years ago when I was in my first regional. He didnt even race, but daysailed his Mom’s “blue bomber” sunfish to Egypt while we raced out of Southhold YC (we were all impressed). Now an incoming Senior at NY Maritime, WP Sailing instructor and well decorated sailor, Dan Sailed an impeccable regatta combining excellent starts, good boat speed and fleet management. Most importantly Dan was staying out of risky situations that seemed to arise on the race course more than a few times this weekend. Fourth Place finisher and Frosty Sailboat National Champion, Peter Shope from New Hampshire, put it best, “He was so innocuous on the course and was so quiet, I never SAW him on the course… next thing I knew he was winning the thing.” Dan bested the fleet of 51 boats to win the Prestigious regatta. He also takes home the Frank M. Weeks Memorial Trophy awarded to the top Great South Bay Sailor in the regatta. Also as the top finisher, he qualifies to attend the Sunfish World Championships in 2009 in Nassau, Bahamas. Congratulations Dan on a well sailed regatta!
Congratulations to all the WP Sailors!
Lee Montes
WP Sunfish Fleet Captain
The winter is rapidly approaching which means, SAILING! I personally sail the Sunfish more than my other boats so naturally I do better in the standings in Sunfish. However most of my winter sailing will be done in a JY15 at the Snapper Inn in Oakdale… There are many other sailors who I don’t sail against in the warmer months, but they generally sail other boats, too… I read over this blog from beginning to end and I have a lot of information in it… this winter I plan to follow some of the advice I wrote these past months.
Third week of the Sunfish Westhampton Series by Kurt Hoffman.
