MRA Series #4 - LABOR DAY REGATTA - Day #2 of 2 - August 31, 2008

Howdy from Bob Duff, August 31, 2008 2100 hours,




In breaking with the sailing season, I present here an invitation to "An Exhibit of New Watercolors and Children's Fantasies By Benneville Strohecker Marblehead Arts Association Henrick Gallery October 4-30, 2008". The watercolor portrait on the invitation is of a grandaughter of Jane and Tim Hunt who are the two people in the upper right-hand corner of the invitation. The granddaughter is Jianne Zagarri whose nickname is Gian-Gian as noted by her song in the little poem. Her twin brother is the "T.J." also mentioned there. Tiger and Beemer are pets. Mom is Lindsay Hunt Zagarri if I have all this at least partially correct. Dad is Ron.






Ben Strohecker was a long time member of the Eastern Yacht Club Race Committee as have been the Hunts including service during several summer months with me at the OLYMPIC YACHTING GAMES in Savanna, Georgia 1996. Ben has an outstanding racing record as captain of the SWEET SLOOP Herreshoff 12.5 when she was the corporate yacht for Harbor Sweets Handmade Chocolates. Ben could single hand SWEET SLOOP through a spinnaker jibe by using his own knobby knees. He has written a new , as yet unpublished illustrated children's book about "the day the ocean turned to chocolate". We think that you should enjoy Ben's artistry. Click on these images for an enlarged view.









The saddest day of the year is when we dock the signal boat after her last race of the summer. ETO will be hauled this week and it is all over but the shouting after a great season 2008. We managed to run two races each today for the four fleets at the TINKERS Line before heavy winds caused us to cut it short and "head for the barn".





We saw twenty-three knots of wind, a broken boom and a spinnaker pole bent like a pretzel. On the MIDWAY Line Herb Motley's IOD KUNGSORNEN #49 was "T-BONED" by another yacht and lost the top one-third of her mast. I assume that it was an ETCHELLS who rammed her since no self respecting IOD would hit another IOD. But, this is just my slightly biased view about the yachts that I love. Another mis-guess by me yesterday was the imagined lead by #46 IOD EDEN. I was deceived by the fact that Bruce Dyson and Norm Cressy in #7 GYPSY seemed to have lapped her. Oh my! And here it is the last night of August with no official scores posted on the MRA site.





My brief unofficial notes show Douglas Trees & Chris Small with a first and second today in Rhodes 19 #1680 SWING ROOM. Then came Mike Lane in WAY #3038 with a second and a first. I noted RONDAR #1 Viper (Rondar Race Boats Limited) with a first but missed the other Viper scores. Martha & Sam Altreuter pushed their Sonar #787 RESONANCE to a 1st and 2nd. Frank McNamara dominated the J-24s with two firsts in ZOT #4202.