Model Yachting

The four styles offered were:
short-sleeve tees, short-sleeve polos, long-sleeve polos, and hoodies. Each style of shirt came from a different company, resulting in four different shades of blue. Combined with our original dark blue shirt, we will truly have a “rainbow of blues”at Back Bay next season.

It should be mentioned here that despite the ominous threat of the coronavirus, we all stayed safe while sailing this season. This was primarily because everyone dutifully followed the rules the New Hampshire Boat Museum set for us: to be diligent about wearing facial masks and keeping safe social distances. Even on Sundays, when Bill Hagerup organized our Lily Pond races, we adhered to the museum’s requirements.

After six months on the water at Back Bay and Lily Pond, none of our sailors, guests, or scorekeepers were taken ill during our time together. To have met this new adversary so successfully earned the Back Bay Skippers the right to sail during this challenging season. Our collective hats are off to Martha Cummings, director of the museum; her board of trustees; and to our commodore, Mark Whitehead, who spearheaded and enforced this new and critical initiative.

Dock Out
Wouldn’t you know it would be great weather for the November 4 dock-out! Twelve skippers participated this year, and the dock and rescue boat have been stored for the winter. Thanks to such a large and able crew, it took only thirty-seven minutes to have everything loaded and on its way to the boat museum’s barn.

There was close competition throughout the fleet with five different skippers taking first, six finishing second, and six crossing the line in third. These included Tim Wright, Bill Malay, Don McBride, Al Posnack, Rick Gates, Mark Whitehead, Jay Burns, Bob Brennan, and Denis Boisvert. In other words, about half of the total participants earned the top spots in different races, demonstrating how competitive we’ve become.

Completing the top five were Al Posnack in fourth, with Bill Malay and Rick Gates tied for fifth. Ending in sixth through tenth were Jay Burns, Denis Boisvert, Don McBride, Genie Ware, and Paul McBride.

The top three spots in Races 2 and 8 were dominated by “Ricks.” That’s Rick Lalley, representing Thomaston, Maine; Rick Laird of Boston, Massachusetts; and Rick Gates, representing Nashua, New Hampshire. From the building class of 2020, Genie Ware did a fantastic job taking second in Race 3.

To all who made the long drive to Gilford to sail on Sundays go our thanks for their support, their friendship, and the wonderful times we had this season. We are happy to have restarted the tradition of sailing at Lily Pond, and we look forward to next year, hopefully virus-free.

Our top five this week also included Tim Wright, who grabbed second. In third was Howard Germon, our tough competitor from across the Maine border. Rick Lalley, our long-distance skipper from Thomaston, Maine was fourth, and Nashua-based skipper Rick Gates landed in the number-five spot.

The rest of the top ten, in order, were Al Posnack, Jay Burns, Tom Barstow, Bill Malay, with Paul McBride and Mark Whitehead tied for tenth. Of note, Genie Ware posted a hard-fought third place in Race 6, and Jack Minahan also captured third in Race 5.

US12 Sailing
The US12 fleet had an idyllic day on October 1. The temperature was warm, in the low 70s, and the winds were fairly constant in velocity. Except for wind shifts, which are so common on Back Bay, we couldn’t ask for any more. The racing with eight boats was again competitive, with people having good finishes in some races and not so good in others.

What was observed was the overall improvement in the sailors’ understanding and use of rules to avoid collisions. While we did have a few (as always), there were many others that were avoided because of the quick reactions of skippers when situations called for them. How nice is it to be in a group that wants to help each other, get along, do the right thing, and have a good time together. It’s wonderful!

We had two contenders for longest distance traveled to the regatta. Rick Laird, Sail #716, drove up from Boston with his ODOM (One Design One Meter) Class boat, and our own Rick Lalley, Sail #688, made the trip down from Thomaston, Maine as he does almost every week. I think we have to give the prize to Rick Lalley with his three-hour commute! The other thing they had in common was their notation of “Rick L.” on the signup sheet, which caused momentary confusion.

There were shades of normal scoring since we had enough races to allow one throw-out. Sailing the most races was Rick Lalley with eight. Most of the rest of us competed in six or seven races. We almost always have at least one bad race so throwing out the worst one makes us look better.