Fleet News
All results can be found at www.hobie-div12.org the division 12 web site.
The BB die hard regatta was cancelled on October 13th for the Sail For Pride regatta. This regatta put on by Sail Newport was announced only two weeks ahead of the regatta. It was a charity regatta to raise money for the Sept. 11 attacks relief funds. 184 boats were raced including 25 catamarans. Lars Guck won the race around Jamestown on an International Tornado. Followed by several other cats and some very fast monohulls. The Hobie 14s, 16s, and one of the 18s raced inside the bay in an around the buoys course. It was a great regatta for a great cause. The race was a great success and it raised over $100,000.
Roton Point was the last points regatta of the year on Sept. 22 and 23rd. Even Joe "Wild Thing" Manganello raced, it was great to see him on the water. Light winds made the racing kind of boring but the parties and every thing else about this regatta made it great! Definatley do not miss this one next year either.
August 25th and 26th was our regatta. The Madison Shellfish Festival Regatta. We tied the RISC for the second biggest regatta in division 12. We had 43 boats. Nice wind on Saturday gave us some double trapezing conditions... yes you read it right, we actually had wind!!! It began to lighten up by the end of the day and the last race was cancelled right before it was about to start as many of the racers were getting tired. That night all the sailors had a blast at the festival and watched the great fireworks. Sunday was very light wind with periods of almost no wind. It was definatly some close racing though. It was the best year ever!!! Remember to put this on your schedule for next year.
We had 13 hobie 18s this year. Several boats decided they could not race at the last minute. So you can expect even more 18s next year.
The Wend. night catamran and mono hull series ended August 29th with an excellent first season. The catmaran series was very close in the front two places. Steve Metzler ended up just one point ahead of Todd Riccardi at the end of the season. Steve sailed one or two more nights than Todd which helped him pull ahead in the end.
results:
Steve Metzler 34 points
Todd Riccardi 35 points
Greg Sikes 53 Points
Amy Siedlecki 59 Points
Ron Mazzacane 65 Points
To request the rest of the results email Todd Riccardi
August 18th and 19th was the New England 100. A distance race from New London, CT to New Bedford, Ma with a stop over night at Quonset Point, RI. The first day was light leaving the beach but just a few minutes after the start the wind began to build. Once the boats got out of the Thames River they started launching their spinnakers. The wind was light while in Fishers Island sound but once out of it the wind began to build and it picked up to a nice, relaxing breeze. Just enough to have a relaxing cruise along the CT and RI coast. It was a reach the whole entire way and the spinnakers were not dropped until the boats got to the beach. It was definatley a very enjoyable leg. The first place boat finished in 3 hours and 43 minutes and the last place boat finished in 7 hours and 11 minutes. The second leg was a not quite as enjoyable beat upwind and all the boats under 20 feet and a couple 20 footers did not finished. Results can be found at www.nensa.org. Do not miss this next year if they have it.
The buzzard regatta hosted by fleet 28 on July 28th and 29th was a great success. It was the Division 12 Championships which is now the Steve Latham Memorial Divisional Championships. It started off with light wind but the RC waited until it filled in. All the races were held in single or double trapeze conditions. It was a beautiful weekend at a great sight. The party was great Saturday night as well. This was the biggest regatta in Division 12 this year. Don't miss it next year!
June 23rd and 24th was the Rhode Island Summer Classic. This was a great regatta. Despite the bad forcast 42 boats showed up. About half the fleet did not make it for the first race since nothing was visible on the water past 20 feet from the beach. Many boats had trouble finding the marks and the starting line. When it was announced that races were being held everyone sailed out and luckily the fog cleared enough to barley see the marks for about 75% of the day. There was only an occasional rain shower but no storms as forcasted! Goes to show you that you can't trust the forcast. And on top of that the wind was 15-20 all weekend! Excellent for sailing.
June 7th-9th was the Sakonnet Challenge. It was a great regatta and there were 14 Hobie Cat 14s!!! Sounds impossible but Sandy Takacs has really got the fleet reborn. There was no wind early Saturday morning but it came in off the ocean a little after noon. All the races ended up taking place in around 15 knots of wind.
May 31st- June 3rd was the Youth Nationals at Spray Beach YC in NJ. It was a lot of fun. Todd Riccardi (fleet 136 Vice commodore) competed and placed 5th. As many youths as possible should try to get to for it next year (probably in GA). It is definatley worth it. It was excellent to see so many youths from all over the country coming together, competing against each other and getting along.
May 19th, 20th was the Madcatter (North East Championships) on Oneida Lake near Syracuse, NY. It was a great event and should not be missed next year. This was the first major regatta within a weekend's driving distance from Connecticut (about 4 1/2 to 5 hours). This is a great regatta and Fleet 204 did a great job with it. Great parties, great facilities and great fun. Don't miss it next year!
The Hobie 14 frostbite series went great! Everyone should at least give it a try next winter. It is held out of Sail Newport in Newport, RI every other Saturday. Thanks again to Sandy Takacs for a great second year.
The winter meeting held Sunday, February 4th went pretty well. We had seven members in attendence. Thank you to all the members that attended. We would like to improve the attendance A LOT for the next meeting. PLEASE come we really need to get some things taken care of.
One of the main things that we discussed was the Shellfish Festival Regatta (Aug. 25,26). We discussed that we would like to start organizing it much earlier this year. Barry Philips brought up the idea of possible commitees to help with organization of this regatta and other fleet sanctioned events. Early organization seemed to be emphasized by all members in attendance. It was decided that we will try to look for chase boats, volunteers, and etc asap. Todd Riccardi brought up the point that there are not any t-shirts at the shellfish festival regatta. Todd then asked the fleet members if they agreed that t-shirts should be looked into for the regatta and it was agreed upon by all members.
Some of the other events would include fun events, tune up days, weekly races, and learn to sail days. We decided a learn to sail day where we could get people to take out people from the beach and charge a few dollars for a ride and a quick lesson on sailing. We could advertise for a learn to sail day and get many people to come and earn a good amount of money for the fleet.
New officers were also elected and are as follows:
Commodore: Joe Manganello
Vice Commodore: Todd Riccardi
Secretary: Preston Byrne
Treasurer: Barry Philips
The possibilty of a fleet newsletter was also brought up. The issue of money for postage was brought up and John Eprecht mentioned putting a regular newsletter on the fleet web site. This was agreed to be very possible and a regular newsletter may start being posted on this web site.
Todd Riccardi also stated that he could set up a Yahoo Email Group like the Beachcat Yahoo Group. This email group could be used by individual fleet members to send out emails to every fleet member to ask for crew, classifieds, news, stories, and etc. This could also be used to send out fleet meeting notices. If everyone could email Todd Riccardi at wildtsail@aol.com to prove that there is interest in this and he could set it up.
We decided to hold another fleet meeting in the Spring sometime around the third Sunday in March. We will try to give more notice for this meeting.
A member list has also been made consisting of all the members who showed up to the meeting or expressed interest in the fleet. Members who were thought to still be active or who were thought would be interested in being active in the fleet were also added. The list has almost 40 members on it. If you would like to be on the list please email Todd Riccardi at wildtsail@aol.com to see if you are on the list and if you are not you will be added.
Thanks again to all the members that attended... Greg Ferrara, Preston Bryrne, Barry Philips, Rob Jones, Michael Haas, John "Nacroid" Epprecht and Todd Riccardi. We look forward to a excellent summer with a lot of things going on in the fleet. We also look forward to sailing with all the new members along with the past members. Welcome to Rob Jones, Michael Haas, and all the new members. If every one is as enthusiastic and friendly as Rob and Mike we will have many new friends that all share the same love for this wonderful sport.
The Sharing the Wind Sailing School has completed another great year. The results can be seen by the number of boats on the Madison beach this year. Over 30 boats and most are students or instructors from the sailing school!!! It is a great program and Joe Manganello and all the other people that make it happen deserve a lot of credit and thanks.
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Email: wildtsail@aol.com
