Debi at the wheel of Easterner while our skipper, Eric, takes a short break.
The first day of Newports Leukemia Cup Regatta consisted of an all day sail on on an Americas cup class 12 meter. Sponsors paid $300 a seat for this great opportunity. Three 12-meter boats were available, "NORTHERN LIGHT", "GLEAM", and, "EASTERNER".
Debi and I rode on Easterner for the day. Debi had two tickets that she had won as last years top fundraiser. That's Debi on the wheel of EASTERNER at the top of the page. To left is NORTHERN LIGHT (blue hull) and GLEAM (white hull). To the right is another picture of Northern light. The newer "COURAGEOUS" also joined us with her regular crew for mock races throughout the day.
Gary Jobson (ESPN) flew up for the days events and drew Northern Light to skipper for the day. That's Gary with his arm around Debi. "Hey, watch it there Gary!" Gary is the national spokesperson for the Leukemia Cup Regattas and tries to make an appearance at as many of the Regattas as his schedule allows. Debi first met Gary at last year's Fantasy Sail Weekend, and thinks the world of him. He's really a down to earth guy that puts on no airs.
Each boat has a regular skipper with two crew. Eric was our skipper and Wendy and [I'll think of her name later] were the crew.
All three of them were great with the guests and made the day even more enjoyable. Guests could just sit back and ejoy the ride and the view or Narragensette Bay
or...
chip in and help with some of the crewing. Other than the coffee grinders, their really isn't too much high-tech stuff on these older wooden twelves. Thats my butt at the coffee grinder.
That's our new friend Joanne at the main sheet. Joanne enjoyed her self so much that she hitched a ride on TIRAMASU for the actual Regatta on Saturday. We would have invited her on INFINITY if we knew that she was going to stay around for the regatta. Actually if you look at the race results , you'll see that she probably made the right choice.
That's Roy sitting behind the starboard coffee grinder. Roy stayed on that grinder all day. We found out later that he probably would have liked to have been relieved by the afternoon. I guess no one offered to take over for him because everyone thought he was doing a such a good job on it.
The three wooden twelves rafted up for a box lunch at noon. Gary decided to move the afternoon races out to "his pond" off shore. Normally the chartered twelves stay in the bay, but who's going to refuse Gary. The afternoon race consisted of one windward leg to Courageous's tender and then a long down wind leg back into the Bay near Fort Adams. COURAGEOUS is always escorted by a tender boat because she is not outfitted with a motor. The wind was brutally light, especially for the downwind leg. The twelves are really designed to fly a chute down wind but they won't fly them with charter guests on board. GLEAM walked away with the afternoons race. COURAGEOUS was ahead of us but got bored half way back and ended up turning back to windward then throwing up her spinnaker just to show us how the twelves should be sailed. Gary in NORTHERN LIGHT brought up the rear again. It just wasn't his day. Gary said later that this was his worst twelve meter showing ever.
The eavening consisted of a dinner (included in the 12-meter admission price) and a presentation of sailing history by Gary Jobson. Debi sold Fleece Vest for the regatta before dinner. Most of the crew of COURAGEOUS also showed up for the dinner. Debi even sold a few of the vests to them. The day was a great success. All of the tweve meter guests were more then satisfied with the days activities and we made a bunch money for the Leukemia Society. I'd like to be able to put a plug in here for next year, unfortunatley the fleet of twelve meters will be departing for England next summer before the regatta. We'll have to come up with something else to kick off next years regatta. Any suggestions?
All comments & suggestions welcomed and appreciated. You can automatically E-Mail us by clicking
on my address C30INFINITY@aol.com.
