Regatta Report by Stephen Braverman
August 8
Thirty six competitors, six Nations, several Olympians and Start World Champions, including Mark Reynolds, and Peter Bromby, arrived in Winthrop, Massachusetts for the Kaene Inc, 1999 Star North American Championships. The opening ceremonies commenced at six o’clock in the evening with regatta chair David O’Brien introducing his co0chairs Joe Zambella, and Philip Marks, Cottage Park Yacht Club Commodore Jim Burns, Rear Commodore Mike Gahan and Star Class North American Vice President, John MacCausland, among others. Flags from the six competing nations, including Ireland, Virgin Islands, Bahamas, Bermuda, Canada, and USA were presented to Commodore Burns. They were flown from flagstaffs throughout the regatta.
Boats arrived as early as several weeks in advance, with some competitors tuning-up at the Make-a-Wish Regatta the weekend prior. Sails and competitors were both measured, certificates viewed, and most boats were put together and launched in the water for a sail by late Saturday afternoon. The forecast for the day’s practice race was ominous with thunderstorms nearing. Still, twenty or so competitors launched their boats, and took the turn past Deer Island Light out to the race course in a bit of a breeze. We were spared much of the adverse weather with the storms going to the North and South of us. Even though it was only practice, the fleet was very aggressive, and we finally got a start off after two general recalls. By the time we got off the line, the due-south wind had diminished plenty, but we still had a decent race in 8-12 knots of breeze. We raced a Star Class course three, which is a Windward-Leeward-Windward course. At the top of the second windward leg, the leaders looked back at the fleet of boats and the black sky over Nahant and Marblehead, and just kept heading upwind to Deer Island Light on their way home. All the other lemmings followed, and nobody actually finished the race. The first two races were set for very early starts the next morning. We were all looking forward to some very competitive racing.
August 9
There was lots of wind today. It was up and down all afternoon. It shifted Northwest to North, from 10-19 knots (at least 19 is the highest gust the Boston Weather Buoy saw). One broken mast, one popped shroud, one exploded outhaul shive, and several other mechanical failures ensued. However, there were zero protests, and zero collisions. Overall, it ended up not being too bad a day on the water. We had two long races starting just west of Boston Light and sailing into Revere Beach on Broad Sound. The first race was an Olympic course, and the second was a Triangle-Windward-Leeward. Everyone was tired.
August 10
Well, after the first two days, we’d had plenty of wind. It blew like stink on the ninth, and on the tenth, despite drifting out to the race course, we had two long, grueling and unseasonably cold races in 8-15 knots after a 90 minute postponement. We had the midweek trophies after a lobster dinner, with much welcomed clam chowder. Wednesday should see only one race, with the final race taking place on Thursday.
August 11
After a 60 minute postponement, competitors left the dock and took a long drift out to the racecourse. At about two o’clock, the wind barely filled from SSE enough for a start. We sailed a five leg windward-leeward course. The breeze was a spotty 5-10 knots at best, and a little shifty. Mark Reynolds and Rick Peters pulled a horizon-job on the rest of the fleet. After the one throw out, Reynolds with Peters and Eric Doyle with Tom Olsen were all tied up at the top. Peter Bromby and Lee White, from Bermuda were in third, six points behind.
August 12
The last racing day, we had a 90 minute postponement due to lack of wind, AND a Liquid Natural Gas tanker which closed the shipping channel heading out to the race course. There were two match races within the sixth and final race of the series. Eric Doyle and Mark Reynolds raced for the top honors. Doyle had to beat Reynolds AND place 4th or better. The other match race was between Doug Schofield and John MacCausland for fourth place. Finally about 1:00 the fog lifted, and the breeze filled in from SSE enough for a race. The wind picked up steadily through the afternoon, and we ended with 10-12 knots. Eric Doyle and Tom Olsen won their match race to finish second in the race, and the Keane Inc Star North Americans. Mark Reynolds and Rick Peters threw out their 7th place finish to take second in the regatta. Peter Bromby and Lee White from Bermuda won the last race to finish third. Brothers Dough and Bob Schofield placed eighth in the final race winning their match race with John MacCausland with George Iverson. Paul Sustronk and Dag Nyhof from Canada sneaked in with a fourth in the final race to finish fifth overall.
There were six great races, lots of fun, food and camaraderie. I would like to extend a big thanks to the Cottage Park Yacht Club, Dave O’Brien and the Regatta Committee, Race Committee, Judges, Support Boats, Bartenders, and everyone else for such a great regatta.
1999 NORTH AMERICAN CHAMPIONSHIP - WINTHROP, MA Results
Place No. Skipper Crew Fleet Daily Places Pts.
1 7934 Eric Doyle Tom Olson SDB 1 1 20 1 7 5 12
2 7976 Mark Reynolds Rick Peters SDB 2 4 3 4 1 7 14
3 7834 Peter Bromby Lee White BER 3 2 12 2 9 1 17
4 7313 Doug Schofield Robert Schofield AN 10 7 1 5 10 8 31
5 7592 Paul Sustronk Dag Nyhof LOC 16 ocs 7 3 6 4 36
6 7936 J.A. MacCauslandGeorge Iverson CR 8 3 10 7 8 14 37
7 7627 Jerry Davidson Jeff Davidson NH 12 18 9 8 3 5 37
8 7763 Mark Mansfieid David O'Brien IRL 4 13 5 11 15 6 39
9 7659 Jimmie Lowe Andrew Higgs N 5 ocs 23 9 5 3 45
10 7824 James Freeman Eric Van Olst SL 6 11 4 14 19 18 53
11 7765 Bill Allen John Upton WH 7 20 11 dsq 2 16 56
12 7471 Joe Bainton Chris Rogers NB 19 8 8 6 16 25 57
13 7791 Peter Vessella Kevin Murphy WSFB 11 12 6 15 18 17 61
14 7963 Jock Kohlhas Dmitriy Yakovenko BisB 9 5 31 10 11 26 61
15 7957 Claude Bonanni Arthur Anosov TaB 20 24 2 17 14 9 62
16 7205 Tony Snell Dave Caesar LOC 14 dns 14 13 12 13 66
17 7629 Ken Woods Bill Paton BH 23 17 15 28 4 12 71
18 7265 Josh Phypers Ted Lavery CA 15 15 13 18 ocs 15 76
19 7350 John Finch Ruari Duffield LOC 22 9 19 16 25 11 77
20 7628 Steve BravermanRon Rezac BH 13 6 25 19 21 32 84
21 7804 Gary MacDonald Sergey Leonidov BH 28 16 17 12 24 21 90
22 7621 Peter Costa Jessica Costa BH 21 25 24 26 13 10 93
23 7408 Bob Van Wagnen Eric Beckwith BisB 18 10 29 20 29 22 99
24 6378 Fran Charles John Murphy BH 24 14 28 21 22 19 100
25 7729 David Ivey Bill Faccone Sun 17 19 21 27 20 24 101
26 6890 Brad Anderson Ryan Smith LOC 27 23 18 23 17 29 108
27 7614 John Foster Michael Lawlor VRI 26 21 32 22 23 20 112
28 7465 John Cavicchi Howard Davis BH 30 22 16 25 28 27 118
29 7851 John Fox Jim Coggeshall CA 31 27 22 31 37 31 142
30 7731 John Chiarella Terry Fletcher Sun 29 26 37 29 31 30 145
31 7468 John Siljander Sarah Siljander BH dns dns 33 30 26 23 149
32 7786 Jerry TruppelliGuy Avellon AN 25 28 26 dnf 33 dns 149
33 7782 Kurt Larson Bob Carlson BH dnf dns 34 24 27 28 150
34 7012 David Bolles Alejandra Bolles Mid 33 29 27 32 32 33 153
35 7585 Sharon CrockettBonnie Unsworth BisB dns dns 30 33 30 34 164
36 7530 Bill Farrar Monk Bancroft Sun 32 30 dnf dns dns dns 173
