IHYC Sailing News* 

Belle Haven Invitational Regatta Sixteen boats participated in Belle Haven Ideal 18 Invitational on August 11th. With five races in about 10-12 knots of breeze and two feet of chop, this was a lot of fun! Team Millard and Team Cummiskey (J) fought it out to the last leg of the last race with an upwind tacking duel. Michael and Ben won the day, with Jamie Cummiskey close behind and David and Pierce Ornstein taking the bronze, just one point of Roger and Kate van Loveren. Beth Forbes and Ruth Gretz won the non-spinnaker division. Kudos to Pepper and Tyler Anderson for competing in their first race. IHYC had seven boats in this event: great participation! Matthew Hickman, recently Out of Africa, won the heaviest beard competition by a considerable margin, but experts agreed that the extra drag upwind was balanced by downwind assistance.                                                          _________________________________________________________________________ Corinthian Yacht Club's Classic Yacht Regatta Ted and Shelia Graves' Q Class, NOR'EASTER, raced off Marblehead, MA this weekend in Corinthian Yacht Club's Classic Yacht Regatta fleet of 68 boats. NOR'EASTER placed 7th in her class of 21 that included the 12 Meter VALIANT, the 72 ft NY-50 SPARTAN, BLACKWATCH and DORADE. Members John Neczesny and Phil Zecher joined Shelia and Ted onboard to sail the Q into 17th place overall. In a separate event, Eastern Yacht Club hosted a dock party to celebrate NOR'EASTER's return "home" after many decades, as she was originally built for an EYC member in 1926. Stay tuned for details of Indian Harbor's own Classic Yacht Regatta, which will be held on September 14-15th! _____________________________________________________________________________ Gillespie Trophy Women's Ideal 18 Championship       Karen Lau and Dorothy Mosko competed in Norwalk Yacht Club's Gillespie Trophy Women's Ideal 18 Championship this past Saturday. All eight of NYC's Ideals were raced by teams from American, Indian Harbor, Noroton, Norwalk, Pequot and Rowayton Yacht Clubs. The day's seven races met conditions of 0-12 knot winds (yes, zero!), rain and sunshine. No matter the condition, Lau and Mosko fought to the finish and flew a full spinnaker in every race. The IHYC team placed third overall.                                                              ____________________________________________________________________________________ Congratulations to John McConnell and the crew of Frisbee on placing third at the YRALIS Championships in the very competitive Etchells class August 4-5, on the American YC circle, Indian Harbor's John McConnell sailed "Frisbee" to a 3rd place for the weekend in the 10-boat International Etchells Class; and Rick Hendee sailed "Hooke" to a 4th place finish in the 7-boat Shields fleet. ______________________________________________________________________________________

Nye and Lau (left) sailing downwind                 IHYC Team Trophy, Carolyn Nye (far left)   and Karen Lau (2nd to left)

IHYC places second for the Morgan Cup at Manhasset Bay YC Carolyn Nye and Karen Lau headed out to Manhasset Bay Yacht Club on Saturday, July 28th, to compete in the Morgan Cup, a YRA of Long Island Sound women's event dating back to 1964. For the past several years this event has been a competition between the Manhasset Bay, Cold Spring Harbor, Seawanhaka and Indian Harbor Yacht Clubs, though it is open to all clubs ... despite false rumors! This year, each club entered one team. Although overcast with possible storm conditions, the event ran the planned three races with nice 8-10 knot winds inside the Manhasset Bay. Seawanaka's team proved to be fierce competition for Nye and Lau, who placed second. Next year, Seawanaka will host the event and Indian Harbor's Womens Race Team is already planning to regain the trophy!

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Sailors on the move - Ethan Stark and Spencer McDonough! Ethan Stark will be representing IHYC and AYC for Area B at the Chubb US Junior Sailing championships being hosted by San Francisco Yacht Club from August 6-10th Spencer Mc Donough along with skipper Reinier Eenkema van Dijk are in Austria sailing at The 420 Worlds. Sailing continues through August 5th - stay tuned!

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IHYC Ideal 18 sailors secure the top three places in the overall 2012 Captain Harbor Friday Night Series! On a short course crammed with 18 boats, IHYC sailors handled the brutally light conditions well to score first and second in the final Captain Harbor Friday Night Series event of 2012. Jamie Cummiskey and family were first on the night with second in the first race and first in the second. David Seabrook and Thaddeus Elms were second overall. Jamie's consistently high placing over three Fridays gave him first place in the overall Captain Harbor Friday Night Series for the Ideal 18 fleet. Great job! Michael Millard was second overall for the series, and Roger van Loveren was third. Another strong performance from the IHYC Ideal 18 sailors! Next up for the Ideal 18 sailors are the YRALIS Championships this weekend August 4th and 5th. The top three IHYC finishers in this regatta will qualify for a boat for the Ideal 18 North Americans, so we expect competition to be fierce! _____________________________________________________________________________

12 IHYC Skippers vying to qualify for three spots in the Ideal 18 North Americans: Jamie Cummiskey, Karin Nye, Graham Allen, David Seabrook, Michael Millard, Elise Swanton and six other IHYC skippers are vying to qualify for a boat for the Ideal 18 North Americans.  The IHYC Ideal 18 skippers who achieve the top three scores in Sunday YRA will be allocated a boat for the North Americans, to be held at IHYC on September 29th and 30th. Currently 12 IHYC skippers have competed in at least one Sunday event. 5 race days are needed to qualify.  Jamie Cummiskey looks like a lock for one boat. Jamie leads the Captain Harbor standings with a "percent of perfection" score of 0.958 from two race days. Jamie needs three more race days to qualify. The next two high scores for IHYC skippers are Karin Nye with 0.871 and Graham Allen with 0.866, each with one race day. Graham made an impressive debut in his first Sunday YRA event. If he can keep up that standard for four more race days he will qualify for the North Americans! David Seabrook is in fourth place among IHYC skippers, with 0.830 after 4 race days. David needs only one more race day to qualify. Elise Swanton is the only IHYC skipper so far to have met the 5 race day requirement. With a score of 0.765 after six race days, Elise is certainly in contention.  The other IHYC skippers who have competed in at least one Sunday YRA include Michael Schaus--who already qualifies for a boat as 2011 Club Champion--along with Tom Clark, Chris Eichmann, Michael Herde, Jay Nicholas and Karen Lau.  There are seven more Sunday YRA race days before September 16. Only 5 days are needed to qualify for the North Americans, so there is still time to qualify. On Sundays the first Ideal 18 race start is at 1440, with no starts after 1700. Drinks and debrief at the Sunfish Bar after the racing. Reserve a boat for Sunday and give it a try!  _______________________________________________________________________________________________________   PRELIMINARY Captain Harbor Ideal 18 YRA Results posted You can see the results here: 2012 Captain Harbor Ideal 18 YRA Results  - PRELIMINARY ______________________________________________________________________________________________________

Slight Change to the Launch Service Hours Summer Launch Service:  May 27th thru Sept 18th Monday to Thursday 0700 to 2200 Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays service available 24 hours _____________________________________________________________________________

7/11 Twilight Results You can see the results here.  Good job Michael M., who won alone and unaided! Congratulations to Kevin Mowers, who completed his first ever sailboat race ____________________________________________________________________

IHYC 3, NYYC 1! The Indian Harbor team racing team secured its third win of the Solstice Series last night. The team of Jonathan Nye, Michael Schaus, Michael Millard, Roger van Loveren, Lindsay Waterbury, David Seabrook and Craig Reynolds sailed consistently well, despite the threat from a NYYC team that included our former Sailing Director, John Bainton, who repeatedly targeted Michael Millard in the pre-start--or was that Michael targeting John? Jonathan Nye's strategic brain was a big help to our team yet again, as he took out two NYYC boats at the leeward mark in one race. After the racing, the NYYC team was impressed to sit down to dinner in the Model Room with a special Team Racing menu. Our thanks to David Foster and the staff! Maestro Zeke gave his customary post-race analysis, where he explained the euphemistically termed "rules situations" that had occurred, and the tactical maneuvers that we might have made if we had all been as good at this as he is.  A good night, a good series, and good energy around team racing as we look toward the Glencairn Championship in the Fall! _______________________________________________________________________________________________________

Introduction to the Racing Rules of Sailing now July 21 4:30-6pm Due to a conflict, this event has been pushed back one week to Saturday July 21st 4:30-6pm.  Come and learn what goes on during sailboat races! This is an interactive session designed for newcomers to sailboat racing. Some rules sessions dive into arcane details, but this one will focus  on the most common situations and the most important rules. Our goal is to make you feel comfortable about entering a race, in the confidence that you understand what is going on around you.  We need to know the number of attendees, so please register here.  ________________________________________________________________________________________ Great turnout for Sunday YRA racing on July 8th! IHYC sent five boats: Chris Eichmann and Christine LaCorte D'Amico, Karin Nye and Dorothy Mosko, Thomas B. Clark and his daughter and her boyfriend, Elise Swanton and Carolyn Blackmar and David Seabrook and Jenny Seem. We almost had six boats, but Beth Forbes arrived just too late to get out to the starting area in the light air. Even Steve Schmidt showed up on his motor boat to watch the proceedings. We had some good results, including one first place, and a number of other places in the top  three boats. It was a great turnout overall: I counted fifteen Ideal 18s. In the light air, spinnaker use was important. Kudos to Christine D'Amico, who participated in her first sailboat race, not to mention her first experience with a spinnaker. ____________________________________________________________________ Sign up for Race Committee Race Committee affords you another vantage point to sailing and racing.  It’s also another way to meet other members and get to know each other better. There is no sailing or racing experience needed to participate on Race Committee.  The Principal Race Officer (PRO) and other members on RC can help instruct you what to do.  If you can write, raise a flag, spot numbers on a sail ...  you too can be on RC.!  Click here to sign up.  Craig Reynolds, our Regatta Chairperson, will get in touch with you with your assignment.   _____________________________________________________________________________

Law Trophy July 2nd & 3rd    This past Monday and Tuesday, IHYC held the 2012       Commodore Law Trophy where junior sailors from Long Island      Sound came to compete in Lasers, C420s and Laser     Radials. Congratulations to Brigette Croke our own IHYC Laser     competitor, on winning 4th place in her class.

______________________________________________________________________________ Sunday YRA July 1st Four IHYC boats participated in the Sunday YRA racing yesterday, a season high (so far!). The wind was 10-15 kts, which made for exciting racing! These races are open to all the clubs on the harbor, and present a good level of competition. Courses are longer than Wednesday nights', and spinnakers are allowed.  The teams of Jamie Cummiskey and his son, David Seabrook and Doug Reid, Elise Swanton and Carolyn Blackmar and Kirsten MacDonald and Karen Lau acquitted themselves well. Although we are waiting for final results, the Cummiskeys got two firsts from three races, and Seabrook/Reid got two thirds, so we think IHYC did OK. Zeke gave the first pre-race "Sunday Tune-Up" of the season, and provided helpful feedback on sail trim and spinnaker handling. The latter was a little hairy in the conditions! We want more boats out on Sunday afternoons! If you're available at that time, interested in racing and you want to learn to fly a spinnaker, Zeke and I can help pair up skippers and crew. We hope to see you out there! _____________________________________________________________________________

6/27 Twilight Results Strong teams from OGYC took first and second, followed by our Fleet Captain Michael Millard, newly returned from Bermuda, with Mary Alice Fisher Carmichael and Lally.  Excellent result by Aldo Pascarella to come in fourth (after a tie-break with the third-placed boat), aided by his friend Talal (ringer!). Paul D'Amico and David Seabrook were one point behind on fifth. Congratulations to Paul on completing his first ever sailboat race! It was good also to see Anne and Ashgar Alam out there for the first time this season. We had eight of our nine boats out, and would have used them all if Philip Zecher had not decided at the last minute to help out on Jasjeet Sood's J24. See the results here. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________ George David's 90ft maxi Rambler sets new Newport Bermuda Race Record. George David's 90ft maxi Rambler has smashed the 635 mile Newport Bermuda race record, clipping a massive 14 hours off the previous best time set 10 years ago by Roy Disney's Pyewacket.  The new record now stands at 39hr, 39 minutes, 18 seconds (subject to ratification)  - an average speed of 16 knots. A delighted George David said. "These were perfect conditions. The most exciting moment was when we hit 26 knots. I'm so pleased with our performance. We have reduced the record by 25% - Not bad for a boat that is now 10 years old. This Rambler is the best boat I have ever owned!" Rambler not only slashed the race record, her crew also spanked their rivals with Hap Fauth's Bella Mente crossing the lighthouse line 1 hour 43 minutes behind followed 3 minutes later by Shockwave skippered by George Sakellaris ____________________________________________________________________________ Bermuda Race Results: Rambler – George David,  Set a new Course Record -39hr, 39mins, 2nd in Class, 2nd Overall for Gibbs Hill Lighthouse Division  (CONGRATULATIONS ON A BERMUDA WEDDING FOR GEORGE AND WENDY!!!!) Christopher Dragon – Andrew Weiss - 2nd in Class 4/ 16th Overall for the St. David’s Lighthouse Division Lapin – Chris Clark -3rd in Class 4 / 25th Overall for St. David’s Lighthouse Division Cygnette – Bill Mayer – 10th in Class 3/71st overall for St. David’s Lighthouse Division Snow Lion – Larry Huntington – 6th in Class 9 / 12th Overall for the Gibbs Hill Lighthouse Division ____________________________________________________________________________ Worldwide : Spencer McDonough as crew aboard the I-420, got 7th  (out of 140 boats )  in an international event known as Kiel Week , one of the most prestigious regattas in the world. This is a tremendous achievement and sets the bar for skipper and crew as the next Olympic cycle looms. ____________________________________________________________________________