STARDUST August, 2001
AUGUST REGATTA SCHEDULE
1st District
Aug. 11-12 Secretary's Cup/
Make‑a Wish Regatta (Benefit) (BH)
Aug. 11-12 Picken Memorial (GSB)
Aug. 23-31 North American Championship (Mid)
http://www.mycstar.org
2nd District
Aug. 4-5 Miles River/Green Star-MES
Aug. 11-12 Oxford Summer-TAYC
5th District
12th District
Aug. 4-5 Sunapee Open (Sun)
Aug. 11-12 N.Y. State Championship (SL)
5th District Blue Star Championship
San Diego Yacht Club
June 16-17, 2001
By Ed Sprague Jr.
Wind & Sea: Sunny clear skies, Saturday, Wind 6-8; Sunday, Wind 12-15 knots.
George “Little George” M. Szabo, III (SDB) and Austin Sperry (WSFB) win the 2001 Fifth District Blue Star Championship by one point over Peter Vessella (WSFB) and Brian Fatih (SMB). There were 19 entries. Just the weekend before George and Austin won the King of Spain Regatta out of California Yacht Club by one point over Vince Brun and Mike Dorgan. George was sailing Austin’s boat, which formerly was owned by Mark Reynolds. Brian Fatih, who also owns a Star, gave up his opportunity to steer too, by teaming up with Vessella. Georgie, tell Mark he can just keep sailing those ugly, fat, big boats that you have this Star sailing well under control.
Little George, Doug Smith, Howie Shiebler, Vince Brun, Mark Reynolds, Peter Vessella and maybe Barton Beek will all attend the 2001 Star Worlds Championship in Medemblik, Netherlands in August.
Austin Sperry is the son of G. Brooks Sperry, a star sailor in Stockton, CA. His son Austin is a revered character in the Star Class and I might add with the ladies as well. At the trophy presentation George raised the sleeve on his left arm where a Red Star was tattooed (I could just hear Brooks shudder). George exclaimed that Austin now would have to revisit his tattoo artist to change the star color to Blue. Austin single handily has built the WSFB fleet to at least 17 boats and says you have not seen anything yet.
Big Mike Dorgan finished 3rd teaming up with little but very competent Star crew Eric Weintraub. Mike, who had a little problem meeting weight, had planned to sail with Vince Brun. Vince and Mike plan to sail the Worlds in Medemblik. ‘Ol Vincee was seen at the trophy presentation having a private little talk with Mike— sooooooo Mike will be at weight for Medemblik. John O’Mahony and Ed Sprague also had a weight problem so together with Mike they are having a weekly weigh-in on Mike’s new scale to see who can lose the most weight. John magnanimously let his daughter-son team, Angel and Brian sail his boat. One or the other usually crews for John.
Turnout for the Districts was held down do to a last minute change of the regatta date by SDYC because of the Lipton Cup.
Newcomer, Jim Buckingham (NH) and veteran Star crew, Joel Kew, scored their second consecutive regatta 4th place and will be a force to deal with in the future. It was good to get Howie Shiebler back in a Star. The Butler’s are still tuning up their new boat, but had a very credible finish at 6th place. This boat was Vince Brun’s 1968 World Championship boat. Vince won the World’s in the 110-boat fleet in Capri, Italy with Hugo Schreiner as crew.
A record of five ladies participated in the series. Susie Pegel, with crew Tom George, finished 12th. Susie has a new Folli being delivered from Annapolis via Wisconsin. Jessica Costa, who normally crews for her father, Peter F. Costa in #7621, in Owl, has taken up with Jeremy Davidson, (NH). Together they finished 9th, having a bullet in the second race. Peter has lost his daughter as crew, but Jeremy and the Fifth District has snared a great crew. She is a veteran of the Boston Harbor Fleet and many Miami’s Bacardi Cups. Angel O’Mahony steered while brother Brian O’Mahony crewed. Ed Sprague and crew Susan Kuehn-Toyama retired Sunday because Ed forgot to place the mainsail lug in the boom and it was just blowing too hard to change the sail. Elizabeth Newell crewed for fellow architect George Szabo. She is a Star sailor from Connecticut now practicing architecture in Los Angeles. George was overheard saying, “Imagine you tell someone you are on your first date and you take her as crew on a Star boat. Further imagine that you sail to weather and she hangs over the side and each time the boat tacks she goes out on the other side, meanwhile getting banged up and bruised. Then further imagine that when you round the leeward mark you do this all over again. Then he asks that you do it all over again for four more races.” Well she does it and that is what makes Susie, Angel, Susan, Jessica and Elizabeth such game lady Star sailors.
Lee Kellerhouse was under the weather and just could not sail. ‘Ol Silver Fox Kim “Fletch” Fletcher with ‘ol crew, Bill Kreysler finished eighth having a bullet in Saturday’s third race. Fletcher won the Masters division with Barton Beek second and George Szabo, Jr. 3rd.
Byron Nelson (LB) and son, David won 1st place in the under 7000 category
Barton Beek, the august sailor of the Newport Harbor Star Fleet with Brian Sharp came back in the tough going on Sunday to beat his son, Charles Beek (NH) and Val Lyon overall by three points.
Chuck Driscoll was unable to sail because his rudder fell off the week before at the King of Spain. He and his wife, Lori, however contributed immensely to the regatta by hosting the Saturday night party at their home. Chuck and Lori had Miguel’s cater the party with beef and chicken fajitas, beer, wine, soft drinks and all of the trimmings. This is the former home of Frank and Patty Wyatt. The home has been the site of many Star parties dating from before World War II. It is a magnificent setting with a rolling lawn sloping down to the bay where there is a dock. For the occasion J. Gerald Driscoll’s classic Edymion was tied up at the dock. Gerry won the Star World’s in 1944 on Lake Michigan. The Edymion, with its classic sea-green mist deck color, is the class of the bay. Several Star sailors remarked about the setting, “It does not get any better than this.”
Frieda Sprague packaged the jacket and shirt trophies, which were purchased from the San Diego Yacht Club boutique. Mike Dorgan presented the trophies. The trophy presentation included beer and hors d'oeuvres. Isao Toyama took photographs on the racecourse and updated the Fifth District web site http://www.starclass.net. Frieda took photographs at the trophy presentation. The San Diego Yacht Club Race Committee, catering department and staff gave their usual professional effort. Thank you all for making the 2001 Blue Star Championship a memorable regatta.
1st DISTRICT CHAMPIONSHIP
June 22-24, 2001
Cottage Park Yacht Club
Twenty-nine boats from five fleets showed up for the 1st District’s Blue Star event hosted by the Boston Harbor fleet. Weather predictions for the long weekend were not the best, but fortunately the weather did not cooperate with the weatherman.
Friday’s race got off to a late start because of a fairly dense morning fog. The race was held “inside” and because of the amount of room available Course 2 was used. Substantial wind shifts and various lulls marked the first and second legs of the race, first separating the fleet and then bringing it back together again. Then the fleet was separated again near the reaching mark. The wind finally settled down at about 90° to the right of the original wind direction and began to pick up to about 15 knots. Bear Hovey / Bud Converse took first, Peter Cusick / George Iverson second, and the eventual series winners Jake Fiumara / Joe Chambers came in third.
Two races were run on Sunday out on Broad Sound. The first race on Course 3 started in light wind with most of the crews either in the boat or sitting to leeward. At the windward mark the fleet split with most going left. This turned out to be the right way to go because as the fleet approached the leeward mark the wind shifted about 90° to the right putting everyone on a close reach. Peter Cusick / George Iverson were leading the left pack, but this shift put him and the rest of the left boats into the cheap seats. The race was won by Ben Cesare / Steve Grgas, followed by Jake Fiumara / Joe Chambers and John Lombard / George Iverson.
The wind settled down and picked up in force for the second race of the day, also run on Course 3. Fran Charles / Ron Sandstrom won the race, with Jake Fiumara / Joe Chambers in second and Peter Cusick / George Iverson third.
Sunday saw the fleet go out to Broad Sound again. As happened on the previous day the wind was on the light side the first time up on Course 3. Because of a certain amount of jockeying for position several boats were called over early at the start and had to restart. Among them were Cusick / Iverson. With the light winds several of the lighter crews seemingly made their moves and rounded the first mark in good positions. However as the race went on the wind continued to increase in strength and the lighter crews were left behind. Meanwhile because of the power struggle both Fiumara / Chambers and Cusick / Iverson dropped back to below mid-fleet. Finally Cusick was able to shake Fiumara but it was too late to be able to climb back out of the hole. Bill Watson / Roger Sharp won the race, followed by Fran Charles / Ron Sandstrom and proud new father Ken Woods (with photos of daughter Kendall and wife Loren doing well) / Bill Paton came in third.
Racing for the top spots was very close. Only one point separated series’ second from series’ fifth and three points separated series’ second from series’ seventh. Several people were left saying “If we had only….”
Jake Fiumara / Joe Chambers won both the Blue Star and the Junior Trophy. Fran Charles / Ron Sandstrom, who got the series’ second, also won the Green Star. John Safford / Patrick Bodden got series’ third. Bill Watson / Roger Sharp were the top Masters, Dave & Mike Chittick the top Grand Masters, Ted Engel / Ed Demarais the top Exalted Grand Master, and Emil Karlovshy / Brian Kane the top Venerable Exalted Grand Master.
With delicious meals on both Friday and Saturday nights and a nice awards’ ceremony put on after the series was over on Sunday the Boston Harbor fleet and event organizer John Siljander made this a memorable event.
JULY 4th SERIES
June 30-July 4, 2001
Milford Y.C.
The weather prediction for the July 4th Series was not what one would desire for sailing, but for Saturday’s and Sunday’s races fortunately the predictions were off. Saturday’s race was run in moderate wind. Dylan Mark and Mike Lebov led most of the way and finished first, followed by David & Alejandra Bolles and Charlie Correll / Andy Nelson. Sunday’s race was held in the best wind of the season. Jack Button / Charles Sevincer showed the boats the way around the course followed by Don Gray / Wayne Pierce and David & Alejandra Bolles. Unfortunately the race on July 4th never got underway due to lack of wind. Dylan Mark / Mike Lebov, using a boat donated to the Milford Y.C. sailing foundation by Don & Valerie Cronan, won the series. David & Alejandra Bolles had a series second and Don Gray / Wayne Pierce a series third.
Pl Boat Skipper Crew R1 R2 Tot
1 6554 Dylan Mark Mike Lebov 1 4 5
2 7012 David Bolles Alejandra Bolles 2 3 5
3 7964 Don Gray Wayne Pierce 4 2 6
4 6822 Charles Correll Andy Nelson 3 5 8
5 7565 Jack Button Charles Sevincer dns 1 12
6 7554 Emil Karlovsky Susan Taylor 5 dns 16
7 7306 Don Cronan Valerie Taylor 6 dns 17
8 7724 Joe Giunti John Taylor dnf dns 22T
9 6020 Jim Schumacher Sally Schumacher dnf dns 22T
10 6731 John Courtney dns dnf 22T
67th Miller Memorial Series
Gibson Island
July 7-8, 2001
by John “Little Mac” MacCausland
On the East coast we have many regattas that have a long history. The Miller Series has just that the series started in 1932 and except for the war years it has run continually to this date. Names like Etchells, Lippincott, Ogilvy, Allsopp, Beek, Ruggles are only a few of the 67 winners. This years event was run on the weekend of July 7-8. We had a nice breeze on Saturday 10 to 14 from the southwest. For the Chesapeake in the summer it was as close to heaven as it gets.
The first race the right paid on the first beat. Davis Buckley and John Rodgers lead at every mark only to be passed right at the line by John Vanderhoff and Rowan Perkins.
Race two: same race course, same breeze one hour later and the left paid big. The leader this race was Tom Price and Will Wagner. They held this lead to the last leeward mark of the windward leeward course where John MacCausland and Shane Zwingelberg just got an inside overlap and were able to hold the lead to the finish. Tom Price held in for second holding off a late charge from John Vanderhoff.
So Sunday started off with John Vanderhoff with a 1-3, John MacCausland 4-1 and Tom Price with a 6-2. The conditions for Sunday were a little different from Saturday.
On Sunday the breeze more to the west and about 5 to 8 mph. The first beat the right paid. John Vanderhoff and Arron Serinis were the lead boats from this side with John MacCausland and Tom Price the 2 most left boats and rounding well behind the leaders. From here on the race only got wilder. There were good puffs from the right and in-between the puffs there was not much wind. On the first run the fleet got a little bunched up. The lead boats tacked around the leeward mark which let John MacCausland get his nose out to the right which was the way to go. The fleet then started to work the right side. The second weather mark Arron Serinis led with Trapper Lippincott and Barbara Vosbury second John MacCausland third. This all stayed the same for the last leeward mark. Then it got really mixed up. In the last 500 yards a lot of places changed. Trapper Lippincott won the race. Elliott Oldak came from 6th or 7th to finish second. John MacCausland held his place for third. Arron Serinis and Chris Brown who lead the whole race finished fourth. Tom Price came back form the dead to finish fifth with John Vanderhoff finishing sixth. With these mixed up finishes it took a little time to figure out the overall places.