Signing Out for the Summer

With the closing dinner behind us and the fleet put away it is time to sign out for the summer! We had unbelievable weather this summer with only 2 or 3 days where we could not sail due to high winds and rain. Our sailors made huge improvements, and it was easy to see each individual becoming more comfortable on the water and their love for sailing grow. Thank you to all of my instructors for working really hard this summer, you definitely made my job much easier! I hope everyone has a terrific winter and comes back next year for another summer on the water!
-Sally

Boat of the Week: Hobie 16

Catamarans are quite different than the sailboats normally sailed in sailing school. Not only do they have 2 pontoons, or hulls, but Hobie 16s have no centerboards! Mr. Ward was kind enough to take 12 rambunctious kids on his Hobie 16 today. They learned how to rig and sail the boat, as well as how to use the trapeze harness! Hobies tend to be a little more fun with lots of breeze, and unfortunately we only had a weak Northerly today. But with swimming and dragging behind the boat I think I can safely say the kids really enjoyed themselves. Thanks again Mr. Ward!

Race Series: Opti B

Yesterday the Opti B class held a mini-race series of three races.  They did an M course, an I course and an F course which was shortened to an M due to the wind dying. We had 9 students race. Here are the results:

1. Luke Welch          (1,1,1)  3 points
2. Owen Ward          (3,2,2)  7 points
3. Casey Sullivan      (2,3,4)  9 points
4. Scotty Bocock       (4,4,6) 14 points
5. Maggie Sullivan    (7,5,2) 14 points
6. Paige Lacava         (6,7,5) 18 points
7. Graham Robinson (5,6,8) 19 points
8. Seamus Clair         (8,8,9) 25 points
9. Izzy Lacava           (9,9,7) 26 points

Nice job everybody! It's great to see our sailors still motivated and ready to race even towards the end of the season!

An Osprey Perched on the Flagpole this Morning

Boat of the Week: J105

What an awesome sail we had last Friday! It was a beautiful sunny day with about 10-12 knots of wind. Mr. Bender took 12 sailing school students and me out in his J105, Maji Moto. Every sailor had a chance to "hike out" by hanging their legs over the windward rail and they all got to steer the boat! They found it a little tricky as there were no points on land (we were headed South) for them to aim for. They also found that the boat was much more responsive than they expected and had to count for the boat overcorrecting. I am glad the students had a chance to see there is more to sailing than just Optis. Thanks again Mr. Bender!

Owen Ward taking his job of skippering very seriously

Mr. Bender teaching the young sailors about the boat

Some sailors relaxing on the Leeward side

In other news the Seamen class had a Pirate Day of their own! Check out some sweet pictures of the young pirates!

Jack Welburn "walkin the plank!"

Amelia Garrity playing the part of a pirate extremely well

Young scalliwags diggin for buried treasure!

We will be having another Cummings Cup try out this Wednesday at 9:30 a.m. Would love to see more sailors out there and interested! We had Abby and Codi Quirk and Tyler Hogan last Friday. They did a fantastic job and maneuvered the Flying Scot with ease in the big breeze. Tyler has sailed the Flying Scot many times, but I think it was apparent to the girls that they will need a lot of practice in the boat before they race it. Let me know if you want to attend on Wednesday, there is a possibility of having another clinic Friday morning as well.

Young Naturalist at SHYC

This afternoon Nate Miller found a tern on the jetty with a broken wing. He remained calm and delegated tasks to his friends so that they could safely get the bird in a box and to a wildlife shelter. We were all impressed Nate's calm and commanding attitude, and happy that he took it upon himself to help this bird.
We drove the bird to the Wildcare center in Eastham. The woman was very happy we brought the bird in. She said it has a fracture in its wing and was very dehydrated and hungry. Hopefully its fracture will heal before the tern population migrates thousands of miles in a couple of weeks. Thanks again Nate!

For more information about the Wildcare Rescue Center, or to make a donation please visit:

http://www.wildcarecapecod.org/

Cummings Cup Try Out

The Cummings Cup is a SMSA sponsored event for Junior sailors (not turning 19 in the calendar year) to be held in 3-person boats. Winners (and usually 1st and 2nd place) go on to the Area A event which is the qualifier for the National Championship. The Cummings Cup is usually held early each summer - the last week in June or first week in July. Because this event is is held so early in the Stone Horse YC season, we would like to choose a crew to represent SHYC this season prior to Labor Day. This way the crew can practice together prior to next summer's competition.

This event has been hosted for the past several years by Pleasant Bay Community Boating in Flying Scots. Skippers or crews do not have to be sailing school students but must be members of SHYC.

Anyone interested should attend the first clinic/try out session this Friday, August 13th at 9:30 a.m. It will primarily be an introduction to the Flying Scot, including on the water drills. Subsequent clinics will involve spinnaker work, boathandling practice, racing rules and racing tactics.

Anyone interested please contact me ASAP. You can either e-mail me at sarasallyevans@gmail.com or come see me in the office.
Thanks!

Arrrgh!

Pirate day was a great success! We saw some great costumes but Graham Robinson and Riley Noyes were definitely the most realistic pirates. The young pirates went on a scavenger hunt searching out clues between both harbors. Not only did they have to walk the plank and sing sea shanties but they had to dig to find buried treasure!

A Pirated Boat!

Some Young Scalliwags Rigging

Girls Dressed Up For Pirate Day (They weren't even sailing, what commitment!)

The Pirates of Opti A

Digging for Buried Treasure: X Marks the Spot!

Buried Treasure a.k.a Candy!!

Heavy Winds in Hyannisport

With gusts of up to 25 knots and breeze from the southwest, the Hyannisport Opti Invitational was extremely challenging. Fortunately our sailors went to the regatta prepared with a few heavy wind days of practice under their belts.

The key to success was focus, remaining calm, and knowing how to work the boat both upwind and downwind. The students have probably learned "ease/hike/trim" a thousand times, yet those who could enact it on the water proved to be the most successful in the races. Playing the waves downwind was also advantageous. The ISAF rules allow one pump per wave in planing conditions, if you can time the pump of your sail right you can surf down the waves right past your competition.

Our top finisher was Brad Kelly who came in first place in the competitive Blue Fleet. Congratulations Brad!

As a reminder Pirate Day is tomorrow! Please come wearing costumes and prepared for a day of fun!
-Sally

Regatta Report: Vineyard Haven and Wianno Opti Invite

Our opti and 420 sailors both sailed in two day events last week. The first was a 420 regatta at Vineyard Haven that took place on Monday and Tuesday. The sailors sailed their 420s over from Falmouth on Sunday night with Niki in a coach boat following them. The two boats we sent over consisted of Kyle Powers and his crew from Stage Harbor and George Robbie with crew Jack Winslow. They sailed in a 58 boat fleet coming in 28th and 37th respectively.

For some crazy reason they thought it would be a great idea to sail back from the Vineyard to Harwichport. They completed the trip in about 6 hours! A pretty impressive feat, but not something that I would like to take part in. Nice job!

The Wianno Opti 2-day Regatta began last Wednesday at around noon. It was blowing maybe 15-20 knots which is quite windy for even our most competent Opti racers. Our 7 sailors proved that they were up to the challenge of heavy winds  and confidently sailed in breeze both days. Colin superiorly coach the boys and managed to rig boats/fix boats/coach all in huge waves and breeze. Our top finisher was Brad Kelly who finished 9th in Blue Fleet and 23rd overall. Nice Job Everyone!

Pirate Day Be Upon Us!

Arrgh Mateys, Pirate Day be gettin' closer, make sure t' prepare yer best costumes an' bare yer swords t' swashbuckle other scalliwags on th' high seas!

There be treasure fer the most accomplished Pirates, so be sure t' act 'n behave th' best if ye be not wantin' to walk the plank into Davy Jones' Locker!

The day o' reckoning be Thursday August 5th during Sailing School.

See ye thar seafarin' heartys! 

Regatta Report: Stone Horse Laser Regatta

As sailors pulled into Stone Horse on Saturday morning the wind was quite uncooperative. By uncooperative I mean nonexistent. By the time the 56 sailors launched a weak Northerly had filled. In all races an I course was sailed, however in the first race the wind shifted to the East causing the last upwind to be more of a reach. By the fourth and final race a nice Easterly had filled probably around 10 knots. We had 49 boats in the full rig division and 8 boats in the Laser division. Our very own Colin Smith won all four races in the full rig division winning the regatta overall. Oriane Longerstay sailed very well winning two races and placing second in the other two gaining her first place in the radial division. 

A big thank you to Jeff Ward who organized the regatta, Peter McAvoy for running the race committee, Tricia Murray and Shelly Ward for dealing with registration and results and to everyone else who helped patrol, set marks, and record results. 

For full results from the Laser Regatta visit :

http://www.regattanetwork.com/clubmgmt/applet_regatta_results.php?regatta_id=3058&show_sub_class=1

We sent four sailors and coach Niki Osvalds to Vineyard Haven this weekend for a 2-day 420 regatta. Make sure you send them positive sailing thoughts as they tackle a large fleet and big breeze. 

The sailing school photo happened today. If you would like to order a photo make sure to e-mail me at sarasallyevans@gmail.com so I can place the order. 

If you are going to the Wianno Opti Regatta make sure to notify me or Damian Noyes so that we can prepare a trailer to be sent over on Tuesday.

Thanks!

Sally

Approaching the Mid-Season Mark!

Wow! We have had quite the summer so far! June and July could not have been more amazing in terms of weather. With good wind and sun everyday our sailors have been given every chance to learn and improve their skills! We had our first rainy day on Monday which is quite a difference from last year when we had a rainy month!

There are still more regattas to be sailed. We have the Laser regatta coming up this Saturday. If you plan on sailing in the regatta make sure you register online by tomorrow! The link for registration is :
https://www.regattanetwork.com/clubmgmt/applet_registration_form.php?regatta_id=3058

TJ Noonan and Nelson Millett sailed a tough regatta at Bass River Yacht Club yesterday. They made improvements throughout the day working on their spinnaker technique. They finished up with a solid 4th place!

This weekend we are sending 4 sailors to the Vineyard Haven Regatta. Let's make sure we send positive thoughts their way in hopes that they sail fast and stay safe!

There are two Opti Regattas left, Wianno (July 28th-29th) and Hyannisport (August 4th). If you haven't done two regattas already make sure you sign up for one of these!

Mid-Season Evaluations will be ready by Friday next week. They will be available to be picked up in the office if you already requested that, or they will be mailed to the address marked on your registration.

See you all on the water!
Sally

Sailors in Opti A practice sailing backwards

Windy Day Calls For RAD Sails

As I'm sure you all know, Nantucket Sound can have gnarly breeze, and huge waves. Our kids tend to be some of the toughest sailors out there. I frequently hear "there isn't enough wind" in 8 knots of breeze, or "light wind is boring". One problem we face with all of this breeze is having sails that are too big for smaller sailors. We purchased three RAD sails this year. RAD stands for reduced area design. They are designed for our club 420s and allow sailors of all sizes to sail in every wind condition. Yacht clubs around the country are adding a RAD line in their regattas so that smaller sailors can competitively race 420s without worrying about windier conditions. Below are some pictures of the RAD sails:

X-treme Stone Horse Sailors Prove Talent at Opti X-Treme

 

We had an early start yesterday with hundreds of young sailors piling in with a look of fear and anticipation on their faces. The wind was coming out light from the East, and fog was building towards Chatham. However, the inevitable southwesterly seabreeze was on everybody's mind and finally clocked in at about 11 o'clock. We had twenty competent sailors on the Green Fleet line sailing five races. Graham Robinson was our only Stone Horse representative coming in a respectable 15th place.

On the red white and blue line we had 93 sailors, sailing out past the outer harbor jetty in pretty gnarly wind and waves. We had great success in white fleet taking the top three finishes, Drew Kelly in 1st, Brian Mitchell in 2nd and for his first placing of the season, Owen Ward in third. In Blue fleet Michael LaCava came in fourth place and Nicole Welch came in fifth place after winning a race overall! She was successful in that race by splitting with the fleet and going to the left side of the race course upwind after the leeward mark.

We had an awesome barbeque and ice cream sundae line afterwards with some of our younger chefs helping grill and delicious salads and deserts provided by various families. Thank you very much to those of you who helped out with that!

Also remember to thank Mrs. Mitchell for organizing the majority of the event, along with Mrs. Murray and Mrs. Quirk who slaved over the computer in the stifling office yesterday, while everyone else was enjoying being on the water!

Double check to make sure you didn't lose any gear, or take anyone  else's by mistake. We have a lot of extra gear in the lost and found, and a lot of messages on the answering machine about missing gear.

Thanks again to everyone for making it such a great regatta!

results can be found at : http://www.regattanetwork.com/clubmgmt/applet_regatta_results.php?regatta_id=2937

Stage Harbor Success

On Friday 15 Opti Sailors went down the street to compete in the very competitive Stage Harbor Opti Invitational. The day started off slow with a long sail out of the channel into some thick fog. By 11:30 the weather cleared up and races were sailed. Only a few raceswere sailed, and again our s

ailors persevered with consistency and focus. At his first Regatta Colin Steiger won an impressive fourth place in Green Fleet! Drew Kelly and Ellie Mitchell tied for first place in White Fleet, with Drew Kelly winning the tie breaker. Brian Mitchell came in a close third place.

In Blue Fleet Michael Lacava sailed into third place and Brad Kelly tied for fourth place, unfortunately losing the tie breaker and finishing in fifth.

Congratulations again to all of our opti sailors who participated, it is great to see so much progress! Let's hope we have even better results this Monday at Stone Horse's Opti X-Treme regatta! I hope to see all of our young sailors on the water, and friends of Stone Horse cheering them on!

Thank you to everyone for attending the presentation by Ken Read last night. There was quite a turn out, and hopefully the amazing video footage and awesome stories will inspire our younger sailors to achieve great things at the level of circumnavigation.

(for more pictures from Stage Harbor go to www.shyc.com)

Team Race Victory

Yesterday we sent eight members of the 420 race team to Hyannisport Yacht Club for an inter-club team race. They sailed five races working on different situations and techniques involved in team racing. In one particular race they did a fantastic job working into a play 4, a 1-4-5 combination. Overall they won 4 out of 5 races, coached into the win by Coach Osvalds, and they did so while maintaining their cool and sailing clean fun races. Congratulations race team!

Stone Horse Yacht Club Presents: Ken Read

This Friday, July 9th, Ken Read will be coming to Stone Horse YC! He is one of the world's most accomplished and celebrated sailors earning titles of "United States Rolex Yachtsman of the Year" and "ICSA College Sailor of the Year" He has over 40 Championships to his name.

Read was skipper of Puma Racing Team's il Mostro in the 2008-2009 edition of the Volvo Ocean Race, and will skipper the next Volvo Ocean Race beginning in October 2011.

Make sure you can come for an awesome video presentation and amazing stores.

All are welcome!!

Regattas Regattas Regattas

We could not have asked for a better regatta to start the season off, than the West Dennis Invitational! We sent about 15 opti sailors, and 4 420 sailors, and they came back with some hardware! Very few races were sailed, however our sailors truly excelled showing their consistency and focus in the hot and light conditions. Drew Kelly was awarded first place in white fleet! The Mitchell twins dominated the white fleet as well with Brian in 3rd and Ellie in 4th. Brad Kelly shone in a competitive blue fleet sailing into a respectable 3rd place. Congratulations again to all of the sailors.

As a reminder the Stage Harbor Opti Regatta will be this Friday. Please sign up for the regatta on the bulletin board. For more information contact Damian Noyes. We will be loading boats on Thursday.

Please do not forget to register for our very own Opti X-Treme regatta! We are having registration online this year at: https://www.regattanetwork.com/clubmgmt/applet_registration_form.php?regatta_id=2937

I hope every one of our opti racers will be out on the water, and crushing on their home turf.

Here's to a hot, sunny week of North winds!

-Sally

4th of July/Parent Meeting

Hi Everyone!

We had great weather and great racing this weekend. I was excited to see so many boats out on the water ready to race all weekend! A big thank you to those of you who organized and cooked for the 4th of July cookout.

I know that not everyone could make it to the parent meeting that was held last Friday July 2nd. We discussed the plans for opti and 420 regattas. As a reminder Kathleen Noonan is the 420 parent, and Damian Noyes is the opti parent. If you have questions regarding regattas contact them or me.

Another thing we discussed was responsibility. Making sure that all sailing school students are responsible for their actions on and off the water, including club owned and personally owned boats!

In other news we will be having the swim test this week, so make sure you bring a bathing suit to class!

Let's send positive and fast thoughts to the sailors at the WDYC invitational today, I will have highlights from the regatta posted tomorrow.

As a reminder Ken Read is coming next Friday at 7:30 to speak in the clubhouse. All are welcome to attend!

See you on the water!

Sally

A Great Week of Sailing

I don't think that wind and weather gods could have given us a better week of sailing! Most mornings started off with North winds of about 10 knots, and gradually the Southwest sea breeze filled in almost every day to around 15 knots. With sun on our shoulders and wind on our backs we have sailed through the first week of sailing school.

Some highlights from the week:

In the Seamen class sailors successfully sailed around a triangle course and played a little sponge basketball. We have had our first skipper of the day. This is awarded every day to someone in Seamen class who skippers for most of the day, and hopefully with a smile on their face! On Wednesday this was given to Jack Welburn.

In Opti C we have had quite the rollercoaster of a week. The first day was a little windy, but everyone came back for more sailing on Tuesday and we were all pleasantly surprised to have nice calm winds, and smooth easy sailing. The Opti C students are ready to take their boats out by themselves next week!

Opti B had an awesome class on Wednesday. They worked through huge swells which seemed to swallow up the optis, and managed to maintain their cool while sailing windward leewards and practicing follow the leader.

There has been a lot of progress in Opti A as well. After working on it all week, the class finally completed a successful Rabbit Start in which a boat on port tack sails upwind, and everyone else lines up on Starboard tack to successively duck the port tack boat. Courtney Quirk was the first successful rabbit.

420 Skippers got off to a good start. With only 3 420s in the class, there has been very close instruction, and in turn a lot of progress. They worked on perfecting their downwind legs yesterday, and will hopefully start using spinnakers next week.

The 420 race team has shown huge improvements since last summer. We have seen great trapping, some good spinnaker work and a lot of enthusiasm towards racing. They have their first club on club Team Race scrimmage next week against Hyannisport. We're hoping for good clean racing and a lot of fun!

The parent meeting will happen today at 4 p.m. I will post and e-mail bullets from the meeting for those of you who can not make it.

Both 420 and opti sailors will be sent to West Dennis Yacht Club this coming Monday for an invitational regatta. If you haven't signed up already make sure you do so on the bulletin board outside the office!

The next upcoming regattas are the Stage Harbor Opti Regatta on Friday the 16th, look for a sign-up sheet for that. The Women's Gill Trophy begins on Sunday the 11th for 420 sailors, we will hopefully be sending a couple of boats to that.

Lets make sure we send positive thoughts to our sailors going off to regattas!

Don't forget the Fourth of July Races this Sunday. If you would like to volunteer patrolling or helping move marks let me know! The Laser races will commence at 9:30, not the previously announced 10 o'clock.

See you on the water!

Sally