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!