2006 East Coast Regatta Results

Contact Us: usaca@usaca.info

2006 Lake Hopatcong Yacht Club

A-Class Catamaran October Regatta

(Last event of the Atlantic Coast A-Class Championship)

October 7^th and 8^th, 2006

The fourth and final round of the 2006 Atlantic Coast Championship was held on Lake Hopatcong, New Jersey on October 7 & 8th. The event was hosted by the Lake Hopatcong Yacht Club, one of the oldest inland Yacht Clubs in the country.

Lake Hopatcong is widely known as one of the origins of A-Class Catamaran sailing in the US, with the first North American Championship held here in 1967, and consistently active racing since that time. It was only fitting that the last stage of the Atlantic Coast Championship be held here. 29 boats participated in the two day event from the following locations: Michigan, Rhode Island, Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, and Canada.

Sailors arrived on Friday, and were shuttled by patio boats to Regatta Chairman Peter Hefele’s home and graciously entertained with cocktails and dinner. All visiting sailors then retired for the evening, residing at local sailor’s homes on the lake.

Saturday races were held in a 14 to 16 mph breeze from the Northeast. With the long course set, four exciting races were completed by the days end. The racing was very fast, with marks set approximately 1.5 miles apart, and tactical small lake sailing was displayed at its best. There were a lot of astonished smiles by the end of the day.

Saturday evening, sailors dined at LHYC’s 100 year old Clubhouse, and were entertained with an updated reprise of Peter Block’s history of A-Cat sailing. Peter introduced four former North American Champions present at the occasion: Merrill “Doc” Stern (the legendary 86 year old, still actively sailing) --1972, Cal Fuller (82 years old and considered the father of modern A-Cat Sailing, creator of the Catnip) -- 1973, 74, 75, Michael Gruber -- 1991, and Ben Hall -- 1996, 98, 2000. After dinner, sailors retreated to the bar and enjoyed the rest of the evening relaxing with beer, wine, cordials and home-made margueritas.

Sundays Gods brought a high pressure system and left us with no wind. Racing was postponed until 12 PM and canceled at 1 PM. Lunch was served and the keg got a very serious workout as the boats were packed up and awards were presented. Ben Hall from Bristol Yacht Club won the regatta, with Michael Gruber from Lake Hopatcong finishing second, Bernd Hefele from Lake Hopatcong finishing third, Eric Anderson from Bristol fourth, and Phil Kinder from Bristol fifth. Many thanks need to go to the Race Committee, and the Regatta Committee for their excellent preparations and their very professional job in making this regatta such a success. More photos can be seen at www.lhyc.com.

The final overall results of the four series 2006 Atlantic Coast Championship were as follows:

Danny Goritski, Lake Hopatcong NJ

Ben Hall, Bristol RI
Tony Arends, West River MD
Jim Godbey, Bristol RI
Phil Kinder, Bristol RI

As the season comes to a close, we would like to thank all the fleets who hosted the rounds of the ACC series and everyone who participated this season. A special thanks to Tony Arends for donating a beautiful first place trophy for the Atlantic Coast Championship.

Finger Lakes Regatta and East Coast Championship Series

Ithaca, NY

July 22-23

The Ithaca Yacht Club hosted the regatta on the weekend of July 22-23. Nine boats raced, coming from Canada, New Jersey, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Ithaca. The regatta also served as the third event of the east coast championship series (along with regattas in MD, NJ, and RI). Danny Goritski from the Lake Hopatcong NJ fleet won, followed by Eric Anderson from the Bristol RI fleet, and Ithaca Yacht Club’s own Len Dolhert finished third. The sailors had a great time, especially enjoying our yacht club’s hospitality and bacon cheeseburgers! Eric Anderson presented a Bristol Yacht Club burgee to the club. Racing was in light and moderate conditions. The racing was very interesting, with many position changes during each race, including near the finishes. Also interesting, the finish of the first race predicted the final results.

Skipper	Sail #	Race 1	2	3	4	5	6	7	Points	Standing

Danny Goritski	211	1	x 2	1	1	1	1	1	6	1
Eric Anderson	28	2	1	2	x 4	2	3	2	12	2
Len Dolhert	189	3	5	3	3	5	x 6	3	22	3
Steve Clark	222	4	3	6	2	3	x 7	6	24	4
Fred Smith	51	5	6	5	5	4	x 8	5	30	5
Peter Block	3065	6	7	4	x 8	7	4	4	32	6
Mark Skeels	223	7	4	x 8	6	8	2	8	35	7
Dean Lennox	30	8	8	7	x 9	6	5	7	41	8
Willy Clark	146	x 9	9	9	7	9	9	9	52	9

Spring Regatta at the West River Sailing Club

Hi A cat racers.

The 2006 sailing season is well underway in the Mid Atlantic region. Our first event was the Spring regatta at West river sailing club and stage one of the Atlantic coast championship.

17 boats registered . 11 local boats , 2 from Bristol, 4 for New Jersey.

The weather and water temperature where good , wind and racing conditions excellent.

Both the visiting and local boats showed good performance and sailing skills as the wind varied between 7 to 13 knots. Ben Hall and Jim Godbey as expected where fast when the breeze was up and sailing very aggressively downwind. As the breeze dropped the Annapolis and New Jersey boats performed better. As always mild or wild was the topic of the day.

At the end of day one Ben Hall on the Flying Rat was clearly in the lead followed by Racer X then Jim Godbey in 3rd place.

That evening while enjoying dinner and the ice cold keg of beer Ben Hall instructed the fleet on what makes an A cat go fast. Ben's tips helped everyone the next day.

Less wind was forecasted for day 2 , but the weather man got that wrong and sailing conditions where much like Saturdays perfect day on the race coarse.

Race 5 was very close, at the leeward mark Ben Hall and Dan Goritski got tangled which forced Ben to retire early with a broken rudder cross bar. This unfortunately ended Ben's day as the results show with a DNF and DNS.

Interestingly enough the top 3 finishers where from different clubs, which proved each of the fleets are competitive and sail well at an interclub event.

The event was a success. The Spring regatta numbers increased by 30% over 2005.

Atlantic coast Championship dates

Stage 2 Bristol RI, June 10-11

Stage 3 Ithica NY, July 22-23

Stage 4 Lake Hopatcong NJ Oct 7-8

Racer X

USA 226

Division: A-Cat (17 boats) (top)

Pos	Sail	Boat	Skipper	Race 1	Race 2	Race 3	Race 4	Race 5	Race 6	Total Points	Pos
1	226		Arends, Tony	[3]	2	1	2	1	1	7.00	1
2	200		Godbey, Jim	2	[4]	4	3	2	3	14.00	2
3	211		Goritski, Danny	4	[5]	3	4	5	2	18.00	3
4	124		Chris, Ford	[5]	3	5	5	3	4	20.00	4
5	99		Ben, Hall	1	1	2	1	[18/DNF]	18/DNS	23.00	5
6	157		Dannheimer, Alec	7	7	[8]	8	4	5	31.00	6
7	173		Hetele, Bernd	[18/DNS]	9	7	9	7	9	41.00	7
8	134		Bellerman, Mark	6	6	11	7	[18/DNS]	18/DNS	48.00	8
9	143		Kaiser, Joe	10	14	10	[18/DNS]	9	7	50.00	9
10	215		Saunders, George	9	11	[18/DNS]	18/DNS	6	8	52.00	10
11	223		Skeels, Mark	[18/DNS]	12	12	11	8	10	53.00	11
12	179		Mehring, Sterling	11	10	15	12	[18/DNS]	6	54.00	12
13	13		Kreeb, Mike	[18/DNS]	8	6	6	18/DNS	18/DNS	56.00	13
14	823		Taylor, David	8	13	9	10	[18/DNS]	18/DNS	58.00	14
15	65		Hefele, ??	[18/DNS]	15	13	13	18/DNS	18/DNS	77.00	15
16	159		Durrett, Ken	[18/DNS]	18/DNS	14	18/DNS	18/DNS	18/DNS	86.00	16
17	133		Mack, David	[18/DNS]	18/DNS	18/DNS	18/DNS	18/DNS	18/DNS	90.00	17

Notes
- Scoring System is ISAF Low Point 2005-2008
- Finishes in [brackets] denote throwouts
- Time limit penalty is: DNF