High Tidings August 2023
/The Picture Issue
Upcoming Events for August
Wednesday evenings – Grill Night – Join for a drink or dinner
Thursday evenings – Thursday Night Racing – be at the dock by 5:00 if you want to join
Friday August 4 – Last day of Jr. Sailing
August 5-20 Annual Club Cruise
Friday August 25 – Ice Cream Social
Commodore Remarks
NCYC is “Copper Bottomed” with her new teak deck and sturdy deck furniture. We had a very successful Outer Light Classic event thank to the hard work of Amy Vinciguerra and her team, with nineteen boats racing and a well-attended post-race party. It’s also been a great year for Junior Sailing school, creating our next generation of boaters and sailors and they are on the final tack to the finish. Our sailors have competed well this season which you can read about in the following pages. Next on the horizon is our annual Club cruise. Hope to see many of you at the various ports of call. This is a local Watch Hill, BI, to North Fork LI cruise so come join us for an overnight or even day trip if you have one of those fast power boats.
HELP WANTED… Rich Peters, Chris Bazinet and I are constructing bead board seat boxes to place under the South windows to store junior sailing parts and supplies-getting away from the tables with table cloths attempting to hide the gear. We would like a volunteer to paint them so they fit in with the interior decor. If you can assist, please email me at louvinci@gmail.com. We can place them on saw horses under the overhang outside the galley and have painting supplies ready.
ALSO, with sailing school coming to a close we have a several OPTI’s dinghys in need of fiberglass repair. Our member David Gilmore has done amazing restoration work turning a boat that looks like it should be retired into one the kids are hoping they get to sail. If you are interested in learning some of the tips and tricks of fiberglass repair email me at louvinci@gmail.com. In the fall after the club cruise, I was thinking of doing a couple weeknight night work parties and let members experience prepping a broken OPTI bow corner, mixing resin and hardener and, applying layers of fiberglass.
May the seas lie smooth before you. May a gentle breeze forever fill your sails. May sunshine warm your face, And kindness warm your soul.
Lou Vinciguerra, Commodore
Vice Commodore Remarks
How time flies when we are having fun! As usual, Rob and I are not getting out on the boat as much as we would like. That being said, I spent a wonderful day on Seahorse for the Outer Light Race, which you can read about next.
Linda Tuzzio, Vice Commodore
Outer Light Classic
What is it like to participate in North Cove Yacht Club’s biggest event of the season? Here are the inside reports!
Regatta Chair/ Program Director/ Party Planner
Amy Vinciguerra
When I first took the reins of planning the Outer Light Classic, Rob Hathaway gave me a handwritten timeline of each step of the planning process. He gave me the advice that “planning for next year starts on the day after the race”. I have found that to be extremely true, and I usually get a head start on that. Once all the food has been eaten, all the trophies awarded, all the chairs put away, I go home that very night and begin making my notes for next year: “Order more pulled pork,” “over 100 tickets sold,” “Too many T-shirts.” As I’ve grown up in the club, I’m learning to share the load a little more. This year the Outer Light Planning Committee began meeting in March and met each month to prepare for the July event. Each meeting we had a different topic: Marketing, Fundraising, Race Preparations, Party Planning, and then a meeting for final touches before the big day. Most important of all, these meetings ensured that each step of the planning happened in a timely manner. Posters were printed and distributed to the surrounding clubs, booklets with revised sailing instructions and advertisements were printed, and we attended the Essex pre- race party to promote our event. All things that happened this year with the help of the Planning Committee. I took over this event at a time where interest in running a regatta was dwindling. I started sailing here at NCYC when I was 8 years old, at 12 I was racing against the adult members in Dyer Dohws. I couldn’t imagine a yacht club without sail boat racing. The Outer Light Classic has become one of my favorite events at North Cove because it is such a beautiful melding of racers from other clubs. Having the chance to share our clubhouse and waterfront with the racers from ECSA (Eastern Connecticut Sailing Association) feels like the real spirit of yachting. If you’ve been looking for a way to get involved, be on the lookout in March when we begin planning for 2024.
The Committee Boat
Karl Frost
The Committee, or more accurately, the "Signal" boat, performs several primary functions: To start, finish, and record official times for each individual racing boat, and to act as one end of the start and finish lines (which is often the same line used for two purposes).
For the start, the Signal boat goes to the general vicinity of the race course start area, and takes input from the Mark boat on final position for length & orientation of the start line. Once that is established, the racers check in by driving by Signal boat and yelling their boat name and class in which they plan to compete. The Professional Race Officer communicates the race course(s) via radio, and then we start the flag sequence that takes each class through the phases of the start...this is a very busy time of the race and the actual starts are often quite competitive and exciting. For this Outer Light race we had 3 classes with 6-7 boats in each class fighting to cross the start first or, within the established rules, cut a competitor out from having a start advantage.
After the three classes start, there is some time for debriefing, jokes, or perhaps a bit of lunch, but with 3 classes totalling 20 boats of varying speed, the first roundings (if a multi-leg race) and finishes start coming in fairly soon, so we soon are recording finish times.
After all racers finish, it's time to return to the Club for the food & party, which as always is great fun.
The Mark Boat
Linda Tuzzio
Years ago, I raced on friends’ sailboats in the Sound and on Block Island. My experiences ranged from exhilarating to endlessly waiting for the wind and current to change in our favor. The committee boat, always vigilant, stood by, watching and critiquing our strategies. The larger races had mark boats and chase boats too.
I had the good fortune to be on the mark boat this year for the Outer Light Race. The Mark boat is the one that ventures out from the anchored committee boat and sets a ‘mark’ buoy as a waypoint for the sailors to fetch and go around, port side to. We set one mark this year, our large orange buoy, although we brought two and were ready to set the second one, if needed.
My preconceived notions for the day were that it was going to be hard work at times and a long boring day in the sun. Happily, it was neither! There were five of us on the boat and the work was evenly divided. Our boat has a hard top so sitting in the sun was optional. We positioned our boat close to the mark. The race official on board was able to call out the names of the boats as they rounded and I got some great photos.
The race official on our boat was in frequent communication with the race official on the committee boat. I was impressed with the skill and expertise of the officials in plotting, planning, and executing the race course. They are under-appreciated.
We repositioned the boat frequently for the best angles to watch and monitor the roundings. For the start of the second race, we moved our boat to watch the sailors cross the start line. It was great fun watching them maneuver into place, jockeying for the best position. How I remember the thrill of a good start!
Then we motored up and moved into position for the rounding of the mark buoy, enjoying a lunch that Amy provided. Cold drinks and water were plentiful. No alcoholic beverages on our boat while underway. That is for the after party!
It was a beautiful and thoroughly enjoyable day on the water. I encourage anyone who is looking for a fun experience to volunteer to be on one of the boats for Outer Light, Belle 8, or Thursday night racing. It’s a blast!
The Pin Boat
Deb Paulson
The pin boat is the smallest of the race committee boats. It fits two people and big orange inflated “pin.” The initial job of the pin boat is to hang around near the Signal boat while towing the pin and awaiting instructions. It takes a while for the Professional Race Organizers (PRO’s) to test wind, water, current etc. and determine an optimal course for the regatta. The pin boat has to be ready. As soon as the course is determined, the signal boat gives the pin boat instructions on where to drive to put the pin to mark the other end of the start/finish line. Because Alex Beauchene, master pin boat helmsman (and senior sailing instructor) was not at his first rodeo, as the saying goes, he had a pretty good idea of where that drop would be and sure enough, when the instructions came, we only needed to tow the pin a few yards before the order came to drop its anchor. After that we stayed near the pin and waited for the races to start, becoming a second pair of eyes for a clean start from the racers.
When we got the ok to roam, the next phase began. The pin boat has no shade, so to counteract that, we went fast to catch spray–and let’s face it, just because it’s fun–and also to get to different points within the race so that I could get photos for this August issue as well as to put on our website so racers from other clubs can access them. We also went to Belle 8–one of the marks for the racers to turn around; both to get photos and to ensure that everyone did, indeed go around the buoy, radioing that info to the signal boat. At races’ end, we hauled up the pin and deflated it, stuffed it into its container and headed back upriver to a fantastic party!
The Racer
Joe Carroll (As reported by Special Correspondent Midshipman Stubby Stubbs of the SS Madaket).
On Sunday July 24th @1000 Madaket set sail out of North Cove in Old Saybrook toward the 12:00 noon start of the Outer Light Regatta (situated about 1-mile South West of Old Saybrook’s Outer Light House). Our Skipper, Starbuck O’Carroll XXI of Nantucket Island, had the fat catboat clipping along at 7+ knots as our vessel was hurled by the river current into Long Island Sound via a wall of turgid brown water with entrained logs, trees, and upper New England high class sewage effluent that had coursed its way down the river valley from Vermont and Massachusetts’ flooding brooks, streams, and municipal sewage plants.
Once in Long Island Sound the 6-ton catboat Madaket effortlessly cut through the rip currents on a West by Southwest heading toward the anchored Race Committee. On our bow was Mildred Jewett, a Nantucket girl of Polynesian/Nantucket whaling family heritage with the eyesight of an eagle, and the remarkable capacity to find wind, and make loud utterances that scared our competition away from us.
We approached race committee and Millie started a Gam session where she announced our vessel’s intension to battle in the Outer Light Classic. Soon, Madaket and our fellow competitors were given a course to follow. We were to follow a compass heading of 230- degrees for 1.2 miles to round to port a small barely observable floating orange beach ball, followed by a heading eastward to Bell Buoy #8, followed by another heading westward to Cornfield Point Bell #2, the sight of an early 1800’s ship wreck where over 100 people were killed, and later buried in the cornfields of Saybrook’s Cornfield Point and Knollwood Beach. After rounding Cornfield Point Bell buoy, we were to return eastward to finish at the starting point of the Race located about 3/4 mile off of Knollwood Beach. Finishing boats were to cross on a line opposite the starting line between a flag on the race committee boat and an anchored orange beach ball.
The wind was out of the Southwest from about 230-degrees at 9 knots. There was a 2 knot tide running westward in Long Island Sound. We were given a 5-minute starting sequence, and Skipper said to me “Mr. Stubbs: bring ye mainsheet in” as he maneuvered the mighty Madaket close hauled up to the starting line. Skipper ordered Millie to maintain a watch for logs, and other vessels that may enter into our path, and also to keep track of the amount of time ticking away on a stop watch to the start of the race. Millie was ordered to make sure we did not arrive too early at the starting line prior to the start of the race.
Finally, the race began, and Skipper positioned Madaket on the line so that we would have the most advantageous start. Madaket headed on a starboard tack closed hauled on a 200-degree compass bearing heading toward the middle of LI Sound. After a short time almost all of the competitors tacked west on a port tack, and Millie began to question Skipper’s prudence of not tacking to cover the other vessels. Skipper thoughtfully answered Millie that the tide was pulling us westward toward the mark, and that on our heading we could quickly make a clear layline to the mark in off shore’s heavier wind & tide. Millie persisted in her opinions but Skipper continued on his strategy, and next thing we knew Madaket rounded the mark first many boat lengths ahead of the competition. Well, what did Millie expect? Skipper is one of the Nantucket Starbuck O’Carrolls.
Next, we set an easterly course toward Belle 8 against the tide. Skipper remembered the Connecticut River ink colored tidal wave filled with debris, sewage, and sediment that was cutting through the Long Island Sound Eastward inside of the astronomical westward flowing tide line (AKA incoming tide). The Connecticut River tidal wave was inky black, and there was a definable rip tide line just outside of the mouth of the river heading eastward toward Nantucket. So, Skipper positioned Madaket in the eastward flowing river flow, and eventually Madaket travelled farther eastward ahead of the competition. Skipper then crossed Madaket over to Bell 8 out of the river tide and into the incoming LI Sound tide. Next, Madaket arrived at Bell 8 ahead of our competitors, successfully rounded the buoy with Millie yelling at another boat to stay clear of us, “You, you know who I’m talking to…..Keep away from Madaket” she yelled like a Tourette syndrome patient. Madaket then made a bee-line westward to Cornfield Point Bell Buoy #2.
Although there were some moments where Madaket became becalmed during the race, and didn’t make much progress, we arrived first out of our competitors at the Cornfield Point Bell buoy. However, at that time, contrary to the timing of the tide change in Captain Eldridge’s Tide & Pilot Manual, the LI Sound tide had already changed to flowing eastward. Unfortunately, Madaket was inadvertently positioned to be dragged into (instead of away from) Cornfield Point Bell Buoy upon its rounding, and Skipper needed to perform another quick tack to get around Cornfield Point buoy. This required a short burst of commands from Skipper to Me-Stubbart Wendell Stubbs IV- who was on the main sheet, and also prepared to become a fender between Madaket and the large Gonging Red Metal rigidly anchored buoy. Well, I’d do anything for “Skipper” and “Madaket”.
Next, Skipper successfully rounded Madaket around the loudly gonging buoy, without me having to sacrifice myself for Skipper and Madaket. We accelerated eastward on a broad reach on our way to the finish line leaving our competitors to stare at the shimmering gold leafed name “Madaket” on our transom. The shimmering name quickly became a distant imprint in the minds of our competitors.
We crossed over the finish line well before our other competitors. In other words, “we got the gun”. However, because of an antiquated handicap rating system, some sloops have a significantly higher handicap rating than our cat boat, and two of them finished ahead of Madaket in corrected time by only a few seconds.
I’m sorry Skipper for looking at the 2022 Eldridge manual instead of the 2023 volume. I believe that if Madaket didn’t have to perform the extra tack against a tide around the Cornfield Point Bell buoy that we surely would have beat the 2-heavily handicapped racing sloops. However, that’s sailboat racing, and there is always another ECSA regatta around the corner to win.
Thank you NCYC Outer Light race committee and Amy Vinciguerra’s planning and leadership for making the Outer Light Regatta and party so much fun for Me (Stubbart Wendell Stubbs IV), Millie, and my wonderful “Skipper”.
Stubbart Wendell Stubbs IV, July 24, 2023, Nantucket Island
Outer Light Classic Regatta 2023
Junior Sailing
The Summer 2023 junior sailing season ends on August 4th. We had 80 sailors throughout our three sailing sessions and made it to 5 junior sailing regattas this year. In my final High Tidings update for the year, I wanted to express my gratitude to the village that helps make our program run.
I am so grateful for…
· Everyone who signed up to be duty officers – from assisting with ice packs to kind words for a nervous sailor – you are great ambassadors for our club
· Those who kept our fleet in repair - Commodore Lou, David Gilmore and countless others who provide the magic skills to keep our small boats afloat
· Caite Whitbeck for organizing the last Friday cookouts this season – these meals bring lots of smiles
· Our junior sailing committee for their pre-season prep from interviewing instructors to deciding on t-shirt designs [side note: there are still some adult 2023 t-shirts $15 and navy blue bucket hats $20 available for sale]
· Our sailing instructors (Scott Soukup, Stephanie Charbonnier, Nadia Goodman) for keeping 80 sailors from ages 8-16 engaged while instilling a love of sailing
· Alex Beauchene, Roy Guile’s grandson and our Head Instructor, who stepped into a new role this year and took on day-to-day management of our instructors. From ensuring they had daily lesson plans to assisting on the water to coaching sailors at regattas, Alex helped elevate our program!
Last but definitely not least, I am especially grateful for Amy Vinciguerra, our Program Director. I could not take on the chair role (and work full-time) if it were not for her. NCYC is so fortunate to have Amy running the summer operations of the junior sailing program. In addition to the expected summer hours, Amy works tirelessly to prep for the season always looking for ways for us to improve. Last fall, she advocated for dividing her role of Program Director and Head Instructor into two roles which was a resounding success. We creatively brainstormed how to cover the extra cost landing on slightly increasing tuition and increasing the number of sailors per session by 2. This change allowed us to operate at a higher and safer level! Thank you is not a big enough phrase for Amy’s hard work and dedication to our program!
Wishing everyone fair winds and following seas!
With gratitude,
Melissa Mason, NCYC Junior Sailing Chair
Cord Enman getting his first place trophy!
Our Junior sailors at the Pettipaug reatta. 5th place in 420 spinnaker, 2nd place in non-spinaker, 5th and 6th place is Opti blue fleet, 1st place in Opti red fleet, and 2nd place in green fleet.
winner of the Ed Godfrey Jr. Racing Series: Kory (at right) in 420’s and Cord in optis
Activities
Well, the Regatta was our biggest activity this month, but there was another one:
POT-LUCK NAUTI-DIME BINGO
You know, not all events have to be huge. Sometime just a few makes for a fun, intimate evening on a hot, muggy night in July. Lots of really flavorful, light delights and yummy desserts. I didn’t see who brought the tiramisu cake but, on my! If you are going to fall off the diet wagon, that was the best possible dessert I can think of to fall for!!.
Bingo was a lot of fun! Everyone purchased a card or ten for a dime a game. At one point the pool got up to a whopping $7. 00 which was won by our youngest dinner guest Jade (I’m so sorry I didn’t get your last name sweetie!)
All in all, very wholesome fun and got to know a few more people better.
Thanks to all who came!!
Our Members are Cruising!
And Racing in Off Soundings!
And Finding Golden Clams in Block Island….??
From the Chaplain’s Quiet Corner of the Cove
Time for Serenity, Anyone?
By William Stafford
I like to live in the sound of water,
in the feel of mountain air. A sharp
reminder hits me: this world still is alive;
it stretches out there shivering toward its own
creation, and I’m part of it. Even my breathing
enters into the elaborate give-and-take,
this bowing to sun and moon, day or night,
winter, summer, storm, still—this tranquil
chaos that seems to be going somewhere.
This wilderness with a great peacefulness in it.
This motionless turmoil, this everything dance.
May you find time for serenity this summer as you “live in the sound of water”
Peace be with you…
For Sale
Sea Sprite for Sale
Ed. note- I recently took a painting workshop and one of the participants told me about this lovely boat she has for sale. Please contact her directly if you’re interested.
$7000 or best offer. Contact Susan Shaw, 401-539-3009 or susanshaw50@icloud.com.
For sale: Sea Sprite 23 Designer: Carl Alberg
More photos available by email.
Classic mini-yacht lines, stable & seaworthy, sails like a dream. Very balanced helm, with slight touch of weather. Tracks well, tacks smartly.
Built 1976 at Wickford Shipyard. Currently in Wyoming, RI, I-95 exit 3B.
Spinnaker with pole, snatch blocks, and sheets.
Thurston performance cruising main, 130% jib, spinnaker. Harken roller furler. New main and jib sheets.
Full set of cockpit and cabin cushions.
Original winches and handles. Winches dismantled and oiled.
Harken adjustable backstay.
New gelcoat in 2008, including gelcoated boot stripe.
New Micron CSC bottom paint.
4 HP Mercury 2-stroke engine, professionally maintained each year. New fuel tank.
Full set of six new PFDs. New Ritchie compass with cover.
Five poppets, refurbished and repainted.
All bright work newly revarnished by Mystic Seaport shipwright.
From the Editor
A big thank you to everyone for sending along the fantastic photos: Alex Beauchene, Chris Bazinet, Melissa Clark, Jen Frost, Walt Gayeski, Chris Griffin, Rob Hathaway, Hugh Hunsinger, Suzanne Miller, Caroline Miller, Dan O’Malley, Laurie Pavlos, Pete Stump, Linda Tuzzio, Janet Vinciguerra, Amy Vinciguerra.
If you have anything you’d like included in future issues of High Tidings, please email or text me. Thanks!
Deb Paulson