Rhodies,

The fleet voted with its feet. Everyone who showed up at Hull Yacht Club last night evening walekd down the ramp to the dock, boarded the launch and rigged up. There was no discussion, no whining about the weather, just a strong desire to go sailing.

A soft rain fell upon the fleet as the RC led by Tom Monti, Jason, and Joel set the course. Ted Richardson and Struzz in the mark boat kept things moving right along. A bit of fog rolled in and then the rain came down, first as showers and then in great sheets that pelted the sails and the sailors.

Mainsails acted as rain barrels, dumping gallons of water into the cockpit after a tack. One boat bailed 2.5 gallons of water from beneath the floorboards between races. Regarding the rain, the fleet didn’t give a hoot in hell.

Eleven of Hull’s Rhodes 19s came to race and that’s what they did.  We had three races in a variable breeze that was mostly from 60 degrees. The RC timed the evening to perfection so we sailed to safe harbor on the last puff of the night. Back at the club, Steven  Clancy built a fire and the damp and the dank took turns drying themselves out. In keeping with the primal feel of the event, Doug Ryan grilled a huge steak. Commodore O’Connor heated up his onion mashed potatoes.

In the bar and on the porch, we sat around and recounted the races and the rain and the lack of weather gear and devoured the stories and the steak. To top it off, Jeff Binder asked each participant, "What would you do for a Klondike bar?" 

A vote was taken to add one more Thursday night of sailing to the schedule in September. The vote was unanimous. All sailors who are not attending Nationals were encouraged to give Mike Hebert their proxy. There’s an email in your vast pile of messages in your Inbox from the Rhodes 19 fleet with the instructions. If you are sailing in the Rhodes 19 Nationals, let the organizers know that measuring Doyle sails that have already been measured at previous Nationals is not a good use of time. 

When results were announced, the greatest cheer of all was for Wayne who joined the fleet. Steven Clancy led a pitch perfect and enthusiastic cheer along of “Wayne’s World, Party Time, Excellent!” I don’t have Wayne’s contact info. If someone can encourage him to register Eifion will score him for the night even if he doesn’t pay as it’s late in the season.

Thanks to Eifion for doing the scores.

The International 110 fleet is hosting the Nationals in September. If you can drive a mark boat for one day or house a visiting sailor, please reach out to me at Berkeley.joseph@gmail.com

And now, for the scores. Rhodes Scholar rounded the weather mark in first in a race. Dan Sullivan was steady with three thirds. Dave McGrath had a hat trick. Dave Curry’s infectious laugh could be heard all over the race course.

1. 892 roger that!                  3 pts
2. 1677 PT1677                     9 pts
3. 918 Psycho Killer               11 pts
4. 1799 Razzmatazz              14 pts
5. 1194 Smiles                      17 pts
6. 2370 Zephyr                     18 pts
7. 815 Rhodeo                      19 pts
8. 1017 Rhodes Scholar         21 pts
9. 1516 Wild Irish Rhodes      28 pts
10. 544 Country Rhodes          29 pts
11. 512 Wayne’s World            30 pts (guessing the name of the boat, not sure)

I hope to see you on the water.

Joe Berkeley

roger that!