Hello Sea Sprite Sailors,

Wind, weather and participants were spectacular for this years Sea Sprite race around Hog Island on Saturday, September 11! 

The day started early with Seeker from the Edgewood Yacht Club and Sailaway from Apponaug embarking on a long journey to Bristol Harbor and it continued with Mark Rotsky on the BYC dock proudly wearing a very official “Race Committee” shirt, together with Bob Rude, preparing the inflatable marks for our starting line.

Just like Swiss time, at exactly 1min to 1pm, the first warning signal was made and at 1:05pm the fleet was racing over the starting line and headed towards circumnavigating Hog Island counterclockwise. Great start for all and as always, New Hope hope placed itself in the most vulnerable position and was yet again pushed out by the masters from Bramasole, well done! 🙂 Very shifty winds made for a challenging upwind leg on the west side of the island, Bramasole leading the way while Artemis, Oasis and New Hope exchanged 2nd, 3rd and 4th place a few times, closely followed by Swallow. Seeker joined the fleet at that point and followed the race all the way around the island and to the finish. On the south side of the island, pushing against a strong and wavy outgoing current, New Hope, Oasis and Artemis were side by side only a few feet apart and New Hope enjoyed the advantage of being the leeward boat and pushing everyone up, that was fun! 🙂 Coming down the east side of the island, after enduring the waves by Mount Hope bridge, the fleet was led by Bramasole, followed by New Hope, Artemis, Oasis, Swallow and Seeker. Artemis put in the turbo charger going downwind but ran out of runway to catch up with New Hope but certainly kept that crew on their toes and looking more backward than forward!

Big thank you to Bob Rude, Mark Rotsky, Chris Healey and the BYC for providing the race committee, starting line, facilities and ordering the pizzas! Post race fun was had for sure and it was great to deconstruct the day’s race with all the sailors!

Final standings 2021 Sea Sprite race around Hog Island:
1. Bramasole
2. New Hope
3. Artemis
4. Oasis
5. Swallow
6. Seeker
7. Sailaway (getting big credit for trying to get to Bristol despite impossible winds from Apponaug!)
8. Vexatious (oh wait a minute, this boat was not even in the water anymore! Better luck next year Andrew, lets get these winches fixed!)
9. Lulabelle (oh wait a minute, this boat never even made it into the water this year! Good luck with the new furler installation Bob H./Sean R., we can’t wait to race against you guys next year!)

Thank you all for participating, great seamanship, great fun and friendships!!!

See you all next year at the Wednesday night races, the Sea Sprite regatta in July, and the race around Hog Island in September!

Cheers,
Dom

Cuttyhunk is a small island at the the tip of the Elizabeth Islands on the eastern side of Buzzards’ Bay in southeastern Massachusetts. It is a town time has forgotten (except for the 50 moorings in the harbor and all the cruising vessels moored there). Sort of like Brigadoon. Lobster rolls and clam chowder at the shacks dockside, gray shingled old homes along the few streets in the town center, and lots of preserved land. Lots of sea and sky. Wind, too.

A ferry from New Bedford comes once a day in the morning delivering supplies and a few people. It is a great day trip. And a fun and strange and endearing tradition is alive and well….jumping into the water to say farewell each time the ferry departs. Kids, adults, all are welcomed to assemble at the dock to jump. There can be a gaggle of 20 people of all ages doing the Jump for any given departure. An odd way to say goodbye, hope you had fun, but, I guess, a way of jumping for joy.

Sue and I sailing our SS30 bumped into Dejan Radeka and Mary Pat Radeka sailing their SS30 with his daughter and her boyfriend 2 days ago at Cuttyhunk. As the ferry left, our erstwhile Sea Sprite website Forum guru continued the tradition, waving goodbye as he plunged into the waters…

Here he is in mid-flight…

He did survive. He is a big guy, and made quite splash. He was not arrested for his wake (see sign).

I welcome your stories of travel or racing or day sailing in all vessels sea sprite. Describe your time in an email, attach some pictures, and send the email to me at seaspriteassociation@gmail.com. I will write up a post.

Fair winds, everyone!

Carter

2021 Sea Sprite One-Design Regatta

The Bristol Yacht Club hosted the 2021 Sea Sprite Regatta on July 24.  Race Committee Chair Joe Jablonowski and PRO Roger Carney with support from volunteer Bruce Nourie set inflatable marks for windward-leeward courses.  Two races were held with perennial hotshot Bob Catani winning both races with a total score of 1.5 points.  Second place went to BYC member Bob Rude and third place went to Sea Sprite Commodore and soon-to-be BYC member Dom Messerli.

It was a beautiful Narragansett sailing day with the first race started in light air and then building into a perfect 12 knot southwesterly.  The racing was close with the highlight being Dom Messerli’s New Hope beating Bob Rude’s Apsaras across the finish line by less than a foot after dueling throughout the downwind leg.

   

The finishers in order with their BYC affiliation marked as follows:

1 – Bob Catani – Bramasole – BYC

2 – Bob Rude – Apsaras – BYC

3 – Dom Messerli – New Hope – BYC

4 – Mark Rotsky – Oasis – BYC

5 – Ray Renaud – Fur Elise – BYC

6 – Jerry De Rham – Swallow – Unaffiliated 

7 – Andrew MacKeith – Vexatious – BYC

7 – Evan Ide – Phox – American Yacht Club

9 – Joe Picard – Destiny – Team Destiny

DNF – Bella Infante – Grayling – Herreshoff Sailing Club

After the regatta, a pizza party and awards dinner for sailors, crew, and their families was held by the beautiful fire pit on the grounds of the BYC.  Innumerable episodes from the race course were shared and lessons learned from the day were bandied about. A shout-out for organizing another great Sea Sprite Regatta goes to Bristol YC for hosting, the race officers Joe and Roger for officiating, Bruce for helping set the courses, and our own Fleet Commodore Dom and able assistant Bob Rude for organizing and coordinating.

The next big regatta for Sea Sprite sailors will be the September 11 Race Around Hog Island, always a low-key fun event.  Buy a Sea Sprite and join the fun!  As one visiting yachtsman said, “You can’t sail across Bristol Harbor without bumping into one of those beautiful little Sea Sprites!”