Another Dark and Stormy Please....well maybe not!

Dark and Stormy!
There is some debate if it is the "Ramos Fizz" or "Mudslide" that is the signature drink for visitors at St. Francis Yacht Club races. There is little doubt that at New York Yacht Club's Harbor Court outstation, the drink of the day is the "Dark and Stormy".

It also was the order of the day for the finals of this year’s Hinman Masters Regatta as rain clouds and gusty southeast winds met the 12 teams on Sunday morning and lasted throughout. Noroton YC, from Darien, Connecticut, was the overall winner of the regatta.

An incredible regatta management group got over 80 individual 3 on 3 races off in the three day regatta with masters (skippers over 45 years of age and crew over 40) racing in a fleet of Sonars and J22's. The racing was always intense and StFYC did a bit better than last year, but still only managed to pick off one other team, the Royal Thames YC.

As it turned out, the final match for StFYC paired us against RTYC and it was Team St Francis' finest moment, as we had a frantic final leeward mark rounding that we used our "picks" "passbacks" and all the other skills learned at home from the "Team Race 101" sessions this year to finish 1, 2, 3 to win the round.

It is very exciting that StFYC is building our own fleet of J22's that we will be able to host similar team racing events and many of the teams at this year’s Hinman Masters have been hearing of it and hinting (or demanding!) to be included on the invite list!


TEAMS
Twelve yacht clubs competed this year:
• St. Francis YC
• Boston
• Eastern
• Larchmont
• Noroton
• New York
• Royal Thames
• Seawanhaka Corinthian
• Southern
• Annapolis
• Storm Trysail / Ida Lewis
• Texas Corinthian

TEAM MEMBERS (left to right in photo)

Dan Pingaro
John Siegel
Paul Manning
Theresa Brandner
Mark Adams (team captain & skipper)
Beau Vrolyk (skipper)
Peter Lane (2 days too young to be a skipper!)
Kellie Fennessy
Jennifer Dunbar
Mike Priest
Bill Dana (skipper)