Here is a summary of the Baldwin Cup from Team StFYC Team members John Collins and Scott Sellers:
Over 120 races were conducted in Harbor 20s across 3 days. Newport borrowed 28 boats (3 fleets of 8 plus 4 spares) from their members for the regatta. Winds were light to medium and very shifty. The regatta started with a cold front bringing hail and rain but finished with blue skies and warming temperatures.
Friday: We started our series as race #5 in Round Robin #1, which occurred precisely when a thunderhead (that's right, a SoCal thunderstorm) dumped hail on us. RC directed us to roll up our jibs and head in. Just as we go back to the docks, the thunderhead rolled through and sunny skies came back, but with no wind for a good hour or so. When we went back out on the course, our first draw was with NHYC blue, who we beat at the line. Second race was New York, which handily beat us. The third, fourth and fifth races of RR #1 were wins for StFYC against Larchmont, Boston and Balboa. The final race of the day was against Southern. StFYC was in a controlling 2-3-4, but somehow got called for a foul as we were crossing the finish line. The day ended up 4-2, which was not a bad spot to be in considering the company.
Saturday: The weather continued to be odd for SoCal with sunny skies, unusual cold temps and the odd thunderstorm rolling to the north and south of the race course. Unfortunately, our day did not reflect the efforts the team put in. The first two losses came at the hands of Seattle and Royal Thames. In both races, we had a controlling 1-2-3 at the top mark, but somehow failed to hold on to a win. A win against Rochester got us back on the right track, but then three more losses to NHYC Orange, (end of RR #1) NHYC Blue (start of RR #2 and races worth 1.5 points) and New York set us back on our heels. We rebounded with three wins against Larchmont, Boston and Balboa, but closed out the day with another tough loss to Southern, who eeked out another win at the line.
Sunday:
The day finally dawned with the usual NHYC weather after a gu lly-washer of a storm cell rolling in and absolutely dumping at about 4:00 in the morning. Sunny skies, 10 knots from the southwest and temps in the 60's greeted all the competitors. StFYC still had a mathematical chance of making the final four. We needed to win all of our races and a couple of teams needed to help us, while a few more still needed to lose. We helped ourselves with three successive wins against Seattle, Royal Thames and Rochester, but by that point, we didn't get the help we needed from the other teams. We closed out RR #2 with a close loss to NHYC Orange.
The final standings were New Youk Yacht Club first, followed by NHYC Blue, NHYC Orange, and Seattle Yacht Club in fourth. The only team in the final four that we didn't beat was New York. Team StFYC ended up in the log jam between 5th, 6th and 7th, with our final standing in the 7th position. Team St Francis won 10 of its 20 races across the two round robins in a very competitive fleet.
Hospitality was excellent with every meal hosted by Newport Harbor over 3 days including the traditional blue blazer with flip flops banquet on Saturday night. All competitors were housed with members. Part of Team St Francis was housed with Bill and Diane Menninger. NHYC supplied a whaler to commute each day between the Menningers house and the yacht club.
Team StFYC consisted of skippers Russ Silvestri with crew John Collins, Holt Condon with Tom Purdy, Molly Carapiet with Avery Patton and Scott Sellers with Geoff McDonald. Thank you to everyone who supported the team at the Baldwin Cup. Next up is the Jackson Cup this weekend at Boston Yacht Club in Marblehead, MA. Come out and support the team if you are in the area!
St. Francis Team Racing
Thanks to the members and staff at StFYC for supporting the team at the event. We are very proud of our finish and hope that it is the beginning of good things this team racing season!