Twenty fifth annual Brigantine YC Moth Boat Regatta

I was hoping for 25 boats racing on the 25th of June for the 25th annual regatta but for a variety of reasons we had  only eight boats show up to race, but eight is better than none and at least we had two  boats in each of the three CMBA performance brackets.

Three familiar boats.  From left to right, Bill Boyle's Abbott Phoenix, Bill's rehabbed, Ventnor-like Moth Griff, and Bob Patterson's Shelley The Deacon.  Once again I was sailing Griff.

The black and white Moth on the float is Susan Bousquet's Shelley Aftermath.  The wind was around 12 knots out of the NE and after a brief sail (first time back in her boat in five years) Susan decided that it was a good day to explore the Saturday morning farmer's market which has become a  fixture on the island (she bought an ankle bracelet--who knew farmers had such refined taste?).  Each racer must make up their own mind as to whether or not the conditions exceed their skills.  We missed Susan out on the race course and no doubt she'll be back after spending some seat time in the  boat.

Susan's husband Joe had no reservations about the conditions other than he probably thought the wind was a bit on the light side.

Mike Parsons, sailing a Mistral, like Joe's, was the other Generation II contestant.

The three boats in Gen I were Bob Patterson's Shelley,

Victor Stango's Lindenberg,

and Ed Salva's Europe.

Bill Boyle, sailing his Abbott,

and your old diarist in Griff rounded out the Vintage division.

The first of five races saw Bill Boyle getting off to a cracking good start wherein he port tacked the bunch of us.  However the RC deemed that his effort was a little too cracking and called him back for being OCS before the horn honked.

After that things settled down and Bill and I spent the rest of the day in fairly close proximity.

We occasionally poked our Vintage noses up into the Gen I group.

Here I'm being naughty and stealing Ed's air during one of the downwind legs.  I wonder what I was looking at instead of paying attention to the task at hand?  This is one of the early races before the boom removed my Team Sky cycling cap.

Towards the end of the day I managed my best start--although I had to pinch up and just barely got inside the pin end of the line.  Bob P (sail nr 217) wasn't as lucky and had to gybe around and duck a lot of transoms.

This shot of Mike Parsons' Mistral Revolution demonstrates just how little of the boat is actually in the water.

Another shot of Mike P. beating to weather.

A couple of shots of Griff.  She has a little more vee in her bottom than a Ventnor but otherwise is roughly the same.

Griff's real sail nr is 868. 

Bob's Shelley could stay on the same page as the Mistrals up wind but as soon as they turned the corner the Mistrals would pull ahead.  But impressive for a Gen I boat to stay that close to a well sailed Gen II.

The Abbott with the ACUA's windmills in the distance.

During the last race I led Bill to the weather mark, but

he reeled me in on the down wind leg.  It was all for naught since his tiller broke as we gybed at the mark.  At the end of the day Joe Bousquet took top honors in Gen II, Bob Patterson finally got his name on the Les Kammerman trophy as the Gen I winner and I won the Vintage division.

And that's a wrap on this year's BYC Moth Boat Regatta other than to mention that Greg Duncan helped me in ordering this year's trophies:  I told Greg the it was the 25th annual regatta, to be held on the 25th of June.  Greg already knew that he couldn't sail with us this year but he was going to attend our son's wedding on the 11th of the month and so he could drop the trophies to me  at the wedding.  Greg told the trophy store that he needed the trophies by the 11th and in a moment of confussion that's the date that the guy engraved on each one.  I saw this as soon as I unwrapped them.  After a bit of reflection, I emailed Greg thanking him for his efforts and pointed out the the winners of this year's awards would have an easy way of remembering the date of my son and daughter in law's wedding day!

One of the trophies with the infamous wedding date instead of the regatta date.  Some day these will be more collectable than those rare postage stamps with the upside down aeroplane.

This takes moonshine to a new level.