2017 CMBA Nationals

This year my usual "photographer" couldn't make the trip down to Elizabeth City so I gave my camera to Greg Duncan who was sitting out this year's competition due to a back injury.  Apparently my camera's memory card was full of other stuff so there are limited photos from the first day of racing.  We raced a total of 11 races over two days; 7 on Saturday and 4 more on Sunday.  The conditions were mostly sunny and warm but with only maybe 5 or 6 knots out of the NE.  My son and I swapped boats for this regatta.  The boat that he had been racing seemed to perform well if there was a good breeze and not so well if there wasn't.  We wanted to see if the problem was the boat or the skipper.  After two days of racing we came to the conclusion that it's the boat.  Erik came in second in our division and I came in a distance 5th out of 8 Gen I boats.  At the end of the regatta, we gave the hull to a fellow competitor who is putting interested high school kids into Classic Moths.  If you get an old 175 lb lard-butt out of that boat and substitute a 100 lb kid, that boat might take off!  We shall see.

It wasn't completely glassy but there were plenty of holes!

Donald Hewitt sailed Greg's Connecticut design Moth in the Vintage division. The Connecticut was designed in the late 1940s by Skip Etchells up in Old Greenwich, Connecticut.

At the other end of the spectrum, we have Mike Parsons seen here in his Gen II division Mistral.  The Mistral was designed by Derek Chester in the early 1970s.

Your old diarist (sail nr 43) at the helm of the boat which we decided to donate after the conclusion of racing.  A nicely built boat--too nice for me to strip off the hardware and get out the sawzall--but she just didn't suit us or maybe we didn't suit her.  Here's hoping she moves on to a brighter future.

Walt Collins was back in form, sailing Feather.  Walt dominated the Gen I fleet winning 10 out of 11 races.

Erik sailing out to the start area in Ooh-La-La.

Zach Balluzzo, sail Nr 90, has aged out of juniors this year but was able to claim the third spot on the Gen II podium.

A study of ancient vs modern:  Don Hewitt in the Vintage Connecticut and John Z in his Mistral.

Walt was quick enough to poke Feather up among the faster Gen II boats.

Your old diarist making the best of things in Nr 43.  Nr 133 is Don Janeway's Vintage winning Ventnor Moth.  Don's father purchased the boat in the summer of 1941.

A jet skier watches as Mike Parsons, the overall 2017 National champion, glides to the finish line.

Erik (Nr 67) and Ed Salva (Nr 10) sniffing out the few puffs on offer.  Both are sailing converted Europe dinghies.

Sunday brought Joe Bousquet plus two junior sailors, plus a little more breeze, but sadly I have no photos from that day.  Joe is working hard to funnel juniors from a high school sailing team where he teaches math into Classic Moths.  I think we'll see some fruit from his efforts in the coming years.