Shelter Island Yacht Club hosts first-ever Race Week

Oxygen is only 21 percent of the air we breathe, yet it is essential to life.

The same holds true for the wind and sailboat racing. Even though it’s only a component of a regatta, without it, nothing happens.

The Shelter Island Yacht Club (SIYC) was very much alive August 5, 6 and 7 as the wind blew steady and strong.

This first-ever Race Week is actually an expansion of the club’s annual Anniversary Race Day. The member behind the effort, Larry Landry, said, “We wanted a better sailing experience than before with better organization, courses, closer ratings and boat groupings. We also wanted to throw open the hatches to everyone and show off the club and our waters.”

Larry got his wish. The 33 registered boats had spectacular racing. Peter Dinkel acknowledged Larry at the closing awards ceremony by saying, “Thanks to Larry Landry for thinking big.”

Race Week started Friday with a round-the-Island race. This was scored separately from the round-the-buoys races on Saturday and Sunday. There were four classes based on the Performance Handicap Ratings Fleet (PHRF) system. Having so many boats participate allowed the Race Committee to create four divisions. As committee members John Kenny and Julia Wallace observed, “We’re happy with the way this worked out. It’s a good start for the first annual Race Week.”

These divisions were so closely rated that there was a lot of one-on-one racing and very close finishes. The race started and finished at the mouth of Dering Harbor. We sailed Friday’s race, counter-clockwise around the Island and never had such a tight finish. It was one boat after the other at the end.

Day two was even more windy, as a strong southwester filled in early in the morning and blew all day. The Race Committee created great circle rendezvous points in the various bays so that they could set a course best matched to the wind direction as well as the tide. Saturday’s rendezvous was in Gardiners Bay — nearer Orient for the fast divisions and closer to East Hampton for the slower ones. Races were either windward, leeward, or triangle courses round the marks. Divisions three and four also had a navigator’s race home to the club. It was simply a glorious day on the water and the dramatic cloudy, almost tropical sky, and forceful winds, enhanced the experience.

Day three was also a round-the-marks race, this time in Peconic Bay as the lighter wind from the northwest was scheduled to die out and be replaced by an afternoon sea breeze from the southwest. Again, the club was lucky and multiple races were sailed. The lighter air favored the lighter boats, yet, according to division four sailor and captain of heavier Buccaneer, Dickie Tiernan, “The wind really came up and we had a great sail over the course.”

After each day of racing there was, of course, the sailors’ party at the club. There the rehash of successful and not so successful tactics.

Race Committee member Kathy Zarchin was keenly aware what a multi-generational gathering this was. “We have seven commodores and their families at this regatta,” Kathy said. “That is what makes Shelter Island so special.”

While that’s true, this year’s event made a concerted effort to attract boats from neighboring waters. Notices of the race were sent to local newspapers, sailing magazines and websites with the goal of turning this into a real regional regatta.

This race, and all SIYC big boat races, are open to all. Sailors who wish to race their boats just need to get a PHRF certificate and pay the entry fee.

At the end, the winners were many of the local favorites. With Larry Landry’s White Witch winning the top spot overall. Others who won their divisions were John Sommi on Cloud 10, Peter Dinkel on Varuna and Peter Swerdloff on Wyvern.

Quotes from the weekend:
Courtney Luddecke: “The event was awesome.”
Paul McDowell: “Terrific conditions for White Witch, really good teamwork.”
Ed Kier: “Fantastic day of sailing. We did a great job from start to finish.”
Mike Rouzee: “Just three fantastic days of sailing and racing.”

We won’t try to top them.
For final results, go to Yachtscoring.com and search for “Shelter Island Race Week.”