Poor memorial — one to remember

Sailors woke up Sunday, Sept. 1 to the most blessed of all things…wind.

It increased as they circled the starting line and held strong for the 1 p.m. start off the Greenport breakwater. This wind was necessary because the Shelter Island Yacht Club (SIYC) Poor Memorial, a Performance Handicap Racing Fleet (PHRF) race open to all with a rating, is an around-the-Island course. With plenty of wind the race committee could make sure all the buoys were to be honored…this time, there was no need to shorten the course.

The Poor is the third and last of the big boat series that the SIYC hosts. Twenty-six boats participated, split into 4 divisions.

At a skippers’ meeting earlier in the day, it was decided to have the slower division 4 boats start first, then in ascending sequence with the fastest division 1 boats starting last. The goal: have everyone back at the club at the same time. Additionally, the faster divisions were sent on a longer course around MO (A) in Gardiners Bay.

The sailing instructions called for a counterclockwise race down Shelter Island Sound, past Paradise Point, through South Ferry, up the eastern shore, and finishing at the entrance to Dering Harbor. The tide was ebbing, so the sail west in 14 knots of breeze was against a strong tide. That disfavor would hold until Paradise Point, then the tide assisted until the turn west toward the finish.

The day was moody. Clouds came and went. An occasional rain accompanied them. As expected, the fast boats caught up with the slower divisions in the Peconic Bay and continued their march to the front with the passing of time.

The fastest boat, Bravo, made it around in 3 hours and 3 minutes. The slowest, Kitty O, in 4 hours and 32 minutes.

The post-race celebration and prize-giving was an upbeat affair since the elixir of strong winds had intoxicated the sailors. Before handing out awards, Director of Sailing Jeff Bresnahan gave heartfelt thanks to all the volunteers on the race committee and the professional race officer for their dedication and talents.

Commodore John Sommi relayed, “The day was very challenging. There was a real battle for the lead in division 2, and great competition with very close racing for the whole fleet.” Connor Needham recalled how Renegade “battled it out with Bravo for the lead in division 1. Only 7 seconds separated them on corrected time.” On the course, there was a moment of levity. Mark Robert decided to bypass the lifelines and go for an involuntary swim when he was on foredeck duty aboard David Kriegel’s Sparkman and Stephens sloop Easter-ly. Fortunately, he held fast to a nearby jib sheet and was swiftly yanked back on deck by the alert crew…total swim time… under 30 seconds.

Division 1 winners were: Andrew and Sedgwick Ward’s Bravo, Jeff Pribor’s Renegade, David Wilson’s Obsidian Division 2 winners were: John Sommi’s Cloud9, Harry DiOrio’s Pronto, Peter Beardsley’s Glory Days Division 3 winners were: David Kriegel’s Easterly, James Eklund’s Jul Bocken, Peter Dinkel and Ned Oakley’s Windy Division 4 winners were: Doug Davies’ Gypsy Moon, Stefan Feuerabendt’s UPBEAT, Peter Swerdloff’s Wyvern Additional trophies were awarded to Isaac Halpern and John Sommi for their respective division wins in all three SIYC three big boat races.

Let’s all hope that next year’s Poor Memorial Race has the same windy blessing as this one did.