Shelter Island’s Menantic Yacht Club: Pass the Advil and keep smiling
The Menantic Yacht Club (MYC) held its second series of Sunfish races on Sunday, July 6, in winds blowing at around 12 knots and gusting much higher. Despite the heavy winds, 28 hardy sailors raced on Sunday.
It was definitely a heavy-dose Advil day, especially since the Race Committee (RC) showed no mercy and ran long races. There was one general recall after which the dreaded one minute rule flag went up requiring backtracking around the pin or the RC boat.
The penalty is so onerous that the start line was greatly respected after that. A number of boats flipped, there was one broken part necessitating an early withdrawal and a few other sailors retreated to shore early, one or two after just one race.
The competition was fierce, especially among Peter Beardsley, Charlie Modica Jr., Eric Ryan, Derek Webster and Lee Montes, who arrived late and missed two races. Peter placed first in four races, followed by Lee with one and Charlie Jr. with one. Charlie Jr. also placed second in four races and missed the first race. Rachel Beardsley has greatly improved and had a good day placing fifth overall.
The scores are listed below. I’m trying to recruit Charlie Jr. and Lee for the July 22 Island Cup, our friendly competition with the Shelter Island Yacht Club. I hope Rachel sails for the MYC as well.
Paul and George Zinger were sailing in the SIYC race on Sunday and loaned their boats to Peter Saladino and his daughter Maddie. Peter has sailed with the club in the past and hopefully they both had a good time and will return. I give Jodi Sisley a lot of credit for going out on Sunday and racing every race despite the challenging winds.
Betty Bishop captained the chase boat crewed by Mark Policarpio, a newbee who will be a great addition to the club. Even with all the flipees, only Betty had to go swimming when a mark’s anchor line got caught in her prop.
There was no damage and they were good to go after holding up the races and letting the sailors take a breather. Matt Fox, using Tom McMahon’s boat, captained the mark boat along with Lucy Brown and Dave Daly, who we missed last week. Ben Gonzales is still missing in action, however — priorities, priorities. They, along with the mark boat, were kept busy going from one overturned boat to the next. However, the rescue boat crews stayed dry all day, even though the hot, humid conditions warranted a swim. Thank you, all.
Our sailors are really skilled, with only about eight flips on the day, and all were able to right their own boats, including Charlie Sr., Timothy Mitchell, Peter Zahn, Brant Davison, Jodi, Sumner Pingree and others whose sail numbers I couldn’t quite see … oops.
Betsy Colby ran the races with her trusty crew of Marian Thomsen, Kerry Mitchell and yours truly. I had to fill in for Amy Cococcia who was also missing in action — priorities, priorities. The finishes were crowded, with sail numbers hard to read, but rest assured, the videos Besty took confirmed the raw data. The RC ran a total of six races, the last two were short, not because we felt sorry for working the sailors so hard, but because we wanted to go home and time was running out on our usual 4:30 finish. Thank you, Betsy and crew, you all did a superb job.
With the heavy winds, Kerry was just slightly worried about her son Timothy. At one point she couldn’t look, but 13-year-old Timothy, at only about 90 pounds, handled himself and his boat really well. He only flipped once, righted his own boat without any assistance and performed almost as well as Linda Gibbs, who sold Timothy her old boat and was sailing with her brand new ISCA Zim manufactured boat. Way to go, Timothy, keep it up.
Peter Beardsley gave Timothy a new sail which Linda installed. By doing so, she was late and missed the first race. Helping fellow sailors is what the MYC is all about. Thanks, Linda and Peter.
Timothy is actually bringing the age of our sailors down a bit. We had six grandpas sailing in the fleet on Sunday including John Modica, who beat his brother again this week, Charlie Modica, Sr. (who has some catching up to do), Bill Martens, Peter Zahn, Brant Davison and Ronnie Hill.
We are a very congenial family-friendly club, open to all. We may not have a clubhouse, but the sailing is great, the camaraderie is superb, and we just have tremendous fun. All sailors, novice to expert, are welcome. Just show up in West Neck Harbor at 2 p.m. on any Sunday through Labor Day, check in with the RC, giving them your full name and sail number, and be sure to bring your life jacket.
Non-sailors are also welcome to assist with the RC boat and the stake boat. You can get more information about the MYC on Facebook at Menantic Yacht Club, or from Bob Harris at [email protected] or 505-235-5844. Steve and Melissa Shepstone have a fleet of loaner boats available on a first to reserve basis. Contact Melissa at [email protected] to reserve your boat.
Results: Pts Place
Peter Beardsley 9 1
Derek Webster 24 2
Eric Ryan 37 3
Charlie Modica Jr. 38 4
Rachel Beardsley 41 5
Steve Shepstone 46 6
John Modica 47 7
Rich Prieto 57 8
Alicia Rojas 62 9
Pete Saladino 70 10
Lee Montes 72 11
Kate Duff 72 12
Ronnie Hill 85 13
Charlie Modica 85 14
Denise Fenchel 85 15
Joan Butler 92 16
Maddie Saladino 113 17
Peter Zahn 117 18
John Colby 123 19
Linda Gibbs 126 20
Tim Mitchell 128 21
Sumner Pingree 129 22
Brant Davison 130 23
Bill Martens 130 24
Jodi Sisley 131 25
Isabelle Parra 137 26
Sharon Wicks 169 27
Jonathan Brush 174 28
