Clear sailing for the Menantic Yacht Club

The weather forecast for the Menantic Yacht Club’s second series of Sunfish races this past Sunday called for light winds, rain and much cooler temps compared to the 100-plus-degree days we all experienced last week.

Much to our delight, the prediction for lower temperatures and humidity was correct, while the prediction for rain and light winds was wrong; the rain held off and the winds picked up. There were some surprise finishes, bumping, a number of flips and one save, but the water was warm and no one complained about getting wet, and all had a great time.

Twenty-nine sailors participated in Sunday’s races, including most of the sailors who missed last week’s races for various reasons. Caitlan Cummings was back from sailing in the 635-nautical mile Newport Bermuda race but is about to leave again for three months for her engineering duties on an ocean-going container ship. Paul Zinger was sailing in another race with his dad, George, and missed this week for a perfect score of two so far, but Peter and Rachel Beardsley, Tom McMahon, Linda Gibbs, Mary Vetri, Kate Duff and yours truly were back.

Many thanks to Jonathan Brush, who filled in for me and wrote this column last week, while I was upstate attending the wedding of Linda’s and Tom’s son Leo McMahon to the lovely Erin London. Congratulations to the Gibbs-McMahon-London family!

Our youngest sailors, 15-year-old Maddie Saladino and 14-year old Timothy Mitchell enjoyed sailing with the fleet so much last year that they were both back and gave impressive performances. Maybe you two will bring some of your friends, which would certainly bring down the average age of the fleet.

Welcome to new MYC member Kate Bogart, a friend of Peter’s and a former junior champion sailor, who joined the club this season and sailed well on Sunday. Peter was late to the first race because he was helping Rachel and the two Kates ready their boats. Welcome also to newcomer TJ Izzo, a friend of the Modica family, and welcome back, Helen Roussel, who sailed with us last week for the first time.

Charlie Modica Jr. placed first overall. Rachel had a stupendous day, placing second overall, with Caitlan in third, closely followed by Maddie. Four different sailors placed first in different races, but consistency paid off for the top four contenders. All the racers sailed well.

As Jonathan Brush stated in last week’s column, the rivalry between the brothers Modica — John and Charlie Sr. — continues, with John solidly in the lead…for now, but, there are nine more weeks of racing. Stay tuned. Speaking of Charlie Sr., I highly recommend his newly released book “Docs On the Bay.” It is a real page turner, the must-read true story of his founding of St. George’s University School of Medicine in Grenada, and its challenging beginnings, including a war.

Matt Fox captained the mark boat along with Rich Masse. Betty Bishop captained thechase boat, crewed by Lucy Browne. They were all expecting a slow lazy day, but as it turned out, the winds kept them busy. When the wind picked up so did the number of flips. At one point, Betty had to jump overboard to rescue Mary Vetri when she flipped and her mast got stuck in the bottom muck. Betty wound up sailing Mary’s boat back to shore before resuming her duties as safety boat captain, while Lucy drove Betty’s boat. Dave Daly and Ben Gonzalez were sorely missed.

Thank you to all our wonderful volunteers, we really appreciate all that you do.

In addition to Mary, a number of other sailors took the unintentional swim, including Charlie Sr., Bill Martens and Steve Shepstone that I saw. There may have been others. Two sailors got caught on the windward mark trying to round it, including Charlie Sr. and yours truly.

It put me at the back of the fleet for that race, a position with which I am not unfamiliar. Oh, the agony of defeat.

Betsy Colby, our PRO, did her usual superb job on the committee boat, ably assisted by Marian Thomsen and Kerry Mitchell. Congratulations to Marian on her new grand-daughter.

The committee was able to run six races, but threatened to enforce the “round the ends rule” because of over earlies. This rule states that if you cross the start line within one minute of the start you have to sail around the start pin or the committee boat and then to the line. The crew missed Amy Cococcia, but understand she had her priorities straight and spent the day with family. Thank you, all.

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 Race Committee, 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 race committee 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. Remember that you are out there to have fun.

See you on the water.

Results:

Charlie Modica Jr. 17 1

Rachel Beardsley 24 2

Caitlin Cummings 32 3

Maddie Saladino 37 4

Derek Webster 39 5

Peter Beardsley 42 6

Kate Bogart 46 7

Eric Ryan 50 8

Alicia Rojas 57 9

John Modica 64 10

Denise Fenchel 74 11

Linda Gibbs 82 12

Kate Duff 86 13

Steve Shepstone 87 14

Joan Butler 94 15

Charlie Modica 99 16

Ellen Leonforte 99 17

Tim Mitchell 104 18

Peter Zahn 107 19

Will Lehr 109 20

Bill Martens 111 21

Tom McMahon 117 22

Bob Harris 122 23

Jonathan Brush 139 24

John Colby 143 25

Jodi Sisley 144 26

TJ Izzo 161 27

Helen Roussel 162 28

Mary Vetri 169 29