DATES TO REMEMBER

Greetings to all,

This season certainly is moving quickly. We have had many great seasonal events and there are a lot more good things to come! Many thanks to the past commodores, board, staff and volunteers who make all of these events possible! The major projects for this year, including  extension of our lease with the city, and finding a replacement for our retiring General Manager are moving along well. We we will be sharing more information on these in the near future. In addition, the Gold Star program took place and once again we send out special thanks to Past Commodore Norm Bailey and Sharon McGinnis for their work with this program.  

Lastly, on a serious note, you received an email from Rudy “Just Stuff” concerning parking, negative statements made to staff by a few of our members. We appreciate everyone who has made the effort to support our staff, and remind all that the Flag and Board have no tolerance for this kind of behavior. Should any infractions of this nature occur, the member will be summoned before the board for appropriate action. Thanks to all who work very hard to build a positive Club culture.

Enjoy the rest of the summer

Best to you and yours,

Bob & Rosalie 

GOLD STAR SAILING

This our 10th year of Gold Star Sailing (GSS camp) which ran from July 28 through August 3, 2024. 

We had 23 teenagers from all over the US and the UK. All expenses for these kids were paid for, including their flights, lodging and food.

The kids enjoyed five days of sailing with Sail Newport, a tour of several Newport mansions,  bowling and pizza, a tour of the New York Yacht Club, they walked the Cliff Walk, a visit to the Newport Automobile Museum, rappelling a 70 ft. tower with the RI Army National Guard, a lobster boil, a check ride on USCG Station Castle Hills 45 ft. Patrol Boat, dinner at Castle Hill put on by the members of Newport’s VFW, of course a grill night supper here at our Club hosted by our own Flag Officers. 

Commodore Bob Antignano and Vice Commodore F J Ritt presented each teen with a Club caps.  Newport’s Mayor Xay Khamsayvoravong was on hand to present each teen with a City of Newport Challenge Coin.

Gold Star Sailing recognized all the contribution Rudy our general manager has made to the GSS program for the last 10 years and wished him well in his retirement.

Many thanks to the many members and staff here at our Club who support this event every year. We could not do this without your help.

Lastly, we all wish that someday there will not be any more Gold Star kids. But until that happens we will be here for them. Thank you

Sharon McGinnis,  Gardner Howe, Dianne Stewart,  Norm Bailey

Editor’s Note: More information about Gold Star Sailing as well as a donation link can be found at https://goldstarsailing.org/

OFFSHORE COMMITTEE

This has been a busy season of offshore sailing.

Offshore 160

The 160 was held on 12-14 July with two classes of singlehanded monohulls. Both classes were given the long Course A, 142 nautical miles). We had them start on one start at noon.  14 boats had registered but 11 boats started having to avoid a boat carrier that had decided to park on the right side of the course out of the bay. The wind was supposed to be a typical SW but the wind died down for the start, so it was a slow start.  Only one boat was on the line at the start, Samba, and lots of boats nowhere near the line.  Michael Schum sailing Karelia his Nauticat 39 was tortuously slow getting to the line.  Evidently he lost the auto pilot and was having problems having to bounce between steering and cranking in the Jib and Main.  He eventually made it out by taking the stern of the boat carrier whereas all the other boats were able to cross the bow of the boat carrier.

Karelia called early the next morning to say that he was losing power randomly thus the autopilot is lost.  Very tired so he hove-to for a while then retired and headed home to New Jersey. Around noon Saturday both Trouble No Trouble and Highlander (Jon Bixby, Offshore Committee Member) retired due to the wind forecast (Highlander was leading his class at the time of withdrawl) of very light and later that day Acceptance withdrew.

Awards were held at 2pm with a small nice group. Alex Khandros was not present because he was still racing on his Mini 829 but he did finish after the Awards and received 2nd in class 2.  See the results on the Offshore 160 page. https://www.newportyachtclub.org/sailing/offshore/offshore-160/

I would like to thank the following people that took part in supporting the race:

• Race Committee Boat: Alan Renfrew (drove Volunteer), Caryn Cummings & Jim Oblinger (flags), Ted Singsen (line), Diane Guillemette (check-in/start log), Roy Guay (radio & time), Bill Shea (camera).
• Rudy, Dani & staff for helping the boats which were singlehanded.
• Tim and crew for the Friday breakfast and Sunday Awards food.

New England Solo/Twin

The 2024 New England Solo/Twin was held 26/27 July.  This is a shorthanded sailboat race where there are classes for solo sailors (singlehanded) and two persons sailing per boat (doublehanded). Twenty-six boats had signed up, 4 solo sailors were in one spinnaker class and the rest were divided into three doublehanded classes (two spinnaker classes and one non-spinnaker class). All boats were monohulls.  The race supports a class of multihulls however none registered this year. Twenty- four boats started and two did not finish.

The weather prediction was beautiful for 26/27 July however the wind prediction was for very light winds.  Leading up to the noon start on Friday 26 July the wind was dying and looked to be a very slow start however the wind out of the North-west picked up enough that all the boats were able to easily move around and start. It helped that the tide was going out of the bay.

The three spinnaker classes sailed a 93 nautical mile course (around Block Island to a buoy off of Gay Head on Martha’s Vineyard to a buoy off of Pt Judith to the Castle Hill finish) and the non-spinnaker class sailed a 60 nautical mile course (to a buoy off of Pt Judith to the buoy off of Gay Head to a buoy outside of Narraganset Bay to the Castle Hill finish).

The wind held up mostly during the race with a period of calm on the south-west side of Block Island for some of the boats and at the buoy off of Gay Head.  Class 4, non-spinnaker, was able to finish before the spinnaker boats due to the short course (too short in my mind).  The first boat to finish was SeaJai sailed by Jim and Seamus Hennigan (father and son team) at 0042 Saturday morning and the last boat to finish in Class 4 was Dos Amigos sailed by Ray Renaud and Kristen Wenzel (Offshore committee member at 0556. The first spinnaker boat to finish was Goat Rodeo sailed by Todd Johnston and Greg Maninning at 0627 while the last boat to finish was singlehanded Rambunctious sailed by David Barrus at 1353 (in time to make the Awards at 5pm).

On corrected time, which is what the trophies are based on, in Class 1 Goat Rodeo lost first place to Samba sailed by Tristan Mouligne and Ted Winston by 13 seconds. Agent 99 sailed by Jeff Johnstone and Tom Kirk finished third.  In Class 2 Grimace sailed by Bend Hodgson and Ike Bowen finished first, GunDog sailed by Thomas Sa and James Hamilton (first time entrants from New Jersey) were second and third was Memory sailed by Kevin Dakan and Patricia Sellon. Class 5, the singlehanded sailors, Envolee sailed by Nathan Bossett was first and Rambunctious sailed by David Barrus was second.

Class 4, the non-spinnaker class, was won by Larvik sailed by Kim Andersen and Bill Beebe, second went to Pegasus sailed by Scott Walker (membership chair) and Daivd Materne and third went to SeaJai sailed by James and Seamus Hennigan.

This year we also raced the Offshore 160 two weeks earlier which is a singlehanded only race.  The New England ShortHanded Ocean Racing Trophy is awarded to the boat that races both the Offshore 160 and the New England Solo/Twin doublehanded and performs the best of those that did both races.  This year there were five boats that did both races and Samba sailed by local sailor Tristan Mouligne was awarded this trophy.

We also had 6 family teams sailing for the Cliff Mitchell Family Trophy which was awarded to Larvik sailed by Kim Andersen and Bill Beebe.

This year we added trackers to the boats so friends and family were able to follow the boats which really helped making the race interesting to a lot of people.  We hope to continue with this.

The results and other documentation for the race can be see on the Newport Yacht Club website: https://www.newportyachtclub.org/sailing/offshore/new-england-solo-twin/

I would like to thank the following people for support:

• Race Committee – Peter Jencks, Ted Singsen, Caryn Cummings, Diane Guillemette and Roy Guay.
• Duty Desk – Bill & Alyce Croasdale, Rosa Tysor, Ted Singsen and Roy Guay.
• Staff – Rudy, Dani, Lynn & Staff for putting up with us. Tim, Lynn and staff for the food for breakfast and Awards.

FLEET CAPTAIN NEWS

Fleet Photo Shoot!

On Saturday, August 10 from 2 pm to 4 pm sail or power by the Club and have your picture taken by professional photographer Bill Shea. Photos will be used on the Club’s 2025 calendar. Members can go up to the west deck and cheer on your fellow members as they glide by the club. Hope to see you there. RAIN DATE: August 11.

JUNIOR SAILING 

It is hard to believe the 2024 Junior Sailing Season is rapidly coming to a close with three sessions completed and Session 4 underway.  The young sailors experienced a cultural exchange this year, with five of our sailing instructors visiting from Ireland.  For many of the instructors it was their first visit to the States.  A great opportunity for the kids to learn a little about other cultures and countries and for the instructors to learn a little about Newport and the US.

We would like to thank and recognize our boat naming sponsors for their generous support.  Their support goes a long way to help keep the program costs down in addition to providing opportunities to kids who might not be able to afford the program.  We were very pleased to be able to provide over $8,000 in Scholarships giving 15 kids the opportunity to participate in the program.   So, to all our sponsors and supporters THANK YOU! 

We would like to recognize the club members who supported our boat naming campaign this year:

Rudy Borgueta & NYC Staff, Bill Bagwill, Richard Cromwell, Roger & Jane Fontaine, Andy Vouras, Kurt Schlichting, David Guertin, Gleason Powers Inc./Aedan Gleeson, Al Sgambato, Steve Morin, Michael Barszcz.

NEWPORT PADDLE FESTIVAL AUGUST 17, 2024 AT KING PARK FROM 10 AM-3 PM

The Newport Paddle Festival is a day of fun and activities devoted to paddle skill, paddle safety and environmental stewardship. There is a paddle craft boat show, on-water demonstrations, shoreside classes, displays from local environmental action nonprofits and more. This free event is a collaboration among the American Canoe Association, the Newport Harbormaster, the RI Canoe and Kayak Association and others. Sponsors include BankNewport and Discover Newport. Find the details at https://aca-atlanticdivision.com/newport-paddle-festival/

MUSEUM OF SAILING YACHT CLUB APPRECIATION DAYS

The Museum of Sailing is offering a 20% discount at the museum on all Mondays in August. Now is a good time to check out this venue if you have not done so already.