2006 VSC News

Ed Trombley .............................. Commodore

Ty Krester .......................... Vice Commodore

Amy Krester ....................... Rear Commodore

Gwen Queguiner ............................. Treasurer

Shirley Tedford ............................... Secretary

Brian Dowling ...................................... Rater

Dave Bashaw ...................... Member at Large

Brian White ........................ Past Commodore

Awards for 2006 season were presented to the winners. See full list of awards.  (posted 11-10-06)

Fall Banquet  The Valcour Sailing Club will be hosting it's annual Fall Banquet and Awards Ceremony, Saturday evening, November 4^th at the Barracks on the Plattsburgh Air Force Base.  Cocktail hour will begin at 6:30 pm with dinner starting at 7:15.  Ticket prices are $25.00/person.  RSVP’s are due by October 28^th.  You can RSVP to Amber Gorman or by calling at 563-7033 . The menu is as follows: black angus steamship round with red wine gravy, homemade chicken cordon bleu, scalloped potatoes, baby spring salad served with house dressing, fresh green beans with lemon butter, cranberry sauce and homemade bread.  Coffee will be available. (posted 10-12-06)

Lake Champlain Soling Championship was run in conjunction with the US Soling Championship. The the four races run on Saturday and Sunday made up the LC Champs. See LC Championship results. This regatta completed the Soling Weekend series which was won by John Trombley and his crew Chris Lanigan and Shirley Tedford. Peter Hall takes second in the series and Ed Trombley captures third. See Soling Weekend Standings.  (posted 10-8-06)

US Soling Championship The seven race regatta had two days or rain but plenty of wind including Sunday's final race with winds up to 30 knots. The United States Soling Championship was captured by the crew of Peter Hall, Philip Karrigan, and Jay Deacon on CAN 225.   Second place in the regatta was taken by USA 835 skippered by Don Brush, and crewed by Chris Duley and Roland Sherman.  Peter Gallaway on USA 831 finish the regatta in third place. See Final Results or see soling.com  See  Pictures.  (posted 10-1-06)

Fall Classic  The final race of the PHRF season was sailed in a gusty S-SW breeze on a course around the Pray's red nun. The race was closely contested by three boats who were battling for the PHRF Sunday series. Don Duley and his crew aboard their new J-100 won the race and finished the series in third place with three wins and just two points out of first.  Dave Bashaw and his crew on Soundwave finished the race in second place which clinched the series title by just one point. The crew of Obsession finished third in the race and second in the Sunday series. See Fall Classic results and PHRF Sunday Series Standings.    (posted 9-24-06)

Clinton Regatta On Saturday September 23 the fourth annual Clinton Regatta was sailed during homecoming in front of Bluff Point for students and alumni to enjoy.  The rain held off and the wind cooperated so race committee Roland Sherman could hold two race in less than two hours. The yacht Soundwave won both races and the regatta. See results. (posted 9-24-06)

Soling Tuesday Series Complete The race committee has decided not to conduct any make up races for the Soling Tuesday Series, therefore in a rather anti-climatic fashion the series is officially complete. It should come as no surprise that Peter Hall and Mike Parsons aboard Oblix easily won the series. In a 32 race series they won 22 of the races and finished no race worse than third place. The battle for second place was tightly contested. The boats owned by Ty Kretser, Ed Trombley, and John Trombley finished separated by only 1 point. In a tie-breaker, Ty Kretser and his crew captured second place, while Ed Trombley and crew finished the series in third. A total of 12 boats competed in the series. See Soling Tuesday Series Standings  (posted 9-15-06)

Final Wednesday Race  In winds over 25 knots and rain, four boats attempted to sail the final race of the PHRF Wednesday B series, but only two finished.  Obsession retired from the race, and Rhapsody suffered a broken mast.  Thankfully, there were no injuries and the crew of Rhapsody is looking forward to racing a new boat next season.  The entire crew of Obsession helped the Rhapsody crew to salvage sails and gear late into the evening.  Soundwave won the race and clinched the series title, and Realescape finished second. See results Wednesday B8 and Wednesday B Series Standings. (posted 9-14-06)

US Soling Championships  The Valcour Sailing Club is excited to host the 2006 United States Soling Championships.  The 7 race event will be held September 29-October 1 and should be a good tune up for the World Championships in Annapolis three weeks later.  Read the Notice of Race.  (posted 8/20/06)

Boat Donated The Valcour Sailing Club has been fortunate to receive a  donated power boat. The boat is a 1978 twenty-four foot Sea Ray with a cuddy cabin.  It has a 350 hp MercCrusier engine in need of repairs.  The boat was generously donated by George and Virginia Petty and is currently in dry storage at Bill Rowe's boat yard. See pictures. (posted 8/20/06)

Lake Champlain Race  Rhapsody, the only VSC boat to participate in the MBBC's 62 mile Lake Champlain Overnight Race this past weekend, finished 2d overall, 18 minutes ahead of 3d place Endo.  Gingerbread Man finished first, Dog House 4th and K2 fifth.  Sailing conditions were perfect starry skies and constant building breeze throughout the race.  Rhapsody is scored a first place in this race for the purposes of the Lake Champlain Series because G-man is not part of the series. See Lake Champlain Series Standings (posted 8-4-06)

Time Change  Please take note that starting August 1 all Tuesday and Wednesday races will start at 6:00 pm. Please refer to your Notice of Race book or look at the schedule here. (posted 7-26-06)

Wednesday A Series Complete  In a closely contested series the crew of Obsession capture first place in the PHRF Wednesday A series. Only one point behind (and with a series high 3 wins) Graceful Spirit finish the series in second place.  The crew of Rhapsody end the series in third place. See Wednesday A8 results and Wednesday A Series Standings.  (posted 7-19-06)

Valcour Race On July 9 the Valcour Race was run under sunny skies and a moderate south wind on a course around Valcour and Crab Islands.  By a margin of just over 30 seconds the boat K2 skippered by Luis Gonzales beat the second place boat of Dave Bashaw on Soundwave. See full results.  This was the last race of the Lake Champlain Race Week, comprised of 7 races over 8 days.  Kjell Dahlen and the crew of the Obsession captured the LCRW trophy with four wins and a second place. Soundwave finished the week in second place and Don Duley's new J-100 took third.  See full LCRW Standings. See Pictures. (posted 7-9-06)

Mayor's Cup Congratulation to the Valcour Sailing Club member's Peter Hall, Mike Parsons and Pat Larkin for sailing their boat Obelix to the overall Mayor's Cup win. In wind that favored bigger boats with genoas the Obelix crew sailed their one-design Soling to a miraculous win. This was the second time in four years that Mike Parsons has won the regatta, and second time in three years that a Soling won overall.  Other VSC members with finishes of note include Obsession with finish of second place in class A. See full results. See pictures of race and pictures of awards (posted 7-9-06)

Cracked Pot Race Probably the most exciting and closest Cracked Pot ever!  The staggered start of Course 6 (GC1 - RN4 -GC1)resulted in the top 6 boats crossing the finish line within 2 1/2 minutes of each other.  The top 3 boats finished within 16 seconds of each other with the 4th 1 minute behind them.  2d and 3rd finished within 1 second of each other.  5th & 6th finished within 3 seconds of each other.  There were numerous lead changes both upwind and downwind.  Gallilee blew the field away upwind.  Rhapsody fell way behind upwind but crushed the field downwind and threatened at the end.  Graceful Spirit took a huge lead into the last quarter of the race only to lose it at the finish.  J-100 unexpectedly zoomed past Obsession downwind and squeaked out victory. See full results and LCRW series standings (posted 7-5-06)

Eisinger Cup  On Sunday July 2 the Valcour Sailing Club hosted it's annual Eisinger Cup in memory of Dr. Peter Eisinger, a dedicated sailboat racer and beloved member of VSC.  We were honored to have two of his children, Claudia and Dominic, participate in this years regatta. In a gusty and shifty southwest wind David Bashaw and his crew aboard Soundwave were able to capture the cup by virtue of a tie breaker with Obsession.  See full results and see pictures.  This regatta comprised the first two races in the newly established Lake Champlain Race Week.  See LCRW series standings   (posted 7-3-06)

Lake Champlain Race Week  The VSC is hosting Lake Champlain Race Week (LCRW) Sunday July 2 – Sunday July 9 (Mayor’s Cup week). LCRW consists of 5 days of racing held over the 8-day period and includes the Eisinger Cup Regatta, Cracked Pot Race, Wednesday evening race, Mayor’s Cup Regatta and Valcour Race. Five of the possible seven races are scored for LCRW. See  NOR & SI for details. To enter see entry form. The overall LCRW first place boat and skipper will have their names engraved in the perpetual LCRW trophy. See picture of LCRW trophy (posted 6-14-06)

Sailing Season Started  The 2006 sailing season is officially underway with the first Soling race of the year held on May 15th. Our new Tuesday Race Committee, Barb and Jeff Wagner, did a fine job chasing a clocking west wind to complete 2 races.  Peter Hall and Mike Parsons in their new boat won both races to take the early season lead. See full results and Tuesday series standings. (posted 5-16-06)

2006 Book Ready The printed copy of the 2006 Notice of Race and Sailing Instructions book is now ready for distribution to paid members. If you did not get your copy at the spring banquet you may contact club treasurer Gwen Queguiner to get one. The book can be viewed online and printed with the link to the left or click here. (posted 5-6-06)

PHRF Rating Forms  We have been informed by the Lake Champlain PHRF Committee that a new PHRF form will NOT need to be filled this year if you have not made any changes to your boat. If you have made changes to your boat please contact the club rater, John Pytlak for information. (posted 5-6-06)

Spring Banquet  The Valcour Sailing Club is pleased to announce the annual spring banquet to be held Saturday evening, May 6^th at Dana’s Rusty Anchor.  Cocktails will begin at 6:30 with dinner starting at 7:30 .  Tickets are $22.00/person and can be paid at the door, however please RSVP with your menu choices and number of attendees in your party to amber.gorman@charter.net.  Please note, that you will be held responsible to pay for your ticket even if you do not attend the banquet if you RSVP.  RSVP’s need to be made by Sunday, April 30^th.  This year’s dinner is a Surf-N-Turf menu so your dish will include prime rib with your choice of seafood stuffed haddock or crab cakes.  Please note that a vegetarian option is available of pasta primavera with fresh vegetables.  Dinner will include salad, bread and dessert. (posted 4-19-06)

2006 Membership Applications The 2006 membership application is now online and available for you to print and fill out.  The dues are the same this year except for a $25 premium added to full members that pay after the spring banquet, May 6, 2006. We are also asking all long time crew members to support your club by joining this year as an associate members. Find the 2006 Membership Application here or follow the link on the Forms & By-Laws page. (posted 3-22-06)

Midwinter Fiesta The second annual Midwinter Sailing Fiesta was held February 25 at the Lake Placid Pub and Brewery.  The party was attended by upwards of thirty people, including many new faces. The event turned out to be a successful fundraiser for the club. See pictures of some of those who attended. (posted 3-2-06) 

PHRF Skippers Meeting On January 25th members of the PHRF class met to discuss and resolve issues that concerned their class.  Read the consensus of each item that was discussed. (posted 2-8-06)