Write-Up
RS Aeros are slowly spreading through the USA's North East. The Boston fleet had 5 out over the weekend enjoying some nice racing.
Thanks to Derek Stow for another excellent report;The winds were light. The fleet was small. But the enthusiasm high and the competition intense in the RS Aero fleet at the Massapoag Yacht Club 66th Annual Regatta on Sep 12 and 13.
As well as the 5 RS Aeros, this popular and friendly multi-class regatta also included fleets of 9 Lasers, 20 Sunfish, 13 Flying Scots and 4 Day Sailors, so it was a perfect opportunity to showcase the RS Aero to 63 sailors who had not yet realized that they really needed to buy an RS Aero. Massapoag YC is in Sharon, MA south of Boston and the club sails on the spectacular and peaceful waters of Lake Massapoag.
On Saturday, the winds were too light for racing in the early part of the day but two races were completed in the afternoon on Gold Cup courses (triangle-windward-leeward-downwind finish) in an easterly breeze of 8-10 mph.
The star of Saturday’s racing was definitely Gary Werden, of the Boston fleet, who won the first race and was 2nd in the other race. Gary is the coach for the Sharon High School sailing team who train on Lake Massapaog, so he definitely has a lot of local knowledge.
The regatta party on Saturday night was as good as it gets but sadly I cannot report any of the details. As the old saying goes, “What happens in Massapoag stays in Massapoag!”
On Sunday morning, the winds were somewhat lighter at around 4-7 mph and another three races were sailed. Eric Aker, who has been training hard at the lake for his planned trip to the
RS AeroCup : Barcelona, showed off blazing speed upwind and downwind to score three bullets over the weekend, enough to win the regatta comfortably.
Derek Stow pulled out a lucky (or was it brilliant) move in race 4 by banging the right hand corner, to take a comfortable lead at the first windward mark, and was able to hang on to that lead to win that race, his first win in three RS Aero regattas this year.
Former Star crew, Chris Stow, who had only raced an RS Aero twice before, showed major progress over the weekend as he improved his finishes from 5th to 4th to 3rd to 2nd in the final race. Definitely one to watch in the future.
The fifth member of the fleet, Ian Drake, whose first sport is surfing these days, had not done any sailboat racing for over 20 years but he clearly showed a lot of natural talent. We hope to see him back at Lake Massapoag next year.
After the racing, RS Aero demo sails were offered to members of the other fleets and several potential RS Aero converts took the opportunity. All of them came off the water with big smiles in their faces. Who doesn’t? I just hope our local dealer has plenty of RS Aeros in stock.
Results
5 races, no discard (they run a tough series in the USA!) Pos | Sail |
| Skipper | Yacht Club | | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | | Total | Pos | 1 | 1422 | | Eric Aker | none | | 3 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | | 8 | 1 | 2 | 1421 | | Derek Stow | Massapoag YC | | 2 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 3 | | 12 | 2 | 3 | 1418 | | Gary Werden | MYC | | 1 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 4 | | 13 | 3 | 4 | None | | Chris Stow | Massapoag Yacht Club | | 4 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | | 18 | 4 | 5 | 1341 | | Ian Drake | Independent | | 5 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 5 | | 24 | 5 | |