Captain Kidd’s Treasure Chest was uncovered by John and Mary Whitney at the Stars and Stripes Regatta last Sunday. It was buried far below the sands of Lido Isle in an unknown cavern which runs under Balboa Bay. Finding it was not an easy task, for the treasure hunters had to uncover many clues that were left around the Bay, and follow them to the hidden location.

The Chest was full of loot, including beautiful jewelry, gold bouilon, knives and swords, Rum and wine, goodies, dock lines, and Harbor 20 dress wear. Everyone was envious of the winner, who shared the spoils with the many participants.

The Drayton family (George, John and John Jr.) was close behind, but they were mixed up on the final direction, and thereby missed the grand prize.

The spectacular Stars and Stripes Perpetual Trophy was awarded to John and Mary Whitney.  The awards for the best dressed young pirates were won by Cole Pomeroy and his friend in father Karl’s boat. The best dressed crew award went to Raleigh Pulaski’s girls—Mimi Barker, Donna Riggs, and Susan George. The best dressed Pirate award went to Kathy Sangster.

A festive celebration was held at the LIYC Club House that evening where all of the hunters could meet, partake of delicious rum punch and tell exciting “war stories” about their perilous adventures on the high seas. Kathy “Kidd” Sangster put on a good spread consisting of horduerves and barbequed hamburgers.  The biggest thank you of the day goes to Andy Binkerd for all his work on the creation of the classic Chest, and then filling it with all of the fantastic loot.  Good job Andy!

If you missed the Event, it’s too bad, for there is only one Captain Kidd’s treasure. However, Captain Morgan came this way in 1678, and may have left some treasure to find next year. See you then.

 

More pictures available here

Fleet 1 held their first “Sail or Sink” ocean race on May 21st.  Eleven boats reached the starting line near the Balboa pier in 7-10 knots of wind.  It was a perfect day of sailing and without a single Duffy or Wedding boat to deal with.  The boats all started off of the Balboa Pier and sailed upwind approx 3 miles to a bell buoy.  It was interesting as we rounded the bell buoy the TP52’s and others were finishing at the same bell buoy.  I am sure more than a few of them thought we were lost!  After racing all participants gathered for a burger bash and a few drinks.  Great stories were told and everyone in attendance said it was one of their most memorable H20 sails ever.  The finishing order was – 1st – Karl Pomeroy #262, 2nd – Steve Woodruff #300, 3rd Peter Haynes #201.  A number of bottles of wine were handed out as trophies.   Hopefully more races can follow in these perfect waters for our boats.

 

New this year at Balboa Yacht Club is a Perpetual Trophy for the Harbor 20A cumulative low point in Twilights donated by the Harbor 20 Board and deeded by Judy Weightman and Carter Ford. It will be awarded at BYC’s Annual Awards dinner in November. Twilights started last week and there were 4 A’s, so it’s not too late to be in the running. See you in November?

Need to improve your starts? Join up with other Harbor20 Sailors on Friday Nights on the NHYC dock each Friday at 5:30pm for a chalk-talk, followed by a series of practice starts in the harbor.

The practice starts will be run by a yet-to-be-nameed sailing coach using 3 minute rolling starts (with occasional windward and leeward mark roundings thrown in) for approximately one hour.

The practice starts will be video taped. We will then meet in the NHYC Non-Calm room to watch the video, get feed back from the coach, and eat pizza.

No need to RSVP, just show up on the NHYC Dock on Friday at 5:30. The series runs May 13, 20 & 27.

A total of eighteen Harbor 20s participated in the 2011 Lorin Weiss Memorial #2 on Saturday, April 16th. Five races were completed with a toss out.

A Fleet

1st: Bill Menninger

2nd: Jim Kerrigan

3rd: Karl Pomeroy

 

B Fleet

1st: Guy Doran

2nd: Win Fuller

3rd: Dick Somers

This is Guy’s second High Point win in the B Fleet, qualifying him to race in the A Fleet.

Complete race results can be downloaded here.

The Baldwin Cup: Over 120 races by 11 teams of 4 and 24 Harbor 20’s. The Newport Harbor Yacht Club hosted one spectacular event!  Details of the Baldwin Cup and Plenty of photos can be found on the Baldwin Cup Website.

Although the event was due to the coordinated effort of over 100 volunteers, a special recognition is appropriate for the boat owners of the Harbor 20 Fleet 1.  The owners donated 26 boats for the event and staffed much, if not all, of the “Dockside Crew” responsible for the preparation, cleaning, maintenance, repairs, event boat coordination and clean up of all 26 boats!

Fleet 1 Captain John Whitney along with Fleet 1 Measurer Warren Duncan led the effort to prep each Harbor 20 for the race, which included a wax/cleaning job, new jibs, bumpers installed, new main and jib sheets, tuning and complete top to bottom inspection and repairs to make all the boats ready for the Regatta.

Once the event started, and led by Warren Duncan as the Dockside Crew Captain, each morning each boat was dried, bilges pumped, cushioned placed, lines checked for frays, bumpers secured, main sails raised and lined up (by color) ready for the sailors.

At about 5 minute intervals throughout the day, the crew would receive the incoming boats, ask the sailors about any needed repairs, and if needed, do quick repairs like an Indy Pit Crew, and assist the new team to board and shove off.

 

Eight boats times 50+ races a day = 400 arrival/departures per day the Dockside Crew handled. The Dockside Crew consisted essentially of volunteer Fleet 1 owners/sailors.

At the end of each day, each boat was parked securely and safely, dock lines secured, main sails neatly flaked, cushions stored, readied for another day of 1,200 + individual departures.

At the end of the event, the racing jibs, main sheets, jib sheets and bumpers removed and replaced with the owners sheets and sails.

To Dockside Crew:

As you can see from the attached emails, all your efforts were very much appreciated. I would like to add my personal thanks especially to all the volunteers from not only NHYC, but 50 percent of the crew was from other clubs.Once again the Baldwin cup was a great success.  BC 2011 became more than who won the beautiful Baldwin Cup.  After the finals Sunday everyone had smiles on their faces, EVERYONE HAD A GREAT TIME. It was the culmination of a great club, a great location, excellent boats, super guest accommodation, special catering, expert commentary, precision umpiring, and top quality race management.  One judge told me, even if we broke both his legs, this would not stop him finding a way to make it next year.What cannot be overlooked is the “keel” the event was built on is the preparation and reliability of the boats.   You assured this in the weeks, days and hours put in proceeding, during and after the event.  Better than 140 races without complaints and only one mid-race failure requiring a re-sail is testimony to your efforts. Thank you for your part in making this event special.

Warren Duncan Dockside Crew Chief

 

To All Volunteers, Team Racers and Staff,

Thank you so much for all of your hard work this past weekend and in the preceding months to make the Baldwin Cup a successful and fun regatta.  Your efforts and hospitality resulted in what has truly become one of the best regattas of the year.  Over the course of the weekend, I was approached by several team members from other clubs who told me that this was by far their favorite sailing event and that, if they had to choose only one regatta a year to sail in each year, it would be the Baldwin Cup.  This is a truly special event because of your efforts.  Sometime in the coming weeks I’d like to get the group together to debrief about what went well and what we may want to alter for next year (I don’t think that there is much here).  For now, I just wanted to let all of you know that it was a pleasure working and sailing with you.

See you on the water,

Adam, Race Committee Chairman

 

Adam

I second everything you all have said about what a great even it was.  I had a ton of fun.  Thanks Adam for putting together a great event.  It is very rare to have a volunteer boat crew there on the dock to catch your boat every time you come in and ask if everything is OK with the boats, then hold the boats while we step off to take a break.  I have never seen that type of service at regattas other than the Olympics, Pan-American games, world championships, etc.

That same boat crew was working hard last night from the time we stopped sailing until the sun went down, including Warren and Helen Duncan, John Whitney and family, Jon P. and Gale, Bill Menninger, Rolly Pulaski, Nik Froehlich and Kevin Hawkins.  They got about half way done with the 25+ boats before dark, so they are back down at the club today to finish it up and get the boats returned to the owners.  All this work was huge to allow us to have 11 teams at the event and the 2 NHYC teams.

Thanks guys!

Peter Wells, Newport Harbor’s Orange Team

The Fleet One Board has designated the upcoming Opening Day Regatta as a High Point Event for the Fleet. This designation was made this year to make up for the recently cancelled Earl Corkett Regatta, which also was a High Point Event.  NOR’s and Entry Forms will be made available on this website when they come available from the NYHC.

Due to unforeseen events, the NHYC has cancelled the Earl Corkett Regatta which was scheduled for this Sunday, April 3rd. Since this is a High Point Event for Fleet One, any replacement High Point Event will be announced on this website.

Sunday, March 27, 2011

Hilton Head, South Carolina

The Harbor 20 Fleet 3 defeated the Fleet 1 team in the annual East / West Coast Challenge held this weekend at the South Carolina Yacht Club in Hilton Head, South Carolina.  The Challenge was won last year by Fleet 1 when they hosted the Challenge at the Newport Harbor Yacht Club in Newport Beach.

After Day 1, and 6 races, Fleet 3 had a commanding lead of 24 points. The Challenge was scored using a low-point team racing system (although team racing rules were not in effect). Day 1 brought steady winds of about 13 mph with gusts up to 17 mph (as reported by the Racing Committee).

On Day 2, the winds had shifted to the West and the racing started early to try to complete as many races as possible before a storm system was expected to arrive. Winds were again about 13 mph with gusts up to about 17 mph. With a new course and winds from a different direction, most the “local knowledge” learned by Fleet 1 on Saturday had to be relearned on Sunday.

The racing was cut short to 4 races to avoid a quickly approaching storm. The Race Committee timed the last race perfectly, allowing the sailors to get the boats back into the safety of the lock-protected Windmill Harbour just as the wind shifted to the North, picked up velocity and the rain started.

Although Feet 1 did better on Day 2, the Fleet from South Carolina Yacht Club continued winning the races scoring lower points, and in the end, defeated Fleet 1 in all 10 races with a decisive victory overall, regaining the perpetual trophy two years ago.

The awards and dinner were held at Bob De Veer’s home on the beach of the Atlantic Ocean.

Challenge Winners: Fleet 3

First Overall: Ned Nielson & Tommy Webster (Fleet 3)

First Fleet 1: Ed Kimball & Anne

International “Sign of Friendship”: Domenico DeSole

Master of Local Knowledge: John Rumsey

I Have No Local Knowledge: Rolly Pulaski

Woman’s Wear Daily: Joann Gleoge

Patience of Joe: Joe Highsmith

Super Shucker: Peter Haynes

Saturday, March 26, 2011 – Hilton Head, South Carolina

Day 1 of the East / West Coast Challenge ended with a clear lead to the Fleet 3 of South Carolina Yacht Club. After 6 races, the score is 96 for the East Coast and 120 for the West Coast. The 24 point deficit creates a big challenge for the West Coast going into Sunday’s racing.

The day provided the sailors will steady winds from the south at about 15 mph winds with gusts to 20 mph. With a steady current, selecting the right way up the course proved to be decisive in placement for the races. The competition was strong with boats mostly having close finishes.

After a morning briefing by the race committee,and the journey out the lock system, the teams enjoyed three long races (W-L-W-F) and three short races (W-L).

For day one, the races finished:
#1: 13 points EAST coast
#2: 17 points WEST coast
#3: 20 points EAST coast
#4: 20 points WEST coast
#5: 29 points EAST coast
#6: 34 points EAST coast
#7: 38 points WEST coast
#8: 45 points WEST coast

On Sunday, sailing will being an hour and half earlier at 11:30am to try to beat out an incoming weather system.