Fleet 5 Annual Report for 2016

As many sailors in the East experienced this past summer, we had a perfect run of mild dry weather after July 1^st, just ideal sailing!

Six boats were registered for the Tuesday night Spring spinnaker series and all were actively competing on a weekly basis. Charlie Shoemaker took 1^st place in Challenger with Bill Steel on Cydarydigo in 2nd and Triton, sailed by Randy Shore in 3^rd.

In the Spring Wednesday JAM series: Bill Steel on Cydarydigo took the top honors, followed by Mike Ryan in Squall and Dave Goss in When in 3rd.

The main event for our fleet is always the Tuesday evening summer spinnaker series; July & August. We had 5-6 boats actively on the starting line every week. This series commences on July 4^th and the first 3 places were hotly contested going into the last 2 weeks of racing with Challenger and Gusto tied for 1^st. However, Charlie Shoemaker once again took 1^st place in Challenger, Scott & Terry Mason in Gusto 2^nd and Triton, sailed by Randy Shore in 3^rd.

In the Wednesday night Summer “JAM” series, Triton, sailed by owner Jerry Baum scored a perfect record of  all bullets, easily taking 1^st, Bill Steel sailing Cydarydigo was 2nd and Dave Goss and his “harem” were 3^rd in When. Of note, was a new entry in our fleet, sailing in the Wed. JAM races, Ensign 754 Newporter, formerly Joe Slawinski’s Silent Woman, a donated boat out of Newport Yacht Club with a different “volunteer crew” each week in an effort to promote sailing and racing.

For the third year, Fleet 5 was host to the Atlantic Coast Championship with a strong turnout of 18 boats. Credit in running this event goes to Sail Newport in conjunction with their one design “Newport Regatta” in mid-July. This year, the ACC was combined with our Region II & III regionals and also conjoined Region I regionals. Also, many thanks to the local Ensigneers from Fleet 5 who helped with this event and launch visiting boats and Allan Terhune Sr. from Barnegat Bay for helping to organize a great event. Quantum Sails Newport provided seminar on and off the water. That evening all the competitors gathered for an Ensign meet and greet sponsored by Quantum. We had really spectacular weather for racing that weekend. With Sunday’s final race turning into a shortened, sun baked drifter.

The ACC Regatta was won by Buddy Brown Lorelei with Peter Heffernan Never Enz in 2^nd and Robin Durrschmidt Magic in 3^rd. Local Fleet 5 notable finishes were: Charlie Shoe/Challenger 10^th; Masons/Gusto 11^th; Dave Goss/When 12^th; Bill Steel/Cydarydigo 17^th, Mike Ryan/Squall 18^th.

Photo Courtesy of Bill Shea, “Close racing in Newport Harbor”, Summer 2016