We held the 2024 Mike Gurish Regatta this year on July 20th, which coincidently was the same day as our Tiki Party and also a Watertown YC Invasion. So, needless to say, the club was buzzing for most of the day.
The race had 5 competitors hoping to see better wind than predicted for the day’s forecast of light winds around 5 knots from the South West. We really were hoping to have some wind as the last couple of regattas has really light air.
The wind gods were with us this year, as the SouthWesterly did come in at about 5-6 knots for the noon start, but built for much of the race. Walter Deacon, set up his boat on the start line and got us all underway on time. Thanks again, Walter!
I didn’t get to see the first boats start because our boat was delayed leaving the club due to the Fore River Bridge being up while our mainsail trimmer was trying to get to the club. When we did get to the start line, it looked like the rest of the fleet was off sailing downwind on the first leg heading towards Bumpkin Island.
The wind was at about 5-6 knots as predicted and that made for a tough first leg going dead downwind, and certainly didn’t help the two smaller boats, Steve Randall’s Moonlighter and John Hill’s Relaxing as the bigger boats charged hard. At the first mark just off of Bumpkin Island, the fleet was pretty tight with Relaxing rounding first followed closely by Nils Krahnstoever in Miro then Leif Thornton in Yggdrasil with Steve Randall in Moonlighter close behind, and Tempo rounding last trying to avoid the wind hole just around the mark that caught the other boats.
As the fleet stretched out towards Hull Gut, there was much more wind filling in just east of Sheep Island. On a nice beam reach heading towards Peddock’s Island, the fleet spread out a bit and Nils and Leif got their boats to the G-5 mark in first and second. As we were approaching this mark a very big (50’+) catamaran with a GBR (Great Britain) sail number, sailed into Hingham Bay with a really tall mast and a beautiful flat top carbon main.
We all rounded the G-5 mark and pointed our boats towards the WYC and right into the ebbing tide. The wind was now up to 8 knots or so. The first tack lead the fleet towards Sheep Island, all of us trying to get out of the ebbing tide and into the shallower waters. That big catamaran came sailing back into our fleet, at one point coming pretty close to Yggdrasil and Tempo, where we almost needed to remind them that we were sailing on starboard tack and they were on port, and were the give-way vessel. But they sailed through without much of an incident.
As we all tacked before Sheep Island and into the channel, the wind was really nice. Steady now right around 10 or 11 knots. There wasn’t too much boat traffic as we worked our way down the channel other than that big catamaran and maybe one or two Hingham Ferry crossings.
As the fleet got to the mouth of the Fore River and the convergence with the Back River the wind picked up a bit, as it usually does when coming from the SW. Here, on Tempo, we saw gusts up into the mid-teens and at one point stuffed the leeward rail in the water.
All that was left was getting down the Fore River, passed our mooring field and to the finish line that was off of the breakwater. We all sailed pretty well upwind heading towards the club. When we got near the finish line we could hear the music and the fun happening on the dock at the Tiki Party!
Here’s a couple of pictures of the fleet coming into the finish area. Thanks to Mike Jansen for the first three of these of Tempo and Yggdrasil.
After finishing the fleet got a chance to enjoy the Tiki Party with the mudslides and margaritas that Danielle was mixing up and some much needed burgers and hot dogs off of the club grilles. Thanks to Commodore Keith for working with us to make it a great time.
Here’s the obligatory picture of the three podium finishers that Pia Peters took of us on the deck with our trophies.
Results
- Tempo — Kevin Moylan
- Miro — Nils Krahnstoever
- Yggdrasil — Leif Thornton
- Relaxing — John Hill
- Moonlighter — Steve Randall