Today is the final race day for the Inter-Collegiate Sailing Association Coed Dinghy National Championship. Boston College is leading, 17 points ahead of second place Georgetown. If BC wins, they will have had three victories across the board winning both the Women’s and Team Racing last week. In the Women’s regatta, BC came from behind to snatch the win from Brown University’s lead. It was very close racing and in the end just a 2 point difference between BC and Brown’s total score.

The Team Racing event, BC won with 14 wins and only 3 losses. Georgetown University was 2nd with an 11-6 record. Charleston was 3rd with a 9-8 record. There will be an exciting finish today for BC if they can celebrate a sweep of all three National Championships. We will keep you updated and let you know how it all unfolds. Tonight will be the announcement of the College Sailor of the Year and All American skippers and crews. I suspect that we will see many of the BC team members on this elite list.

The first day of the Pilot Regatta, June 21st, will take place on the longest day of the year! To celebrate this day, there is a national data base of events found at www.summersailstice.com.

You can find an event in your area, or if you are in Casco Bay that weekend, sign up for the Pilot Regatta and join over 5000 other sailors worldwide who are celebrating the summer solstice by getting out on the water and sailing. We hope to see you out there!

Regatta Promotions is now working with Keith Luke, our photographer extraordinaire, and we have many of his photos available through our website. He will be with us this summer getting all the great shots and we will bring you all the pictures from the events in 2008. We now have galleries from the MS Regatta, the Shipyard Cup Regatta, the Boothbay Harbor Yacht Club Regatta and the New York Yacht Club Cruise in Boothbay Harbor from previous years. Within each gallery, there are sub albums sorted by boat, which will eliminate the endless search through thousands of pictures to find what you are looking for. You can find the MS gallery here, the Shipyard Cup here, the Boothbay Harbor Regatta here and the NYYC Cruise here.

Here are a few to enjoy:

Points East Magazine now has a monthly article in the racing pages. Each month, he will be sharing sailing tips, race management tips, and other interesting points in the article. Check out the new June Issue this week for this month’s article on how volunteering at regattas can help your racing knowledge and expertise.  Points East Magazine is a free mag available at your local chandlery, sail loft, marina or boat yard.  Check it out!

The boat above was built, designed and outfitted for sails, all by Maine people. The Lyman Morse 54, built at Lyman Morse and designed by Chuck Paine, just splashed in the water last week. Maine Sailing Partners, a PYC Race Series Sponsor, built the sails for her and Win Fowler, of MSP, adjusts the leach line in the photo above. If you are interested in reading further on Chuck Paine’s blog, click here.

Another PYC Race Series Sponsor in the news is Maine Yacht Center. The May issue of Maine Boats, Homes & Harbors Magazine featured MYC in an article saying that they have become the epicenter for high end racers doing many refits for boats headed out to sea. Brain Harris, the MYC manager, is given credit for all of his hard work bringing in the large sailboats. The large indoor storage facility allows work to be done year round. Many of the owners who have brought their boats to MYC had met Brian in the sailing community when he used to race himself. If you would like to read more about the Maine Yacht Center, click here.

It is great to see that the Maine boat building industry is not just a thing of the past, rather thriving and keeping the workers busy and people happy.

Here are the results from Fleet 43 for the first Wednesday night race series. The newly purchased Regatta Pro Start was used for the starting sequence and it made committee work a breeze! It was really simple to use and it seemed to be loud enough for the fleet to hear all signals. There was a soft timer that did a count down for the person running the flags, to ensure that each shape was hoisted and dropped at the proper time. When you begin a sequence, it gives three horns as a 1 minute warning for the 5 minute sequence start. From there, the sequence we chose had our sounds blasting at 5 minutes, 4 minutes, 1 minute and go. I think that everyone who has the task of doing RC will find that this device is more help than you could imagine. See below for the results:

Boat Race 1 Race 2 Race 3 Total Points Rank

Flying Circus 1 4 1 6 1

Al 2 3 2 7 2

Mr. Hankey 3 1 5 9 3

Second Chance 4 2 6 12 4

Pit Party 5 6 3 14 5

Wabi Sabi 6 5 4 15 6

If you would like to get the Regatta Pro Starting system for your club or organization, you can find it here.

We know that you all love this time of year when you duck out of the office early to do some racing on week nights. In Casco Bay, each Tuesday, there is Etchells One Design Racing, Wednesday there is J-24 One Design Racing and every Thursday any type of boat is welcome for casual racing. The first gun is at 6pm sharp on all nights and we hope to see you out there!

New Amsterdam Gin has come on board as the Admiral Sponsor of the PYC Race Series. This means that there will be New Amsterdam Gin at all of the PYC Race series events in addition to our beer sponsor, Red Hook on tap. We are excited to share these products with you. As you enjoy them, think of all the fun you will have this summer participating in the PYC Race Series Events!

In addition, our sponsor Henri Lloyd will give away 15 $50 gift certificates to the racers involved in PYC Race Series Events, chosen at random. That’s right, you don’t even have to be a winner on the racecourse to enjoy this added bonus for the PYC Races. Each boat that registers for an event will be in the running for the certificates.

Finally, the Multiple Registration Discount ends May 31st

Time is running out and the discount on registrations of 2 or more events will end May 31st. Don’t delay and sign up today for your favorite events of the summer.

• June 21st & 22nd
  Pilot Regatta
• July 12th & 13th
  PHRF State of Maine Championships & One Design Regatta
• August 8th, 9th & 10th
  Monhegan Island Race
• September 13th, 20th, 27th & October 4th
  Fall Series including the popular Lightship Race

We have a great season of racing and fun lined up for 2008. Come on out and we promise you won’t regret it!

Reported today at 9:15am on the Fox News channel:

Senator Ted Kennedy is being moved by police escort from Mass General Hospital where he has been held for observation for about a week after suffering a seizure caused by malignant brain tumor. It is said that Kennedy who has participated in many Figawi Races does not want to miss the regatta.

If you haven’t seen Senator Kennedy on his yacht charge through the fleet, let me tell you its certainly a sight to be seen. This iconic figure sitting in a chair behind the wheel of a classic yacht waving to fellow competitors is a odd but at the same time can make you reflect on the patriotic feeling that the image produces on a race that happens during memorial day weekend.

The Figawi Race is one of the Northeast’s largest sailing and boating events with well over 200 sailboat and powerboats participating. The Race isn’t much for competition but the parties are huge and the joke tent is not to be missed. The race is a short dash from Hyannis on Cape Cod to Nantucket Boat Basin.

Check the race out here.

More news as it becomes available.

Here is the latest from US Sailing. This may not be the final result of the new membership rule set to be added to the 2009 rules but it looks like the leaders are narrowing in on making sure they implement some type of mandatory membership. There is still time to put your two cents in so if you feel strongly feel free to make a comment below or to inform your local representative today.

“Version as of May 15:

46 Person in Charge; Membership Requirement
A boat shall have on board a person in charge designated by the member or organization that entered the boat. See rule 75.

US SAILING prescribes that the person in charge and each person who steers the boat shall be members of US SAILING or their own national authority. However, any person may steer the boat for reasons of safety. This prescription does not apply to races that are primarily intended to teach racing or bring new sailors into the sport, or to races for which US SAILING has granted a written waiver.

Recall that at the meetings in Newport last March the Board asked for input from the membership…and we got it!

The Regional Sailing Associations (RSA’s) have responded with volumes of feedback, including the expected negative criticism and personal whines, the hoped for constructive criticism, and a thoughtful balance of understanding and support.

Additionally, Jim Capron, Charlie Leighton, and other Board members have personally met with groups at regattas, yacht clubs, and other sailing gatherings across the country. They listened to concerns, gathered suggestions, and made clear the intent of the proposed prescription.

With this valuable input from those who will be the “users”, the RRC has further worked the Rule 46 prescription to its current version above.”

The J-24 Nationals in Staten Island, NY looks like it was a great event with 7 races completed in 3 days of racing. The twins, Chris and Waldek Zaleski took the top honors for the event, with Mark Hillman coming in 2nd, just 6 points behind the winners. From the pictures, it looks like there was plenty of breeze for the event.