LHYC

The objects of the Lloyd Harbor Yacht Club shall be to encourage and promote interest in, as well as to foster the art and enjoyment of, the sport of sailing by providing the opportunity and means for the development of individual skill and knowledge, encouraging excellence in seamanship and navigation, and by providing participative events wherein these qualities can be exercised under the aegis of the LHYC burgee.

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October 5 marked the club’s decommissioning, and under overcast skies, a few of the club diehards made it out to our water side property, i.e., the Lloyd Harbor mooring. With some degree of ritual we toasted another great season of sailing under our burgee. Sgt. of Arms PC Chris Schneider, with little fanfare but much aplomb fired the cannon while the rest of us doused our burgees for the season. Immediately following the ceremony, the sun unexpectedly came out and shone on the celebrating Lloyd Harbor minions, making for a beautiful fall ride home to our respective harbors. For the uninitiated, our club ceremonies are a sight to be seen and a grand part of our sailing traditions; it is always a pleasure sharing these with our fellow members. I hope to see everyone at our next affair, which is the awards dinner at Northport Yacht Club, scheduled for Saturday, Nov. 8. Look for your invitation and please RSVP promptly to VC Joe Scarpulla.

There are still plenty of opportunities for club members to get together after decommissioning: the awards dinner, the holiday party in December and the annual meeting in January. I hope that we don’t all go into hibernation and continue to meet for club events to talk boating through the winter months. Until next time, I wish everyone some soothing last sails of the season, smooth haulings and tepid days in the boat yard.

Target Rock Fall Series- Partnering with our Huntington cousins, Masthead Cove YC, the Fall series generated 19 registered boats, but a few, due to crew problems, were missing in action. Under the skilled race management of the Double Vision Team, Glen Suss and Phil Walters, three races were held that were exciting to watch and loaded with close action. In addition, to Phil and Glen, John Amante was on board learning the ropes and was put through the paces by a wind that was steady from the NW, but fluctuating in strength and threatening to lighten. Your Commodore was on-hand, sadly without a camera to capture great down wind finishes and served as mark boat.

Windward leeward courses from Nun 6 at Lloyd’s Neck to an inflatable mark by the Coast Guard station proved to be fairly straightforward, with boats finishing in less than an hour. With steady breezes at around 12 kns. or more, the fleet was later sent on the same course, twice around, which didn’t seem to shake things up any. Sleepy Head, the sport scratch boat for the event, flew around the course leading the way, but didn’t manage to get out far enough to grab the top prize. VC Joe Scarpulla’s Liquid Soul sailed consistently good races, beating the lower rated faster boats and went home with three bullets. On the JAM front, Chris Schneider’s Rascal sped around the course taking line honors, only to have This is It, sailed by Rob Scancarelli, nipping at his heels, also scarfing up the three first place corrected finishes. As is our practice, the fleet later convened at Nicky’s for a party hosted by the two sponsor yacht clubs, where we raised our mugs to the last race of the season and planned for the season ahead.

The October Board Meeting was hosted by our sponsors at the Willis Marine Center and a

ddressed the following as part of our agenda:

On Oct. 4 and 5, SCYC hosted the Lee Trophy, which is a high level invitational team racing regatta sailed in Sonars. LHYC was represented by Thom Hering, who was invited to sail with the Southern YC Team who came up from New Orleans. Other teams invited represented reputable yacht clubs such as: NYYC, Larchmont YC, Boston YC, SCYC, and even the Thames River Royal YC team, who made the trip from the other side of the pond.

The sailing resumes on all teams were extremely impressive, but in the end, the NYYC (current orld Team Race Champions), SCYC and Larchmont were the final teams standing. Hats off to SCYC who have done an incredible job of building a world class team race program, complete with level boats and excellent team race management.

More junior sailing news: Over 400 Optimists raced in the qualifiers for the National Team Trials. Roger Dorr placed 48th overall, Peter Sterflinger 194th overall, Rachael Glackin 20th place in the Green Fleet and Lena Scarpulla was 23rd place in Green Fleet. The Atlantic Coast Championship Regatta was sailed on Oct. 11 and 12, with beautiful sunny days in the low 70's and 6-14 kts. of breeze. 275 Optimists raced ten races (127 in Blue Fleet) - Roger Dorr came in 25th overall and 6th in the Blue Fleet, Peter Sterflinger came in 136th overall and 57th in the Blue Fleet.

~~__/) The Make-A- Wish Foundation wrote LHYC thanking us for our $2,500 donation from the Stratford Shoals Distance Race. They apprised us of our donation going to help a 14 year old Coram girl with Cystic Fibrosis meet the Jonas Brothers, a three year old from Hauppauge with a ventricular septal disorder go to three amusement parks and a four year old from Wyandanch with a severe immunodeficiency syndrome go to Disney World. It is certainly very gratifying to learn that our event, which we all enjoyed, went even further and served to enrich the lives of others and provide the kids’ families a bit of hope, strength and joy.

~~__/) On the sailing front, congratulations once again to the Shakedown crew for their performance at the very competitive American Yacht Club Fall Series. In a 19 boat J-105 fleet, Shakedown got a bullet in race three and placed sixth overall. It is always good to see the Lloyd Harbor burgee out competing in different venues across the Sound.

~~__/) The Manhasset Bay Fall Series is going on at press time and at this particular juncture, LHYC is boasting the greatest number of entries from any single club. Now to kick some butt and regain the Huguenot YC team trophy award, which we lost on a tie breaker last year to those upstarts from the New York Yacht Club.

~~__/) With the wrap up of our racing season, the boat registration tallies for all our events are in. We received 187 race registrations this year, which is up by 14% from last year. Thanks to FC Gary Victorson’s racing oversight and his management of our new race registration program, Regatta Manager, we are on track and reversing a declining participation trend.

~~__/) The J-44’s held their North American Championships at Sea Cliff YC over the weekend of October 18 and 19; the event was won by Jeff Willis and the Challenge IV team with no less than three bullets and a total score of seven points. Kudos to the Resolute team, with their boat just recently splashed after some post Bermuda race repairs were made. Resolute got a bullet in the fifth race and placed fourth overall out of nine boats. In addition, congratulations to the Rave family on son Ted’s engagement; the Resolute crew pool continues to grow.

~~__/) On a more serious note Sleepy Head’s co-owner Dr. Jeff Epstein, sailing aboard Spirit at the J-44 North Americans suffered an injury after being struck by the mainsheet; our thoughts are with Jeff as are our wishes for a most speedy recovery.

Upcoming Events: The 2008 Awards Dinner at Northport YC on Saturday, Nov. 8 – Please RSVP to VC Joe Scarpulla ASAP and our Holiday Party on Sunday Dec. 14, this year in a new location. Stand by for details.