October 10-11, 2020

2020 has been a challenging year for the NYC tristate area, for our country, and for the many people and families that have been personally affected by the pandemic. Viper sailing has been collateral damage to some extent compared to our usual turnouts with some folks away and others unwilling to sail with non-quaranteams. So, it was nice to end the season on a high note this weekend with the return of the Vipers to the High Performance Regatta f/k/a the HPDO. AYC “hosted” by providing RC and trophies, but none of it would have been possible without the 13 Vipers who decided to compete and the Larchmont Yacht Club flag officers that allowed visiting teams to launch from LYC (non-AYC members were not allowed at AYC).

The conditions ended up being close to perfect both days, with something for everyone. Saturday’s scary forecast did not materialize at the higher end of the range, so we had 12-14 knots from the SW with gusts to 17-18 (most of which subsidized after Race 3). Six races on courses with legs that were no more than 0.7 – 0.8 nm were perfect and allowed for extremely close racing and a chance to get back to the dock at LYC by 1500 for hot dogs, cookies, and keg beer on the back porch of the LYC Junior Clubhouse, along with a debrief from the three teams that were tied for first after Day 1.

Day 2 had lighter breeze from the NE at 5-9 knots and four more races before conditions got too shifty to race. Dave Owen’s Ghost Panda won the first three races of the day before going out with a bang in Race 10 with a port-starboard T-bone downwind – thankfully it was light air and they already had the regatta win and the overall LYC season championship well-in hand by that point thanks to the drop race. Peter Ill from Hampton, VA, who was on the other end of the T-bone, sailed a very consistent event to place 2nd, and Peter and Rachel Beardsley were third sailing with friends who had not raced Vipers before. Brand new Viper owner Mike Lebov from Milford (CT) Yacht Club made his Viper one design debut, and former Laser Olympic campaigner Marek Zaleski from Noroton YC made his first appearance in his new Viper # 237 after not having been in the boat since he was a college sophomore. We’re looking forward to seeing more of both of them on the course in 2021. Full results posted at https://www.yachtscoring.com/event_results_cumulative.cfm?eID=13185