Racers,

Have you started noticing that you are wearing your sunglasses to bed?  Started getting the mail in your shorts and flip flops? Or found yourself racing others to parking spots and shopping carts?  You have got a disease that peaks in February every year – Sailboat Racing Fever!  No vaccine nor mask can thwart its spread.  If you have a bad case, then Nancy and I have good news for you.  We have been planning a fun-filled racing season for you.  If you’re thinking we can’t start soon enough, then you will be happy to learn we are planning a racing-program get together in March to get your fever down and get you on the mend.

Please put Wednesday March 23 at 7:00 PM onto your calendar.   Our plan is to have an organizational meeting for the racing program that evening and would hope that as many as possible interested in racing will attend.  This is whether you have raced in the past or have no racing experience at all and would be interested in learning a little more about it.  We will provide food and beverages.  Location is TBD. We will send out another notice with location in a couple of weeks.

Our plan would be to get some feedback on the proposed racing schedule for this season, to talk about how the work credits for racing should be distributed, and how many credits should be given out for various regattas, events and activities.  We’ll also address the implementation of the Dedicated Race Committee Proposal.

Hope we are getting some of the juices flowing again and hope our spring meeting will get you back on track for summer sailing to come.

John Kohne
Nancy Goff

Race Fans,

With lowered spirits, we unfortunately are bringing to a close the 2021 sailing season. Despite our reluctance to see it go, we still are grateful for the resumption of a full racing program this year after the COVID altered 2020 season. Nancy and I have many to thank for all the help we received from every ECSC committee and from many of the member volunteers that made racing so enjoyable and exciting this year.

The ECSC and Horback Regatta were successfully completed with the skillful race committee management and organization of Bob and Janet Hickok, Charlie Brehob, Eileen Leonard, and their volunteer teams. Their efforts were very well done and appreciated by all. There is one fun regatta to go in this season’s schedule, the Hot Chocolate Regatta on November 13th . We will have “spicy“ hot chocolate and some fun racing awards. We hope that you will join us for an enjoyable last sail and if your boat is already out of the water please jump onboard with other racing sailors.

We hope you will be joining other members for the Final Bash on Nov 6th at which time we will be awarding the Series Racing Awards for the Spring and Summer seasons, Broken Mast Award, Party Boat Award, Sailor of the Year, and Boat of the Year awards. It should be a lot of fun.

Lastly, we still have some regatta t-shirts for all the races this year. Contact Nancy Goff to purchase these extra shirts. They should make nice Christmas presents.

John Kohne
Nancy Goff

Racers

We are fresh off the very successful and popular Indy 200 Regatta thanks to Rich Fox and his helpers.  A big thanks to all those who made this possible.  By the reading of this article, we hope that everyone is also looking back at one of our biggest social events and regattas of the season – the Governor’s Cup and Lobsterfest.  All these events depend heavily on the spirit of volunteerism and willingness of individuals to go beyond what they are receiving to serve others.  Nancy and I appreciate all the help we have received and hope to finish this season with a flurry of events and regattas that increase your enjoyment of racing and the pleasure of enjoying each other’s company.

There are still two regattas left to come.  The ECSC Regatta (which was abandoned earlier in the year due to no wind) will be sailed on October 2nd and the Hornback Regatta on October 16th.  These will both be pursuit regattas with monohull and multihull fleets competing in a staggered start sequence based on handicap – with first to finish winner format.  We hope you will join us for these fun and exciting races.

See you on the water!

John Kohne
Racing Chair

Racers,

If you have been well-practiced these last couple of months racing in the series racing at ECSC, then you will be ready for the up-and-coming next couple of months of regatta racing. Because of the cancelling of the ECSC Regatta due to low wind, many have asked that it be resailed. This regatta will be added to the upcoming other regattas scheduled for September and October – the Flying Scott Regatta on September 4th and 5th, the Indy 200 Regatta on September 11th, the Governor’s Cup and Lobster Fest on September 18th and 19th, the ECSC Pursuit Regatta on October 2nd, and then the Hornback Regatta and Chili Cookoff on October 16th. They will provide many opportunities for enjoyable racing in two of the best sailing months of the season. We hope that you will join your fellow racing members and out-of-towners and make them enjoyable for all. The NORs are available on the ECSC Racing web page for the ECSC, Indy 200, and Governor’s Cup.

The Spring Series racing has ended. The Summer Series is in full swing with new leaders in some categories and new participants. There are still some RC and Safety spots to be filled and hope those who have not yet fulfilled their committee responsibilities will do so soon. We have appreciated some non-racing members helping out and enjoying the racing on Wednesday night by going out on the RC boat with the RC Committee. Hope other non-racers might avail themselves of this opportunity.

John Kohne
Racing Chair

Racers,

The 2021 Racing season is reaching the halfway point. The Wednesday night Series is over and the Sunday Honors races will be over in another week. If you missed the competitive Summer Series, you have a chance to catch up for lost time as the Fall Series is just beginning. We look forward to seeing you on the reservoir, if for no other reason than an evening sunset or an afternoon summer breeze …it’s the reason we all enjoy sailing in the first place.

Another important opportunity for sailing enjoyment is coming up this coming weekend at the ECSC Regatta and Beach Party on July 17th. This will be a pursuit regatta made up of multiple races with different courses that have staggered starts based on the predicted racing speed (PHRF) of your boat. Said another way, the slower boats start first and the faster boats last. The race winner is the first one to cross the finish line. This is designed to create exciting racing and finishes as all boats should finish at the same time if they are all racing up to their potential. If you intend to join us, please send and E-Mail message to Nancy Goff (nancygoff.g@gmail.com) or John Kohne (racing@ecsail.org). There is no registration fee for this regatta, only charges for meals, so get your registration in soon.

We wanted to let all racers know that we now have a race-worthy anemometer on the race-committee pontoon. It will be placed on the mast of the RC boat each Wednesday night for the racing events. It will track the instantaneous wind speed as well as the average wing speed during the racing. It can be accessed by all racers in their boats on their smart phones if they are within 300 yards of the RC pontoon. You can access this wind indicator by downloading the Windy Anemometer app from the App Store. There are one or two linking steps that must be taken, but connect with John Kohne before the Wednesday night races for help. We hope to use this in the future for determining objectively if we have enough wind to conduct a race and to evaluate the use of the Portsmouth Racing Performance Handicapping System for our Club as it uses wind speed to do handicapping.

See you at the Regatta and Beach Party.

Good racing !!

John Kohne and Nancy Goff

**** CALLING ALL LADIES! *******

Dear Racers,

The racing season is well off to a good start. We have had great participation and competition so far. Also, some of the creative courses we’ve set so far has enhanced the variety and the enjoyment of the racing experience. We would like to thank the numerous volunteers that have helped new members and established members get their boats up and running this Spring.

Also, we would like to thank all those that have helped put on a successful Mayor’s Cup Regatta. There were many that stepped up to help with the breakfast and brunch that was provided to the racers during the two-day event. Geoff Endris and Tom Moore worked some miracles in getting two races off in very light wind conditions both days. Tom Newgent and Nick Mates put in long hours doing a somewhat successful “Wind Dance” and scouting the reservoir for any signs of useable wind. Bruce Berner and Ethel Morgan pulled out a great Mayor’s Cup win in a return of the J22 fleet as the largest competing fleet. Another highlight of the event was the awarding of the “Captain Crunch” cereal to the two boats that enjoyed a “Close Encounter” at the leeward mark. The regatta was a reminder that the most fun in racing comes from spending time with great people in an activity that we all love.

Wednesday evening and Sunday afternoon racing continues through the Summer. The next racing regatta is on Saturday, July 17th, for the ECSC Regatta in association with the ECSC Beach Party. We hope you will join us for some of these events and even consider joining our happy racing family!

John Kohne
Nancy Goff