In 2008, Team Superstition is planning on
competing in 25 weekend regattas, which cover
35 days of racing. We will also be racing in 16 of the 18 Wednesday Night Series races in Boston Harbor
sponsored by our home club, the Constitution Yacht Club.
There are four different
weekend championship
series in which Team Superstition is competing this summer:
Massachusetts Bay Championship, the Mass Bay Pursuit
Championship, the Salem Bay Grand Slam and the PHRF
Marblehead Championship. Most of the races are qualifiers
for one, two or even three of these different series.
Mass Bay Sailing Association Championship
The overall championship is
sponsored by the Mass Bay
Sailing Association. There are 17 qualifiers this year (up
from 14 in 2007) of which your best six results count. We
are scheduled to race in 12 of the 17, as a number of the
races conflict with other events such as the J109 NAs and BBR. The Chapman is an overnight race
where your points are multiplied by 1.25, and as we will be
missing the Beringer we will compete in this race instead.
Superstition competes in the
ubercompetitive B-Fleet,
which are boats with PHRF ratings from 66 to 100. This is by
far the most competitive of the fleets, with a tight
grouping of boats in the 35 foot range. Typically the
B-Fleet will have the most boats on the line of any division
each weekend, at least it seems like that!
Marblehead PHRF Series
There
are two series and an overall championship at stake. The
scoring will be a little different this year, as each race
run in a regatta and not your overall finish for the day
will generate possible points. The best five races for each
series and the best 10 overall for the year will be used.
Team Superstition will
be racing in six of the seven regattas for the first series
(known as the Cut Throat Shoals Series) and six of the eight
regattas in the second series (known as the Coney Ledge
Series). As to how many actual races that will be, well
there is no way to know for sure, but I would guess about 10
or 11 races in each of the series, and at least 20 overall
for the year.
Salem Sound Grand Slam
This series consists of six different races
sponsored by six different yacht clubs in Salem Sound. The
season kicks off with the Summerset Regatta sponsored by the
Corinthian Yacht Club in Marblehead on June 8, and concludes
with the Boston Yacht Club's Hodder Ocean Race on June 13.
There are also races sponsored by the Eastern, Beverly,
Manchester and Palmer's Cove Yacht Clubs.
Looks like we get 5 of the 6 events, missing only one that
conflicts with Flip Flop. Again, new scoring this year with
the races and not the regattas used for the scoring, with
your best five scores out of what could be 9 races used.
Mass Bay Pursuit Championship
A new season championship was created last
year, featuring the six pursuit races held in Mass Bay
during the summer. In most handicap racing, the boats all
start at the same time, and then adjustments are made to the
finishing order based on speed handicaps. In a pursuit race,
the math is done first, and boats have different start times
based on their PHRF number. The boat with the highest rating
starts first, and the boat with the lowest starts last.
Everything being equal, all of the boats should arrive at
the finish line at about the same time. Buit in sailing, it
is very rare that everything actually is equal, right?
Superstition has done very well with
pursuit races in the past, and is looking forward the the
four races we are competing in this year: the Crocker Cup,
the Flip Flop Regatta, the Wednesday's Child Regatta
and the Boston Harbor Islands Regatta. There is a conflict
between The Great Chase Race (one of the largest pursuit
races) and the Hodder Ocean Race, but depending upon the
status of our hunt for season championships we may end up
racing in The Great Chase Race.
Other Races
We will be racing in the Constitution Yacht Club Spring
Regatta, although it is not part of a series it is our home
club, so it seems only right. We will miss their Fall
Regatta as it conflicts with another race (the Hodder) which
has Marblehead and Salem points on the line.
The big news will be a two week "road
trip" for Superstition. First there are the J109 North
American Championships being run over four days at the end
of July as part of the New York Yacht Club's Race Week in
Newport. There could be upwards of 20 J109s on the line.
Then the next weekend is the Buzzards Bay Regatta, which is
also a J109 One Design event, with perhaps 10 J109s
competing.
The Weekend Calendar
