Chris Withers finished his last race yesterday

Our friend, competitor, and reigning Fleet 9 Champion, Chris Withers, passed away yesterday, December 27. Chris steered Envy #138 to many a victory, much to the frustration of those of us who assumed that because we were younger we could beat him. He also had great success with the Navy boats for years before he got Envy, winning the Shields Nationals in 1983. His wife, Donnis, and four children survive him.

Overall 2007 Results

OVERALL RESULTS FLEET 9 2007

INDIVIDUAL RACE WINNERS – Wed. Evening

74, 107, 138, 145, 201, 202, 217, 224, 245, 254

SEAN CASSEDY MEMORIAL TROPHY - Spring Series

1. 224, Virginia, Clark

2. 138, Envy, Withers/Lotz

3. 232, Fox, Gowell

TOLAND MEMORIAL CUP – Summer Series

1. 138, Envy Withers/Lotz

2. 201, Raven, Burton

3. 232, Fox, Gowell

KENDALL TROPHY – Fall Series

1. 201, Raven, Burton

2. 245, Hawk, Mallory/Shoemaker

3. 74 Karaselet Alio/Shore

OVERALL WEEKEND WINNER – Spring, Summer, Fall Series

138, Envy, Withers/Lotz

Top Navy Award -- Overall Navy Champion

163, Ann, Patterson

Aloha Cup -- Winner: 138, Envy Withers/Lotz

Wed. Night Spring Series, This was a 4 way tie for first, broken as follows…

1. 138 Envy Withers/Lotz

2. 201 Raven, Burton

3. 74 Karaselet Alio/Shore

Wed. Night Summer Series This was a 2 way tie for first, broken as follows. . .

1. 107 Grace, Burnham/Baer

2. 145 Rhythm Fisher

3. 201 Raven, Burton

Wed. Fall Series

1. 74 Karaselet, Alio/Shore

2. 138 Envy, Withers/Lotz

3. 145 Rhythm, Fisher

John Robertson Memorial Trophy Overall Wed. Night Series

1. 74 Karaselet Alio/Shore

2. 145 Rhythm, Fisher

3. 201 Raven, Burton

The Manice Trophy -- Overall Fleet Champion

Cumulative scores of both Wed. Night and Weekend Series

(Owned by Hawk, 245, the last umpteen years)

Winner: Envy, 138 Withers/Lotz

Beck Memorial Trophy

Top Ida Lewis boat, cumulative scores of both Wed Night and Weekend Series

Winner: 201, Raven, Andy Burton

Timothy Dwyer Award -- Most Improved on Wed. evenings

Raven, 201, Andy Burton

Annual Meeting and Awards Night

Shields Fleet 9 Annual Meeting & 2007 Awards Dinner Wednesday, November 14th, Carnegie Abbey, Portsmouth 6 p.m. - Cocktail hour begins Brief Annual Meeting to ratify new bylaws & elect new officers (All are welcome, owners only may vote; bylaw details in sent email)
Dinner 7:15 p.m.
Awards Dinner Menu:
Salad, Rolls and Butter
Chicken Chardonnay
Or New England Baked Scrod "Ritz Style" whipped potatoes and seasonal vegetables
Chocolate Mousee , tea/coffee
$52.00 per person

Please RSVP (no phone calls) to Nicole Alio at healthwealth@hotmail.com Provide sail no. & no. of people attending, plus number selecting fish or chicken
RSVP no later than Friday Nov. 9th

P.S. Thanks to Nicole for arranging this event. Please bring your whole crew!

End of the Season

Results Fall Series #5: Wind Speed 13: Direction SSW Start Time Wednesday, September 26, 2007 17:15:00

Pos	Order	Sail	Score	Note
1	1	217	1
2	2	74	2
3	3	145	3
4	4	138	4
5	5	232	5
6	6	201	6
7	7	226	7
8	8	108	8
9	9	202	9
10	10	107	10
11	11	59	11
12	12	181	12	Protest Pending
13	13	101	13
14	14	224	14
15	15	15	15
16	16	36	16
17	17	166	17
18	18	17	18
19	19	76	19
20	20	143	20
21	21	254	21	Protest Pending
22	22	222	22	Protest Pending
23	23	163	23
24	24	164	24
25	25	1	25
26	26	14	26
DNC		21	----
DNC		29	----
DNC		33	----
DNC		39	----
DNC		53	----
DNC		71	----
DNC		121	----
DNC		127	----
DNC		160	----
DNC		165	----
DNC		185	----
DNC		188	----
DNC		245	----

Oh boy, the last race of the season, five boats in the hunt for the season series, 20 knots from the southwest, and a good-sized fleet on deck. The start was set just east of Rose Island, with a beat against a strong flood tide to Hammersmith, back to a leeward gate by the bridge and a short beat to the finish. We’d brought our whole crew (6 of us!) and felt fast in the warmup; the tough question was whether to sail up to the Fort and short tack the shore from there, or to hit the righthand corner hard, a move that’s been working all season but didn’t seem such a sure thing with the breeze truly southwest (a little bit right of some nights) and a stronger breeze and flood tide.

Robin, Fun, Dan, and company set a good long starting line but we still managed to arrive late in a congested part not far from the weather end. The gun sounded with us sucking bad air in the second row behind Jay Gowell in 232 alongside Chris Withers in 138. Both of us tacked after a minute to clear our air and found a good lane going over to the Cone of Rose Island, but as we came up past the green can, 138 started pinching us off and we had to take a clearing hitch.

Here we made mistake number 2: Our angle on starboard looked good, aiming up past the Fort, and it seemed as if we had the bulk of the fleet to leeward in good control, so rather than tacking back with Chris to the right, we sailed back to the left side and soon proved (again, I think, because I’ve tried this once or twice before) that you can’t play both sides of this particular beat. Our angle got a little worse and the boats coming out past the Fort got the current relief they’d been seeking. Soon we were into the ping pong tacking game, just past the Fort, and watching 217, 145,and 74 forge ahead. Only 2 or 3 boats can play that game comfortably, and we weren’t going to be one of them. And now here came Chris out of the right corner, comfortably in about third place, along with Andy Burton in 201, maybe in sixth.

Things deteriorated from there for us, almost hitting the mark with Chuck in 202 alongside grumbling that we’d finished our tack inside the two length circle; then I pulled a surprise jibe on the crew and we had a really most excellent spinnaker snafu for the first few minutes of the run. (I take all the credit for that!)

But…looking on the bright side, it was a beautiful breeze on a beautiful night, and it’s been a fun season of good competition and time spent on the water. Reed, Rachel, Matt, Pete, and Ted have been consistently aboard 107 with me, keeping us going fast and handling the sails really well. Also, based on a review of the scores, I think I’m going to have to share the tiller with some of them more next year.

Overall, our fleet seems stronger than ever—just ask Pete Denton in 226 how easy it is to win the Nationals and then come back and get no respect on Wednesday nights. And we have new boats such as 17, 76, and 108 who are only going to get faster next year.

Congratulations to Nicole and Bill on 74 on winning the Wednesday night season series; according to Nicole, they almost didn’t sail last night’s race; they were sailing around the anchorage under jib alone looking for a fourth crew to pick up, and they found one. Ted on 145 sailed an excellent season—and Nationals—as did Chris on 138. I think our fleet captain, Andy Burton, may have made the biggest improvement over last season and got some silverware for it. Nice going, Andy. We’ll see you in Right Cornersville next spring.

John Burnham, 107

Photos

photos submitted by Reed Baer

Announcements

The Sail for Hope is our last race of the season go to www.sailnewport.org for details. It counts for the Kendall Cup and raises money for a good cause so let's get a bunch of Shields out.

The hoist at Sail Newport will be open 9-5 seven days a week so we can get our boats out.

Next Wednesday is our last evening race. We'll try to get two races in to make up for this week but with the shortening days; no promises. Anyway, we will have FREE BEER and PIZZA after sailing at Ida Lewis. Bring your crew and everyone's SO and celebrate a successful season of Fleet 9 racing. (It seems like just last week we had our first race of the season.)

-Andy

Shields Race ?

Here is yesterday's Race Report. A picture is worth a thousand words- Michael Brown (sorry the image didn't make it in the email)

September 12, 2007, Fall #4

Fall Series #4: Wind Speed 6: Direction NW Start Time Wednesday, September 12, 2007 17:22:00

Pos	Order	Sail	Score
1	1	107	1
2	2	224	2
3	3	138	3
4	4	202	4
5	5	232	5
6	6	145	6
7	7	226	7
8	8	181	8
9	9	76	9
10	10	217	10
11	11	201	11
12	12	74	12
13	13	17	13
14	14	59	14
15	15	245	15
16	16	166	16
17	17	15	17
18	18	127	18
19	19	164	19
20	20	14	20
21	21	36	21
22	22	163	22
23	23	71	23
DNF	24	165	25
DNC	25	53	99 ARB
DNC		1	----
DNC		21	----
DNC		29	----
DNC		33	----
DNC		39	----
DNC		101	----
DNC		108	----
DNC		121	----
DNC		143	----
DNC		160	----
DNC		185	----
DNC		188	----
DNC		222	----
DNC		254	----

Race Report for September 12^th, Fall Series

Wind out of 305 degrees at the start at 10 -12 knots velocity. Low tide was back at 2:31PM giving the fleet a strong flow South to North… point your bow at a mark and watch it walk around the clock. These boats figured it out:

1^st- #107 6^th- #145

2^nd- #224 7^th- #226

3^rd- #138 8^th- #181

4^th- #202 9^th- #76

5^th- #232 10^th- #217

24 Boats out on the course for this gorgeous evening, John Ghiorse would have given it a 9 out of 10 on his scale. On 76 we saw puffs coming from the right and set up to start on the committee boat end, along with a good crown of 59, 224, 201 and more…. It was a little discouraging to our boat when we approached the bouy at Rose Island to have a boat coming back at us to honor the mark so we guess the middle right was not as fast as the right side of the course. Interesting approach to the first weather mark, #17 (the red boat) did a port approach and stuck it in with a tack to lay the mark inside of two boat lengths… nice with no fouls. From our vantage on the left side of the first downwind ride the breeze was constant and we swept down on the tide which gave us a little heat for our angle into the right gate.

The second windward leg played out the same for us but the second downwind leg gave us a couple jibs forced by the wind going a little right and the tide continuing to push left.

On #76 we feel like the “new kids on the block” since we’ve only been in the boat about 6 weeks. Most of the guys are out of Etchells and we had some trepidations when we looked at this boat, that we might not “enjoy” the Shields experience… Those feelings have long gone under the keel! On the ride back to the mooring, settling back with a cold one, it was Paul Sollitto who summed it up, “boy, that was a fun race”. So on #76, we’re really enjoying the racing… and we like our new boat. I had prepped to do this race report, even brought a small recorder to keep notes… BUT I didn’t check the batteries, so this is the short version.

#76 Paul Sollitto – Ted Green – D-Mac – Ike Bowen – Dave Sunberg

Aloha Series Results 9/9/07

Aloha Series Results Sept 9 2007 201: 4,1,2 7
245: 3,7,1 11
232: 1,3,7 11
138: 2,5,4 11
107: 6,4,3 13
74: 7,2,5 14
164: 5,8,6 19
121: 9,6,8 23
15: 8,9,9 26

Fall Race 3 Post-Race Report from Shields #15

When we arrived at the dock, the wind was out of the SE at about five and the expectation was for light breeze and the need to hurry to get out to the course in time. As we gathered our stuff, however, the sea breeze arrived, with 10-12 knots inside the Navy marina. I thought of my conversation earlier in the afternoon with Chris Withers who was scheduled for race committee, and my comment it might be a good day to have RC duty. Not anymore, and picked up fifth crewmember for insurance. After the course signal was posted, we drove past the pin and caught an interesting sight, as Lime Rock (with the aforementioned CAPT Withers onboard), had wrapped their prop around the pin line while trying to drag it forward. Knowing Robin would have to postpone, we beat towards Goat Island to check out the current along the shore. While we noticed the current was ebbing already, the more important find was that the wind went progressively left, so we abandoned our plans to start at the boat end of the line and decided for a start closer to the pin. Just as well, because AP wasn’t up very long, we got caught upwind of the line, and by the time we got back to the pin there were only two minutes left in the sequence. Bill Doyle in 222 was even further upwind and barely got back in time. Fortunately we found a hole and tacked back onto starboard about 50 seconds before the gun and were able to keep our air clear before the start…well, other than Peter Clark in 224 who rode over the top of us about 15 seconds before the gun, but he was gone pretty quick. We had decent speed at the start and clear air (first time in a while at the pin end of the line). My crew noted the port-starboard encounter at the pin (believe between 101 and 53, though Chris on the mark boat thinks it was 217 vice 53) and the resounding bang, and when I glanced to see what the other boats were doing, a strange sight unfolded, as no less than 2-3 starboard tack boats ducked port tackers that were trying to clear their air…they really wanted the left side of the course like we did. We ended up getting pinned left by 53, but as we slowly were headed, we eventually were able to tack and cross them. Upon tacking, we noted Andy (Bang Hard Right) Burton in 201 was even further left than we were, so we figured we weren’t too bad off, although we appeared to be well overstood for the windward mark. After letting a little out of the bank (why do we keep doing that), about three quarters of the way up the course we got the bad news as we fell out of the lefty and the wind went way right and the boats on the right began to cross us. Fortunately, we at least made the Dumplings and went all the way to the rock along the shore inside Quebec. We tacked at the rock and leebowed 222 (sorry Bill, but crossing you wasn’t an option with the rock there). After clearing the rock, we tacked back for clear air and the starboard layline, and rounded with only two or three boats behind us. The run downwind was a good one, as we were able to team up with 188 ahead of us to gas Stubby in 59 and 21 and past them, and then we reached over 188 and pass them as the wind continued left, and then watched Stubby return the favor and ride 59 over the top of 188. We were back in the lefty we saw before the start and the first half of the first beat, so we settled on east gate since we were right already and that gate was further upwind. We had a great mark rounding, having clear air even with the ebb pushing the boats ahead of us upwind, held it for about five boat lengths until we found a clear lane and tacked. Then we found out fairly rapidly that it was a fetch to the finish (so the boats that went to the west gate ended up making out as they were less overstood…ugh!), and we lost several of the boats we overtook downwind. When it was all over we felt fortunate to put six boats behind us. Congrats to Bill and Nicole in 74, Chuck Allen in 202, and Dan Holloway in 127 for doing the best job of figuring out which way the wind was going and finishing top three, and to Bernie Patterson in 163 who put a Navy boat in the top half of the fleet for the third straight week. Thanks also to Robin Wallace and the RC who persevered to get a race off and had to watch the wind play havoc with the course they set. Ron Oard Shields #15

September 5, Fall Race 3

Fall Series #3: Wind Speed 8: Direction SSW Start Time Wednesday, September 05, 2007 17:45:00

Pos	Order	Sail	Score	Note
1	1	74	1
2	2	202	2
3	3	127	3
4	4	76	4
5	5	181	5	Protest Pending
6	6	201	6
7	7	224	7
8	8	145	8
9	9	217	9
10	10	166	10
11	11	17	11
12	12	53	12
13	13	163	13
14	14	245	14
15	15	107	15
16	16	254	16
17	17	226	17
18	18	222	18
19	19	232	19
20	20	165	20
21	21	14	21
22	22	36	22	Protest Pending
23	23	188	23
24	24	143	24
25	25	15	25
26	26	59	26
27	27	164	27
28	28	101	28
29	29	21	29
30	30	108	30
31	31	71	31
DNC	32	138	99 ARB
DNC		1	----
DNC		29	----
DNC		33	----
DNC		39	----
DNC		121	----
DNC		160	----
DNC		185	----

Classic Yacht Regatta results

>1 Raven 201: 1,1,2: 4
>2 Mahi 121: 2,4,3: 9
>3 Diversion 160: 4,5,1: 10
>4 Abigail 76: 3,6,4: 13
>5 Karaselet 74: 6,2,6: 14
>6 Hawk 245: 5,3,7: 15
>7 Fox 232: 7,8,5: 20
>8 Icea 15: 8,7,9: 24
>9 Ultimate Pressure 226: 9,9,8:26

Racing

Don't forget that we are south of the bridge next week and the warning will be at 5:10. This weekend's Classic Yacht Regatta will be fun. Make sure you register at the Museum of Yachting by Friday; they won't accept registrations on Sat. Andy

Results for 8/29

Fall Series #2: Wind Speed 8: Direction SW Start Time Wednesday, August 29, 2007 17:40:00

Pos	Order	Sail	Score
1	1	145	1
2	2	224	2
3	3	101	3
4	4	107	4
5	5	201	5
6	6	74	6
7	7	138	7
8	8	166	8
9	9	226	9
10	10	202	10
11	11	36	11
12	12	222	12
13	13	217	13
14	14	163	14
15	15	181	15
16	16	17	16
17	17	59	17
18	18	76	18
19	19	254	19
20	20	245	20
21	21	33	21
22	22	232	22
23	23	188	23
24	24	164	24
25	25	143	25
26	26	14	26
27	27	53	27
28	28	71	28
29	29	1	29
30	30	15	30
31	31	127	31
DNF	32	29	34
DNF	34	185	34
DNC	33	21	99 ARB
DNC		39	----
DNC		108	----
DNC		121	----
DNC		160	----
DNC		165	----

Fall Series, Race 1

Fall Series #1: Wind Speed 6: Direction ESE Start Time Wednesday, August 22, 2007 17:56:00

Pos	Order	Sail	Score
1	1	254	1
2	2	74	2
3	3	181	3
4	4	17	4
5	5	138	5
6	6	202	6
7	7	36	7
8	8	217	8
9	9	188	9
10	10	226	10
11	11	163	11
12	12	245	12
13	13	232	13
14	14	145	14
15	15	71	15
16	16	101	16
17	17	201	17
18	18	165	18
19	19	164	19
20	20	166	20
21	21	53	21
22	22	127	22
23	23	222	23
24	24	107	24
25	25	76	25
26	26	1	26
27	27	14	27
28	28	224	28
29	29	59	99 ARB
DNC		15	----
DNC		21	----
DNC		29	----
DNC		33	----
DNC		39	----
DNC		108	----
DNC		121	----
DNC		143	----
DNC		160	----

Summer Series, Part 2

	Sail	5	6	7	Total
1	107	17*	4	12*	14
2	145	1	3	3	14
3	201	3.0 A	3.0 A	13*	15
4	74	12*	12*	2	21
5	217	5	11*	1	23
6	101	14*	5	7	24
7	202	7	1	18*	25
8	138	16*	2	15	31
9	224	6	6	28*DNC	34
10	245	13*	7	10	40
11	108	4	9	5	42
12	36	11	10	4	47
13	59	9	8	16*	47
14	232	15*	20*	11	54
15	226	18	17	28*DNC	63
16	53	3	16	26 DNF	67
17	181	25*	19	28*DNC	70
18	143	19	15	28*DNC	74
19	163	23	28*	14	78
20	166	8	18	9	81
21	254	2	14	28 DNC	86
22	17	26	24	8	93
23	121	10	22	6	94
24	222	20	13	28 DNC	97
25	127	36*DNC	36*DNC	17	103
26	14	22	21	19	104
27	71	36*DNC	36*DNC	28 DNC	106
28	15	24	30*	20	110
29	1	31*	23	22	113
30	160	36*DNC	36*DNC	28 DNC	114
31	33	29*	32*	25.0 A	119
32	165	21	29*	21	120
33	188	32*	26	28 DNC	129
34	164	28	27	28 DNC	133
35	29	30*	31*	28 DNC	133
36	76	27	25	26 RAF	134
37=	21	36*DNC	36*DNC	28 DNC	145
37=	39	36*DNC	36*DNC	28 DNC	145
	Allowed Drops 2. Shown by '*'
	A is ARB

Summer, Part 1

	Sail	1	2	3	4
1	107	2	1	1	6
2	145	15*	11*	4	3.0 ARB
3	201	3	2	13*	4
4	74	1	9	6	3
5	217	7	5.0 ARB	5	17*
6	101	4	6	9*	2
7	202	5	13*	2	10
8	138	16*	5	8	1
9	224	6	8	17*	8
10	245	12*	4	10	9
11	108	8	16	22*	28*DNC
12	36	10	17*	16*	12
13	59	13	28*DNC	12	5
14	232	14	7	11.0 ARB	11
15	226	9	12	7	18*
16	53	19	26*DNF	3	28*DNC
17	181	11	15	18	7
18	143	29*DNC	3	21	16
19	163	16.0 ARB	10	26*	15
20	166	29*DNC	23	23	28*DNC
21	254	29*DNC	28*DNC	14	28 DNC
22	17	29*DNC	22	32*DNC	13
23	121	29*DNC	28 DNC	32*DNC	28 DNC
24	222	17	19	32*DNC	28*DNC
25	127	20	14	32 DNC	20
26	14	24*	21	27*	21
27	71	21	18	11	28 DNC
28	15	23	24*	24	19
29	1	25	20	28*	23
30	160	29 DNC	28 DNC	15	14
31	33	18	28 DNC	20	28 DNC
32	165	22	28 DNC	32*DNC	28 DNC
33	188	29*DNC	28 DNC	19	28 DNC
34	164	29*DNC	28 DNC	29*	22
35	29	26	28 DNC	25	26 DNF
36	76	29*DNC	28 DNC	32*DNC	28 DNC
37=	21	29 DNC	28 DNC	32 DNC	28 DNC
37=	39	29 DNC	28 DNC	32 DNC	28 DNC

August 8, Last Race of Summer Series

Summer 7: Wind Speed 6: Direction WSW Start Time Wednesday, August 08, 2007 18:16:00

Pos	Order	Sail	Score
1	1	217	1
2	2	74	2
3	3	145	3
4	4	36	4
5	5	108	5
6	6	121	6
7	7	101	7
8	8	17	8
9	9	166	9
10	10	245	10
11	11	232	11
12	13	107	12
13	14	201	13
14	15	163	14
15	16	138	15
16	17	59	16
17	18	127	17
18	19	202	18
19	20	14	19
20	21	15	20
21	22	165	21
22	23	1	22
23	25	33	25 ARB
RAF	12	76	26
DNF	24	53	26
DNC		21	----
DNC		29	----
DNC		39	----
DNC		71	----
DNC		143	----
DNC		160	----
DNC		164	----
DNC		181	----
DNC		188	----
DNC		222	----
DNC		224	----
DNC		226	----
DNC		254	----