On August 27 we held the NYRA race management seminar at the Fairfield Harbor Community Center. The presentation was by John and Gracia Slater and was very well received by the 27 attendees. We all left with a much better appreciation for what a race committee does. Hopefully this will provide the knowledge and tools for the skippers and crews that will be doing RC for the Winter Series to do a great job. I am looking forward to the Winter Series to see how this experiment works.

One the racing front, September, as always, has been busy with the Oar Regatta, Blackbeards Cup, and the Oriental Cup. This year, to help with the September log jam of races, Blackbeard changed their race to a one design only race and hosted the SJ21 Eastern Nationals in very blustery conditions. Contact Blackbeards for results.

Fairfield Harbor Yacht Club hosted the annual Oar Regatta over Labor Day weekend. The race format this year was a Saturday distance race to the Minnesott Ferry and back to marker 17 followed by two around the buoy races on Sunday. The distance race was basically a four hour battle between Echo and Brown Eyed Girl, with the rest of the fleet trailing behind. Frequent Flyer did get close enough near the end to make it interesting, but Echo held on for the win and Brown Eyed Girl finished a very close second. It was interesting that the three fastest boats managed to sail in different wind than the rest of the fleet. With the sea breeze filling in from down river, the slower boats were all flying spinnakers or going wing and wing on a run while the three lead boats were beating to weather, and all were going the same direction.

On Sunday the race committee got off two races in 12 to 20 kt winds. This made for some very exciting racing with a premium put on the ability to round the marks cleanly and get spinnakers up or down quickly. New York Times not only won the first race but also took line honors as the first boat to finish. In the second race, after the wind had picked up to 20 kts and small headsails appeared, Eddy Parker's Brown Eyed Girl just did manage to hold off Echo to take first for the race and for the regatta. Nineteen boats raced in the regatta and had some excellent light and heavy air racing under clear skies. Results are posted on the race page.

I did not race in the Oriental Cup because Craig Wright's new J-109 could not make it out of the Ophelia spider web of dock lines at Northwest Creek Marina. See the Race page for results.

Upcoming events include the Hospice Cup at Bath hosted by PSC and the NYRA Winter Series. The NOR for the Winter Series will be posted very soon. The Hospice Cup is an ICRC event and NYRA is very much in contention to win this year. With a strong fleet we should be able to take BSC and ODC so everyone is strongly encouraged to go to Bath and support your club.

The Boat of the Year standings are posted on the race page. Sayuri has a commanding lead in the non-spinnaker class but the spinnaker class is a dog fight with the top four boats all within four points of the lead. This should make for a very exciting Winter Series, Hospice Cup, and Commodore's Regatta.