Medford Boat Club
Medford, MA
Bowers Team Defends Mystic Lake Open Title
Jim and Suzie Bowers left little doubt in their dominant defense of their Mystic Lake Open Championship held at Medford MA on Sept 16,17 this 26th annual event attracted a good crowd to some PERFECT sailing conditions. Bright Sun, 75 degrees and NW wind of 15 mph provided beautiful Mystic Lake conditions for this second leg of the Call of Fall Trophy Series.
We Started the weekend off with a 'new tradition' - Optimist Races. Jim Fraser conducted 3 very competitive races for a few snipe crews while the skippers were assembling their boats and munching on coffee and muffins. In the first, Sally Levinson got a great start and lead by half a leg at the top mark but Cameron Fraser came back only to be nipped by half a length at the finish. The second race was also close with Sally taking the solid win followed by Cameron and John Cunningham a close third. Cameron won the third race but it wasn't enough to catch Sally who became our very first MLO Opti Champion. Nice going!
Saturday was so nice that we opted to hold 4 races and after Jim and Suzie took the first we took a break for a bit of Bobs BBQ 'n beer. Following lunch. John and Maggie Manderson tried to make a contest of it by taking the second race with Local sailor Dave Nelson and Margaret Reed second. That valiant effort apparently only succeeded in getting the Bowers team riled up as they went on to take the next two races (3 of the four) and seemed unstoppable. The regatta quickly became a competition for second place and after four of six races there was 1.75 separating 2nd and 3rd, 1 separating 4th and 5th and 1 separating 6 through 8th! Clearly there would be some interesting races on day 2 but first we were treated to some great appetizers (Thanks Tom and Kathy), Steak Tip dinner(Jim and Barbara) and terrific homemade cakes (ala Chuck and Angela) for desert.
Following Dinner we dragged the beer down to the Bocci Court for an extended round of Kill-The-Keg Bocci. We failed to kill that keg but the fairly fuzzy record indicates that Bob Coyle and Nigel Mendez hold bragging rights at that venue.
Between Dinner and Bocci we were treated to an impressive Fireworks Display across the Lake which the fast thinking regatta committee promptly took credit for!
Day two brought equally excellent conditions and two races seemed hardly enough. Indeed no number would have been enough to catch Jim and Suzie who took both races and rarely looked back. Mandersons beat out Nelson/Reed in the fifth tightening their series to within a point and in the last race John Tagliomonte and Abby Janes got warmed up and cruised into second (the trophy winners are glad he wasn't on the water on Saturday or results might have looked very different). Mandersons sailed their throwout to close out the regatta and give them third, Neslon/Reed holding on to second by just ¾ point. Harry Levinson and Art Cunningham sailed with some lightweight crews on a heavyweight crew weekend but still showed what's kept them among the top sailors in the district for years (Harry's a past MLO champion and Art's always in the hunt), finishing 4 and 5 respectively.
The B- Fleet was won by cook/fleet captain Chuck D'Antonio and crew/fiancée' Angela Hall. Second was new sailor Tom Aliberti in his first Regatta, ably assisted at crew by Scott Fraser.
Following races on Sunday we were fed by round two of Bob's BBQ with our District Governor, Bob Coyle flipping burgers and dogs for all, as he'd done on Saturday.
A typically superb job of Race Committee was performed by PRO par excellence Berta Swanson and her crew including Tom Raphael, Sophia Bowers and Tom Sevigney.
A classic late summer weekend of sailing and fun for all. Hope You all cam make it back next year!
--Martin Fraser, chairman
Pl Sail Skipper & Crew Fleet Club 1 2 3 4 5 6 total --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 28440 Jim Bowers & Suzy Bowers a Winchester 0.75 (3) 0.75 0.75 0.75 0.75 3.75 2 25679 Dave Nelson & Margaret Reed a Winchester 3 2 (5) 2 3 5 15 3 29684 John Manderson & Maggie Manderson a 4 0.75 3 6 2 (10) 15.75 4 26894 Harry Levinson & Sarah Levinson a Winchester 2 (11) 2 11 5 6 26 5 25411 Art Cunningham &Little Cunninghams a 10 4 4 9 (18) 3 30 6 28542 Bob Coyle & Tommy Coyle a Medford (11) 6 10 5 6 7 34 7 28442 Sue Lodico & Jan Tabor a Winchester 7 10 (11) 4 11 4 36 8 25659 Ray Schmit & Dianna Scheufele a 13 9 6 3 8 (15) 39 9 29700 John Lally & Kerry O'Brien a Winchester 9 7 7 13 7 (18) 43 10 27099 Neal Snebold & D Snebold a Winchester (15) 8 14 7 4 11 44 10 27861 Martin Fraser & Cameron Fraser a Medford 8 5 9 (17) 9 13 44 12 26488 Nigel Mendez & Patricia Schmidt a Winchester 5 (17) 12 10 13 8 48 13 25090 Kevin Hetherington-Young & Vivian a Winchester 6 13 8 12 (14) 12 51 14 25999 Jim Fraser & Heather Swadel a Medford 14 18 13 8 15 (19) 68 15 24122 Chuck D'Antonio & Angela Hall B Medford 17 12 16 14 (20) 9 68 15 26999 M Bechthold & M Sartori a Winchester 12 14 15 15 16 (17) 72 17 29311 John Tagliamonte & Abby Janes a Winchester (22/DNC)22/DNC 22/DNC 22/DNC 10 2 78 18 24002 Tom Aliberti & Scott Fraser B Medford 18 16 18 16 12 (20) 80 19 25714 Bob Panza & W Moller B Quassapaug 16 (19) 19 18 19 16 88 20 25729 S Koesterer & C Watson a Quassapaug 20 15 17 19 21 (22) 92 21 29999 Ralph Swanson a Winchester (22/DNC 22/DNC 22/DNC 22/DNC 17 14 97 22 24799 Bob Leahy & Kathy Leahy B Medford 19 20 20 20 (22) 21 100