Quassapaug Whittemore St John Regatta

Lake Quassapaug, CT, USA, June 27, 2021. Regatta report by Joel Zackin

Somehow, Lake Quassapaug has a “false news” reputation for very light wind. The reality has been that since 2019 all of our regattas have been windy! So come to Quassy.

Too many regattas in June and a Snipe Wedding made for a very small but intimate Quassy Whittemore St John regatta.

Ten Snipe Teams attended the 2021 Whittemore St John Regatta. This was the Sixth Hundred and Twenty Seventh running of the event. The regatta seemed to be an advertisement for Andrew Pimental’s JibeTech Snipes. Six out of the eleven Snipes were JibeTechs. The JibeTechs were joined by one Perrson, one Mueller and three McLaughlins. Again the weather did not disappoint us. Saturday awoke to heavy cloud cover but a beautiful 10-17+ knots of SSE with 40+ degree shifts. Lake sailing at its best!

Confidence was running high at the competitors meeting as no one felt the need to ask Lee Griffith’s “Will there be a throwout” question. Andrew Keane, the scorer for the event, scored the event without a “throwout” race. In writing this report scores were recalculated with a drop race, and low and behold, no one’s position changed!

Due to Covid-19 many of the teams displayed a good deal of rusty boat handling. But to their credit much effort was displayed to “remove the rust”. Leading the first race, Julia Fuller and Meri Harrington, showed the fleet their bottom to demonstrate how to get the rust out. Not to be out done, Darryl and Dorothy Waskow decided to wash out the rust twice on Saturday. Trying to gybe into a better starting position, Ben and Peter Zackin demonstrated why it is better to start a race with the mast in the air. Josh Lovett did a “heels over head” to initiate an underwater inspection of his bottom while racing. The gymnastic judges awarded him a “9.8” and he confirmed the bottom was clean. Scott Wilcox wisely stayed in the boat during the carefully planned maneuver. 

Fortunately, since Kelly Rousmaniere and Andrew Goldfarb were gallivanting somewhere else, all the competitors were able to get their yachts back into sailing mode without additional assistance. 

The team of Ray Schmit and Margaret Lawrence took the tack of “discretion is the better part of valor” and headed ashore when they had experienced enough of the wild wind.

Four races were run on Saturday and, in almost as strong wind, four more were held on Sunday. Sunday races were very well run by Mike Elser and Andrew Keane. 

While Liz Glivinski and Cam Fraser were saying “I do” somewhere on the Cape, Kristen Jabanoski and Andrew Keane treated us to 200 roasted Oysters! Ray Schmit pitched in as grill master and selection of Lagers, Summer ales, and IPAs were cracked open.

Saturday evening a party with a mellow vibe was enjoyed by all. Allison and Ted were winning the event by one point over Peter and Pierce. Seemed like Allison partied a little to hard Saturday night and could not quite stand the pressure on Sunday! She will need to learn not to take out her frustrations on dear old Dad (Ted), who returned to the dock with a bloody nose.  He was covering for her by muttering something about a whisker pole. Either way, the competition was fierce.

Sunday’s racing was very close with many tight finishes. The last race saw the first four boats cross the line within seconds of each other.

Pierce Wolcott flew in from Montana to help his father, Peter, around the race course in style. There was a rumor Peter is selling his Snipe for retirement in Maine and Montana. Maybe this weekend’s results will change that thought!

Ben Zackin was penalized many points for changing crews and boats midway during the regatta, sailing with a newer boat, but older crew on Sunday.

Mina Hollock was duped into skippering by the rumor of a “trading places” race. She got the boat around the course in prefect style.

Despite the high winds, no screams were heard from Jane “I never win anything” Panza.

Many thanks to Jane Panza for arranging Lunch on Sunday, Leslie Zackin for additional food support, and Jurgen Hollock for dishwashing.

The regatta was quite fun to run and sail, but we were all missing Susan Waskow.

Come to Quassy!!

Joel Zackin

“Queen Celeste” 31566

	Sail		R1	R2	R3	R4	R5	R6	R7	R8	Total
1	30606	Peter and Pierce Wolcott	1	4	1	3	1	2	1	1	14
2	29955	Allison & Ted Keenan	4	1	2	1	4	4	3	5	24
3	29727	Julia Fuller & Mari Harrington	7	2	4	2	2	5	2	2	26
4	30325	Darryl & Dorothy Waskow	5	7	8	4	6	1	4	3	26
5	25991	Jurgen & Mina Hollock	3	3	5	8	7	7	5	7	45
6	26026	Ben & Peter & Joel Zackin	8	8	6	6	3	3	7	4	45
7	29964	Bob & Jane Panza	6	5	dns	dns	5	6	6	6	52
8	28044	Andrew Keeane & Kristen Jabanaski	2	8	3	5	dns	dns	dns	dns	54
9	25659	Josh Lovett & Scott Wilcox	9	6	7	7	8	8	8	8	61
10	31309	Ray Schmit & Margaret Lawrence	dns	dns	dns	dns	dns	dns	dns	dns	72