5th Annual “SIN Cup” Regatta
By Ivor Walton
A beautiful, sunny day greeted twelve skippers at the lake in Mt. Laurel, NJ, for the 5th annual Solings-In-November regatta on November 4th. Unfortunately, somebody forgot to tell the wind gods that we wanted to race model yachts, and we were left to deal with light air in the 3 to 5 mph range (sometimes less) for the entire day. However, that was definitely better than the two previous years that were both cancelled because of excessively high winds.
This regatta is designed to share the honors amongst as many participants as possible. We divide the skippers into two fleets, Gold and Silver, and award three trophies in each fleet. Three seeding races decided who would be in Gold and who would be in Silver.
Because of the light air we set a relatively short course of one-and-a-half laps and managed to get in thirteen races for the day. With the small group of twelve, we sailed the Gold and Silver fleets together. Gold fleet wins were recorded by Jerry Franko (6), Fred DeSantis (3), John Stoudt (3) and Harry Mote (1). Silver fleet wins went to Domenick Bonanno (5), Tom Alessi (4), Ray Szulczewski (3) and Bill Sysyn (1).
Lunch was lakeside pizza and drinks with cookies for dessert. Many thanks to our RD for the day, Skip Hall who managed the racing and recorded the finishes. Ivor Walton handled the scoring. The great-looking SIN Cup trophy mugs were provided by Nick Mortgu and his wife Beth.
The final standings were…
Gold Fleet
| Place | Skipper | Points |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jerry Franko | 17 |
| 2 | Fred DeSantis | 27 |
| 3 | John Stoudt | 38 |
| 4 | Harry Mote | 50 |
| 5 | Martin Besant | 51 |
| 6 | Mike Cambell | 54 |
Silver Fleet
| Place | Skipper | Points |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Domenick Bonanno | 71 |
| 2 | Tom Alessi | 75 |
| 3 | Ray Szulczewski | 80 |
| 4 | Bill Sysyn | 89 |
| 5 | Bob Meimbresse | 106 |
| 6 | Larry Ballard | 131 |
