2006 25th Annual Century Cup Regatta
Elon University, NC
By: Cameron
Hunt RD
For the fifth year in a row the 19 Captains attending the
Twenty-fifth Annual Century Cup Regatta held by The Piedmont
Model Yacht Club at Elon, NC on June 17-18, 2006 were blessed
with good weather and enough wind to race 28 heats. The 2 fleet
promotion relegation heat system was used. Each captain sailed
in 2 seeding heats and at least 12 fleet heats. Their best
finish in the seeding heats was carried forward and one addition
throw out for the fleet heats was allowed.
Five captains
registered bullets and eight scored second places.The top four
captains at the end of Saturday’s sailing maintained their leads
on Sunday with third and fourth and fifth and six places
changing for Saturday to Sunday.Finishing just out of the
plaques was Bob Mersereau in sixth place.There were anxious
moments when Reichard Kahle was demasted in the next to last
race and ended up in the lower fleet.He was given redress by
the committee and was able to finish the next two heats and lock
up first place.
Lunch was the pizza from a local
establishment and fruit distributed by Linda Angel (Frank’s
boss).Rick “Rainman” West our esteemed EC 12 Class Secretary
had been designated to bring the wind to Elon and he did an
outstanding job. The rain had come earlier in the week as
Alberto passed by filling the lake.We had light and variable
wind from the SW for all the heats.The changing winds of Elon
gave all points of sail as the boats traveled down the course.The tradition of “It always rains on Rick” was not fulfilled
this time.
We
were honored to have one of the PMYC’s founding fathers in
attendance. Don Gilliam, who has been having some serious health
problems the last few years felt good enough to stop by an spend
a few minutes with us. Everyone was delighted to see him up and
about.
Thanks to all the skippers and wives for making this a fun
event. Also a big thank you to Frank Angel for all his
preliminary work, expertise, and acting as starter and mark
judge; to Linda Angel for being an excellent score keeper, being
in charge of lunch and putting up with “Uncle” Frank. Paul Bowen
spent several afternoons at the lake removing the worst of the
goose droppings. I also want to thank
Dan Scudder assisted by Vance Kinlaw for removing the marks from
the pond, thereby saving a trip to the hospital for Frank or me.
All in all, the
fleet was very close with only a very few points separating most
of the finishing positions as the scores below reflect.
Finish |
Captain |
Score |
State |
1.
|
Reichard
Kahle
|
20.6
|
SC
|
2.
|
Gerry Cobley
|
31
|
NC
|
3.
|
Rick
West
|
45
|
SC
|
4.
|
Jack Wubbe
|
48
|
FL
|
5.
|
Rick
Gerry
|
58
|
SC
|
6.
|
Bob Mersereau
|
65
|
NC
|
7.
|
Winston
Mathews
|
91
|
FL
|
8.
|
Dennis McInerney
|
99
|
NC
|
9.
|
Jim
Utley
|
122
|
NC
|
10.
|
Alan
Fernald
|
125
|
NC
|
11.
|
Scott
Vernon
|
132*
|
GA
|
12.
|
Dick
Gerry
|
136
|
SC
|
13.
|
Doug
Hale
|
138
|
NC
|
14.
|
Peter
Kremlick
|
143
|
SC
|
15.
|
Vance Kinlaw
|
151
|
NC
|
16.
|
Dan
Scudder
|
152
|
NC
|
17.
|
Carl Olbrick
|
164
|
NC
|
18.
|
Jim Donohoe
|
182*
|
SC
|
19.
|
Paul
Bowen
|
195
|
NC
|
* Did not
sail Sunday
|