What a fun day we had for the 2025 Spring Race to Atlantique. The wind & weather gods were good to the diehard racers who came out for the first race of the SBCC Racing season.
As predicted, Saturday morning was cloudy with a 10 kt SSW wind. We had some light rain around 11:00 but it passed quickly. Racers travelled from as far as Amityville (Shadow), Lindenhurst (Aleboat) and Sayville (Polaris- welcome Bill Sesack!). In all, we had 5 boats at the starting line this year. Larry Becker with Matt Rainis crewing in Jewel led off the pursuit start in a 10-12 SSW wind. Shadow had the last start time with the fleet leading the way.
Just a few minutes after the start a weather front came through providing some strong shifty S-SW winds with gusts over 20 kts. Luckily it passed quickly and we were rewarded with clearing skies and perfect 12-15 kt SSW winds for the long run to our first mark. With the flood tide setting the fleet east, crews were kept busy short tacking at the end of the first leg to make the mark- including a tacking duel between Pandemonium & Shadow. Jewel was first around with some nice trim work followed by Pandemonium and Shadow.
Jewel sailed a great race and was not to be caught. They finished in 1st place. Shadow & Pandemonium battled it out for second with Shadow just pulling ahead half way through the last leg to take second. Pandemonium took third, Polaris was fourth and our RC Eric Winberry & crew in Aleboat took fifth.
Final Spring Race to Atlantique Results:
1st- Jewel- Larry Becker & Matt Rainis
2rd- Shadow- Charlie Margeson
3rd- Pandemonium- Gary Sebouhian & crew
4th- Polaris- Bill Sesack & crew
5th- Aleboat- Eric Winberry & crew
Jewel, Shadow and Polaris pulled into Atlantique for a celebratory beer & awards party. We stayed an hour to enjoy the beautiful weather and join with the SBCC RV attended by the McCarthys, the Mourinos, Wendy Gesele and Mara Liesegang. The racers then left for a nice relaxing sail home.
Thank you to Eric Winberry & crew for his continued annual Race Committee duty for this race. It was a fine afternoon, a nice turnout and great way to start the 2025 racing season!
See you on the Bay.
Charlie Margeson
SBCC Regatta Captain
