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2003 OXFORD FALL WIND-UP
By John
MacCausland
I arrived in Oxford at eleven am Friday morning hoping to get some
sailing in before the regatta. Most of the time I am the first person on
site, but when I arrived there were at least five other boats with the same
idea. There seemed to be a lot of interest in this regatta, the weather
report seemed good and Oxford is a great place to go this time
of the year. To bad the weather on Friday did not cooperate: lots of sun and
not much wind. So the day was spent rigging and preparing for the racing.
Oxford was hit pretty hard by hurricane
Isabel. Most of the damage came from flooding. The yacht club was spared from
the flooding. The water was within inches of the front door of the club. The
club staff did a great job in cleaning up the club grounds and making
everything ready for the regatta.
Twenty-eight boats from
places as far away as Florida, Chicago, Boston, Toronto were on site to start the 52nd
Annual Oxford Fall Wind-Up. Out on the race course things looked good to get
started right away. But the preverbal black cloud came over the course and
slowed things down. After a short postponement we were able to start the
first race. By the first mark it was Ben Cesare
with Brian Sharp in the lead with the fleet in close pursuit. The breeze was
on its way down on the first run and by the leeward mark it had become very
light. The next beat featured a ninety degree left shift that shook up the
fleet but Ben Cesare and Tom Price who were first and second at the
leeward mark survived and were still in the top two spots at the second
weather mark. The run to the finish was a parade with very little change in
position.
Race two was sailed in
very nice conditions. Again the racing was very close. In the end it was
Arthur Anosov with Peter Carson taking the gun. By
the end of the day Tom Price and Will Wagner were leading with a 2-5. Next was John MacCausland and Brad Nichol with a 6-2.
Rounding out the top three was Ben Cesare and Brian
Sharp with a 1-10.
One race was scheduled
for Sunday the forecast did not look great but by the time we all left the
dock and arrived at the race course things did not look too bad. Fifteen to
eighteen knot of wind from the Northwest and blue sky coming. By the first
mark John
MacCausland and Brad Nichol were in the lead with Ben Cesare
in close pursuit and regatta leader tom Price in fifth place. We were sailing
a triangular course and on the first reach MacCausland and Cesare got a puff that the rest of the fleet did not get.
The pair was able to open up a good lead on the fleet. As the race went on
the top two positions did not change. Tom Price did a nice job to get back to
third in the race. With their win MacCausland and Nichol sealed the overall
win. Tom
Price
and Will
Wagner sailed a very good series to finish second and rounding out the top
three was Ben Cesare and Brian Sharp.
We had a great turnout
this year. Let’s all try next year to bring one more boat with us and we can
have an unbelievable regatta. Thanks again to Richard Lippincott and the staff at the Tred Avon Yacht Club for putting on such a great event.
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