On Saturday, October 22, the Mattapoisett Yacht Club held its Annual Meeting at the Waypoint Event Center in New Bedford. A record turnout was on hand for the presentation of awards for the past season’s racing events and the installation of next year’s Flag Officers. Commodore Bob Warren recapped the 2016 season beginning with the annual “Spring Fling” kickoff party. The first sailing event of the season was the Spring Round-the-Bay Race. This year’s winners were both from the MYC: Nancy DePeitro’s Arion in the racing class and Charlie Prefontaine’s Helios in the Cruising Class. The overall winner of the three Ensign Class, Tuesday night series was Phil Warren in Black Ice. In these closely contested series, the top three places were separated by only one point. In the PHRF Wednesday night series, the overall winner in the “A” fleet was Bob Warren in In Deep. The “B” fleet overall winner was Sue McGowan in Gryphon II. The “C” fleet was topped by Nick Nicholson in Brisk. This year, the Club was pleased to have a few 420s joining in the racing on Tuesday nights. We hope that this trend will continue and more young sailors will come out to enjoy the competition. In addition to the weekly racing series, the Yacht Club held its second annual “Barking Bulldog” Regatta. This one-design regatta featured J-24s, won by Teagan Walsh in Bad Fish; Shields won by Ken Deyett; Ensigns won by Rick Warren in Odyessey and 420s won by Josh Egger and Stefan Hulsebosh. Over $800 was raised to support the ORR sailing team. The annual Chowder Cup head-to-head competition with the Angelica Y.C. sailed in Ensigns, was won decisively by Angelica. The Hurricane Cup held at the end of the racing season for any and all boats was won by Mark Thornhill in No Quarter Given.
The height of the MYC season was the hosting of the Ensign National Championship. Twenty-nine boats from around the country came to compete in the four-day event that saw a variety of conditions. The overall winner was Bud Brown in Lorelei from Tom’s River Yacht Club. MYC boats in the top ten were Stephen &Tina Clark’s Brou Ha Ha and Rich Warren’s Odyessey. Many thanks go out to the great number of local businesses that supported the event.
The Anne Donald Award for distinguished service was presented to Past Commodore Fran Grenon whose numerous contributions have included years of website management, race scoring, race committee and photography.
The final order of business was the installation of the 2017 Flag Officers: Commodore, Ed Sargent; Vice Commodore, Kai Srisirikul; Rear Commodore, Rich “Butch” Joy; Secretary, Stephanie DuCharme and Treasurer, Charlie Smith.
The Mattapoisett Yacht Club was established in 1901. Membership is open to all. For more information, visit the MYC at www.mattapoisettyc.org.