Danny Pletsch and Kari Sachs Ace
Stanley Bell Regatta
April 4-5, 2009
Larchmont, NY
LYC’s Danny Pletsch with crew Kari Sachs dominated racing at the 7th annual Stanley Bell Memorial Regatta sailed April 4-5. Fresh, puffy conditions on Saturday caused racing to be cancelled, turning the regatta into a one-day shootout on Sunday. Pletsch/Sachs came out with guns blazing, winning 4 of the 8 races to take the win over past national and season champion Steve Benjamin (sailing with Charlie McHugh).
Danny Pletsch and Kari Sachs (bow 50) blast upwind at the 2009
Stanley Bell ahead of John and Molly Baxter (bow 66).
Photo by Tom Spelman.
Pletsch/Sachs were the only team to keep all of their finishes in the top 10 in the competitive fleet. Winter member Paul-Jon Patin and his wife Anne rounded out the top three. LYC sailors dominated the B division podium as well with Michael Purinton and Anne-Marie Martin winning and Peter Beardsley/Dina Temple-Raston finishing third.
Over 35 teams registered for the event, including teams from Manhasset Bay, Annapolis, Rochester, Rhode Island and Massachusetts. Sunday’s strong winds kept the C division sailors ashore, leaving 22 teams to duke it out on the water.
Conditions were puffy and shifty from the North/Northwest, making for exciting and tactically challenging sailing. Big shots of breeze, frequently over 20 knots, were rolling through the course early in the day making the somewhat wobbly ICs quite a handful downwind. But as the day wore on the breeze generally diminished with the last few races sailed in decidedly more moderate conditions.
The classic Northwesterly conundrum of whether to go for the puff or the shift was in full play. Sizable left shifts made the left edge of the course very tempting and with big packs coming in on port tack the windward mark roundings were lively. The runs were all about setting up for the puffs and keeping the boat upright. As the puffs tended to compress the fleet, the leeward gate was usually crowded, sometimes with 8 to 10 boats overlapped. The long final beats provided plenty of opportunities to gain or lose places – no lead was ever safe.
Big breeze and a competitive fleet kept winward mark roundings
interesting at the 2009 Stanley Bell Regatta.
Photo by Tom Spelman
According to Pletsch the key to success was sailing conservatively; “We tried to eliminate risk by staying in the middle of the race course upwind and would usually round in the top 5. From there Kari was on her game piecing the puffs together downwind where we usually gained.”
As usual, race management was excellent thanks to Nick Langone and his able army of volunteers. Prior to racing on Sunday, the annual brunch honoring the regatta’s namesake was held and teams took advantage to load up for a breezy and challenging day on the water. All in all, Stanley would have been proud.
The Stanley Bell Regatta is the fifth leg in the Wharf Rat Challenge, a perpetual trophy awarded to the top team in a series of national Interclub regattas. With the regatta win, Danny Pletsch moves into second overall in the Wharf Rat standings behind Steve Benjamin, though 8 teams are within 5 points of the lead. The final Wharf Rat regatta will be the Interclub National Championship, held April 18-19 at LYC.
Results from the 2009 Stanley Bell Regatta
Photos from the 2009 Stanley Bell Regatta by Tom Spelman
