Cruising > 2008 Independence Day Mini Cruise
Schedule of Events

2008 July 4th Mini Cruise
July 4-6

The Fourth of July weekend this year is over Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Friday each boat in the fleet should plan to leave North Cove at 11:00 or at their convenience for Smith Cove in the Shelter Island area. This is just east of the Sag Harbor Ferry not far from West Neck. Boats should monitor channel 78 for the latest plans. The tide through the Gut is favorable between the hours of 1216 – 1819 hours on Friday. Friday evening we will gather on the beach or on one of the boats for drinks and hors d’oeuvres to discuss race details for Saturday. Monitor 78 for information.

Saturday’s race will be low stress and different, derived from an article I read in Sailing Magazine. Plans for the day will be confirmed on channel 78 at 9:30 AM. The race will start with a skipper or boat representative meeting 10 AM on the shore to determine the course and time limits. Hopefully there will enough wind to race around Shelter Island, if not the race committee and skippers will decide on a shorter course. The chosen time limit will be time the engines can be turned on to be able to complete the day’s racing within reason. If some boats have finished within the time limit boats using their engines to finish will have 30 minutes added to their time.

To determine the PHRF* racing handicap each boat is to produce a bottle of wine including proof of the cost at the meeting for the event. The PHRF will be based on the cost of the wine. The larger the number, the better the handicap. The race (clock) will start on shore at the conclusion of the meeting. Each skipper must then swim or dinghy to his or her boat. Only at this point the sails can be raised and the anchor pulled up so the boat can sail the course. No engine can be used and the crew must not start raising sails until the skipper gets back on the boat. The race will end when the boat is anchored and all sails are down. Once the sails are down the skipper is to swim or dinghy ashore and take a sip or drink of wine ending the race and stopping the clock for his or her boat.

After the race there will be a cocktail party to drink up all the wine with hors d’oeuvres to supplement the wine. Each boat needs to provide hors d’oeuvres to supplement the wine. There will be appropriate awards for the first three finishers and one for the poorest finisher, which could have something to do with cheap wine.

Sunday morning will be rest and relaxation before heading back to port. The tide through the Gut is favorable on Sunday from 0745-1357 hours.

No reservations or advance commitment is involved, just show up; however there will be a sign up sheet posted at the Club as I would like to get some idea of how many boats will be involved with the racing or just enjoying the weekend.

*PHRF – The Race Committee will subtract $4.00 from the cost of each bottle of wine to determine the PHRF. This provides a time correction multiplier of one for a $5.00 bottle of wine. A $10 or $16 bottle of wine will give respective time correction multipliers of either 0.5652 or 0.3714. For those serious racers the formula for computing your Time Correction Factor is 650/(550+PHRF). The PHRF = Cost of the wine - $4.00.

–Ed Godfrey, July 4th Cruise Director, edward.godfrey@snet.net

Boat Provisioning
Ladies, please join us for conversation about boat provisioning, cooking, and everything else you ever wanted to know about cruising. If you’re new to cruising, come and learn. If you’re an Old Salt, come and share your knowledge and maybe even a recipe or two. Most of all, come and have fun talking about living on boats. BYO Beverage, at the clubhouse, June 25th at 1900.
Questions? Email Lisa Carruthers
–Lisa Carruthers, Fleet Captain lsc0818@gmail.com