In the Ronan Guyer Memorial Regatta, a tune-up for next week’s MASSA District National Qualifier, Joshua Martin and Sam Gallipeau took the top two spots during a challenging day on the water this past Saturday. Here is Captain George Linzee’s report.
Lead skipper Joshua Martin quickly demonstrated that his training and campaigning his new Laser during the summer have improved his sailing skills up to a whole new level. Winning starts with a variety of tactics and demonstrating good boat speed on the course and he placed 2nd in a fleet of nine competitors in the first two races. After consulting with Capt. Linzee between races, Joshua made some modifications and proceeded to win the next three races by increasing margins and it looked like he was going to lock up first place.Then disaster struck in the sixth race when Joshua, after again beating the fleet to the first mark, capsized in the increasingly gusty winds. He recovered quickly only to capsize again, avoiding a fishing boat that was on the course. Again he recovered only to get tangled with another capsized boat. In all three of these setbacks, Joshua fought hard to resume sailing, pass other boats, and protect his lead. In the final race, Joshua again beat the fleet to the fist mark when he was fowled at the mark by another boat that should have avoided him. The situation that developed caused a pile-up of boats that took considerable time to untangle. When he resumed sailing the course, Joshua demonstrated incredible character by not giving up and went to pass three boats to preserve his 1st place finish in the regatta.Teammate Sam Gallipeau, despite being off the water during the summer, placed third in the first race but then experienced a breakdown when the mast of the boat he borrowed from the host broke in two. After a quick change of mast and sail, Sam was able to resume racing was able able to place 4th, 3rd, and 5th in the following races. In between the events, Capt. Linzee suggested a few modifications that Sam quickly put into action. He went on to win the last two races when the wind was blowing at its peak for the day. In the last race, Sam won a tacking duel with a Mattituck boat that was determined to do anything to beat him and take his second place away from him.In summary, both sailors demonstrated incredible character and sportsmanship racing under rigorous conditions and tough competition and refused to let setbacks discourage them. This event was a great warm-up when the two will represent Stony Brook in the District qualifier for Nationals next Saturday and Sunday in Oyster Bay.
Here is Martin’s take on his and Sam’s performances:
This regatta is a prep for next week's CRESSY event, which is a really brutal single-handed national qualifier event, where about 50 other Laser sailors compete. Today was a pretty rough preparation. The wind was blowing about 19 mph and we were both working as hard as we could. I got three firsts and two seconds, and Sam got two firsts and even broke a mast but recovered during the second race. It was a really great event. Overall I placed first and Sam placed second but he was only 1.8 points behind me, so it was really close.
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