Ouch!   After a strong rally at the end of day 1, Team Mudhead met their match on days 2 and 3 to finish 13th out of 21 in the Hospice Regattas National Championship at Rochester Yacht Club on Lake Ontario.   Sailing in Sonars, your intrepid team of Greg Gilmartin, Frank Murphy, Ken Lane and Skip Hoffman proved the adage, to win a national,  you must be consistent.   We were not.   We shone, we shreded.  We were over early, we were over late, we were spot on.  We went from Who's Who? to Who's He?  From Apple Pie to Humble Pie!  From Heros to Zeros.  It was a grand regatta, we had lots of fun and in the end, we left with a strong sense of commaradarie and respect for the teams that traveled from around the country to support this event and the Hospice cause.

A quick recap saw us shake the cobwebs of an 8th place finish in race 1 to nail a 3rd and 1st in races 5 & 6 to finish the Day 1 Round Robin.  Light and shifty was the game.  Day 2 saw 10-15 with gusts to 18 and we got beat up a bit.  In race one of the day, we shredded a brand new chute on the committee boat.  Hey, it was the favored end for the finish!   We missed a few shifts and a few lanes and settled into the middle of the pack.  At this point it was clear the top teams were the 5 from upstate New York who were familiar with the Lake and the boats.  Day three we overcame a late start from DFL to 5th and finished off the regatta with a close gybing duel against the Marblehead team, holding them off for 6th and 13th overall.  New York teams swept the top three spots and 5 of the top 7 slots.  Good on them and local knowledge.

Rochester Yacht Club is a gem of a club at the mouth of the Geneseo River on a piece of property about the size of Noank!  Or so it seemed.  The Organizing Authority and the Race Committee under the guidance of Hank Stuart and Wayne Reisch ran a first class event.  Shuffling 21 teams of four among 12 boats over 18 races so everyone had 9 races to count was a ballet of human coordination with support boats, HBI and dedicated people.  One of the highlights was the Saturday night dinner and auction where we were able to show Samurai Douse, starring Ken Lane, Frank Murphy, and a supporting cast of Mudheads  to an appreciative audience who laughed their asses off and gave us a moment to highlight the Mudheads.  And take endless ribbing about shredding our spinnaker.   Hey, what's $500 for a moment of glory among friends?

It's been 10 years since a Connecticut boat won the Hospice National.  Bill Healy  of Niantic Bay did it in the first year, 2000.  The championship will be at Rochester Yacht Club for the next two years, so make your plans now to race in the Mudhead Benefit Cup for Hospice SECT on July 18.  The top teams will qualify for the selection process to represent Connecticut Long Island Sound in 2010.   There is no entry fee for the July 18th event and it is open to all one design, PHRF and Cruising boats in the world.  Go to mudhead.org and c lick on the registration button to get on the list and then get ready for some great racing action!

Finally, a special thank you to Hospice SECT and the Mudheads  Dillon Fund for their support of our adventure.  Here's a link to some photos.  See if you can find the Mudheads.  http://myyc.org/album/viewAlbum.