Be sure to read Fred Beyer's hilarous account of the first night of sailing in the new "Lady Corinthians" Wednesday night Series on the Sailing Clinic page.

The offshore fleet tried to make up for some missed weekends, however,
the elements would not cooperate for racing at the club this past
Saturday. First thing in the morning, a severe storm, including winds
reported at 60 miles per hour, blew through; the storm then took the
wind with it. The offshore fleet is off this weekend to support the
MAYRA Championships being hosted by the club.

Offshore racing continues on Saturday, August 16, 2008.

The CYCCM Offshore Fleet was well-represented at the 31st Annual Heart
Cup Regatta in Ocean City, New Jersey this past weekend. Red Dawn,
skippered by John Wilsey along with his all-CYCCM crew (Owen Miller,
Rick Coale, Eric Bennung and Rachel Bennung) won the J24 class overall
and the MAYRA One-Design Trophy (best performance in a one-design fleet)
in the three-day event. Red Dawn now leads the Parkway Series, a series
of J24 regattas hosted by yacht clubs up and down the Garden State
Parkway, which represents the J24 fleet in New Jersey. The winner of the
Parkway Series this year automatically qualifies for the J24 World
Championships to be held in Annapolis, Maryland, in 2009.

Make sure to read PC Fred Beyer's account of the first weeks of his adult sailing clinic - afterwards you'll want to join in the fun or come and watch the class in action. All of Fred's students are progressing well and look for many of them in this week's inaugural races of the new "Lady Corinthians" racing series (Wednesdays at 4:00 beginning on 7/30/08.)

July 1, 2008:

Competitive sailing is well under way for 2008 at the Corinthian Yacht Club of Cape May. The club had its first annual Memorial Day Regatta, which was part of the inaugural Laser Spring Series in Cape May Harbor. The top three finishers for the Series were: Past Commodore Dick O'Keefe, Commodore Jack Lord, and Robert Brederhoft. The Laser is a popular one-design class of a small sailing dinghy, which is sailed by one person.


On the weekend of June 14-15, the club hosted the annual Dead Crab Classic J24 Regatta off the beaches of Cape May. This regatta is a regular stop on the J24 Parkway Series, which determines the World Qualifier (this year for the 2009 World Championships to be held in Annapolis, Maryland). Corinthian Yacht Club sailors placed three boats in the top five finishers: John Wilsey and Owen Miller on Red Dawn in second, Gerrit Schulze on Cinderella in fourth, and Bob Foulke and Bob Herzog on Bobsled in fifth. Overall winner was Rick Applin sailing Hot Ticket out of Atlantic Highlands Yacht Club.


The J24, which is usually raced with four-to-five people, is the most popular keelboat in the world in terms of number of boats produced.


On June 22, racers competed in the second weekend of the club's Offshore Racing Series. So far, nine J24s and three "PHRF" boats have competed in the series. ("PHRF" is a formula-based rating system which allows different types of boats to race against each other.) In this past weekend's racing, Turkeys (owned by Jay Kopp, Chrissy McShane and Mark Penny of CYCCM) won both J24 races to take the lead in the series. Shillelagh, a Cal 9.2 owned by Geoff and Linc King of CYCCM, won both PHRF races and leads that series.


The Offshore Series will continue this upcoming Fourth of July weekend.Non-members are welcome to participate in the PHRF races at the club.

Skippers meeting is at 10:30 a.m. at the club with a 12:00 warning signal out in the ocean. Sailing instructions and schedule are available on the Racing page at www.cyccm.com.


In addition to ongoing harbor and offshore racing series, this past weekend, the club hosted the Cape Regional Cup Regatta, which consisted of offshore racing off the beaches of Cape May Saturday June 28 and Laser racing in Cape May Harbor on Sunday, June 27. The offshore awards went to: in the J24 class, Turkeys (1st), Jersey Girl owned by John Groskoph of CYCCM)(2nd), and Blink (owned by Dave Sharp, Jr. of CYCCM)(3rd); in the PHRF Spinnaker class, Hot Toddy (owned by Steve Todd of CYCCM)(1st) and Shillelagh (2nd); and PHRF Non-Spinnaker, Summer Storm (owned by Fred Beyer, Past Commodore) (1st).


The Regatta is sponsored by the Corinthian Yacht Cup of Cape May to benefit the Cape Regional Medical Center.

July 14, 2008:

Due to light wind and low visibility, there was no offshore racing at CYCCM the weekend of July 5. The fleet managed to get one race off on July 12 in light to variable winds. Shillelagh, sailed by Geoff and Linc King, again prevailed in the three-boat PHRF to continue their perfect record of first-place finishes so far this Summer. Arnold Goes to Hollywood, skippered by Jack Van Dalen, won the eight-boat J24 fleet, followed by Cinderella (Al Schulze) and Blink (Dave Sharp). Offshore racing continues this weekend - Saturday, July 19 - skippers meeting at 10:30 a.m., warning signal offshore at 12:00 noon.

The first Sunset Cruise for this Summer is scheduled for Friday, July 18 in the harbor. You do not have to be a member of the club to participate in Sunset Cruises - just bring your boat over to the club's dock by 6 p.m. for the start.

Check the Juniors page for results of Junior travel regattas!

Click on "Harbor Racing" for complete results for Laser/420 Friday Series, Corinthian Series, Wednesday Series, and CYCCM regattas.
Results are also posted on the "Sailing" bulletin board in the inside porch of the club and in the information cases on the harbor-side of the Bayberry Building.

The docks are in place, a new ramp is ready in the Sunfish yard, and the grounds look great - we are ready for another exciting summer at the club!

We had an unbelievable turnout for Dock Day - 50+ enthusiastic helpers collecting trash, pruning trees and bushes, moving boats, raking the debris left after the docks were moved, building the new ramp, and of course, getting the docks back in the water. PC Bob Herzog and PC Jay Kopp led the effort with the docks, with just a bit of "numbering" confusion, but by 9:30 a.m. the job was complete. Lindsay Clarkson's crew and equipment made the work possible and I personally am very grateful to him, Bob and Jay for taking the lead with this project year after year. Thanks too to PC Dick O'Keefe and his building crew for completing the much-needed ramp at the center of the Sunfish yard.

We had several new CYCCM members as well as members of the Lower Cape May Regional High School Sailing Team helping out and no job was too big or too small for our volunteers. Many thanks to all who helped - PC Fred and Jill Beyer, Peter Gahagan, Patrick McCauley, Nicole Curran, Bill Furey, Tom Carroll, PC Sandy Thomson, Ken Lang, PC Bob Foulke, David, Nancy, John and Gordon Sayre, Dave Sharp Sr., Dave Sharp Jr., Russ Dickhart, Don Siegel, Joe Tarantola, Mal and Dottie Knapp, Sue Irving, PC Scott Bennung, PC Jens Fog, Carl Behrens, Mark Sorensen, Matt Corcoran, Steve Todd, Linc King, Geoff King, PC Rob, Carol and Tyler Flynn, John Henderson, Werner Unzlemann, PC Lou Joyce, George Rea, PC Dale Hardin, PC Wally Stuard, LCMR boys Frank Heinlein, Dan Castellucci, and Taylor Vendetta, PC Wally Barrie, PC Dave Schultz, and Jack Bowman. Thanks too to Larry Good for cooking our sausage and pepper lunch and to VC Rick Coale and Chef Harry Gleason for coffee and donuts. It really was a great day!

Now that we're "back in business", some upcoming sailing events should be noted:

• Our first-ever Memorial Day Regatta on Monday May 26 - weather permitting. Lasers, 420's, Optis and Sunfish are invited to participate - skippers' meeting after the Opening Ceremonies. Laser sailors please note: There will be no Sunday Series races on Sunday. You should sail on Monday and the races will be scored for the regatta and for the series.


• Laser Sunday Series - something new on the schedule. First races (see above) will be on Monday May 26, subsequent races on Sundays at 12:00.


• Local Ocean Racing - First race on Saturday June 7. 10:30 skippers' meeting, 12:00 ocean start


• Dead Crab Regatta - June 14 and 15, Owen Miller - Regatta Chairman


• Laser and 420 Friday Series begins June 20.


• Cape May "Harborfest" Saturday June 21 - community celebration of the harbor - more info. to come.


• Junior Sailing classes begin Monday June 23.


• Cape Regional Cup Harbor Regatta Friday June 27.


• Cape Regional Cup Offshore Regatta Saturday June 28.

If you were born after 1949 and want/plan to operate a power vessel over 10 horsepower, you will need to be certified by June 1, 2008 as mandated by the New Jersey State Police. Corinthian will be offering a SAFE BOATING COURSE and certification testing on Saturday May 24 at 9:00 a.m. The course will be led by Captain Frank Breakall and will cost $60. He will provide all materials; you just need a pencil and a commitment to learning! The class and testing will run for approximately three hours - two hours to cover test information and 30-45 minutes for testing and paperwork.

Please reserve your spot by calling me at (609) 238-6283 or sending me an email at lesliefog@msn.com by Wednesday May 21. You may bring cash or a check payable to Captain Breakall on class day, but you must be pre-registered with me.

Don't forget:
All boat storage and locker requests are due now. Do not place a boat on the premises without it having been registered for 2008 and without a current Club decal. Any boats found on the property without the above will be removed. If you have any questions, please contact me at (609) 238-6283 or email me at lesliefog@msn.com.

All Junior Sailing Class registrations are due at this time. If you have any questions, please call Beth Coale at (609) 884-5828. In-person registration will take place on Monday June 16 from 9:00 to 12:00 and the first session will begin the following Monday, June 23. We are lucky to have Rachel Bennung, Jaclyn Reilly, and Meghan O'Keefe returning to the program and they will be joined by Eliza Crawford as a new instructor, with Ian McEwing taking over Eric Bennung as Head Instructor. We will miss Eric but wish him well as he moves on and hope to see him racing in Cape May whenever he can.

I look forward to the summer season and hope you do too.
See you at the club!

Leslie Fog, Rear Commodore