We had an amazing show of 21 boats for our 35th Annual Doc Gilbert Potomac Cup Regatta, with 9 Fleet 50 boats boats and 12 teams traveling from out of town (from Florida to Connecticut). For everyone who participated – Thank You for taking the time to make our Regatta part of your 2019 sailing schedule!

Congratulations to Steve Constants and his team on “Brown Eyed Girl”, who finished in 1st Place, John Bauman and team sailing “CHED!!!” who finished second and our own Nabeel Alsalam and team on “Shadowfax” for finishing in third.  Full results can be found on Regatta Network: http://www.regattanetwork.com/event/18807#_home 

The forecast indicated a cool cloudy day on Saturday with wind from 8-15, and then rain on Sunday. With that in mind, the well organized RC set up for 4 races on Saturday and 2 on Sunday, and we were off and running on time for a noon start.

Once again we had Captain Dave and his historic Oyster Boat for our main RC boat, along with our 17′ & 19′ PRSA boats staffed by our fellow PRSA volunteers from the I-20 and Albacore fleet.  This event truly “Takes A Village” to host!

Saturdays 4 races showcased the joys of regional racing with a good race committee, here ably led by Bruce Bingman, Taran Teague & Dan Trammel. Just after the first start, the wind went  40 degrees right and the RC was able to quickly abandon that race, bring us back, reset the course and restart us in little more time than a general recall would take. For the rest of the day they ably adjusted the course as the wind oscillated, and gave us clean beats and runs every time.

I would like to recognize Jim Dillard who helped organize our relationship with Leesylvania State Park and Yuengling Distributors which allow us to host our Regatta at the park, Bob Astrove who organized the breakfast & lunch station, Angie Darrah who organized the Appetizers, and Frank & Maryann Gallagher housing & making sure everything was ready to be served.  We were fortunate to have Lindsay Bach at the helm again this year, who has volunteered to cook for the last umpteen years & Nabeel Alsalam, (our Regatta Chair), who did a wonderful job grilling the steak, salmon and providing the delicious side dishes for the 65-70 sailors Saturday evening.

Unfortunately, Sunday morning the weather did not cooperate and continued to be cool and rained steadily . As most of the fleet congregated under the dry pavilion,  discussing the forecast that was going to continue all day.  RC announced that they would be keeping a close eye on the weather and mentioned a line of severe weather predicted to arrive shortly after the estimated finish of race #5. The fleet was polled, and a decision made to cancel racing for Sunday to allow folks to step masts and pack up their boats before any severe weather arrived.  

I would like to make a special Shout-Out to Joe Buczkowski who jumped in and was our Grill-Master for the Sunday hotdogs & grilled chicken lunch before everyone headed home.   

We could not have hosted this event without the various Fleet 50 Members who moved RC boats to and from the park (in Friday 95S traffic!), arrived early to set up, stay late to clean up were part of  “the Village” that  part it truly made this event possible.  Special thanks to Jim & Ed Lane, who by default were also on-duty and jumped in to do whatever was needed all weekend~ “Happy Mothers Day!”

Hope to see you next year!

Photos by Carl Schaefer: https://www.facebook.com/carl.schaefer.526/media_set?set=a.10157171235174904&type=1