| Place | Boat | Skipper | Crew\Owner | Race 1 | Race 2 | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 7782 | Barry Lawton (R19) | Kurt Larson | 5 | 1 | 6 |
| 2 | 7621 | Philip Marks (R19) | Peter Costa | 4 | 3 | 7 |
| 3 | 7804 | Tommy May (PHRF) | Gary MacDonald | 3 | 4 | 7 |
| 4 | 7468 | Sara Siljander | John Siljander | 6 | 2 | 8 |
| 5 | 7628 | John MacRae (Snipe) | Stephen Braverman | 1 | DNS | |
| 6 | 7629 | Tim Fulham (Wianno Sr.) | Ken Woods | 2 | DNS |
We'd heard on the docks many a time "Hey, those Star boats look like a lot of fun to sail, I'd love to try one...." Hence the invention of the Skipper's Choice Regatta. Boston Harbor Star Fleet owners were asked to find a sailor who'd never raced a star before, to skipper their boat for a day. Although the owners were not obligated to, they all crewed for their rookie skippers.
Rhodes 19 sailors lead the charge with Barry Lawton winning the regatta, and Philip Marks placing second. PHRF sailor Tommy May placed third.
The forecasts varied anywhere from 10-25 knots, but we couldn't have asked for more suitable conditions for this regatta than what we had. Warm and sunny with the wind over 15 knots at the beginning which dwindled to about 10 by regatta's end.
The first course was a port triangle-windward-leeward starting just West of Long Island. The first mark was about a mile upwind towards the inner harbor, just South of lower middle. Fulham/Woods port tacked the fleet at the start and headed towards Winthrop. The rest of the fleet started on Starboard and played the shifts and the incoming tide in the middle of the channel. Fulham sailed fast and took advantage of the right shift and better breeze to round the weather mark first, several boatlengths ahead of MacRae/Braverman who were barely ahead of the rest of the tight pack.
Positions stayed the same around the jibe mark, leeward mark, and up again at the windward mark. MacRae had closed the gap on Fulham on the second windward leg, and caught him a quarter of the way down the leeward leg. The lead changed several times between the two boats as the rookie star skippers match raced down the leg, getting a taste of the close action. MacRae got a puff seconds before Fulham and nipped him at the finish line.
The second race started at same line, but was a windward leeward with the windward mark just off castle island. Lawton/Larson took the lead off the line in the diminishing breeze, but never looked back that race on their way to winning the Skipper's Choice Regatta.
Great day to introduce some rookie sailors to star boats. Thanks to Dan Mullane, Joe Zambella, Chuck Loomis, Sergey Leonidov on RC,
Peter Costa for the idea, and the Boston Harbor star owners for offering their boats, and crewing for the rookies.