2008 Event

2008 Team Ida at Oyster Bay Challenge

Group Photo

ILYC vs. Noroton

2007 Event

IDA LEWIS THIRD AT OYSTER BAY CHALLENGE
AT SEAWANHAKA CORINTHIAN YACHT CLUB ON
JUNE 3, 2007

Ida Lewis sent a team of sailors to compete at the Oyster Bay Challenge, a two-day team-race regatta
held at Seawanhaka Corinthian Yacht Club on the first weekend in June. We booked rooms at the club,
which is a classic Long Island Sound institution with a façade straight out of Great Gatsby and made the
trip down Friday evening, arriving at the north shore of Long Island in time for a good night’s sleep.

For one day, it appeared that Team Ida would be unstoppable, as we adapted well to the host club’s
Sonars, sailing fast and smart, and came off the water in first place of three teams. We lost a tricky protest,
which cost us one of those victories and dropped us into a tie with New York Yacht Club. The fantastic
buffet, over which we got to know our rival competitors from the host club and New York, quickly made
up for that disappointment . After dessert, we retreated to the club library where SCYC’s commodore, Al
Constants, hospitably treated us to more wine. We neglected to notice that the rest of his team had gone
home to rest up, which may have been a factor on Sunday, when we dropped off the pace. We had some
close team racing, nonetheless, and made an incredible comeback in our last race against Seawanhaka,
only to lose the race on a bonehead move by our team captain (yours truly). We beat New York in our final
race, however, which set up a winner take all between the other two teams in which New York came from
way behind to win and record a final race tally of 8-6. We were 6-8, and SCYC, 7-7. The winning team, by the way, included Ida Lewis members Phil and Wendy Lotz.

The first weekend in June at Oyster Bay will be a fixture on our team race calendar going forward and it
will no doubt become a bigger regatta. Having competed at the Shields Nationals there in 2002, I can
vouch for the fact that the combination of good racing and good hospitality was no fluke. Anyone not
mandated to attend a graduation, wedding, or reunion that weekend should consider joining us next year.
Team Ida included Commodore Jeff Adam, Steve Prime, Phil Cox, Steve Parks, Roy Williams, Dan Faria,
Bob Hunte, Deb McCay, Past Commodore Paul Fleming, and John Burnham as team captain.

JOHN BURNHAM