Farewell to Summer: The Cidertini Challenge & Celebration
It’s become an annual phenomenon: Diamond Island Yacht Club folks pick a day for the Cidertini Challenge, the club’s last sailboat race of the summer, and the Cidertini Celebration, a season-ending party under the tent at Point Bay Marina, and the weather gods supply a beautiful, blue-sky day.
On September 20, with just two days of summer remaining, four boats made it to the starting line for the annual Cidertini Challenge. Three sailed in the jib-and-main fleet, and one, Ted Castle’s Rum Butter, used a spinnaker. Race director Wendy Friant, with her sailboat Raven serving as committee boat and assisted by Cloud Mason, sent the boats off in a brisk northerly breeze—never much less than 15 knots. The fleet beat up to a dropped mark off Essex on the New York shore, reached over to Sloop Island off Charlotte, and headed back to the finish in the southern part of Town Farm Bay, aka Hawkins Bay, just west of Gardiner Island. Thanks to the mark boat crew—DIYC rear commodore Lex Birney, his daughter, Alaina, and treasurer Charlie Hillman, in Lex’s stout inflatable—for plowing through the wind and waves to set the weather mark and the finish line.
Castle and Rum Butter, a C&C 41, took home the spinnaker prize. In the JaM race, Tim Etchells on Mackinac, a Pearson 32, won on corrected time, with John Beal on Pas de Deux, a Pearson Flyer, in second, and vice commodore Jim Moody, on the J/29 Shockwave, in third. It was a rollicking ride to the windward mark, with gusts to 20 knots and some three-foot waves, followed by a fast reach across the lake to Sloop Island, and a quick run back to the finish, with all four boats finishing within just a few minutes of each other.
Later in the day, about 30 people were on hand for the Cidertini Celebration, which has become the traditional season-ending on-site party for DIYC. As usual, the event, held under the DIYC tent at Point Bay Marina, was a team effort. Wendy Friant gathered most of the snacks and beverages, including apples, cider donuts and Vermont cheese and crackers, and hot mulled cider and cold cider. Lex Birney provided the adult beverages used to spice things up, and also the prizes for the race, Lake Champlain-themed T-shirts for skipper and crew. Other DIYC members helped with set-up and clean-up.
Our thanks to all those who made the day’s events happen, and for the unbeatable day of weather, on and off the water.