Page 81 - 2024-eca-yearbook-final

Fleet 73 Niantic, Connecticut
Niantic Bay, 2001
Fleet Captain: Robin Durrschmidt

Niantic Bay Ensign Fleet 73 had another successful season on the water
generally with 3 to as many as 8 boats getting out for Sunday afternoon
racing. An active Wednesday night series is always a great time for folks
to get out for some casual racing, if there is such a thing, with a nice
dinner afterward.

For the weekend spinnaker series racing Robin Durrschmidt in Magic
again got off to a good start and then decided to travel to Regionals in
Buck’s Harbor Maine and to Nationals in Pentwater Michigan. The rest
of the fleet continued to race some more and piled up additional points.

By late August Magic was back in the water and did just enough to hold
onto the lead for the season. Rick Conley in Friendly Spirit got a later
start to the season and was in the mix at the end along with Gary
Woodruff in Tailgunner. The Mouthrop brothers were in a number of
races and, with a little more repetition, are an emerging threat to
compete for the season. Gary Woodruff and Mike Murin in Tailgunner
won the Wednesday night series on a tie break with Ken Shlugar in
Summer Breeze. The club boats were in action on various Wednesday
nights, which makes for a great mix of folks out on the water during the
summer evenings.

Mike Macina in Firebird and Robin Durrschmidt in Magic were in a
travelling mood in 2023, putting close to 5,000 road miles on each of
their trailers. Both boats traveled to Mid Winters in Columbia SC in
March, Regionals in Buck’s Harbor ME in July and to Pentwater MI for
Nationals in August. We both have many great stories of adventures in
trailering and a lot of racing also happened! Some of the stories fall into
the “funny now” category versus perhaps not so funny at the time. The
Pentwater Yacht Club won the very prestigious US Sailing award for
Best One Design Yacht Club in large part due to their hosting of the
Ensign National Championships. Kudos and hats off to the Pentwater
team that put on a great event!

Travelling with a boat in tow is not necessarily for the faint of heart BUT
some of the best times and most memorable adventures happen when
we leave our comfortable locale and visit far flung places. The Columbia
Sailing Club, the Buck’s Harbor Yacht Club and the Pentwater Yacht
Club are all fantastic venues whose descriptions could fill many pages.
Like Niantic Bay there are many sailing clubs filled with the most

79