Hello, Mercury Class Members! It has been a busy summer of racing with many events still to come this year! Our 2017 Mercury Championships, hosted by the Monterey Peninsula Yacht Club, were nothing short of spectacular!
The racing may have been one of the most competitive series we have had! A big “Thank You” to Debbie and Dave Morris, and all their support staff! They all did a fantastic job putting this event together. Also, a special thanks to MPYC for hosting the class, and for the first class dinner Saturday night! The race committee and the mark boat teams were top notch as well! In fine fashion, Pat Bradley, with his son Brendan, won his 10th National Championship. It all came down to the last 2 races. Pat won both, and tied Chris Raab, for the series. Pat beat Chris in 3 of the 5 races, to break the tie, and take the series. Fittingly, at the annual dinner, upon accepting his First place trophy, Pat announced he was retiring from Mercury racing and will be turning 560 “Ol’ Buzzard” over to Brendan to skipper from now on. Congratulations, Pat on a magnificent Mercury racing career!
A week later, was our annual Labor Day Regatta. Dick Clark, along with the Stillwater Yacht Club put together a great regatta... but, the wind never showed up! Beautiful warm (sometimes hot) weather made for a lot of floating on the bay. The one race we did get off was won by Scott Easom and Ben Mitchel, sailing the newly restored 471. The dinner Saturday night on the pier was a great success.
Events coming up, the Pacific Coast Championships - Sep. 30th and Oct 1st at the Los Angeles Yacht Club. Homecoming, in Sausalito - Oct. 21st, which is also the 75th Anniversary celebration of the Sausalito Yacht Club. Mercury Class Honorary Life Member Park Densmore, Sr. is the last living, of the seven original founding members. He will be there to join in festivities.
The class is doing very well. Participation over the last 8 months has brought in several new members who are very enthusiastic about racing, in as many events possible and relying on the advice from us all for rigging and tuning suggestions.
Remember, your boat wants to go sailing and it wants to take you along! So get out there and go sailing! What a great way to spend the day or a weekend!
I’ll see you on the water!
Park
Mercury 572