21 Aug Jackson Hamilton Wins August Grade 4
August 19, 2018 (OYSTER BAY, NY) – Oakcliff’s August Grade 4 Clinegatta with coaching by Hayden Goodrich brought the whole gambit of conditions, from hot and light on Saturday to cloudy and breezy on Sunday. Double round robin leader, Jackson Hamilton, who took only one loss after 15 races, was the winner of the regatta. In second and third place were Oakcliff regulars Doug Shannon and Jim McNally, respectively.
The wind speed oscillated a fair amount on both days of the regatta. The teams that stayed aware of those changes and communicated them well were able to switch modes and win their races. “The key for me was to just trust my team,” said Hamilton. “It was a new team but everyone came together and started communicating really well. We all just meshed.”
Shannon also cited good communication as a fundamental piece to his success this weekend. “I’ve been sailing with this same team all season,” said Shannon. “We’re really starting to gel and come together as a team. We have great communication now and our boat-handling is 95% there.”
The only female skipper of the regatta, Alexis Gesualdo, came in fourth place. Each team had at least one female crew and most had two. Amongst them they covered every single position on the boat, from the bow to the helm.
McNally’s bowperson, Irinia Beloborodova, had one of the more spectacular moves of the regatta. In the prestart against Peter Bailey, McNally swung the bow violently out from underneath Beloborodova. With virtually no space between the boats, she jumped and actually landed cat-like in the stern scoop of the other boat. “It was either that or the water. I decided to stay dry,” she joked. The umpires picked her up and returned her to the her boat ‘in the vicinity of where she left the boat’ and the race continued. We think that this is the first time this has happened and we also suspect that the umpires will be discussing this incident throughout the winter!