Vento Solare is finally launched! Normally this is just a check in the box but this year a major milestone. The week prior to Easter I felt miserable and had no energy. After a couple of calls to the doctor on separate days, I went to the Emergency room at Newport Hospital on Friday and ended up spending 5 days over Easter in the ICU being treated for pneumonia. I am feeling much better now but have about a 6 week period as my energy level and lung capacity gets back to normal. Let’s just say that grandpa is taking lots of naps these days.
Anyway, all this would not be possible without the help of Gardner Howe and my son-in-law Scott Moeller who spent a day at the boat wet sanding to be ready for launch.
Gardner & Scott Wet Sanding
My duties were to change out the paper and spray the hose since I didn’t have the strength to do any sanding. It was a beautiful sunny day and with the well coordinated team was able to complete sanding with 320, 400 and 600 grit in three hours.
I also want to acknowledge Trevor DiMarco and Pat Tormey (with Scott & Gardner) for their help prepping the boat with me before I ended up in the hospital. Vento Solare is very ready for the season with just a few topside cosmetic tasks to be done. Plans are to find a nice day this coming week to bring Vento Solare to her slip at the Navy marina. Our first crew practice is Tuesday, April 25th. Looking forward to seeing you all and being on the water again.
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Thanks to Lisa, Kathy, Sue & Gerry Vento Solare was wet sanded in no time at all with perfect wet weather to help. Here are a few pictures from Sue's phone. Thanks for your help!
A fun evening sharing a table with Eric, Mary, Chris, Maggie, Francis, Lisa, Bill & Cindy. Mary was recognized with a US Sailing award as a JYC member for her communications role on J/122 Alliance in the Bermuda Race. Maggie accepted the J/122 Leading Edge third place fall series award for Tom and Diana. The picture below shows Bill & Cindy with the 1st place spring series award for J/109 Vento Solare.
In the end it turned out that the Ida Lewis YC awarded the youth trophy to Vento Solare. Pictures from the award ceremony and the trophies are below.
Boat Trophy and Youth Keeper Trophy for Austin, Rory & Henry
Youth Trophy Presentation
Rory & Austin Receiving Keeper Trophies (Missing Henry)
Henry with Keeper Trophy at Home
Bill
Thank you for a great time. That hour penelty seems steep. If you look at yellow brick there were a few other boats in our class that were just inside that south east dot. Not sure how picky they were being.
Either way great work by everyone. Enjoy the party.
Bill went to the protest hearing about our sailing in the exclusion zone to fix the spinnaker. The results of the protest was the RC added 1 hour to our corrected time. This put us in 2nd place for the youth entries. We would have had 1st in youth if not for this. Hope to see you all at the awards ceremony!