Sea Notes: A taste of the Figawi with MMA
May 31, 2009
By Barbara Veneri, South Coast Today
Rocketing along at nine, ten, even 11 knots, the mariners from Massachusetts Maritime Academy experienced a combination sailboat race, educational experience and thrill ride during last weekend's 38th annual Figawi Race.
MMA fielded two boats in the 2009 Figawi: Midnight Moonlight, a Taylor 45, in Division A and Red Sky, a Bennett Brothers 48, in Division B. Head coach Chuck Fontaine of Mattapoisett kept nine cadets, one alumnus, and a press passenger (me) busy for two hours, 13 minutes and 55 seconds aboard Midnight Moonlight. The boat placed seventh out of 14 boats in Division A.
Meanwhile, Assistant Coach Ian MacLeod put another nine less experienced cadets through their paces in Red Sky as more than 200 sailboats competed in 11 divisions in the Hyannis-to-Nantucket Figawi Race Saturday, May 23. Red Sky managed 11th place in the 16-boat Division B.
Under threatening skies with blustery east winds blowing up to 25 knots, a gaggle of sailboats from under 30 to over 60 feet in length made for the starting line outside the breakwater in Lewis Bay on Cape Cod. Air temperatures ran in the 40s and 50s with the chilly northeasters making it feel at least 10 degrees colder.
Only the hearty wore shorts and sandals. Everyone else donned foul weather jackets, jumpers and non-skid shoes or boots for the wet and wild ride.
Organizers made it a one-leg race, with boats in each class taking their handicap at the start in a pursuit format. Most boats kept to a heading of around 160 degrees off the east-northeast wind aiming to round the finish buoy outside Nantucket Harbor on one long port tack.
Aboard Midnight Moonlight, every cadet had an assigned task. Christina Colarusso of Middleboro, a freshman in her first year on the MMA sailing team, handled the runners at the stern, while Christian Petterson of Virginia, MMA class of '08 and an employee of Exxon Mobil, played the role of tactician.
Mitch Menard of Fall River handled duties at the mast on the boat formerly known as Sforzando, donated to the academy sailing program by Blair Brown through the MMA Boat Donation program. Rechristened Midnight Moonlight, the boat handled the heavy seas with aplomb under the guidance of senior helmsmen George Fleischfresser of Bainbridge Island, Washington, and James Sjonlund of Nantucket, who doubled as navigator.
Coach Fontaine took the wheel at one point during the race as the larger 68-foot Swan Chippewa bore down on Midnight Moonlight off the starboard stern quarter. As the cadets hollered for Fontaine to speed up, he whispered to Chris Morrow, the sophomore who was handling mainsail trim duties, "watch this - we're going to slow down and then speed up in their wash."
Sure enough, Fontaine let Chippewa breeze past, then steered the MMA boat into the churning waters off the Swan's stern. Midnight Moonlight picked up close to a knot-and-a-half of boat speed and rode Chippewa's wash for a mile and more.
"If we had stayed in their wash a little longer," he said later, "we could've beat Shindig," the Andrews 68 skippered by Dr. Arthur Burke of South Dartmouth that whizzed by us as we neared the finish line.
While the sailboats spread out at the start and over the 20-plus mile course, as we approached the narrow jetties at the entrance to Nantucket Harbor, the squeeze was on. More than 200 Figawi racing sailboats, boats that had entered the powerboat class, and the occasional cruising boat that happened upon the first big race of the 2009 sailing season scurried back and forth in the limited space available between the two rock jetties at the harbor entrance.
As the racers neared Nantucket, the sun came out to warm up the more than 3,000 skippers, crew, and support people involved in Figawi 2009. Many stayed ashore for parties, picnics, cookouts, and entertainment, then returned home at a more leisurely pace Sunday or Monday, either onboard a sail or powerboat or by slow or fast ferry. Only ten boats competed in the Return Figawi on Monday, May 25.
Eric Pattison, a Mass. Maritime freshman from Virginia aboard the Red Sky, talked enthusiastically about how much he enjoyed powerboating until he came to Mass. Maritime and joined the sailing team.
"I love this," he said. "I wouldn't want to be doing anything else."
The other cadets aboard Midnight Moonlight not already mentioned were: Charles Baum, senior from Newport, pit; Ian Fraser, senior from Little Compton, jib trim; Kevin Dineen, junior from Rockland, grinder; and Philip "P.J." Johnson, junior from Hingham, bow.
In addition to Pattison, other MMA cadets aboard Red Sky included Rob Gallagher, a sophomore from Sandwich; Bailey Gingras, a junior from Vermont; Alison Dombrowski, a sophomore from Connecticut; Kody North, a freshman from Vermont; Ryan Noonan, a junior from Andover; and Andrew Thibon, a freshman from Cataumet.
