2012 EC12 Green Mountain Regatta
By: Charlie Berry

Stowe Yacht Club and The Commodores Inn held this annual event on the
pond behind the Inn, in Stowe, Vermont. The regatta is part of the New England Cup
Championship Series. There were 20 competitors, covering a broad geographic area
in addition to the New England area, including Florida, Wisconsin, Illinois and, for
the first time, Nova Scotia.
Conditions were as challenging as they were variable. We did have wind, but
it never established a consistent direction. Toss in a fairly steady rain for Saturday
afternoon, followed by some welcome sunshine on Sunday, and you have typical
New England springtime weather!
With 20 boats, we elected to use the EORS two-fleet system, moving four
boats up and down. We modified the seeding race process by using the new Class
Ranking System to set up the initial heats, and then used the first race to adjust the
seeding. This race did not count in the scoring.
Prior to Saturday’s Skippers Meeting, Doc Greer brought out the champagne
bottle to christen his brand new boat. The brand of champagne happened to be
Suzan’s absolute favorite. Suzan was one of the Race Scorers. Coincidence? Also of
note, we had three skippers who were racing in their first EC12 regatta: George
Townsend (Stowe), Jim Goddard and Boots Boutillier (both hailing from Nova
Scotia).
Saturday’s races were held in light-to-moderate southerly breezes. Al Dion,
with his new Chuck Luscomb built boat, dominated the day. Bruce Nourjian held 2nd
place, 10 points behind Dion. Dave Brawner had uncharacteristic equipment
problems, taking him out of two races. He still managed to hold onto third, one point
behind Nourjian.
At the Saturday evening dinner, we held a “rigged raffle” set up by Dave
Brawner. We had a “set of Danny Thomas sails” to raffle off, and had 20 names in a
hat. The set up was this: all the names in the hat were “Nick Montgu”, and the sails
were for a Santa Barbara, not an EC12. Dave has been secretly building a Santa
Barbara for Nick, and a group of East Coast guys are heading out to San Diego this
summer to race their brand new Santa Barbara’s. Nick will be joining this group,
willing or not!
On Sunday, Brawner put on a come-back clinic, winning four of the six races
and taking over a solid lead for the regatta. Dion, though, was hanging tough until
the fifth race of the day, where he was over the line early. He never recovered in that
race, and remained in the B Fleet for the final race. That sealed the deal for Brawner.
Nonetheless, Al Dion knows he has a hot boat. Jim Goddard, racing in his first
EC12 regatta, had major equipment failure early Sunday. But he has a new boat that
was delivered to him in Stowe by Dave Brawner – watch out for him in the future.

Regatta Results- All Positions:
Place Skipper Points
1 Brawner, Dave 31
2 Dion, Al 40
3 Nourjian, Bruce 44
4 Walton, Bruce 49
5 Greer, Bob 55
6 Shaw, Ken 59
7 Barker, Don 61
8 Skerry, John 63
9 Hill, Rob 76
10 Ward, Jack 76
11 Tonks, Phil 95
12 Mueller, Gary 104
13 Oberg, Victor 110
14 Branning, Dave 120
15 Townsend, George 126
16 Boutillier, Boots 137
17 Mortgu, Nick 142
18 Stone, Tim 158
19 Amsbary, Doug 181
20 Goddard, Jim 187