Six of the fleet's J24s and two of the PHRF racers competed in the final
two races of the season. The course was set off the beaches of Cape
May. Winds were out of the Northwest and light (four to eight knots).
As with the more recent racing weekends, the winds were shifty and the
current was strong, making the racing challenging (particularly
downwind).

In the J24 fleet, Arnold Goes to Hollywood (Jack Van Dalen with regular
crew Past Commodores Dick O'Keefe and Louis Joyce and a guest appearance
by fellow J24 competitor John Wilsey) won both races. Cinderella (Al
Schulze with regular crew son and daughter-in-law Gerrit and Patti
Schulze, Dave Breder and Jay Corcoran) took second in the first race
with Bobsled (Bob Herzog and Bob Foulke with regular crew father and son
Rob and Tyler Flynn and John Henderson) in third. In the second race,
White Lie (Chip Rapp with regular crew Carol Flynn, Gordon Sayre and
Sara Stuard, and a guest appearance by Fred Siegert) finished second,
with Turkeys (helmed by Mark Penny with crew of co-owner Jay Kopp, and
regulars Laurie Rapp and Debbie Townsend) in third. (Chris McShane of
Turkeys took the day off from racing to assist the race committee.)

In the PHRF fleet, the Colgate 26 Hot Toddy won both races. Hot Toddy
was skippered by Steve Todd, with regular crew Fred Beyer and Kevin
Maloney.

After racing was done, the fleet convened for their annual awards party
upstairs at the yacht club. The fleet recognized their dedicated
volunteer race committee (Past Commodores Herb Anger, Jack Lord, Wally
Stuard and Sandy Thomson). Before getting to the sailing awards, the
audience was entertained with a series of presentations of the
nominations for the fun "Anchor Award", which is given to the
participant who does the most outrageous thing. The audience
overwhelmingly and enthusiastically voted to give the award to White Lie
owner and skipper Chip Rapp for his creation of a step-by-step
photographic guide to how to launch his J24.

Overall sailing awards for the series were presented to the following:

PHRF:

1) Hot Toddy

J24:

1) Turkeys
2) Cinderella
3) Bobsled
4) Arnold Goes to Hollywood
5) White Lie

In two surprises after the official award segment of the program,
Turkeys presented Cinderella with a turkey breast (since the latter boat
was not able to enjoy turkey during the racing season), and the fleet
recognized the outgoing offshore fleet captain (the author) and
presented her with a lovely gift, which was greatly appreciated.

The fleet also recognized Jennifer Kopp and the Star and Wave for
publishing these write-ups over the course of the season.

On a related note, on the weekend of September 6-7, with the threat of
the remnants of Hurricane Hanna in the area, the CYCCM-based J24 Red
Dawn won the Parkway Regatta in Toms River, thereby securing its overall
victory in the Parkway Series, the District Championship for the J24
class, and an automatic qualification for the 2009 J24 Worlds in
Annapolis, Maryland. Red Dawn is an all-CYCCM boat, owned by John
Wilsey, with regular crew Owen Miller, Commodore Rick Coale, and brother
and sister Eric and Rachel Bennung. The team will spend the next year
training for the Worlds (though Commodore Coale will need to heal the
foot which he broke while the team was racing in Toms River).