2023 Matt Boroughf Season Championship Rules and Blog

[Mike Josselyn]

The competition for the 2023 Matt Boroughf Season Championship will start on December 4th at the Richmond Yacht Club.  The rules for the Season Championship are attached.  This year, the rules have been updated to allow boats the travel more than 200 miles from their home base to earn eligibility towards the championship trophy.  We hope this will encourage owners to travel to events outside of their normal area to compete for this trophy.

This past 2022 year's trophy was awarded to Mark Allen of Junta.  Latitude 38 published a great article on the Season Champions in their December issue.

[url][https://www.latitude38.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/l38202212a.pdf/url]

See page 68 for Mark Allen interview and photo.

Look over the schedule of events and we will see you on the water.

[Mike Josselyn]

The Season Championship has been off to a slow start...with the rainy weather keeping many U20s skippers off the water and blizzards in the mountains trapping the  Reno team on the east side of the Sierras.  However, three boats have consistently been on the water, John Wolfe in Breakaway, Mark Allen in Junta, and Donna Womble in Peabody.  John was the most consistent in the Richmond Mid Winters and finished first in the series, followed by Donna.  Donna also was second in the Three Bridge Fiasco and is now leading in Season Championship points.

[Mike Josselyn]

The Great Pumpkin is scheduled for October 28-29.

This year has been odd one for the Season Championship as our race participation has been very spotty. We have had 15 boats sailing in events throughout the year, but many for only 1 or 2 races. As usual the Great Pumpkin will be a deciding factor for the winner. Those owners who sailed in at least 7 events (with 2 points towards eligibility for the PCCs and the NAs) are in the running for the trophy.  Currently, the only owners are Mark Allen, Donna Womble, and John Wolfe.  Mark Allen and Donna (51.5) are in a dead heat with John in third (40.7).  For the Great Pumpkin, they will be scored against those boats with at least 3 events in the series and that adds John Andrews and Dave Woodside. 

To add to the race to the Season Championship trophy, Mark Allen's boat is in the east coast and he will be racing in the NA's in November, but the only potential eligible boat he will be racing there is Travis Gregory.  Higher scores are added when racing against more eligible boats, so the Great Pumpkin will have the potential to add more points than the NAs.

So, let's get ready for the last two races for the season and we'll see who comes out on top.

[Mike Josselyn]

The Great Pumpkin was held on October 28-29 at the Richmond Yacht Club with six boats sailing in the windward leeward course on Saturday and the round the islands pursuit race on Sunday.  Both days were blessed by sunny weather with temperatures in the 70s but sailors were challenged by the light to moderate winds and strong ebb current associated with the full harvest moon.  On Saturday, Uhoo! (Josselyn) was the best at guessing the combination of current and light wind to end up in first place after three races, followed by Peabody (Womble) and Rush (Andrews).  The pursuit race started out with all the boats heading to Angel Island, but were soon flushed backwards towards the start with most everyone starting their engines to return home as the wind died.  The exception was Breakaway (Wolfe) who persisted until the strong ebb at Alcatraz ended their plan to be the only boat to finish by 5 pm. 

Great Saturday night party at the Club and a joy to be on the water in the sunny days of fall.

[Mike Josselyn]

It went down to the wire for our Season Championship and the award of the Matt Boroughf Season Championship Trophy.  Mark Allen and Team Junta won out over with a podium finish at the U20 North American's held on Lake Norman on November 10-12.  Mark sailing as an independent and Donna Womble and Team Peabody from the Monterey Yacht Club battled all season exchanging firsts and seconds,  The races were held on venues from San Francisco Bay, Monterey Bay, and  Huntington Lake and included the Three Bridge Fiasco, the Richmond YC midwinters, U20 Pacific Coast Championships, High Sierra, RYC Big Daddy and Great Pumpkin, and Tiburon Yacht Club HO Lind Series among others.

While 14 boats participated throughout the season at various venues, 8 boats qualified to be eligible for scoring and included sailors from as far as Salt Lake City.  Mark and his team included Trent Watkins and son Cooper.  This is their second year as Season Champions.

Scoring was done by the High Score System with Team Junta receiving a season score of 90%, Team Peabody 87.5%. John Wolfe and Team Breakaway raced the most events of the season and placed third.  Congratulations to podium finishers and thank you for all the owners and crew that participated this year.  Looking forward to next year when the North Americans will be held on Huntington Lake.

[Mike Josselyn]

Article in Latitude 38 on Mark Allen and Junta as 2023 Season Champions.