BST

Jim Cook Memorial One-Design Regatta 2023

  Written by Richard Johnson: Fetch (W11336)


Remembrance has weight, a sadness, felt more than acknowledged, difficult to express. And yet it has the odd effect of making friends, fellow sailors, seem closer, more like family. And so it was for the 15 Wayfarers and 8 MC Scows that arrived for the Jim Cook Memorial One-Design Regatta, an event that would have been unfathomable a year ago. Sailors drove from Ontario, Michigan, Maryland, and of course the Carolinas to honor Jim in the  way he would have found most fitting, racing in his memory.

Jim joined the Wayfarer fleet in 2016. At the time I was leaving the Catawba Yacht Club. He let me know he was interested in the Wayfarer, but I had to admit that I would not be at the club to race with him. He decided to join the fleet anyway and bought an Abbott Wayfarer with a good racing history. Jim did well enough in the boat but it was obvious the boat was holding him back. In 2019 I sold Black Skimmer (W10873) to Jim, and that made all the difference. He was immediately at the front of the fleet, often so far ahead that we, the fleet, were no competition. He and long-time crew, Mike Taylor, were 4th at the Internationals at lake Eustis in 2022. This year at Midwinters he and Mike were perfect!  They won all six races, usually with no one within ten boatlengths.

The art of racing, according to Uffa Fox, is not in wining, but in winning in such a manner that, ”the rest of the fleet are pleased you have won.” Jim was the nicest person you could ever lose to; in fact you really didn’t mind at all. More impressive was that if he had an off race or day, he would laugh at himself and his mistake. But he wouldn’t make the mistake again. He worked very hard at perfecting his sailing.



After Jim's shocking death in a rowing accident on Lake Wylie this summer, the Catawba Yacht Club was quick to respond, announcing that the event previously known as the Old Brown Dog Regatta would become the Jim Cook Memorial One-Design Regatta. Last Friday, November 3rd, sailors began to arrive under perfect windless Carolina Blue skies. We had three lovely days of baffling wind.

It was baffling as in Shrodinger’s Cat or Cubism. Perception, perspective, sense of order, all thrown to what little wind graced the race. Saturday’s predicted North wind was wrestling with an upstart Southern breeze creating a dead zone over the start. Each wind would push into the starting area, elicit a start, then retreat to its end of the lake. The North wind finally over for the 4th race. The strategy for the day was to get clear of the start, clear your air, stay clear ahead. It's unfair to say the conditions created winners and losers unless one is willing the argue the wind played favorites. Executing the three C’s, clear start, clear air, clear ahead, put Covington (W11134) in first, Heffernan (W8705) in second, and Menzies (W11158) in third on Saturday afternoon.

The best sail of the day was the one to the dock. Tying up, tying down, and walking away to a cold beer puts all things right. Jim Cook had started the tradition of serving grilled pizzas. With the help of Michele Parish (a.k.a. my good wife), Joanne Shields, Nancy Yates, and Ali Kishbaugh, the tradition continued. The CYC house band fronted by Jim Higgins and Ron Wright gently rocked the evening to a close.

Sunday dawned warmer with a slight overcast. The forecast of 4 mph gusting to 7 had everyone excited, but the wind collapsed to a steady-ish two to three from the north with odd shifts to the east and west. The starts were a pile-up due to the sudden shifts. It was more a matter of escape than executing, with a number of boats over early at each start. So being free and clear meant everything. At the end of the second race the cloud cover was being moved to the Southeast followed by clear cloudless blue sky. The wind shifted hard to the east. A boat could fly the spinnaker from the RC boat to the pin, resulting in a seething raft up on the line. After a few warm words, that race was abandoned. The winner of the day was Peggy Menzies and Maggie Helmen (W11158) but it was not quite enough to wrest first place from AnnMarie Covington and Gareth Ferguson (W11134). Jim Heffernan and Jim Best BCE ( Best Crew Ever) maintained a stealthy but incredibly respectable 2nd place.

Nora Cook, Jim’s daughter, raced Black Skimmer (W10873) on Sunday with Jill Zakerski. I had had the pleasure of sailing Black Skimmer with Nora on Friday afternoon to help orient her to the controls of the Mark 4, but with the light wind, the showing turned to telling, which veered off to talking and we just had a nice sail on a quiet afternoon.



In honor of Jim Cook the Catawba Yacht Club has designated a part of the club as the Jim Cook One Design Center, a tribute to Jim’s fascination with racing dinghies. The One Design Center was dedicated during the awards ceremony by Ron Wright. Joanne Cook, Jim’s mother made the trophies for the Wayfarer Class; stained glass Wayfarers, mounted on lighted bases. They were beautifully finished, a lasting tribute to her son, Jim, this regatta of remembrance, and to the sport of dinghy racing which Jim loved.


Rank Seed SailNo Helm/Crew R1 R2 R3 R4 R5 R6 Total
1 1 (2) 11134 AnnMarie Covington/Gareth Ferguson 3 1 2 2 6 2 16
2 7* (33) 8705 Jim & Mark Heffernan 1 2 4 5 1 5 18
3 3 (7) 11158 Peggy Menzies/Maggie Helmen 2 5 9 1 2 1 20
4 6 (19) 11336 Richard Johnson/Michele Parish 5 11 6 3 4 3 32
5 4 (9) 11222 David & Anne Pugh 8 12 1 4 3 11 39
6 11* (42) 449 Neil Smith/Craig Ambler 7 4 8 6 8 7 40
7 2 (5) 11384 John & Mary Driver 4 9 3 10 5 12 43
8 5 (13) 11338 Uwe Heine/Nancy Collins 9 6 5 8 7 9 44
9 9 (37) 10888 Andy Forman/Sid Hale 10 7 10 9 11 4 51
10 8 (35) 11137 Ali Kishbaugh/Mike Sigmund 6 10 7 7 14 10 54
11 12 (66) 11340 Marie-Lyne LaVoie/Patrick Bowman 11 3 14 DNS 12 6 62
12 10 (39) 10873 Jill Zakerski/Kristin O'Reilly/Nora Cook 15 13 13 11 10 8 70
13 13 (82) 3500 David De Miranda/Jeanne Allamby 12 8 15 12 13 14 74
14 14 (90) 276 Annette Grefe/Jason LeBlanc 14 15 12 14 9 13 77
15 15 (95) 2435 Frans van Zeeland solo 13 14 11 13 15 15 81

Scoring codes used

CodeDescription Points
DNSCame to the start area but did not start 16



Sailwave Scoring Software 2.28.2
www.sailwave.com