Down-the-Chester River Race
& RHYC One-Design Regatta,
Rock Hall YC, June 16-18, 2006
report by Uncle Al
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Magnificent Rock Hall weekend exceeds highest expectations!

Fabulous is the only word that can do justice to this year's Rock Hall weekend. After starting with a lovely, well attended Wayfarer party on the evening of June 15th, we had an exciting but not too arduous race down the Chester River on Friday, the 16th, and the Rock Hall YC's annual Summer One-Design Regatta June 17-18 which was blessed by absolutely perfect weather.


Wayfarers, led by John de Boer (above) began rolling into Chestertown's Chester River Yacht and Country Club early on Thursday afternoon to get their boats set up for Friday's River Race before moseying on over to the traditional Thursday evening party hosted by Frank Pedersen and his wife, Sue.



With Frank (above) doing the barbecuing and Sue providing her delicious potato salad, all to be washed down with a fine assortment of beer, we had a great time comparing Wayfarer tales, etc.

 
As can be seen above, our group was ready to be a serious threat in the next morning's River Race which duly arrived with lovely warm sunshine and the beginnings of a breeze into which we quickly launched (below).


By race time, 33 boats had paid the $5.00 entry fee for the race. No fewer than seven of the 33 were Wayfarers, which assured us of winning at least one trophy, the one which goes to the first-place boat in the River Race's numerically largest Class. A quck skippers' meeting confirmed that the race would start off the Chester River Yacht & Country Club dock, run the 12 miles down to the mouth of the Chester River and then do a right turn towards a finish line off the Rock Hall YC as shown below:


Uncle Al and Marc Bennett become first Wayfarer winners of the River Race!

After sailing a great race last year but losing despite the Portsmouth handicap to A-Cats who had their perfect conditions, Marc and Al really wanted to do better this year. To this end, they rigged up SHADES with the #1 sails, even going so far as to bring out the sacred Mike McNamara spinnaker which had only been used in the 2004 Worlds.


Alas, things looked grim early as the wind filled in from the wrong side of the river (see photo above) and we dropped to second-last about 10 minutes into the race. Still, we kept our eyes open and guessed right about the wind more often than not. I don't want to say the winds were shifty but on at least five occasions we hoisted the spinnaker with the wind astern only to sail into headwinds minutes later. Ignoring my wife's advice to never gross people out by taking my top off at my advanced age, I was able to get a much better feel for the weird wind shifts, but also acquired a thorough sunburn of my unscreened bits. The sacrifice of my skin paid off, however. About three miles into the race, we were fighting it out with Nick Seraphinoff and daughter, Julie, for the Wayfarer lead. Even more important, the leading A-Cats were still well in view out front, and we were giving the 5-0-5 and a pair of Chesapeake 20's a good run for their money.

Just as we really began to hit our stride and had pulled into a hundred-yard lead over Nick, we hit a dead spot. We sat there helplessly as Nick cruised past, half a boatwidth to windward, grinning what I believe they call "an excrement-eating grin" in the south, as he lounged comfortably in the "cruising" position, the (very slow) aft rear corner by the bulkhead, one arm draped casually over the tiller, the other holding a nice, cold beer! Eventually, our psyches recovered from this cruel blow after the next dead spot got Nick but not us.

About half-way through the race, a lovely breeze filled in, blowing whitecaps straight up the river. An hour or so of shift-playing ensued, during which five of us: two 20's, the five-oh and Nick and us battled it out, trying to get the best out of the occasional shifts. It looked like the kind of "sea" breeze that would stay for the day, but as we neared Nichols Point and the final "leg" to the finish line, the wind again turned patchy. Now it was a bonus that the 20's and Nicholas Place in his 5-0-5 had passed us since they showed us some places we should not go! While poor Nicholas went well wide of the point, Marc directed me to hug the point and we found happiness in the form of a bit of breeze. We almost re-passed the Chesapeake 20's and did pass the 5-0 which had located the black hole of winds. In the end, we crossed 8th, almost exactly 3 hours after we had started, behind 4 A-Cats, a Hobie 20, and two Chesapeake 20's. This year, the leaders had come nowhere near finishing in under an hour as they had done in 2005, so Marc and I were cautiously optimistic.

 
We beached SHADES in her usual spot on the beach (above) and settled down with a beer and the camera to record the arrival of Nick, who had been a very clear second among Wayfarers as we neared the point. Alas, our fellow-Wayfarers had not done nearly as well, rounding Nichols Point. We suddenly realized that the next two Wayfarers nearing the beach were not dark blue like Nick. In fact, Tony Krauss and his wife, Mary - confessed cruisers - had beaten John and Dolores de Boer for Wayfarer 2nd while Nick was still busy drifting around the farther reaches of Langford Bay. 4th among the Wayfarers went to our host, Frank Pedersen with daughter, Sarah, before Nick and Julie finally drifted in out of their dead spot. After doing very well early in the race, North Carolina's Jim Heffernan and wife, Linda, cruised to a relaxed 6th-place finish while Virginian cruising sailor, Bill Harkins with friend, Charlie Zapf, at the helm of a Wayfarer for the first time, lost the close battle to escape last place by a mere 4 seconds to Lara Gates in her Sunfish.

After many hands made light work of beaching the six Wayfarers who would sail the weekend regatta (Bill Harkins had an unbreakable prior engagement!), those same hands made even lighter work of several pitchers' worth of Dark and Stormies and the usual delicious Friday evening munchies.



Our real dinner then followed at Waterman's in Rock Hall (above) where we were all very well fed - except poor Bill and Charlie who had heard us talk about going to the crab shack and spent much of their evening fruitlessly searching for The Crab Shack in both Rock Hall and Chestertown. Next year, guys!!

By early next morning, PRO, Dyer Harris, had posted the River Race results which brought Wayfarers the cheery news that Uncle Al and Marc had won on corrected time.

Close racing but the same old result in the RHYC Summer O-D Regatta

The Summer One-Design Regatta brought us great racing in lovely steady, medium southerly winds of 8 to 15 knots June 17-18 on Langford Bay (see chart below).



Despite having to cope with a variety of mixed fleets, Dyer Harris and his RC once more gave us excellent lines and very little time wasted between races, such that we got in four races on Saturday.



Our flight was composed of 6 Wayfarers, about the same number of Comets (mini-Stars, Tony Krauss assures me - see photo above) and one Highlander (see photo below). The Comets and the Highlander only sailed on the Saturday, but we found them to be a good fit on our course - not unexpectedly since the Comets share our 91.7 rating. At least one Comet sailor was overheard grumbling about Comets and W's unfairly being rated the same since the Comet has no spinnaker. Saturday's racing seemed to support the Comet claim that they should be rated slower: not once did the top Comet finish anywhere near the top Wayfarer.


Aboard SHADES, Marc Bennett had the helm for the day and parlayed four excellent starts into four wins. John, Tony, Jim (sailing with son, Mark, on this day) and Nick all showed fine speed, but as usual, time spent racing the boat was a deciding factor so that John and Dolores, Wayfarer "tour" regulars, ended the day with four 2nds. In race 3, Nick in fact, crossed the finish line 2nd and discovered that in addition to their race management expertise, our RC had a sense of humour. As Nick neared the line he heard the usual: "Wayfarer 864 ... over" and after a pregnant pause: "... early". No one could fault Nick for being too timid at the start on this day as he was OCS in two races!


Frank Pedersen was pointing well lower than the rest of us but one look at the photo above shows why: Frank's traveller is way off to leeward, something to be saved for total survival sailing and huge waves, where lack of pointing is the least of your worries! This picture is a good lesson: Frank and Sarah have their W4270 trimmed beautifully in all respects except for that traveller, which killed their results all day!


Nonetheless it was a glorious day on which to be alive and sailing, and, given the RC's speedy work, we were still back ashore in plenty of time to continue our assault on the Dark and Stormies (see photo of bartender, Meghan, mixing two of our three pitchers above) well before the first of two buffet dinner shifts (5 and 7 PM to spread out the anticipated 170-people rush) was called to enjoy more great food.



And all of this was leavened with excellent fun rock music from a live band - to which some sailors even danced. These guys played their hearts out from before 5 PM til after dark. Thanks, fellows! It was terrific.


But even then, the evening was not done: game 6 of the Stanley Cup finals between Edmonton and Carolina was being shown in the bar, and of course, Jim and Linda (above left) had to cheer on their beloved Hurricanes.


Balancing this in no timid way was Barb Moss, daughter of former top Toronto Sailing & Canoe Club Fireball sailor, Terry Moss, and now married to top 5-0-5 sailor, Henry Amthor, and living in Virginia. When Barb (above with, l to r, Marc, husband Henry, and Uncle Al) discovered that Marc and I are Canadians, she told us we should be upholding the Canadian honour by cheering for the Oilers. When Barb discovered that Marc was sailing in a Wayfarer, Barb wanted to know if therefore, I was the Uncle Al that used to race with her dad on the Fireball circuit. Of course, my enthusiastic affirmative response required a drink to fond memories of good times. Barb did look shocked that I am married with kids 18 and 20, since her dad had left her with the impression that when all my beautiful, shoulder-length hair (my words, not Barb's!) fell out in 1974, it was due to my diet which consisted solely of beer. All in all, a most enjoyable evening spent in great company!


Sunday brought more of the same: warm sunshine, no hangovers to speak of, no excessive humidity, a S by W wind that let us once more sail 240° on port tack but was down a bit in strength - see photo of Tony (4105) chasing John (7351) above. The RC quickly had us off and we had two more races under our belts before 1 PM. A very kind RC even offered us another race but, given the long trips home for most of us, we declined with thanks.


A quick rinsing off of the salt water (Dolores de Boer hard at work above) and boat packing, left us just enough time to enjoy the free burgers, etc. lunch before our hosts  proceeded to a well paced awards ceremony which featured lovely keepers for the lucky winners. Among the Wayfarers, top-seeded Al Schonborn (Oakville, ON) and Marc Bennett (pickering, ON) shared the helming pleasures and the crewing duties with equal success as the veterans scored a perfect 6 wins - albeit, usually hard-fought wins. Second-seeded John and Dolores de Boer of London, ON also avoided mistakes and ended with a string of 2nds.

Fresh off their week-long W cruise in the southern part of Chesapeake Bay, 5th-seeded Tony Krauss and Mary of North East, Maryland surprised themselves and the rest of us with excellent sailing and speed. In at least two races, these two rounded first off the beat before giving up spots due to lack of spinnaker. Still, Tony and Mary ended up 3rd overall, beating their seed by two places and were thus our Most Improved team for the Rock Hall Regatta, an achievement that earned them the green flags which your Uncle Al forgot to have added to the awards routine. Fortunately, Mary and Tony expect to sail at North Bay and we can award the flags with suitable ceremony at that time.

Even without a spinnaker and with old, worn-out sails, North Carolina's Jim and Linda Heffernan showed some of the form that won them the US and the Canadian Wayfarer championship in the 70's. They sailed very sound races throughout the series - with son, Mark, crewing on the Saturday, and ended up edging Detroit's Nick and Julie out of 4th place. Meanwhile, Frank (Maryland) and daughter, Sarah (Idaho) had the proverbial learning experience while being flawless hosts with a 6th-place finish. But their pointing issues are already being addressed. They'll make things a lot tougher for us next year, I'm sure - possibly in the kit-built woodie, W8705, which should be completed by Frank's capable hands in time for Rock Hall 2007!


More info to come - but for now, 7 Wayfarers can bask in the glow of having won the trophy for the River Race's biggest fleet - see "team" photo above.

A thousand thanks to the many at Rock Hall YC who worked so hard to give us such a wonderful weekend!! We'll be back next year - perhaps with the Rock Hall Summer One-Design Regatta as the 2007 U.S. Nationals??
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