the 2007 Rock Hall Weekend
Friday: the River Race

pics mostly by Uncle Al
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It takes a little more ...
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... effort to put up the mast on the classic Chesapeake Bay Log Canoe than on a Wayfarer.
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Make that ...
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... masts, plural. What a lovely-looking ...
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... boat and ...
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... crew!!!
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Getting set to hoist to mosquito sail which will look like ...
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... this!
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Ah! The docks have re-appeared.
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Marc (red cap) chats with one of the Lake Eustis teams: (l to r) Dotty and Mike Murto, Dave and Jane Hepting.
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Andy Douma is launched - well, his Wayfarer is launched.
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Jim Lingeman heads out towards the start line with pick-up crew, Riley Lieber (9) who stuck to the letter of his "contract". Having been assured the race would last no more than two and a half hours, Riley got himself taken ashore by one the the safety boats when his time was done half-way through the race.
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In these lights airs ...
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... it will be ...
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... a challenge to ...
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... make any headway at all towards the start line which is 100 yards up-tide.
Above, Andy Douma backs down the river with the tide, as he awaits his crew, Joan.
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Allen Chauvenet and his crew, Tiffany Cooper, get organized.
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No caption needed here, I suppose: the side of the boat says it all!!
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Marc and I and the camera have worked our way - at last - to the right side of the start line with only minutes to spare before the 11 a.m. scheduled start. 2nd from right, we can see Allen right near ...
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... the shore (far right) as he prepares to implement the strategy he would later describe as follows:
"I thought I was so clever to start by the dock where the channel runs ... looked great for about 30 seconds until breeze came in from the other side of the river and about 15 boats (of course including you) simply vanished ahead of me, never to be seen again other than as small specks on the horizon ..."
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Some were lucky enough to get a tow to the start line!
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After a couple of general recalls, this start will finally be a go.
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It only took the Log Canoe ...
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... a few minutes to ...
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... pass us. With their high sail plan, these guys (and all the Chesapeake 20's) seemed to really benefit from wind aloft when there was very little to fill shorter sails (even on the A-Cats!), with the result that, despite sailing what we thought was an excellent race, we got beaten even on corrected time by six Chesapeake 20's and the Log Canoe. In previous years, when everyone had wind to spare, we had always held our own against the 20's.  
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Even the log canoe took well over two and half hours to complete the race,
by which time this young lady must have been getting pretty eager to get up and move around!!!
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next pictures page

Regatta/U.S. Nationals results
Down Chester River Race results
Regatta/U.S. Nationals report
Down Chester River Race report
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Thursday
Friday
Saturday
Sunday
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