Captain Dick Hartge Regatta, Sept 28, 2008

ANNUAL MEETING:  Please mark your calendar. Our annual class meeting is on Saturday, November 8, 2008 at West River Sailing Club with a potluck dinner and speaker.  I will send out more details later.

CAPTAIN DICK HARTGE REGATTA:  Once again Robin Hartge put together our final race of the season.  Sunday, September 28^th we held the annual Dick Hartge Regatta honoring the founder and builder of our classic sailboats. 

It was not an auspicious beginning that morning; with light rain and very, little wind as we made preparations for the one-day event.  Elsie Whitman and Robin’s sister Sharon Solberg managed the crash boat.  My powerboat, Jenny Girl was the committee boat with my wife Judy, Laurence and Susanna Hartge as race committee members and Carolynn De Tessieres as the “flag lady”.  I’ve been hearing that the Jenny Girl committee boat always has a great time while we’re living through the accompanying tensions of racing.

 We postponed the start until about 11:30, when a slight breeze came in from the southwest.  There were 11 Chesapeake 20s on the start line, one of our best turnouts of the year: Osprey, Kit, Gracie, Endeavor, Picardy, Stormy, Aurora, Serenade, Contrary, Spirit and America (four glass boats, one cold molded and six classic woodies as Jane Hartge calls them.)

In the first race, it was challenging whether to go left or right, trying to find a whisper of wind.  Bob Blomquist in Gracie found the right winds with Robin Hartge in Spirit, second and Roger Link in Osprey, third.  The wind continued to build slowly and the second race had better racing.  Roger Link came in first with Peter Bell in Kit, second and Carole McCullough, third.  We had excellent wind for races three and four.  In the third race we adjusted the weather mark to the left as the wind backed.  Roger Link tried a port tack start with several starboard boats bearing down on him: he did a 720 and still won the race.  As the wind filled in from the southwest, dark clouds appeared on the horizon.  The weather mark was off the point to West River and the fastest route was to go right in the stronger breeze and close reach to the mark.  Downwind for all four races resulted in place changes as wind oscillated back and forth, left and right.  We finished the last race just in time to sail back to the club and put the boats away during a torrential downpour. 

After the racing, Ruth Hartge (along with Glenda Blomquist and other generous souls) put on a grand meal with chili and other goodies and, of course, beer and wine.  Robin and Laurence Hartge officiated at the award ceremony in which Laurence talked about his uncle, Captain Dick Hartge who had dedicated his life to building good looking sailboats. 

My cousin, Barry Blalock drove all the way from Dayton, Ohio for his first race (he loved it) and another cousin, Doug Logan and nephew, Alex De Tessieres also crewed on Stormy and Picardy.  Lorenzo Dialti still with us from Italy introduced us to another exchange officer at the Academy from Great Britain, Ian Hotchins, whom we hope will be joining us next year.

Many thanks to Ruth and Robin and all those that helped put on another successful Hartge Cup.  See attached pictures.

RESULTS CAPTAIN DICK HARTGE REGATTA 2008

PASSING OF HELEN ORME:  Last week, Helen Orme died at 83 at her home at Blue Water Marina off Rhode River.  Helen was the wife and crew for Bobby Orme, one of our Chesapeake 20 pioneers.  This summer she gave me their racing scrap book and several half model Chesapeake 20 awards.  The models will be part of the Chesapeake 20 display at the Annapolis Maritime Museum when it is completed.  In our interview, she told me that Bobby was raised in the Washington D.C. and was an outstanding football player.  They were part of the C-20 fleet as pre-World War II members of the Potomac River Sailing Association and Corinthian Yacht Club.   They owned four Chesapeake 20s, all named Blue Water (including Spirit and America now raced by Robin Hartge and Carole McCullough, respectively).  The scrap book added racing records from the early 1940s, to our archives which are currently being put online.

Bobby and Helen moved to Rhode River to own and manage the Blue Water Marina.  She said that the move to Rhode River made them “outsiders” and they had to prove their racing prowess against Buddy Hartge, Billy Heintz and others at West River.  They frequently towed Chesapeake 20s behind their wooden buy boat.  Once they sailed Blue Water from Rhode River to Washington D.C. for the President’s Cup.  The trip took five days.  Bobby was known to take young men under his wing including launching Willie Keyworth’s career, now the director of the Annapolis North Sails loft.  They also restored several 20s over the years, including Gay Lady, now owned by Billy Crandall’s daughter, Shannon. Attached are early pictures (1941) of Helen and Bobby with Blue Water and towing behind their buy boat.