Down River Race & Rock Hall One Design
On Friday, June 10, 2011, we raced in the down river race from Chestertown to the Rock Hall Yacht Club. Robin graciously lent us his powerboat for the ride over (about 48 miles) in which we towed Heather Childs, Endeavor, Stormy and Osprey. We left on Wednesday very early (5:30 am) so as to catch the tide for the ride to Chestertown at some 8 knots arriving after about 12:30. Carol and her gang took their cruising boats over on Thursday with Gracie and America. Bob Blomquist had a bad night on Thursday, and we talked him out of racing downriver.
The down river race was a
drifter for the whole way to the finish and took four hours, finishing within
two minutes of the time limit. There was
an adverse current all the way, with a light and shifty northerly. All of the 20s got off the line pretty much
together and those on the left took the early led to the first turn. You know it is shifty when a Sunfish passes
you.
Stormy stayed low and got the
first wind past the corner and took a commanding lead – we were about a mile
ahead and racing against two A-Cats.
Basically, the strategy was to sail wide around the corners and stay on
the lee shore – where hopefully the wind would gather. It looked good for us until the wind stopped,
and the entire fleet caught up with a downwind slant on the weather shore.
Stormy and an A-Cat stayed
low and with everyone basically stopped, a very slight breeze kicked in and
Stormy and an A-Cat crept across the line – just as the remainder of the fleet
charged down on a new wind from the right.
I know that Endeavor and Osprey crossed the line a bow apart, followed
by America. Stormy got a ride in, and
the rest of the 20s spent another hour or so beating into Rock Hall (why don’t
these guys give tows?).
On Saturday and Sunday for
the Rock Hall One Design, the wind remained very light. The first race, Osprey took the lead at the
weather mark followed by Stormy, Endeavor and America. The leaders just tried to track down the
little wind, and avoid getting too caught in the current. Osprey and Stormy stayed right, and Endeavor
and America went left and died.
Meanwhile, Heather Childs went to the wrong course and did not make the
first race.
Totally overheated from the
down river race (purple was the hue), Stormy and America went back in on the
slight wind, while Osprey, Endeavor and Heather Childs bobbed around and waited
for some wind. Finally, they got off two
one lap races with Osprey, Endeavor and Heather Childs finishing in that order;
and did not get back to the club until 4 PM.
On Sunday, it was cooler but
still little wind with a dominant high so that the sea breeze never filled
in. The race committee looked for wind
and moved to the head of Gray’s Inn Creek for the one lap race. Endeavor and Osprey got off the line first
and went left so as to be able to use the current to reach the weather mark. Stormy went right into the creek, saw a wind
pattern and rode it all the way to the weather mark with Endeavor and Osprey
next behind. As they neared the finish
line, Osprey caught a slight breeze – sailing right through the lee of Endeavor
and nearly passing Stormy as well.
Stormy jibbed and headed to the committee boat end of the line – beating
Osprey by a foot. Despite the lack of
wind, the race committee wanted to get off another race, but the fleet rebelled
and sailed or were towed in.
We got under way as soon as
possible, about 3:30 for the tow back.
We took five boats with Gracie in the rear. We were
watching the line of thunder storms approaching from the Northwest on Clay’s
Ipad. We debated ducking behind Love
Pt., but decided it was better to be clear of the lee shore and ride it
out. We hoped to get through a gap in
the storms, and may have since we did not experience any lightning. We all took precautions with life jackets and
battened the hatches.
The storm hit after we had
passed Love Pt. and we headed into it going north towards Baltimore for about
40 minutes. The sea kicked up pretty
rapidly and was about 4 ft chop. Clay
was at the helm in his foul weather gear.
We basically tried to go as slowly as possible so the 20s had enough
steerage to stay in a line. Gracie had
its main sail lashed to the boom which created extra windage and nearly
capsized (we saw nearly the entire bottom).
After the storm passed, we had to keep going north until the seas died
down at which time we turned 380 degrees and headed home. We got back to the club at about 10:30 PM
dodging crab pots in the dark. With David,
Robin and Bob greeting us as we arrived, we hauled all of the boats. Meanwhile, the America’s Team waited out the
storm at anchor off the natural preserve (and before the turn towards the exposed
north) at Chester River and they arrived
at the club about 11:15 pm, and tied America up at the dock.
Race Results
|
Place |
Boat # |
Skipper |
Crew |
Race 1 |
Race 2 |
Race 3 |
Race 4 |
Total |
|
1 |
203 |
Klose |
Wiseman/Angle |
1 |
1 |
1 |
2 |
5 |
|
2 |
49 |
Taylor |
Chris & Taylor Family |
4 |
2 |
2 |
3 |
11 |
|
3 |
26 |
Weihe |
Leclerk & DeTessieres |
2 |
6/DNS |
6/DNS |
1 |
15 |
|
4 |
210 |
Childs |
Joe & Routers |
6/DNS |
3 |
3 |
5 |
17 |
|
5 |
32 |
McCullough |
Hall/Tesnau |
3 |
6/DNS |
6/DNS |
4 |
19 |
Down
River Race
74th Annual Race 12nm from CRY&CC to RHYC
June 10, 2011
| NOTE: As the sailors know, there was chaos on the Finish line as tight groups drifted across | |||||||
| with a downwind finish. Time or even presence of some boats could not be determined. | |||||||
| The results show only boats recorded. If you are not listed but know your position, let us know, via email regattas@rockhallyachtclub.org | |||||||
| Order of Finish Results |
Corrected Results USING Portsmouth HANDICAPS |
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| Corrected | Place | Boat | Skipper | Crew | |
| Sail # | Time | Corrected | Type | ||
| 77318 | 263.353 | 1 | Sunfish | Ed Wagman | |
| 4119 | 272.419 | 2 | Rebel | Daniel Leon | Albert Leon |
| 864 | 280.000 | 3 | Wayfarer | Tony Krauss | Hank Bettschling |
| 1066 | 280.195 | 4 | Wayfarer | Jim Hefferman | Mark Hefferman |
| 3854 | 280.319 | 5 | Wayfarer | Al Schonborn | Hans Gottschling |
| 8705 | 280.496 | 6 | Wayfarer | Frank Pedersen | Sarah Pedersen |
| 4077 | 286.905 | 7 | Comet | n.a. | |
| 26 | 287.228 | 8 | Ches 20 | Ted Weihe | Jamie |
| 49 | 290.550 | 9 | Ches 20 | Clayton Taylor | |
| 203 | 290.550 | 10 | Ches 20 | Gerhard Klose | Carol Niemand |
| 46761 | 291.889 | 11 | Laser | Dotty Holoubek | |
| 5400 | 301.579 | 12 | Windmill(3247) | Dyer Harris | Jim Georgeson |
| 9458 | 340.582 | 13 | Hobie 18 | John Macielag | Noah Macielag |
| 86 | 365.667 | 14 | Prindle 19 | Harry Murphy | Will Powell |
| 235 | 375.315 | 15 | A-Cat | Joe Sparks | |
| 173 | 380.329 | 16 | A-Cat | Rob Gruber | |
| 108 | 381.153 | 17 | A-Cat | Bob Orr | |
| 290 | 381.516 | 18 | A-cat | Clayton Taylor | |
| Not shown on finish list | |||||
| A-Cat | 3 | Bruce Nowak | |||
| Laser | 38 | Steve Adams | |||
| A-Cat | 136 | Chris Bolton | |||
| A-Cat | 268 | Andrew Burdette | |||
| Times not shown on finish list | |||||
| Rebel | 4182 | Bill Selick | James Labate | ||
| Rebel | 4162 | Neil Robb | |||
| Rebel | 4184 | Robert Zimmer | Jeannette Zimmer | ||
| Windmill | 5187 | Scott Ranney | Joe Manley | ||
| Rebel | 1593 | Jack Roe | Bob Reinhartsen | ||
| Ches 20 | 32 | Carole McCullough | Barbra Hall | ||
Award winners:
Collins Cup - Corrected time
1st Ed Wagman in a Sunfish
2nd Scott Ranney and Joe Manley in a Windmill
3rd Dan Leon and Albert Leon in a Rebel
Strong Austin - First Rock Hall Yacht Club boat
John and Noah Macielag in a Hobie 18
Sonny Usilton Memorial - Elapsed time
Joe Sparks in an A-Cat
Windmill Fleet 82 - First Windmill
Scott Ranney and Joe Manley
Thanks to Chip Lieber and Mike Macielag and the rest of the RHYC race committee for running a very successful regatta and keeping the tradition going!