Bill Brosius and Sherwood Smith went east for the Star Centennial.
[This regatta was a warm up.] Sorry I did not reply last eve, but I was too beaten up, came home, had a drink, and fell into bed. This AM I am sore in places I did not know had pain receptors.
CPYC has an incredible setup, with two hoists, a rubber-faced wall below, and the capacity to launch/retrieve a fleet of boats in very little time. Lovely people, and a professionally-run regatta. Sailing instructions were up to BISF standards. The committee boat reader board not only gave course numbers, but also distance and bearing to the weather mark, which was very helpful.
The hurricane has silted in much of the channel at the mouth of the Saugatuck River, so we were escorted in and out on day 1 until we learned the ropes. On both days, the races were held to the east of the club starting at high water, with an all-day ebb. There were 14 boats, 12 grand-prix type, mostly sailed by guys who are on the circuit, Bacardi, NA’s etc., a gorgeous blue woodie from Pennsylvania with a mid-4000 number, and Alcor, whose crew was self-designated as Old Goats in Old Boats with T-shirts to prove it.
Day 1 races were held in 6-8 kt of wind, with a good dose of slop left over from the hurricanes. We quickly saw the speed differences between new boats and old, with the finish order of the first race being almost the inverse of the sail numbers. It was interesting driving the boat in a seaway, and we quickly learned to sail with more headstay sag than in Budd Inlet evening westerlies, and to do more steering than we were used to. We did three races, two windward-leeward, and one with a wing mark, the reaches being a boring parade. At the end of the day, we had scored last place in every race, for a complete DFL hat trick! This included breaking a jib car control line on a beat, fixed by an incredible jury rig by Bill, and hooking the headstay behind a spreader at the end of the second race. By the time we got it freed, and could turn upwind, we missed the 3rd start, but fortunately it was a general recall, and we more-or-less of made the restart.
On day two, the wind blew, probably peaking at 16-18 kt., with seas up to 3 ft+. We had two incredible windward-leeward twice-around courses, with the legs about 1-1/4 mi. long. By the time we reached the weather mark each time, we had about six inches of water in the boat, even with Bill bailing. Fortunately, as soon as we started surfing downwind, we opened the bailer, which worked like a charm. The runs were exhilarating, and the jibes an adventure. I learned from Bill that it is perfectly OK to jibe into the standing runner, and then release it after we were through the jibe, which was a new experience for me. My shoulders got sore from all the steering through the waves, while making continuous 1/2-1" adjustments in the mainsheet trim, depending on the sea state and puffs. We were faster today, finishing close to the slower grand-prix boats, while preserving our DFL streak, but we sure looked pretty, and the boat was up to the task.
Bill is moving the boat to Larchmont this AM, and we will set it up this afternoon. Woodie and vintage boat racing starts Wed. We hear that some of the grand prix guys will be sailing vintage boats, so it will be interesting to see how well we can sail against them. More importantly, we we told by the fast guys that we should do well in the woodie class. We shall see ...
In the meantime, Larchmont YC has a lot of history to explore.
Cheers.
Sherwood Smith
Just back from dinner in an Italian trattoria in Harrison NY, just up the road from Mamaroneck and Larchmont, courtesy of our hostess Linda Meehan. Good food and great wine, which we deserve after this day on the water.
Today’s racing had two starts, first the classic stars, under 7300. then the woodies. Looked like 12 boats in the first start, followed by 8 woodies. Oldest was 178, then then us, then the rest, ranging from David Bolles in a 3500 series boat, up to a pair of 4500 series boats, manufactured by Old Greenwich Boat Works in the mid 60’'s. Newer boats, quite lovely, were clearly faster. First race, course 3, took over 2-1/2 hours in light air. We finished sixth, totally dehydrated.
After a delay, and an abandoned start for the classics, we restarted in a fresh breeze, course 4, in which Alcor strutted her stuff, rain squalls and all, finishing fifth, including calling starboard on Sashay, a wood-masted 4000 boat, as we approached the finish line, and hearing the snap, as she fell off to duck us, and broke her mast at the spreaders. Turns out there was rot along the screws of her spreader brackets., so not our fault. Well, the owner of Sashay is now looking for an alu mast What a good idea!
Another day of woodie racing tomorrow. A cold front is supposed to come through this eve, but I don’t know how to interpret it at this point. Will consult the experts in the boatyard in the AM
Interesting to see how, with a good hoist or two, the aforementioned fleet can all be picked onto our trailers, while launching Dave Watts, Rick Peters, et al, going out to do grand prix practice, in just about the same time it takes us to get into our slips at WestBay and get put away. Guys, you all need to get behind Dave Elliott in his quest to get the Port of Olympia to install a pick lift for our fleet! Your PUBLIC DOLLARS & PORT TAXES CAN BE PUT TO BETTER USE THAN AT PRESENT.
Judy and I are gratified to see the obeisance being paid to Bill, not only regarding Alcor, bit also for his efforts to preserve Star sailing. I’m just along for the ride, but it is a great experience. Bill knows everybody, and they all respect him.
What a trip!
Cheers sps
One race only today, as a cold front with 35 kt winds was approaching. It stalled, then materialized late. We ended up fifth in the woodie division, bested by 4 much newer wood boats. First two were late Skip Etchells boats from the mid 60’s, 4700’s, so we weren’t too concerned. Alcor acquitted herself well, and she’s a beast in a 20 kt seaway!
The grand prix regatta starts tomorrow, and I will try to spectate some of it. There are over 75 high-end Star boats in the boatyard. I was shown around a recent Lilla this afternoon, with an interior design by Torbin Grael. Way out of my league; The cockpit is so small, I don’t know how a reasonably-sized crew can get across under the boom!
We packed up Alcor this afternoon. Gala dinner is tomorrow eve. Bill is leaving for Maryland on Saturday AM, and Judy and I are flying home Saturday PM. Hopefully I will be ready for next Saturday’s races.
CU then...sps
Flew home last eve. Bill is in MD. He is driving up to see Johnny Mac in NJ on Tuesday, before heading home. Johnny Mac has a lot of stuff for him to bring back for the fleet.
I was on the Star Class web site this morning, looking at results from yesterday, and found 3 you tube videos of the regatta. One has a very nice interview with Bill and Carl Buchan, and the others show modern boat racing, and brief clips of Alcor and other woodies in action, plus a very nice interview with Kieth Donald, who races one of the last Skip Etchells woodies, very beautifully restored, and a lot faster than we were.
I want to work some of the video footage into my presentation to SSSS, but the BISF guys might want to see all three you tube clips now:
Day 2 video
Day 3 video
Day 4 video
Here is the main regatta results page, where the daily write ups from Rick Peters are also posted. Notice how the Northwest sailors are clustered near the top:
Cheers.
Sherwood Smith
Clear to Long Island Sound!! Sunny Vynne would be so pleased!! He took Alcor to Chicago, 1949, and it was quite a trip for a wooden boat. Lots of worry about the hull drying out in the hot, dry mid west. They talked about keeping wet gunnysacks in the bilges, something to preserve the moisture. They also worried that Lake Michigan was so polluted that it would take the paint off of Alcor. Actually Lake Washington was not exactly pristine in those days before Metro routed the sewer outfalls through treatment plants and away from the lake.
They used his crew, Bob Watt’s, mother’s big caddy to haul the boat and a converted bomb carrier was borrowed for a trailer. The funniest part of the report when they returned was, there was some sort of brake cable they pulled in the car to activate the trailer brakes. The trailer was so heavy that they simply used its brakes to stop the rig. When they left the boat and trailer at the yacht club and went to dinner the driver came to the first red light, pulled the cable and nothing happened. He woke up in time to realize he had to use the car brake pedal when the trailer was not attached!!
My 1950 Corinthian Helmsman says the Cram brothers in their Oregon Star, 2995, went to the Star Worlds in 1950. The yearbook says both Alcor and Oregon Star placed in the top half of their regattas. Has anyone seen 2995? Of course, in those days the Woody Division was the only kind!! And the care and feeding of spruce masts was an art as well as a craft.
It would be so nice if Swantown, or someone, had a proper launching hoist. The Yacht Basin at Leshi had four, at least, Royal Van and Kitsalano each have one. Eugene YC has two, even Wichita Sailing Club had a hoist. Now Seattle has enormous ones at Shilshole to accommodate bigger and heavier boats, but I don’t know of one on the lake. We took the Stars to Pasco once and they borrowed a pole setting truck from the telephone company, or power company, to launch the Stars in the Columbia. Usually we did not ride down in the boats as it would be very dangerous if anything broke. That time we did go down with the ship, with no problems.
Jean Goose, Lightning 8858