The White Rose Colonial Cup Regatta
AKA the Happy Belated Birthday Sara Regatta
By Dave Brawner
The White Rose MYC held their first of hopefully many regattas this past
weekend at Codorus State Park near Hanover, PA. There were seventeen entries
including first time starter Jim Hermann of State College MYC. Chuck Aiken
along with family and friends ran the regatta to perfection.
The lake is over 1,700 acres with a real nice setting and good
facilities. We were sort of tucked into a cove, which made the winds a bit
tricky. The most interesting part was when the wind came out of the East,
which was to our right. The chop then had the full length of the lake to
build. In those conditions, the chop was often stronger than the breeze.
Getting the last 20 feet to the finish was agonizing unless you were the
lucky one that found that one extra puff.
Under Chuck’s guidance we managed 13 races with all competitors racing at
once on Saturday. The rain caused the only delay during the day. It came down fast and
furious for a while but we all hid under canopies that were supplied by the
host club. Once the rain stopped we were treated to a home cooked pit beef
and corned venison lunch.
Saturday’s racing was mostly from the right to left with the windward
marks further up the cove. Finding enough breeze to get you around the
windward mark was a chore at times. Add in the fact that sixteen other boats
searching for that one desperate puff and you were thankful just to get on
your way downwind. No lead was safe in these conditions. Lead changes were
normal on the final leg. A familiar phrase was "oh, I should have stayed
inside" or "I should have stayed outside".
After racing on Saturday, Doug Wotring and Matt Houghton brought out
their mini-twelves. It’s a one-man 12-foot version of a 12 meter. Several
skippers stuck around to have some informal racing before dinner. This was
Mark Rinehart’s first time in a "real" sailboat. Take my word for it, we was
fast in that boat too.
Dinner was at Chuck’s house. This was such a treat. You need some more
detail to appreciate this. First, Chuck and Sally have 10 kids. It’s one of
the few households that could run a promotion/relegation system at each
meal. We were jokingly told that we weren’t allowed in the house if we had a
backpack. The reason became clear when they told us several people have come
to dinner and ended up staying for years. No lie. Actually, this regatta
dinner was as good as it gets for the EC12 family. With a large family, you
can imagine the size of the dinner table. Most of the fleet could sit around
it all at once. We can not say thank you enough for inviting us into your
house for a wonderful evening. And yes Sally, we all left.
The entertainment portion of the evening was supplied by none other than
our own Scott Todd with his version of how he forgot his girlfriend, Sara’s
birthday back in July. With every word, you could see Scott sinking deeper
and deeper into that hole. The birthday cake helped but I think Scott was
hoping to use his throw out on this one.
The scores were posted to the scoreboard overnight and we got our first
chance to see them on Sunday morning. Mark Rinehart had a nine-point lead
followed by Danny Thomas, myself and Ivor Walton. The sky was clear and the
wind had shifted to come out of the East. We sailed until 1pm. The scores
were posted after racing was finished. This was an interesting twist. None
of us knew where we stood in the rankings. It became more interesting when
the scores were reveled.
Danny and I were tied at the top with 50 points and Mark had 51. I got
the win on the tiebreaker with 10 firsts to his 4. The top three spots all
came down to the last leg of the last race. I rounded the final marker with
a lead over Danny. I came to the shore with a higher angle but took the risk
of the wind disappearing. Danny went outside to get a bit more breeze. His
distance to the finish was greater but then so was his speed. Halfway up the
leg, my wind went away. Somehow Danny is on a reach and flying to the
finish. My boat caught the breeze just in time to start my heart pumping
again. What had been a 20-yard lead had shrunk to a boat length at the line.
Mark lost one position while doing a 360 for hitting the final mark. Without
that, we would have ended up in a three-way tie. Thankfully, none of us knew
how important that race was.
All through the regatta, Al Sellers always seemed to be the boat with
speed when others were sitting still. Whenever there was a pack of boats
searching for wind, you could count on Al to find it first. Pete Houghton
continues to show improvement. One race, he led the fleet to the windward
mark. Fred Maurer sailed a great regatta and would have finished higher
except for his troubles with the far leeward mark. His boat just didn’t seem
to want to go all the way to that mark. With a smile, a "phooey" and a quick
circle back around the mark, Fred was on his way again.
The racing was fun, the food was delicious and the hospitality was great.
To Chuck and the White Rose MYC, we say thank you and hopefully, you’ll do
this again.
Picture Links:
http://userweb.suscom.net/~ceheisler/
Even more pictures.
Name |
|
Place |
Points |
Dave Brawner |
1 |
50 |
Danny Thomas |
2 |
50 |
Mark Rinehart |
3 |
51 |
Ivor Walton |
4 |
83 |
Al Sellers |
5 |
96 |
Rick West |
6 |
104 |
Jack Kendra |
7 |
122 |
Fred Maurer |
8 |
162 |
Matt Houghton |
9 |
183 |
Scott Todd |
10 |
186 |
Tony Bollers |
11 |
200 |
Bob Kjellberg |
12 |
203 |
Joe Cole |
13 |
213 |
Doug Wotring |
14 |
238 |
Russ Dukehart |
15 |
246 |
Pete Houghton |
16 |
258 |
Jim Hermann |
17 |
302 |
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