by Carroll McCallum

John Vanderhoff has been racing Stars since the early 80's. Robert McVey, now deceased, was a yesteryear Star boater that moved the North Chesapeake Bay Star Fleet to Havre de Grace and got John involved in the class. Now the Havre de Grace Fleet races every Thursday night in the Susquehanna, giving John a lot of practice sailing in 0 - 6 knots of breeze.

John says “I really enjoy the interactions with Star people and am hard pressed to think of a more enjoyable activity than attending a Star Regatta.”

Although John Vanderhoff has sailed the Fall Windup many times, he has not won before. He says, “this win was rather dramatic for me, winning the regatta by about a foot in a photo finish of the third race.” The third race, on Sunday, John Vanderhoff lead around the first two marks, but Eliot Oldak took the lead at the top of the second weather leg before the final run to the finish, with John Manderson rounding the weather mark second, Vanderhoff rounding third and Bear Hovey rounding 4th.

Friday before the Fall Wind-up the weather was unimpeachably beautiful. Sam Hopkins and Remo Casasco, John Manderson and Matt Semler, Will Swigart and Carroll Beek went out to practice in the late afternoon. The wind out of the Tred Avon blew John Manderson and Matt Semler clear across the Choptank on a single surfing reach. It was a spell binding afternoon but the weather forecast and the locals cast a dour outlook for Saturday, shaking heads and saying –light, shifting to southwest then rain and a front overnight.

They were only partly right. As the day progressed the weather telescoped and the blue skies became covered with a complex high mix of clouds with 10 gusty knots under them and chop with the wind out of the south. Before the start we saw shifts at 200 but the RC held with 180 degrees and the line was fair. The current flowing more or less west out the Choptank, had max ebb at about 1:30. We started on time at 11 AM.