District 2  Regatta Report

Sat Sep 26th, 2015 through Sun Sep 27th, 2015

2015 Classic Wooden Sailboat Race

 

The National Sailing Hall of Fame in Annapolis, MD hosted the 6th Annual Classic Wooden Sailboat Rendezvous and Race, 26 & 27 September 2015. The event is a fun gathering of classic wooden sailboats, showcasing their history and elegance, and is open to wooden hulled sailboats designed prior to 1970 and under 65’ in length.

Participating boats have ranged from an 8’ pram and planing dinghies to double ended gaff rigged cruising boats, through 60+’ schooners. This is a perfect event for classic woody Stars and is a tremendous amount of fun!

A rendezvous at the National Sailing Hall of Fame’s docks is held on Saturday, giving everyone an opportunity to show off their boats. In 2015 two Stars were displayed: Elliott Oldak exhibited SASHAY (#3779) and Tom Gahs exhibited TROUT (#178). As part of a series of talks and demonstrations scheduled that afternoon, Tom gave a 20 minute talk on the history of the Star Class and on TROUT. TROUT has been in Tom’s family for over 80 years and was the first Star (along with 11 higher hull number sister boats) on the Chesapeake Bay.

A pot luck dinner is held Saturday evening and is a great opportunity to meet all the participants, share wooden boat restoration/care experiences, and swap stories. It’s a fantastic group of people – all of which share a love of wooden sailboats.

The race on Sunday uses a pursuit style start (based on the Portsmouth handicap rules) so that faster boats start later than the slower boats, and if everyone sailed a perfect race, all the boats would theoretically finish the same time. The course is a multi-lap fixed triangular course in the approaches to Annapolis Harbor. For award purposes, the boats are divided into general classes so they are competing against similar boats. New to 2015, any recognized class with three or more boats was started and scored as their own class and we were fortunate to have four woody Stars participate.

The conditions on Sunday started with light winds, then built to 10-12 knots during the race. If there was any downside, due to the wind direction and alignment of the fixed triangular course, there were no windward legs; all the legs were either a reach or a dead run. Accordingly there were relatively few chances to pass competitors. Keith Donald & Kris Wilson in HOPE led at the first mark, took off like a rocket, and stayed in front of the other Stars for the rest of race. The other three Stars though were never really all that far behind and did swap positions (or at least come close) throughout the race. CONFLICT’s performance was especially impressive as this race was her first major outing since being restored.

Also new to 2015 was an informal awards dinner on the Monday evening following the event. This proved to be a lot of fun and the Star fleet was very well represented.

Photo: TROUT sailing among some of the other race participants prior to the start. The wide variety of different boats is a big part of the fun.


Star
Place Boat Skipper Crew Sail #: Fleet 1 Total
1 Hope   Keith Donald   Kris Wilson   4125   AN   1 1
2 Conflict   John Sherwood   Tom Price   4100   CB   2 2
3 Sashay   Elliott Oldak   Barbara Beigel Vosbury   3779   AN   3 3
4 Trout   Tom Gahs   Kris Uebersax   178   AN   4 4

ISCYRA Central Office
2812 Canon Street
San Diego, California 92106 USA
Phone: +1 619 222 0252
Fax: +1 619 222 0528
SKYPE: star.class.office
office@starchampionships.org

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