What happens when you bring together a fleet of vintage model yachts, their
gallant skippers, and plenty of spouses into an area that was recently visited
by a hurricane ... lots of fun. And that's exactly what happened at
the USVMYG 2003 Vintage Traditional Watercraft Regatta held on September 26-28,
2003 in glorious Solomon's Island, Maryland.
For the second year in a row,
the regatta was hosted by the Great Schooner Model Society and
the Solomon's Island Model Yacht Club at the Calvert Marine Museum.
Attendees
Just one week after Hurricane Isabel drove the Chesapeake tide up to record
heights, over 20 model yacht skippers competed during two days of
great racing, good eating and plenty of good times. Unfortunately, a few
captains couldn't make it because of the damage caused by Isabel.
Five different classes
raced throughout the weekend, including Vintage Marbleheads, Skipjacks,
Schooners, Large Schooners and the Open Class. In some of the classes,
yachts were judged for scale points in addition to the points earned by
racing.
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And let's not forget the "ladies-in-waiting" who always seemed to be one
step ahead of the guys (aren't they always). These ladies prepared all
the food, set up everything for the banquet and they still had time to
watch a few races.
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Vintage Marbleheads
The Vintage Marblehead class is truly one of the most enduring vintage models.
Their sleek lines and efficient sails have been racing for quite a long time
and the competition is at the highest level. Harry Mote and the gang from
Spring Lake are always ready to race their M's, anywhere, anytime and in
any weather.
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Ned Lakeman's Black Moriah always seems to be near the front
of the race and on the right side of every wind shift. Its only drawback
is the peeling hull paint ... come on Ned, break down and paint it every
decade or so.
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Vintage M #25 is a nice looking boat operated by Harry Mote. Throughout the
regatta, Harry was in the thick of things, but he had his share of bad puffs
and trouble-some turns.
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Vintage M #74 operated by Richard Williams is waiting for the breeze to
fill in during the morning races on Saturday. After lunch, the wind
picked up nicely and filled in even more on Sunday, building throughout
the day.
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Al Suydam's #35 moves along nicely in light air and smooth seas.
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Hank Miller says that the number of his boat is pronounced "triple bullet".
Unfortunately for Hank, that wasn't the finishing place called out by
the race officials as he crossed the finished line. Nonetheless, the old
triple-bullet raced well and had his share of ups and downs.
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Tom Younger is one of the local Solomon's skippers who builds and races
a variety of boats, including this Vintage M. Tom doesn't have as much
stick-time on the M as some of the other captains, but he's learning fast.
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The Vintage M moves through the water with almost no effort as can be
seen in this photo. Notice how the wake is virtually non-existent.
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Skipjacks
If the Vintage M is considered the Ferrari race car of the vintage yachting
world, then the Chesapeake Bay Skipjack is definitely a Ford pickup truck.
It ain't the prettiest thing on the water, put it takes a beating and
keeps on trucking!!! The Skipjack sails well off the wind when going to
windward and has way too much power when doing downwind. But, since they are
all built to the same standard (right boys?) it's always a fair, albeit slow,
race.
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Although un-conventional for most sailboats, a downwind start for
Skipjacks is just fine. There are not a lot of "rules-of-the-road"
in Skipjack racing, so a little bumping and grinding at the start is OK.
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Left:
Downwind in a moderate breeze works well for the entire Skipjack fleet and
everyone tries hard to cover the lead boat with their large mainsails.
Below:
Like we said, there aren't a lot of rules in Skipjack racing. If you're afraid
to lose a little paint at a mark rounding, don't bother going on the course.
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Buck McClellan's Skipjack heads for the finish line to gain some
valuable points. Buck is a veteran Skipjack captain and one of the
people who did a lot of work behind the scenes to make the regatta
a success.
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Skipjack #33 operated by Richard Rogers moves through the first race slowly
in light-air. It's hard enough to sail the Skipjack in moderate conditions,
but light-air is even more frustrating.
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Mike Summers and Dan Querin battle it out bowsprit-to-bowsprit going
downwind in moderate conditions. The Skipjack design is definitely
biased for this point of sail and many skippers wish that all races could
be simply downwind drag races.
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Don Miller's Skipjack is easily found on the course because of his
trademark red sails. Legend has it that Don uses red cloth because he
wants to hide all of the blood that he's lost fixing the darn thing.
Don was one of the driving forces behind hosting the Regatta in Maryland for
the first time in 2002. Of course, after accepting the responsibility for
the regatta on behalf of the club, he promptly moved to Florida!!!
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Harry Mote is first around the mark with two local Solomon Skipjacks,
Tom Younger and Don Miller, in hot pursuit.
You can be sure that the local skippers will make sure
that Harry has plenty of trouble to deal with before he crosses the line
in first place. It's hard enough for Harry having to switch back and
forth between a Vintage M and a Skipjack, but he also has to worry about
getting impaled with a 12 inch long bow-sprit.
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Schooners
Schooners are undeniably the most eloquent boats on the water. And I'm not
just saying that because I operate one. (Well, actually, that's exactly
why I'm saying that.) Unlike the other classes, schooner racing is not
a one-design class ... they come in all shapes, sizes and designs. As such,
two different schooner classes exists, with an LOD of 50" being the cutoff
between them. In both classes, despite the different designs, the racing
was very close during the regatta.
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The schooner fleet starts with everyone spread out across the starting line.
Moderate, but puffy, conditions keeps everything exciting, forcing
all skippers to stay alert.
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The fleet moves downwind, with George Surgent, Ned Lakeman and Allan Suydam in
hot pursuit of Herb Jones. Herb, Ned and Allan would continue to
battle it out in most of the races for the top honors.
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There seems to be a little confusion between the schooner captains. It
looks like half of the fleet is going one way around the mark, while the
other half goes the other way. Actually, it's a tricky camera angle showing
boats on different tacks all the way down the windward leg heading
towards the yellow mark.
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Allan Suydam has a beautiful and fast schooner, which is twice the trouble
for the other schooner captains because scale and racing points are combined
in the schooner classes. So, if Allan doesn't beat you on the water, he
makes up for it with lots of scale points. Worse of all, this was the
first time Allan sailed this particular schooner and it worked perfectly.
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Buck McClellan's Shadow schooner is about as high-tech as it can
get in the schooner world. Go-fast sails, rigging and designs are everywhere,
which make him tough to beat in the Large Schooner class, especially in
a strong breeze.
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Frank Pittelli's Chesapeake 50 schooner is actually a model
of a New York 50, but he thought it sounded more nautical
with the word 'Chesapeake' in the name. Frank and Herb Jones created
a mold that was used to build a number of hulls for the Great Schooner Model
Society to be used for head-to-head schooner racing. As such, it is
probably the only one-design model schooner class being raced anywhere in the
world.
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George Surgent's Sharpie Schooner is a light-weight, all-wood model that
is extremely fast in light-air. However, if the wind picks up a bit, George
has his hands full trying to keep it from flying instead of sailing.
Considering that the hull was designed over 100 years ago and
the simplicity of its construction, it is amazingly competitive with the
other schooners. Good choice, George.
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Herb Jones operates the second Chesapeake 50 built by the
Great Schooner Model Society, based on a plug that he developed. Herb's
calculations and workmanship were so accurate that the estimated waterline
and the actual waterline were dead on, and every hull sits perfectly
level in the water. Herb has also tuned the sailing rig to perfection,
earning most of the bullets during the Society's 2003 racing season.
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Jose Medina came to the 2002 regatta with his first-ever schooner, all
the way from the coast of Iowa! It was large and well-built, but Jose
had to learn alot about keeping it going. In 2003, Jose returned with
the same beautiful schooner which had an enlarged skeg and rudder to
make it perform better.
His gaff rigged large schooner was very popular with the spectators and
racers.
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Ned Lakeman is very skilled racer, whether he's racing a Vintage M or
his New York 50 schooner. The NY50 is well-built and handles
a wide range of wind conditions. In fact, it was Ned's 50 that convinced
Frank Pittelli and Herb Jones to use it as the basis for a club boat after
they saw it perform at a previous USVMYG regatta in Spring Lake, NJ.
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Ned (2) and Herb (00) go head to head during one of the schooner races. Herb's
NY50 has a scale length keel,
while Ned's is a little longer, giving him a
better healing position in a moderate breeze. It also looks
like Ned is carrying a little more sail than Herb.
Nonetheless, both boats
are well-matched, causing seamanship and luck to be the deciding factor.
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Open Class
The Open Class is for any boat that doesn't fit into one of the other
classes or for any skipper who prefers not to race head-to-head. Since
the class consists of a wide variety of designs, some of which can be
much faster than the others, points are awarded based on the most
consistent time around a course. That it, each boat sails three times
around a course, with the lap time recorded for each lap. The boat
that has the most consistent set of three times wins.
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Bob Ray steers his sloop around the course in wind conditions ranging
from 'just a wee-bit' to 'Isabel go home'. It's a steady, reliable boat
that's operated by a veteran sailor.
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Ed Gera's Chesapeake Bay Bugeye attracts a lot of attention from the spectators
as it slices through the water. The bugeye looks good on every point of sail
as it moves around the course, and even when sitting in its cradle on the shore.
This is actually Ed's second bugeye. He sold the first one and then realized
how much he liked it. So, instead of stealing it back from the man he
sold it to, he built a second one (even better than the first one).
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Leave it to Jose Medina to bring a monster of a sloop to the Open Class
race. This J-boat towered above everything else on the water and completed
three laps faster than some boats completed their first. Definitely
a crowd pleaser.
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Richard Rogers built this little gaff-rigged Skipjack as a replica
of one of the boats built by the Calvert Marine Museum. It performed
well under-sail, but performed even better when Richard turned on the
engine and drove it back to the docks. (All skippers were listening
closely to ensure that the motor was not on during the race.)
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Off The Water
Although race schedule certainly keeps the attention of most of the skippers,
there is lots of stuff going on off the water during the regatta, with
lots of hard work behind the scenes as well.
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The museum's recently renovated boat shop served as a perfect location to house
all of the models during the regatta. Skippers were able to leave their
rigging intact the whole weekend, safe and secure in a quaint setting.
And, more importantly, there were plenty of power-tools laying around to make
everyone feel at home.
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While one class of boats were sailing, the others were on display for all
of the spectators that come and go at the museum. Most skippers enjoyed
being able to show off their work to anyone and everyone who asked a question
(or simply showed an interest). Quite a few spectators were thrilled to
"stumble onto such a nice event" and some stayed for a long time watching the
boats and listening to the skippers.
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Annie Michnowicz had a mission ... to sell anything and everything
that didn't move, including T-shirts, mugs, and cookies. Her hard work
helps to keep the regatta expenses down and helps to raise money for
the museum's various projects.
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We're not really sure why Annie and Richard are so happy in this photo.
It could be because Annie has finished selling everything, or because Richard
finished well in a race, or just because they had a good time.
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One of the not-always-exciting, but definitely-much-needed jobs is
operating the chase boat in case some model goes astray. Various
volunteers manned the trusty vessel whenever boats were on the water.
And because of their heroic efforts, no boats were lost at sea during the
regatta.
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Party Time
On Saturday night, everyone wandered down the main road (actually there's only
one road in Solomon's Island) to the Solomon's Island Yacht Club for some
good wine, good food and good fun.
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Cocktail hour was held informally on the yacht club's porch, overlooking the
Patuxent river and the Chesapeake Bay. In the distance, you can see the
Pride of Baltimore II, a replica of the fast clipper ships that used
to cause problems for the British back in the good ole days of sailing.
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Herb Jones shows everyone how to gently sear a steak on one of the hottest
grills most people have ever seen. (In fact, the fuzziness on the left
side of the picture is caused by the heat waves coming up from the grill.)
With a temperature somewhere around a million degress (or so it seemed)
the steaks were done quickly and everyone went upstairs to the dining
room where baked potatoes, salad, vegetable and rolls rounded out the meal.
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Good food, good wine, good God, let's eat. It didn't take long for everyone
to settle down and start eating. A long day on the water created some
hardy appetites and, of course, there were plenty of stories to go around.
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Awards
After all the racing is done and the food is gone, there's nothing left to
do except hand out about 50 trophies (3 per skipper isn't too many, is it?)
for everything from winning the most races to driving the longest distance.
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Harry Mote starts the awards ceremony by thanking everyone for all of the
hard work and for the excellent weather (honestly, Marylanders can control
the weather).
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Five captains raced in the Vintage M class: Ned Lakeman,
Hank Miller, Harry Mote, Alan Suydam,
and Tom Younger.
After ten races the winners were:
1st - Alan (Cheerio),
2nd - Harry (Peterson One Design),
and 3rd - Ned (Black Mariah).
Right: Allan Suydam accepts two of the top honors in the Regatta. He won
first place in the Vintage M class and first place in the Schooner class.
Congratulations on some well-earned trophies.
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Eight captains raced their Skipjacks: Buck McClellan, Don Miller,
Harry Mote, Richard Navickas, Dave Querin, Richard Rogers, Mike
Summers, and Tom Younger. After 6 races the winners were,
1st - Buck, 2nd - Tom, and 3rd - Richard Rogers.
Left: Buck and Tom exchange congratulations over their Skipjack
trophies.
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Four captains raced their small Schooners: Herb Jones, Ned Lakeman,
Alan Suydam, and Steve Weintraub. After eight races and static
judging the winners were: 1st - Alan, 2nd - Ned,
and 3rd - Herb.
Three captains participated in the large Schooner races: Buck
McClellan, Jose Medina, and George Surgent. After eight races and
static judging the winners were:
1st - George 1st, 2nd - Buck, and 3rd - Jose.
Right: Ned Lakeman accepts his 2nd place trophy for the Schooner class.
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Five captains participated in the Open class:
Ed Gera, Don Miller, Jose Medina, Bob Ray,
and Richard Rogers. Based on time consistency, the winners were:
1st Richard, 2nd Jose, and 3rd Ed.
Left:
Ed Gera wins 3rd place in the Open Class.
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Jose Medina wins the award for traveling the fartherest, over 1100 miles
from Iowa, just edging out Don Miller who came up from Florida.
Now that's devotion.
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Here's all of the winners showing their hardware.
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And that ends the 2003 USVMYG Vintage Traditional Watercraft Regatta.
See you all next year
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Special thanks to photographer Dan Gresham who snapped over 450 high-resolution
digital photos of the regatta so that we could post them for the whole
world to see.
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