Did you make it to this year’s Rendezvous and/or Festival? If you did, I’ll bet you had a great time. If you didn’t, you missed two fantastic events.
This year’s Rendezvous/Founders Cup Race was held on July 23rd and 24th at Chicago’s Montrose Harbor. Our reservation for fair skies and great winds paid off as classic sailing yachts from 25ft. to 54ft. participated in the event. Rear Commodore Lloyd Karzen and the Corinthian Race Committee boat started the race with a new course for the first time since the race originated. With the large contingent of "Old Sea Dogs" in this race, the statement "can’t teach an old dog new tricks" had new meaning. Lloyd even moved the finish line to the Belmont Harbor area which required a little pre-planning as you approached the line. In prior years, the finish line was at the Chicago Light, which is a great place to end the race for the amateur racers that many of us are. The Queen Mary could sail through that opening. However, this year, Lloyd had the finish line restricted to such a small area that you could pass a beer between two boats (three wouldn’t make it) as you crossed the line. I think the changes made for a more interesting race.
Lloyd Karzen, Drake Christensen and George Najarian came up with a new handicapping system this year. While the "Toby System" served us well for the past several years, it was felt that we needed a more uniform and formal way of handicapping the fleet. While it may need a little tweaking, this new system is a good start. If you haven’t gotten your HBC rating as of yet, contact George Najarian for details and an application form.
The Friday night awards dinner/BBQ was preceded by a little rain, but by dinner time, the all clear was sounded. The winners of the race were Don Jirka on Javelin who took first overall and first place in the 31 - 40 ft. section. Larry Anglada on Uncas took the honors in the under 30 ft. section and Matt Howard on Allegro had "one hell of a race!" It was nip and tuck to the very end, but he managed to win by a nose in the over 41 ft. section. Oops! I forgot to tell you that Allegro was the only boat in that section. That a way Matt! (Please see the other article on the race results.)
Good food, good weather, great friends and a great race made for a successful Rendezvous. Make sure you clear your calendar for the Race of the Millennium and join us for the year 2000 Founder’s Cup Race. We’ll keep you posted when the date has been established.
With temperatures in the low 80’s and fair skies, the weather promised to cooperate for our 11th Annual Heritage Wooden Boat Festival. Twenty-four boats from HBC and ACBS arrived for this year’s Festival held in Racine on August 20th to 22nd.
Why does Murphy’s law always come into play whenever I sail to any boat show or festival? It doesn’t matter if it’s in Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin, etc., the wind will be on the nose - you can count on it!
George Najarian and I left Montrose Harbor on the good ship, Nighthawk, on Thursday A.M. with predicted Northeast winds and 1 to 3 ft. waves. THEY LIED! North/northeast (more north than east) and 4 to 6 ft. waves were the rule of the day. We had to motor sail alllll the way!!
Tom Molnar, on China Doll, was already at Racine when we arrived (what else is new? Tom is always first!) Tom became the "dock master" shepherding his "flock" into the assigned dock spaces. Fortunately, there were no real problems with water levels that we anticipated, although Dave Topping’s Wild Goose had some trouble getting into the mooring with low water levels near the harbor mouth.
The Friday night BBQ hosted by the Racine Historical Museum was attended by over 40 skippers and crew. Lunch on Saturday and Sunday was also provided by the Racine Museum volunteers under the able direction of Dr. Mary Ellen Conaway. Many thanks to Dr. Conaway and her staff in recognition for all of their hard work in assisting us at the Festival.
As our show was being held at the same time as the Racine in water boat show, we received free passes to attend that event. The in-water boat show also attracted a host of visitors to view our fleet.
Our club had the free use of the Racine Festival Hall for Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Boats on display inside the Hall included several ACBS boats, two German made "auto boats," some vessels courtesy of Bruce Renquist and others. A large contingent of model builders and their beautiful creations were also in the Festival Hall. It’s a real treat to view some of these model ships and see the time and effort that went into their construction.
It’s always great to see the ACBS gang in attendance with those beautiful runabouts. How do they get that varnish to look so great? (Maybe this could be a topic for a future HBC Educational Seminar.) Thanks to ACBS president, Bob Bergl and his Blackhawk Chapter for supporting this event.
The Annual Festival Awards dinner was held Saturday night in the Festival Hall and catered by the Racine Historical Museum. Awards for the Founder’s Cup Race were presented as well as four awards pertaining to this year’s annual Festival.
The Festival awards went to the following skippers:
RESTORATION AWARD – George Hainish on Hope Floats
LONG DISTANCE AWARD - Tom Molnar on China Doll (for the boat that came the farthest by sea)
(side note: It seems that Tom always manages to get an award at every Festival he attends. As three boats came to the Festival from Tom’s home port of St. Joe, word has it that Tom deliberately sailed to Racine via Mackinac Island, Beaver Island, Sturgeon Bay, Green Bay, Milwaukee and then to Racine just to win the award!) That a way Tom!
CRAFTSMAN AWARD - Bob Jacobsen on Nighthawk
SKIPPER’S CHOICE - Bob Jacobsen on Nighthawk (Wow! What an honor!)
On Saturday, the construction of the "Sika Fleet" took place in preparation for the Sunday launch. ( See George Najarian’s article on the Sika Challenge.)
On Sunday, we finally got to see the new boats at the in-water boat show. Could you really enjoy buying a boat that may only require a little wax and a weekend or two to get in the water? Hell No! Give me the smell of paint, sand paper, varnish, dry rot and the two-plus months to get our woodies ready, any day! Am I demented? Maybe!
George Najarian, Hal Forslund and I left for our home port on Sunday around 4:00 P.M. Yep! You guessed it. Our course was 175 degrees. The wind 180 degrees. Right on the nose all the way!
In closing, thanks to those of you who made it to the show. For those of you who missed it, I sincerely hope you clear your calendar and do whatever it takes to get to next year’s show, if you can. It takes lots of work by your flag officers and Board members to organize, plan and conduct the Rendezvous and Festival each year. We need your support if we are to continue these types of activities for future years.