|
||||||||||
|
|
After winning the 30+ knot gear buster, tied up to the Castine YC float taking off their seaboots, TERN's crew Ginger Miller and Helen Johnstone discovered what they had in common....pink painted toenails! It was shocking enough to the seasoned salts racing in this 56th Annual Maine Retired Skippers Race that a J/100 would be racing in such rough conditions with only two crew on the rail weighing maybe 270 lbs. A 47 foot yawl was dismasted and many boats elected either not to start or retire from this classic event run from the Maine Maritime Academy off Castine. Johnstone's TERN won the Henry Whitney Challenge Cup for the 1st Place Skipper, the Gitina/Day Trophy for the 1st Place yacht owner and the Race Committee's Jack Kenneday Memorial Trophy as captain of the fastest boat in the race, handicap notwithstanding. The MRSR is a 12.3 mile, non-spinnaker, pursuit race with 5 legs that is one of the best attended events downeast with 40 boats participating. The skipper must be 65 years old. With this win, Bob J. became one of just 3 skippers to have recorded a hat trick for the event....with previous wins sailing Steve White's 55' VORTEX in 1999 then J/100 #1 in 2004. By race time, morning storm clouds had dissipated and the afternoon ushered in one of those spectacular Maine days with a clear, cool, blustery northwester. What could be finer? After all, a J/100 did well in the 2007 Transpac, double-handed with spinnaker. How difficult could Penobscot Bay be? To further make the day, US Sailing Executive Director, Charlie Leighton (an Islesboro summer resident) , motored alongside before the start to say, "Johnstone, you're too young for this race!". Handicapped by the order of start (first boat to finish wins), TERN was one of the last boats off, 1 hour and 5 minutes after the first boat, a 45' Schooner named ALAMAR , and 3 minutes ahead of two J/35's and a Swan 46. The first leg was a beam reach. TERN was unable to pass a Trintella 47 that had started at the same time. The 2nd leg was a beat between Islesboro and Castine against the strong northwesterly breeze in what was meant to be a favorable flood tide. The logical move was to stay out in the rough water and current boost. In doing so, it soon became apparent from TERN's Raymarine C-120 bulkhead mounted plotter that speed-over-the ground of 5.6 knots was a full knot less than the knotmeter's boatspeed reading of 6.6 knots. The strong wind had apparently set up a clockwise counter-current, possibly just on the surface, around the island of Islesboro, which no one else seemed to notice. That made the decision easy to get out of rough open water by tacking in under the Islesboro lee and to hopefully benefit by lifting puffs along the shore....leaving the 36 earlier-starting boats (they had to catch) struggling in open water near the Castine shore. The strategy worked, TERN was soon crossing boats and with two more tacks toward shore, hooked into a 20 degree lift that took them clear of the north end of Islesboro very near the layline to the mark, passing the fleet to leeward. After 4 short tacks to avoid boats, TERN rounded the 2nd mark in 1st! Miracle of miracles! Being a pursuit race with handicaps at the start, that meant TERN was winning with more than half the race to go. At that point, it was a matter of staying ahead of the bigger boats. Next leg was a run that allowed TERN to stretch the lead, surfing down waves at 10-11 knots. The last two legs were close reaches out and back. 7..5-8 knot speeds were good enough to hold off the pack led by the 45 McGruer ketch CUILAUN (2006 Winner) which was thundering along in the reaching conditions. TERN finished with an elapsed time under 2 hours to win all the marbles. This is a fun, well-attended event that would be worth
repeating all around the country. Pursuit races are popular and the
number of active older sailors is certainly not declining.
|
|||||||||
|
||||||||||
