We had 31 boats in attendance, of which 28 raced at least one heat.
Four boats changed hands after the regatta: Jean Gruhler sold his vintage Dorr Willey. BBBjr., 917 to Jerry Carter; Greg Duncan sold his vintage Moth DINO to Art Stevens; Greg also sold CCC, Nr 42 to I think, one of the Martschincks; and Bill Schill sold a Szabo-Cates to John Pugh.
Now for the race results: Vintage: Erky Gregory was 1st in TWEETY, Walt Collins 2nd in BLONDIE, Greg Duncan 3rd in DINO and Beans Weatherly 4th in BUCKSHOT.
The top 4 finishers on Saturday for the MOA trophies: Joe Bousquet 1st, Mark Saunders 2nd, Walt Collins 3rd and Craig Saunders 4th.
The overall scores from Saturday and Sunday for the CMBA National Championship:
01. Joe Bousquet
02. Craig Saunders
03. Mark Saunders
04. Rod Mincher
05. Walt Collins
06. Gundlach (don't know his first name)
07. George Bailey
08. Fricke Martschinck
09. Lewis Hay
10. Randall Stoney
11. George Albaugh
12. Joe Courter
13. Randy Stark
Walt Collins won the Masters award, Gundlach won the Junior award, Beans Weatherly won the Founder's award, and I think Gundlach won the South Eastern States race--but check me on that last award. Perhaps someone else has a better memory.
I got down to E. City with BLONDIE about 9:30 AM Friday, set up the boat talked with the usually suspects and then Walt, Beans Weatherly and I decided to get some lunch. The wind was a moderate NE breeze, blowing 10 to 15 at that point. When we got back from lunch, it was blowing about 20 with higher gusts, and so in deference to old spars and brittle skippers, we postponed vintage racing and drank beer instead. Alma put her usual fine spread of food and Jerry Carter brought a large cake all the way from Charleston, decorated in the shape of a circle-M.
Saturday morning dawned bright and breezy. We had over 25 Moth Boats in Erky's yard, but many skippers decided to stay ashore as the wind was a fairly constant 20+ (won't say "steady", 'cause it wasn't). There were plenty of BIG holes and BIGGER gusts to catch out the inattentive. Jerry Carter very kindly lent me his Bousquet-decked Europe dinghy Moth Boat for the morning session. What a great boat! It was all I could do to keep her on her feet (I did flip and turtle once, but recovered) but she proved to be a well balanced platform to work from. I just wish the wind had been a tick or two less so that I could at least attempt to get to the line on time, etc. As it was I contented myself with just enjoying the boat and concentrated on not damaging her. After two races of the three sailed that day, I retired and gave Jerry his sweet little boat back in one piece.
Alma Gregory and her band of helpers turned out some great sandwiches, so we didn't have to go out to get lunch. This allowed us to hold an annual meeting.
The most important piece of business voted on was a rule that all boats must have enough floatation to keep the centerboard trunk above the waterline with the boat swamped. This requirement does not mean that the boats need to be self rescuing, but only that they must be able to at least be bailed to the point where the crash boat can assist without as much danger of damage to the boat or skipper as when attempting to deal with a totally water logged hull. This rule goes into effect in January 2002.
There were votes on other "touchy-feely" matters dealing, I think, with trophies and whether or not to have A and B fleets so that us mid fleeters get "stroked" every now and then, but you'll need to ask someone else about those items since my mind tends to wander when the voting strays away from items that don't bare directly on the boats.
Anyway, the Saturday night Chicken dinner was well received and Joe B. won the MOA portion of the regatta and will have his name on the perpetual trophy that Pete Overman donated in 1990.
Sunday dawned bright and just a tad less windy. The night before, we had agreed that if possible, we would race vintage boats early Sunday morning before the wind cranked up again. When we got to Erky's about 8 AM, we agreed that the wind, about 15 then, was OK for the vintage crowd. Four boats went overboard: Erky in his Ventnor TWEETY, Walt in my BLONDIE, Greg Duncan in his DINO and Beans Weatherly in Merv Westcoat's Connecticut BUCKSHOT. The course was a triangle, 2 laps with a down wind finish. We figured we'd try to get in 3 quick races while the wind was light. After starting the first race, the wind suddenly piped up just like someone threw a switch! Beans flipped and filled, while the lead changed hands several times between the three remaining boats. Erky won by a nose over Walt, and got the supreme satisfaction of telling the assembled ears at the awards presentation that he'd finally beat Walt's ass!
With vintage racing over after one heat, attention was turned to the question of what to do about the day's racing for the Classic boats contending for the National Championship. The skippers involved elected to postpone for an hour. And at eleven, 8 boats put overboard to duke it out for Classic bragging rights. There are lots of moving parts to the pair of heats run. Rod Mincher won the first heat in Walt's FEATHER for a fine 4th place overall. Mark retired with a broken gooseneck. The second heat was also full of excitement; Walt after leading for a good deal of the race got his tiller tangled in the traveler line after rounding the last mark prior to the beat for the finish. He was forced to watch his fortune slip away as others zoomed passed.
Overall, Joe B. won the Nationals in TRY-UMPH. I'll need to see the results from Erky before reporting who won what of the other awards. Perhaps others can supply the details.
At the end of the day, George Bailey did as he had threatened and stripped all the fittings off the hull of his Bailey modified Poacher and offered her to the highest bidder. Due to the windy conditions encountered at the Nationals, no bids were brough forward. The up-shot is that I have brought LUMPY back to Bowie and will try to find her a good home. She is a creditable boat. What am I bid?
GPA