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William
H. Myers Heritage Regatta -International Penguin Championship |
Penguin (11 boats) (top)
Series Standing - 8 races scored
Information
is provisional and subject to modification
Regatta results last updated: Sunday, August 28, 2016 11:43:20 AM
CDT
Click on race number to view detailed race information.
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Notes
- Scoring System is RRS Low Point 2013-2016
- Finishes in [brackets] denote throwouts
- Click on race number to view detailed race information.
Information
is provisional and subject to modification
2016 marked the 75th Anniversary of the first Penguin Class championship. The winner in 1941 and coincidentally also at the 2nd championship in 1945 and the 3rd in 1946 was Walter Lawson. In 2016, Walter’s son Bill and Bill’s wife Colette won the Class championship which was hosted by the Tred Avon Yacht Club and sailed in conjunction with the William H. Meyers Heritage Regatta. This year marked their first Internationals victory, having sailed in the 70’s and then briefly in the late 90’s before re-entering the Class in earnest in 2014. Former Penguin Class president, Paul Hull served as PRO and with his race committee team from TAYC was able to complete 8 races in the fickle northeasterly. We sailed three races on Saturday before the wind died, and then five on Sunday. Although the Heritage regatta is at the same venue as the Oxford Annual regatta, which was held two weeks earlier, it is a much different experience for those sailing. With just three race courses, versus eight at the Annual, and probably a hundred fewer boats competing, it was a delightful weekend. The only hitch with the racing are the Log Canoes, and in particular the paparazzi that follow the fleet. While the Log Canoes are basically confined to the Tred Avon River, east of the club for the Annual, they have free roam at the Heritage. Unfortunately, one of their marks was upwind of the Penguin course, so the Penguins had to endure the passage of the Log Canoes, which wasn’t too bad, but the herd of spectator boats following each canoe was a bit much.
On the Penguin race course, Bill Lawson got off to a quick start winning the first two races. In race 3, three time past champion, Sandy Rapp (1968, 93, & 98) with Margaret Bodnovich took the gun. Lawson, who rounded the last leeward mark in second, found himself on the left side of a huge right shift on the final beat and dropped to sixth. On Saturday evening, with three races sailed, Rapp had 6 points, Lawson 8, Krafft 10, and two-time past champion Jonathan Bartlett sailing with his daughter Ann, had 12.
Sunday’s forecast was less encouraging than Saturday, but when we arrived at the club there was steady easterly breeze (I realize that is an oxymoron). The race committee got off a couple of one and then two lap windward leeward courses, with Bartlett taking a bullet in race number 4, and Lawson taking the win in races 5 and 7. The committee wasted no time getting the races started, with the Ollie started as soon as, or occasionally sooner than the last boat crossed the line, which wasn’t long in this tightly bunched fleet. Although it looked like the bottom was going to drop out of the breeze after a labored finish for race 7, the committee shortened back to a one lap windward leeward course and the wind cooperated so we were able to complete eight races with decent breeze for the final race.
The Dick Tennerstedt grandmaster award, for the highest placing skipper over age 60 went to Chicago area sailor Sandy Rapp. The junior award went to junior sailors Adison Parish and Coleman Walker, who took a third in race 3 and finished 6th overall. Adison also won the award for the top female skipper. The Lawson Family trophy went for the second year in a row to Bill and Colette Lawson. The Len Penso Classic Boat award went to Charlie Krafft and Donna McKenzie. David Cox with Liam Chapman had 4 fours to take 5th. Matt Lane with Grayson Neff were first to the windward mark in race 2, but found themselves in 7th 5 times, for, guess, a seventh place finish. Sandy McAllister with Conrad Herrman took eighth. Patrick Hilliard, sailing solo, in a vintage but modern wooden Burtis Penguin, 9572, was unable to finish races 2 and 3 after an unexpected swim and missed the start of race 4, but showed great speed, especially off the wind on Sunday with a 3,4, 5 among his finishes. Jeffrey Cox sailing with his son Ian had an equipment failure which kept him from finishing race one and out of race two, but we expect to see him more frequently at the front of the fleet as he starts competing in upcoming events in the recently donated Class-owned boat that Patrick Hilliard brought east.
A special note of thanks to the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum in St. Michael’s for bringing Penguin #1 over for the event. Although Judy wasn’t on the race course, she was admired on the lawn in front of the club. Bill Lawson recalled crewing in #1 with his Dad in the 70’s at a special anniversary regatta in Mantoloking, NJ, which was the last event the boat was sailed in prior to its donation to the CBMM.
No Annual meeting was held, but the current officers will, unless I hear otherwise, stay on for another term, as we figure out a venue for next year’s championship, with a goal of boosting participation.