Team Covington-Ferguson win Aug. 27-28, 2022 event
Photo by Judy Hills
The good pirates of Blackbeard Sailing Club welcomed sailors from across North Carolina to their now bi-annual annual One-Design Regatta on Aug. 27-28, a follow-up to their One-Design Regatta . Sunfish, Tanzer 16s, San Juan 21s and Wayfarers all enjoyed two outstanding days of competitive racing on the Neuse River. A large contingent of youth sailors also competed in Club 420s on Upper Broad Creek.
On Saturday, Race Committee signaled postponement as the time for the first warning signal approached, the wind being fluky. The breeze finally filled in out of the south-southwest and race one was started. The breeze shifted left so the Race Committee signaled a change course for the third and subsequent legs. The competition was tight among the fleets with one exception; AnnMarie Covington and her Rock Star crew, Gareth “Roll Tacker” Ferguson, did what can only be described as a horizon job on the Wayfarer fleet.
Race two was also a very competitive affair with the Sunfish fleet rounding the windward mark mostly overlapped with each other. Race Committee shorted the course at the leeward mark in order to get race three off before the 1530 time limit.
Race three offered the best racing conditions of the day. A steady 10-knot breeze that held for the entire race.
The youth C420 fleet got in a total of nine races. A contingent of excellent youth sailors from Carolina Yacht Club, Wrightsville Beach, added to the great competition. A total of 12 teams competed in the C420 class.
Here’s the link to Al Schonborn’s Flickr gallery of Saturday photos contributed by Judy Hills.
Back on shore, the volunteers of Blackbeard Sailing Club served a wonderful dinner meal complete with an ice cream bar! A great way to end day one.
Sunday arrived with the breeze up and spirits high. Two races were completed. During the final race, Wayfarer sailor, Jim Heffernan, broke a speed record while on a screaming reach. Unfortunately, Jim’s rudder head was not up to the challenge and catastrophically failed sending his rudder to Davy Jones Locker. Jim is usually prepared for this type of situation. Unfortunately, a decision he made at the dock to leave his big, wood paddle behind meant that he did not have his backup rudder and ended up having to be unceremoniously towed in.
On Sunday the C420 sailors match-raced. It was the first match racing experience for the youth sailors. After a briefing on rules and tactics by Coach Glenn, the sailors headed out to the course. They quickly took to the joys of match racing and all agreed that match racing was something they wanted more of.
See photos from Sunday’s racing at Al’s Flickr site.
Principal Race Officer – Bill Jarvis
Chief Judge – Jerry Thompson
