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Review Copy

 

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Seventh Annual Good Old Boat Regatta

Sponsored by Good Old Boat Magazine
Hosted by Shearwater Sailing Club

October 7 & 8, 2006
Annapolis, MD

Race Results ›

2006 Good Old Boat Regatta Report

2006 Good Old Boat Blown Away Again. Well, Almost...
by Don Frye

The monsoon gods struck again

For the first four years, the Good Old Boat Regatta, sponsored by Good Old Boat magazine and hosted by Shearwater Sailing Club, enjoyed great sailing weather. Then last year a gusty slow-moving rain squall forced cancellation of the Saturday race. So the racers just went to the Annapolis boat show, did food swaps, and began the party earlier. Very adaptable, these Good Old Boat Racers (known as GOBRs).

Fast forward to the Thursday before this year's race. When race chairman Charlie Husar scanned the weekend weather forecast, his eyes widened in horror. Saturday's prediction read 25-knot winds with gusts of 30-plus and 4- to 5-foot seas! Immediately the club issued a Saturday cancellation via email and telephone in the hope of reaching the entrants -- particularly the faraway racers from New Jersey and southern Virginia -- before they left home. Too late. Many were already underway. When they arrived, they brought stories of 10- to 12-knot rides down the faces of huge rollers and being continually battered by heavy gusts.

Charlie and the race committee hoped that they were doing the right thing in issuing the cancellation, but everyone thanked them. So what did these canceled racers do with their Saturday? They went to the boat show, ate, and started partying... just like last year.

Cal 29 racer Les Hester, with Herr's Foods, donated all party snacks. And, as usual, the Good Old Boat Regatta musicians showed up to perform, only this year there were more of them. What's new is that they've started writing songs about the event and people. One of the big hits this year was "The Man With 90 Feet of Cal," dedicated to Charlie Husar who owns two Cal 25s and a 40. Good Old Boat magazine editor, Karen Larson, was so impressed by the original songs, she talked about putting the songs on CD and distributing them through the magazine's website.

Sunday morning brought better conditions: 10 to 15 knots out of the northeast but with a ripping ebb current. The race committee set an ideal course, starting at X, of B-C-X-A. The real challenge was "Mark B," though. As the fleet reached the mark, the winds began slacking, and the wake to the low side of the mark was almost a rooster tail.

Once around "B", the racers were flushed fast down the bay in slackening winds. Even though the race committee shortened the course at X, there were serious challenges . Many of the boats fought the current and finished terrifyingly close to the committee boat: Bob Gibson's new Back Cove 29 cabin cruiser. Finally, one hooked the anchor rode, and it became a tug of war between Yanmar diesel vs. sailpower in dying winds with the Yanmar winning until the anchor rode released its captive.

Back at the party and awards ceremony, class warfare -- as in previous years -- prevailed. Every time a Cal took a trophy, a cry of "Cals rule!" went up. And when another design won, the response was, "Cals drool!"

With an attitude like that, if the event has two cancellations next year, the parties will still go on. Which stands to reason because the main reason people enter the Good Old Boat Regatta is to have fun. Racing just happens to be part of it.

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