Race isn't a breeze for everyone
It is all or nothing in Marblehead event
By Tony Chamberlain, 7/15/2001
This story ran on page C7 of the Boston Globe on 7/15/2001.
The Downeast run through the Gulf of Maine and the Bay of
Fundy can be a limp and foggy affair this time of year, or it can
howl. Rarely does the biennial Marblehead-Halifax Race run into
both extremes.
But don't remind Jean Tardey and crew of that fact, or at least
last Thursday afternoon wasn't the time to bring it up. Just as the
awards ceremony was about to get under way on the porch of
the Royal Nova Scotia Yacht Squadron in Halifax - some 95
hours after the race began off Tinkers Gong - Tardey's Albin 30
sloop, Byzantium, limped over the line.
Early finishers of this 96-year-old classic came close to a course
record this year, crossing the 360-mile, current-swept course
within nearly an hour of the 1989 monohull record (33 hours 29
minutes 57 seconds) set by Starlight Express.
Bright Star, a 75-foot Reichel/Pugh sled skippered by Richard
Breedon from the New York Yacht Club, made the second-
fastest crossing on record with an elapsed time of 34 hours 55
minutes 55 seconds.
''We had hoped to break a record, and actually we were pretty
well on our way to doing it until we fell into a pocket of no wind
off the Nova Scotia coast,'' said Breedon. ''So we didn't succeed
in breaking the record, but we gave it our best.''
Last Sunday at the start line the predicted strong southerlies
seemed to have fizzled, and the 104 boats limped off the line
with spinnaker sets, headed east very slowly.
But the front did come through, and wind strength rising to 25
knots set up the possibility that the lead boats might challenge
the course record. It was good news for the leaders of the pack,
58 of whom had crossed the line by 9 a.m. Wednesday, bad
news for the 40 others in the back left slogging in fog.
''There were a lot of holes out there [Wednesday] night,''
reported Bill Barton from Manchester by phone from his 36-foot
Sabre, Tazzarin, which was sailing doublehanded. By morning,
Tazzarin was stuck in heavy fog, just 4 miles off the finish.
''We spent five hours [Wednesday] night with the sails slatting,
moving ahead at less than one knot,'' said Barton. ''It was very
frustrating.''
But by midday Thursday, all 104 starters of the 29th annual race
were accounted for, with 93 finishing and 11 withdrawing.
The winners after the handicaps were crunched:
Bright Star - first monohull to finish the race.
Trike - a 40-foot trimaran sailed by Terence Britton from Blue
Hill, Maine.
Blue Yankee - a 66-foot Reichel/Pugh sled sailed by Bob Towse
of Stamford, Conn.; IMS winner.
Asolare, a Tartan 41 sailed by William Marsh from Chatham;
PHRF Cruising Class.
Overall winners on corrected time:
Temptress, a Swan 51 sailed by Richard Shulman from Newport,
R.I.; IMS class.
Sterling Endeavour II, a Westerly 38 sailed by Robert Murray
from Cohasset; PHRF Cruising Class.
Margaret, a 35-foot trimaran sailed by William Doegler of
Squeteague, Mass. Multihull Class.
But as with all passagemaking events, the postrace cocktail
party yarns are where the real race is found. This year's M-H
was no exception, as the following snippet from life aboard a
multihull attests:
''Monday night it got so cold, I mean it was incredible,'' said Jep
Peacock, a registered nurse from Newport, sailing as a mate on
Hot Flash, a 28-foot Corsair from Wareham.
''I mean it was freezing. The wind-chill was incredible. The spray
off the leeward pontoon drenched you if you got caught in the
wrong spot at the wrong time. After a few watches, all our dry
clothes were wet. I looked back at the survival suits behind the
traveler and thought it may look stupid sailing in one, but they
were comfortable and dry. By the end of Monday night we were
all wearing them.''
Of course the ride on a multihull is a good deal more spartan
than that on your average monohull, where the crew can gather
in the relative luxury of a salon table with some stove-cooked
food. But consider the fare aboard Hot Flash, as described by
skipper Bert Komyei, who provided freeze-dried food and
chemical-heater packaged food:
''You just add hot water to the freeze-dried food like vegetable
curry, pasta with chicken and tomatoes, and chicken teriyaki,''
said Komyei. ''These were the crew's favorites.''
Triad, a 42-foot multihull from Gloucester, had originally planned
for a crew of four, explains skipper Tom Cox. But when one
dropped out days before the start, Cox decided not to replace
him.
''I figure about 500 pounds per crew, when you add in their gear,
food, water, and a couple of bottles of rum,'' said Cox of the
decision to go shorthanded. ''It was a pretty fast race, so we still
have some food left ... Multihull sailors are not your traditional
sailors. We're like cowboys - Hell's Angels on hulls.''
The 29th M-H finish was reminiscent of the first one in 1905,
according to the history books. In thick fog off the Nova Scotia
coast, the schooner Elimina, with an 87-foot waterline, ghosted
across the line to overtake the leaders, some of whom were lost
in the era before radar and GPS navigation systems.
This story ran on page C7 of the Boston Globe on 7/15/2001.
© Copyright 2001 Globe Newspaper Company.
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