The highpoint trophy from the 2007 season was just awarded at the Governor’s Cup award ceremony.

And the winner is…

1st Place- Patrcia

      2nd Place- Island Lark

3rd Place- Mystery

Top Gun

Island Lark

1st Race (Saturday, July 26th)

The first race of the day, 11 of the 14 competing canoes raced. The course was set at 6.14nm and the start of the race was 10:30am. Lots of seemingly steady wind…

There was plenty of wind to start off the day! In fact maybe a little too much for some canoes The Spirit of Wyetowne, Island Bird, Billie P. Hall and even the mighty Jay Dee all capsized before the race. The Jay Dee was entirely crewed by female Log Canoers’ assembled from across the fleet, unfortunately the mainsail controls broke and while trying to fix that she “auto-tacked” too quickly as the boards were set but empty. Magic towed out and was all set to rig but did not start the first race and went back in.

Island Lark got the gun!

William Sidney Covington Race

(boats built before 1917 Compete against each other)

    1st Place- Island Blossom       

William Sidney Covington Trophy

2nd Place- Island Lark

Robert Cook Memorial Trophy

3rd Place-Silver Heel

John B. Harrison Race

(Boats Built after 1917 competing against each other)

1st Place-Patricia

        2nd Place- Oliver's Gift  

3rd Place- Edmee S.

2nd Race (Saturday, July 26th)

The second race of the day was set at 7.09nm with 11 of the 14 canoes competing and the start time was 2:10pm. The wind did not seem to relax through the day and in fact became trickier than the morning, dropping out and coming right back.

The second race proved just as difficult as the first, with the wind building and causing even more carnage! Silver Heel and Island Bird both capsized before the start and Edmee S., Billie P. Hall, and Magic capsized during the race from what I remember after the downwind leg out past Ashcroft off Martingham, heading back upwind towards the finish, where the wind was very fluky. The finish line was set in some obstacle course/gauntlet of anchored boats and spectators!

James Oliver Duke Memorial Trophy

1st place- Island Blossom

2nd Place- Island Lark

3rd Place- Patricia

“Middleman” Trophy

(awarded to the boat that finished the middle of the fleet in this race)

Winner- Patricia

3rd Race (Sunday, July 27th)

The last race of the weekend (Governor’s cup race) was set 8.42nm long, the course was “GLGBXGLG” and 9 of the 14 canoes competed in the race. The Governor’s Cup race was a long one, as usual… Jay Dee is ineligible to compete in this race unfortunately, since she was designed and built specifically to win the Governor’s Cup!

“I would say another G-Cup weekend lowlight was that fat, yellow Bertram Amaretto from Baltimore that purposely kicked an Ocean City-sized surf on the entire fleet Sunday, all the while flipping us the bird. If that’s not the worst Rodney you’ve ever seen, I’d like to know what was. Lark took the worst of it, shipping on a ton of water and suffering a significant mast crack from the impact. The guy knew exactly what he was doing, too — he intentionally ignored all the chase boats that approached trying to get him to slow down, and nearly ran over one.

He probably got home and beat up a litter of kittens.”

A certain lack of respect for all sailing vessels towards power boats is always rewarded in some way…

The finish was exciting for the 1st and 2nd place, Island Blossom managed to snatch defeat out of almost certain victory, falling behind Island Lark and finishing minutes behind.

Island Lark got the gun!

Governor’s Cup

1st Place- Island Lark

  2nd Place- Island Blossom

3^rd Place- Silver Heel

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

The last weekend of 3 back to back, another tough one with the wind staying fairly strong throughout the season! A few heartbreaks this weekend…. Especially to the ladies of Jay Dee, under Mariana Lescher’s command who tried so very hard to have a great sail and came back for round two!!

Here’s to the ladies…

Governor’s Cup Broken Hearts from John J on Vimeo

The final weekend, in this series of three race weekends back to back, is finally here! Hopefully it will be another great weekend like the last few, only this time we will be back on the Miles river. Hopefully we should have a large turnout of competitors! It will be nice to see Billie P. Hall and Oliver’s Gift joining the fleet and maybe more!

Also, this is a special weekend because the entire Jay Dee crew will be all ladies! An entire female crew will race her for both races on Saturday. Jay Dee does not race on Sunday, due to her ineligibility to race the Governors Cup Race due to her “cut off” stern unlike all the other canoes who have a pointed bow and stern.

So everyone come out and support our Canoers, and our ladies!

The ladies of Jay Dee from John J on Vimeo

See everyone on the water!

1st Race (Saturday, July 19th)

The first race was set “A,R,S” roughly around 5nm, with the race starting on time at 10:10am. There was plenty of wind around 10-15knots at least. Only 6 of the 14 canoes registered raced this weekend.

Another great weekend with plenty of air, with a nice short course to start off with! There was plenty of time for lunch, almost too much time as the beer and food set in and soon naps became rampant among crews…

Mystery got the gun!

2nd Race (Saturday, July 19th)

After a Looooooong lunch break the carnage continued for another race! The race started at 2:40pm with the course set the same “A,R,S” but “X2″ two times around, roughly a 10nm course with steady 15+ knots of wind.

Just as the first race, everyone knew the course only this time twice as long (possibly to wake everyone up from the long lunchtime nap) and plenty of wind to keep everyone on the edge of their boards. Mystery capsized scoring a DNF (an omen of what was to come the next day…) as well as Patrcia capsized before the race and was unable to start scoring a DNS. Silver Heel was dangerously close to going over but managed to stay hot on Jay Dee’s stern. Island blossom sailed hard and fast right to the finish, giving a good 2 minutes from Jay Dee, the second to cross the line.

Island Blossom got the gun!

3rd Race (Sunday, July 20th)

The race was set again “A,R,S x2″ although slightly longer roughly 10-11nm. The race started at 10:10am and with plenty of wind, was about 1hr 30mins+ long.

The last race of the weekend ended up being a rough one, plenty of wind and 2x around the “ARS” wore us all out. Patricia had some issues with their jib and ran her aground to fix the problem and was the last boat to cross the line. Jay Dee finished close behind Island Blossom only seconds between them (a great weekend for both canoes) Island Bird sailing only under a jib and a foresail (with a blind jib driver) manage to avoid the perils of strong wind and finish a solid “upright” weekend!

Mystery had a massive setback, the foremast gave way and broke in half nearing the finish of the race, obviously unable to finish… Hopefully they will be back this season, but that’s a lot to ask for these boats!

I’m always thrilled to see as many canoes racing together as possible, and with the Spirit of Wyetown back racing, I was very excited for this season. Despite all the competition and rivalries I can honestly say it really is painful to have any canoe seriously damaged during or even towing to races. But as I’ve come to learn if you want to make an omelet you have break a few eggs! I can appreciate everything that goes into racing these “technological marvels” and I appreciate the entire crew coming out and racing along side us all!

A tribute to them…

Mystery Tribute from John J on Vimeo

Thank you RYHC Race Committee, for hosting a great race weekend!

All race results provided by RHYC Here..

Results

Great pictures from this weekend, courtesy of the RHYC Race Committee..

~Pictures~

Another great weekend on the chester river, plenty of strong steady wind made for two days of great racing! Unfortunately there were only about 6 canoes that competed this weekend, but those that were able to compete raced hard and fast!

Although it was a bit of a rough tow back to St. Michaels..

A long weekend…

Get ready for another exciting weekend on the Chester river!

LLLLLLLLLEEEEETTTTTTTSSSSSSSSSS GET READY TO RUMBLEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!