The 135th sailing of Marblehead Race Week wrapped up after light air gave competitors only six races over the entire four-day regatta. By Sunday, as the remaining eight fleets waited outside the harbor under a postponement flag, the race committee, in their hunt for wind, deemed it to be strong enough for one short race for the Lasers and Town Class off Crocker Park. The results after six races did bode well for Charlie Pendleton and Jim Raisides of Marblehead in the J/70 fleet on their boat Bad Hombre, which took home second place overall and first place in the Corinthian, or amateur, division with 21 points overall. The J/70s were hosting their national championships as well.
“With conditions like these our strategy has been to sail our best race possible. We felt like we were sailing well, and made very few mistakes,“ said Charlie Pendleton, skipper of the Bad Hombres. “Our philosophy has been to race every race like it is our last one. This bodes well, too, as next year we have the J/70 amateur worlds coming to Marblehead. It looks like we will have about 80 boats.”
In the International One Design fleet, veteran sailor Bill Widnall on board Javelin benefited from his back-to-back race wins on Saturday before closing it out with a third, shuffling the top three teams and putting home at the top of the standings by one point over Carolyn Corbet’s Elektra, winner of the third race. The performance netted Bill Widnall the overall win for race week winning him the coveted and inaugural William Widnall trophy.
“I am honored to get this award, and I think that the best thing about the trophy and the win is that at my age I am still competing,” said Widnall, an octogenarian who still sails with his wife, Sheila, who is also in her 80s. Widnall has spent many years recruiting young sailors to the IODs from MIT where he worked at the MIT instrumentation Lab. Further, the IOD fleet is associated with Northeastern University and that also brings more young sailors to the fleet.
The popular J/105 fleet had a change in leadership after Saturday with Mathew Herbster’s squad on No Quarter putting up a trio of second-place finishes. Charlie Garrard’s Merlin started the day with a race win and followed that with a shocker (seventh) before making up for it with another race win. In the end, Herbster took first place with 12 points and Garrard second with 14 points.
The Rhodes 19 finished the regatta with Adam Roberts and Alden Reid on Ripcord scoring eight points, an epic 16 points ahead of the second place finish. Sundance and Callie finished second and third with 24 points. The fleet could only get one race in on Saturday, and none on Sunday.
While Lightning and Viper racers drifted on the tide and patiently waited, they were taunted by the scenery of full spinnakers further offshore where the other circles enjoyed just enough breeze to continue apace with their respective races. Both Lightning and Viper sailors traveled a long way to race and are a welcome addition to Marblehead Race Week. The nostalgic favorite being the Lightnings which were once a hugely popular boat in Marblehead 25 years ago.
The Lightings, who were also having there North Atlantic Championship, were a welcome site in Marblehead after the fleet literally disappeared about 25 years ago. Once one of the biggest one design fleets in the northeast, they are now only raced on lakes for the most part and can be seen racing in Burlington, Vermont, and New Hampshire’s Bow Lake, Massabesic Lake and Squam Lake.
“I sailed Lightings in Marblehead when I was young,” said Bob Shapiro of New Hampshire. In fact, in 1967, famed Marblehead sailor Dr. Louis A. Pocharski was the Lightning world champion. “We have a strong affinity for Marblehead and love coming here. We are so delighted to be here for our Atlantic Coast Championships.”
The Etchells fleet got in three races on Saturday, with three different teams winning races. Ron Zarella’s team on Bob, however, knocked off a pair of seconds and a fifth and kept their lead padded to five points over Don Dowd’s USA 1397. The Etchells fleet is increasing in Marblehead this year, in part because Fleet 4 is preparing for the Etchells Nationals in October. Additionally, fleets tend to grow in Marblehead when boats become more affordable. The Etchells is very affordable, and a great boat to sail. Its numbers on the water each week are improving.
Seventeen International Laser Class Association sailors got their two-day series underway with four short mid-day races before the breeze shutoff. Jamie Carter, from Portland, Maine, made the winning move in the first race with an immediate jibe at the weather mark, quick thinking that allowed him to jump from mid-fleet and into the lead. With three third places over the remaining races, Carter leads Nicolas Regnault by five points.
Saturday’s racing was relatively good and many of the competitors, giving the Town Class, who hosted their New England Championship a total of six races. Skipper Rex Antrim on Albatross was crowned champion with 18 points, followed by Nick Cann on Tonicn who placed second with 21 points and Bill Heffern on Sweep with 23 points.
During the awards ceremony, the race organizers always present one person with the Leonard M. Fowle trophy. Leonard M. Fowle, a writer on yachting had been the yachting editor of The Boston Globe from 1933 to 1967. He later served as a correspondent on yachting for The New York Times. The award honors his memory and is given to someone who has shown a great commitment to sailing in Marblehead, and also during the planning of the regatta. This year, the award was given to sailor Jud Smith, who has taken on the role of being chairman of the Eastern Yacht Club race committee.
“It is a great honor to work on the race committee,” Smith said. “We are working hard to grow sailing here and make it more interesting and competitive for our existing sailors. It is great to see such a wonderful turnout this week. We are excited about continuing to work with Sailing World on this event next year.”
For full results please go to yachtscoring.com/event_results_cumulative.cfm?eID=16263.
Dave Reed contributed to this report.
