Huge seas and a myriad of wind conditions created a challenging playing field for the 29 teams competing in the Rhodes 19 National Championships hosted by the Eastern Yacht Club this past weekend. Hurricane Erin was way out to sea, but her presence was felt all three days of the event as sailors contended with six-foot swells and winds that ranged from a boat-breaking 20 plus MPH on day one to brain-breaking light and shifty on day three.
Regatta winners Adam Roberts of Salem and Alden Reid of Beverly more than rose to the challenge even after a piece of their mast cracked off the first day and their tiller broke on the second.
“Yeah, we broke everything,” joked Roberts after the tiller incident.
Roberts and Reid sailed together at Boston College and started sailing Rhodes 19s a few years ago when Adam moved back here from the West Coast. Their strong and practiced team dynamic was on full display when the winds were gusting in the 20s on day one of the Championship regatta, finishing first and second in the opening races.
When a piece of their mast broke off in race three, they wrapped it with tape and went on to win race four. Then trouble came early on day two with a false start in the first race of the day. They recovered enough to finish eighth in that race, and the overall impact was minimal since the regatta scoring discarded each team’s worst finish. That changed, however, when their tiller broke in race seven, forcing them to retire. With that race now counted as their throw out, they had to eat the eight.
All of which opened the door for Matt Hooks and Rob Pascal of Marblehead sailing the aptly named Mighty Rhodes. They came in hot scoring 9-1-2-1 to whittle Roberts-Reid’s lead down to a scant one point going into the final day.
It was far from a two-boat contest. Rhodes 19 National Champions and this year’s Marblehead Race Week winners, Jim and Nat Taylor were also in the mix. The local father-son team were in striking distance, just five points out of first.
Interestingly, the Taylors weren’t the only father-son story generating excitement on the racecourse. Twenty-three-year-old skipper Wilson Kaznoski, sailing with crew Connor West, went into the final day tied for sixth with his dad, Pete Kaznoski, sailing with skipper Evan Cooke.
Family-versus-family was, in fact, a regatta subplot. Alden Reid’s wife Hannah Lynn Reid raced with Joe Fava. Kathleen Lane, sailing with Steve Uhl, raced against her husband Mike Lane, in a heated rivalry that has been going on for the past several years.
So, on the final day of the regatta, with eight races sailed, both the podium and dinner table bragging rights were very much in play. Mother Nature made sure it would be interesting as competitors were met with a light, shifty breeze, significant current and huge, rolling seas that refused to lie down. The forecasts said the wind would veer left and build. Unfortunately, it went left and died.
What had been a steady six-to-eight MPH breeze at the start of race nine, faded just as the lead boats reached the top of the course. Rounding the first mark was an adventure with the current pushing everyone down toward it. Several boats were forced to do painfully slow penalty circles after hitting it.
The Mighty Rhodes was one of those victims. Hooks-Pascal ended up finishing ninth in that race while Roberts-Reid had a come-from-behind win after finding some pressure on the right side of the course while the lead boats struggled on the left. The Taylors finished fourth, jumping them into second place just one point ahead of Hooks-Pascal who dropped to third.
That could have been all she wrote, but the forecasts bore out and the breeze filled, so one more race would decide it. Roberts-Reid’s eight-point lead might have seemed safe, but the conditions were still challenging, and they were out of discards.
Hooks-Pascal came out swinging with an excellent start and sailed a text-book race – good start, tack on the shift, cover the competition – to finish second in the race. It was a fantastic performance that put them ahead of Team Taylor, but not quite enough to edge out Roberts-Reid whose fifth-place finish sealed the deal.
Commenting on racing the Rhodes 19, Roberts, who has national and world titles in several classes of boats, was effusive. “The competitiveness, the community, the fun factor – more people need to be sailing Rhodes!”
And, for the record, in Kaznoski-versus-Kaznoski, Dad Pete finished sixth and Wilson finished seventh overall, but Wilson still won. He was awarded the Rhodes 19 National Championship Corinthian Award for the best result by an amateur under age 25.
The Lane spousal rivalry ended up with Mike finishing 13th, one point ahead of Kathleen who finished 14th. They were still talking to each other as we went to print with this article. A complete list of results can be found here.
By Christina Pandapas, a public relations and media executive who is also an avid Rhodes-19 sailor and member of the Corinthian Yacht club
