NORTH SAILS 2,3 AT THE 2007 WORLDS!

Report by Greg Fisher

Good news from one of our newest classes here on the Chesapeake Bay. We just made our first sails last summer and basically started from scratch.

With Jonathan Bartlett's help, Ched's superb designing we were fortunate to hit our first shot nearly spot on. Randy Watson was our first customer and helped a great deal as we went through the data collecting, the slight alterations here and there and then finally the finished product.

It was great the sails did so well in their first major outing. Below is a report and the results. Obviously this class enjoys their sailing immensely and has a super time. It is a great class, and though a very old design and class, still shows impressive growth! The following report is from Ted Weihe, one of the best communicators and disseminators of info I've ever seen in any one design class!!

World Championship:

This year, we held our premier event in conjunction with the Heritage Regatta at Tred Avon Yacht Club in Oxford, this past weekend, August 25 & 26, 2007. We had a record turnout of 14 Chesapeake 20s with half of them "woodies", restored C-20s from the late 1930s and early 1940s. Totch Hartge says the record turnout for any 20 regatta is 16, so we came pretty close. The regatta was our first true "Worlds" with Lorenzo Dialti, (an exchange officer at the Naval Academy,) representing Italy. As usual, it was great to see all the different flags flying from backstays, and international treats from the countries at our dinner on Saturday night.

All hail to the champion, Roger Link racing on behalf of Sweden, with 1 ,3 ,2 ,1 finishes. Randy Watson, representing New Zealand, led on Saturday, but was squeezed out in the two races we held on Sunday with 2, 1, 4, 3 finishes. Alex Schlegel on behalf of the Solomon Islands finished third with 7, 6, 1, 2 finishes. It was tricky racing with fluky and light winds from the southwest on Saturday until the sea breeze filled in for the afternoon.

On Sunday, the wind was from the northwest as a front arrived. A key to success was navigating the strong tidal currents in the light conditions. We were disappointed that the race committee did not hold at least two more races on Saturday in a building breeze. But, Tred Avon Yacht Club accommodated our request for an early 9 AM start on Sunday, so we could hold two races before the wind petered out.

Racing was intense with 14 boats, most of which were trying to get the perfect start at the windward end of the line. There was plenty of banter, a general recall in race 2 and several 20s pushed over the line early for barging. Endeavor took a direct hit in a port-start situation on Sunday that punched a hole in her bow. Serenade raced in her first major regatta since the 1970s. Mermaid saw her first action since the late 1930s, but had to sit out the Sunday races with some rigging problems.

The award ceremony on Sunday was special with Laurence Hartge, our fleet historian in his 9th decade, officiating. We want to thank the Pete and Pokey Emens, and Linda and Larry Baker for towing 20s over to the regatta.

The hospitality by the Tred Avon Yacht Club was extraordinary. We got an early start on the return trip with a quick awards ceremony at noon, and had a gang at WRSC to help pull out returning 20s and put them on their trailers at the club: all 11 C-20s at the club raced.

Additional highlights: Donna, Alex and Xan Schlegel brought over their classic 52 ft. Consolidated, Blue Mist, where we had drinks on Friday night. Cruisers and racers ate dinner at Schooners. Blue Mist was used as the Oxford regatta race committee boat in earlier years. Alex and Donna cruised this boat all over the bay with their kids.

We had Margaritas on JennyGirl, our 1990 Carver 34, after the racing on Saturday and dinner was in a private room at the club. Later "Chief Big Log Bottom" in "authentic native" costume made a wonderful film presentation about building an authentic Chesapeake log Bugeye near St. Michael's over the last five years. It's a story of strangers contributing their time, money and materials in a miracle "just in time" sort of way.

There was great swimming at Mears swimming pool on what turned out to be the hottest day of the year. Many participants stayed at B&B's and the Robert Morris Inn. JennyGirl ran the air conditioner all Saturday night resulting in Clay Taylor overheard claiming he slept in a meat locker and came out a pork chop. A record number of log canoes raced and three capsized on Saturday afternoon, a sight to behold since the entire rig must be disassembled to right them again. The Penguin's had their Internationals with Ohio as the only foreign representative. It was heartening to see so many young skippers at their awards ceremony.

Trivia question: Our first World Championships took place in 1983 and the trophy has a globe on it. Since 1983, how many new countries have become official members of the United Nations: 23, 27, 34 or 41? See answer below.

World's Race Results

1 203 Sweden Roger Link 1 3 2 1 7
2 301 New Zealand Randy Watson 2 1 4 3 10
3 202 Solomon's Alex Schlegel 7 6 1 2 16
4 302 Tahiti Bob Blomquist 6 4 7 4 21
5 201 BVI Jay Addison 3 5 6 8 22
6 0 Denmark Art Silcox 4 7 8 11 30
7 210 France Ted Weihe 10 8 5 7 30
8 49 Eastport Hans Schultz 11 2 9 10 32
9 32 America Carole McCullough 5 9 11 9 34
10 30 Bahamas Totch Hartge 8 12 3 12 35
11 31 Italy Lorenzo Dialti 12 11 10 5 38
12 0 Mexico Robin Hartge 9 14 12 6 41
13 49 Holland Clay Taylor 13 10 DNS DNS 53
14 29 USA Bruce Ogden DNS 13 13 13 54