MARBLEHEAD RACING IS OVER FOR THIS YEAR - WHAT NOW?- September 06, 2008

Howdy from Bob Duff early Saturday evening Sept. 6, 2008,



Like an old fire station horse being roused by the sound of a fire alarm, it is Saturday evening without the pleasure of yacht races to report. The season is over, but the compulsion is there to blog. So......here we go. The picture above is Thornton Clark and crew on IOD TANGO sometime thirty plus years ago. Phil Somerby, long gone and truly missed, is leaning on the gooseneck next to Debbie Collins Duff now Papps as I blast the air with my faithful Highland Bagpipes who are now gone like many old friends.




TANGO was built by Bjarne Aas in Frederikstad, Norway in 1936. She joined Corny Sheilds as Number 16 in the original Long Island fleet of International One Design Class yachts. They still bring pleasure to thousand of sailors all over the western world each yachting season.




Most recently Tom Brennan told a small luncheon group about TANGO's journey to Marblehead in the mid-1960s. I cannot do it justice here, but some highlights are that Thornton bought her sight unseen. I recall that the price was $1,900 versus current prices in the forty thousand range. Thornton, Tom and some other adventurous souls flew to New York after work on a Friday. They boarded TANGO (not yet her new name) after dark and did not know her color until sunup under full sail. First light did not cause gasps at her beauty but groans of anguish about the amount of work needed to bring her to the condition Thornton would demand.



They had a tiny outboard but I recall that they never used it. They sailed nonstop except for a brief pause in the Cape Cod Canal to repair a halyard problem. Some time later, Debbie and I had arrived here in Marblehead from San Franciso via Chicago with some good experiences with IC's (SF's version of the IOD name), 22 Square Meters and Scow boat racing in Wisconsis. We were right at home. I was racing with Carlie Needham and Ed Carol on SAGA #51 from my first weekend in town. That first day Jon Wales fouled us (in his IOD #9?) and yelled over that he "owed us one". I decided right then that this was the place I wanted to be. Meanwhile, Thornton had painted TANGO red and was being observed as an upstart Alabama Harvard boy worthy of some attention.



Carlie was somewhat ill in the spring of '69 and my sailing prospects with him were not bright. He never really recovered his health. In wandering around Hood's boat yard I recognized the bright red IOD as Thornton and introduced myself to him and TANGO. He had everything ripped down almost beyond recognition. I asked if I could help put her back together. The rest is history!




Debbie got very much into the act and took over all the varnish work on new teak comings, doghouse, seats, bulkheads, covering boards, etc. Fortunately, Debbie condemned the green paint Thornton had chosen as being "MAID'S ROOM GREEN" and shamed him into a glistening white with 14 karat gold cove lines. TANGO looked like new and began gaining a little respect from the graduates of Pleon and MIT who are not especially receptive to "outsiders" in case you have not noticed.




The seasons went by with some great times. We were up with TANGO and we were down. We got into several World's, North American's and a few Bermuda Race Weeks and into team racing against Long Island and Bermuda. Along the way, the first world IOD President, Bill John from the Long Island Fleet had died and Thornton succeeded him. The foundations were there by Bill John and Bjarne Aas for the new IOD glass boat design to convert wooden IOD boats to "new glass", but no one had ever done it. The opportunity to lead the way presented itself to President Thornton Clark in 1976 when wooden TANGO went down to a hard bottom at a spring mooring and could not be restored. Thornton took the initiative for the first complete conversion. This was an example of very bold leadership for which he deserves much praise and thanks. Steve Wales and John Benning followed suite right away converting #2 and #22 which they had campaigned for years after "stealing" them away from Long Island.




I started this evening with some additional scanned pictures of our converting TANGO to glass, but the "blog goddess" (she must be a woman) has banished them to cyberspace or somewhere. I will continue next week with more of the story. Maybe Thornton and Debbie will send their normal critique of my work before next Saturday.




An editor's note: the list of yachting links and the request for e-mail comments have been moved to the top of this blog. This was a frequent suggestion from my friend Jim Ayer. It just took me a long time to learn how to do it. His photos have enhanced my publications from the start. I have several more from him with ideas for future issues before the sailing season starts again in the spring.

MRA Series #4 - LABOR DAY REGATTA - Day #2 of 2 - August 31, 2008

Howdy from Bob Duff, August 31, 2008 2100 hours,




In breaking with the sailing season, I present here an invitation to "An Exhibit of New Watercolors and Children's Fantasies By Benneville Strohecker Marblehead Arts Association Henrick Gallery October 4-30, 2008". The watercolor portrait on the invitation is of a grandaughter of Jane and Tim Hunt who are the two people in the upper right-hand corner of the invitation. The granddaughter is Jianne Zagarri whose nickname is Gian-Gian as noted by her song in the little poem. Her twin brother is the "T.J." also mentioned there. Tiger and Beemer are pets. Mom is Lindsay Hunt Zagarri if I have all this at least partially correct. Dad is Ron.






Ben Strohecker was a long time member of the Eastern Yacht Club Race Committee as have been the Hunts including service during several summer months with me at the OLYMPIC YACHTING GAMES in Savanna, Georgia 1996. Ben has an outstanding racing record as captain of the SWEET SLOOP Herreshoff 12.5 when she was the corporate yacht for Harbor Sweets Handmade Chocolates. Ben could single hand SWEET SLOOP through a spinnaker jibe by using his own knobby knees. He has written a new , as yet unpublished illustrated children's book about "the day the ocean turned to chocolate". We think that you should enjoy Ben's artistry. Click on these images for an enlarged view.









The saddest day of the year is when we dock the signal boat after her last race of the summer. ETO will be hauled this week and it is all over but the shouting after a great season 2008. We managed to run two races each today for the four fleets at the TINKERS Line before heavy winds caused us to cut it short and "head for the barn".





We saw twenty-three knots of wind, a broken boom and a spinnaker pole bent like a pretzel. On the MIDWAY Line Herb Motley's IOD KUNGSORNEN #49 was "T-BONED" by another yacht and lost the top one-third of her mast. I assume that it was an ETCHELLS who rammed her since no self respecting IOD would hit another IOD. But, this is just my slightly biased view about the yachts that I love. Another mis-guess by me yesterday was the imagined lead by #46 IOD EDEN. I was deceived by the fact that Bruce Dyson and Norm Cressy in #7 GYPSY seemed to have lapped her. Oh my! And here it is the last night of August with no official scores posted on the MRA site.





My brief unofficial notes show Douglas Trees & Chris Small with a first and second today in Rhodes 19 #1680 SWING ROOM. Then came Mike Lane in WAY #3038 with a second and a first. I noted RONDAR #1 Viper (Rondar Race Boats Limited) with a first but missed the other Viper scores. Martha & Sam Altreuter pushed their Sonar #787 RESONANCE to a 1st and 2nd. Frank McNamara dominated the J-24s with two firsts in ZOT #4202.

MRA Series #4 - LABOR DAY REGATTA - Day #1 of 2 - August 30, 2008

Howdy from Bob Duff August 30, 2008, 2200 hours,




Ever since the Junior Olympics Festival in Rockport earlier this summer I have wanted to show this artistic display of starting flags created by Mariah Dunn for us on the race signal boat. Left to right are the 420 Champion flag, the Green 420 flag, the Laser flag, The Susie Schneider "BLACK FLAG" which discourages early starters and the blue "Preparatory 'P'" flag used during more genteel start sequences. I was so impressed with the artistry of Mariah's display that it is now a part of my own start flag organization. As reported earlier, my timing partner Brad Marvin just says harrumph, harrumph.





Speaking of timers, this again is me imitating Brad Marvin at the J.O.s in full race committee uniform complete with Brad's famous harrumph, harrumphs. Brad let me experience three days of the pressure and voice exhaustion that goes with yelling start times over and over. I was happy to go back to my normal job of quietly hoisting and dropping flags at the loud commands of Brad the Timer.





Today was another glorious day for sailboat racing here off Marblehead. We had 36 boats in 4 fleets with three races each for Vipers, Sonars and J-24s with the Rhodes 19s heading home after only two races. The "C" courses (double sausage windward leeward windward leeward) had 0.8 knot legs in a fairly steady breeze around six knots at 205 degrees magnetic.





I was a slacker today recording just a small piece of the race results in my personal notes. I got Viper #55 PLAYSTATION with Paul N. Zimmerman getting one gun. Martha and Sam Altrueter got a first and a second in #787 RESONANCE Sonar. Peter DeWolfe and Bill Kuall had a first in Sonar # 374 PDSquared. Official scores are not yet posted as I write. These may be available for tomorrow night's blog.






I am personally anxious to see the IOD scores as one of my favorite IOD yachts #46 EDEN owned by Jennifer and Greg Mancusi-Ungaro appeared to be leading #7 GYPSY with Bruce Dyson and Norm Cressy on an extremely long beat staged by the Corinthian Yacht Club. I hope that a Mangusi-Ungaro was on the helm of EDEN and one can never be certain but what the eight or six year old daughter was driving the boat. Hopefully we will get all the news Sunday.





Especially nice for me today was my son Stephen Duff working with David Soule on the pin boat. He will be back Sunday with Paul McCauley on the mark boat. Jim McCully and Art Saulsberry did the mark Saturday. Rear Commodore Phil Smith was our honored guest on the ETO signal boat. Jennifer Tegfeldt was our recorder with Susie Schneider PRO, Ross Peterson operator/gunner, Brad Marvin timing and me on flags. I have not heard other changes possible for Sunday.




See you tomorrow night!

PHRF NEW ENGLAND CHAMPIONSHIPS - Day #3 of 3 on August 24, 2008 - Race for 38 Yachts on Line #1

Howdy from Bob Duff Sunday August 24, 2008,

Above Jim Ayer pictures our favorites for 2009 RACE COMMITTEE LEADERS!  It's TRACEY & RICK for our next pick and they don't yet know it!  That is the Meyers if you had not figured it out! Her IBM background should help clear up some of the EYC web site mess and they both know sailboat racing.  The web's problem is one of data management.  Jack Cochrane and Jeff Wargo operate alone in what appears to be a vacuum of computer effectiveness.  Please join me in opposing expenditure for a new web which will be no improvement if data management continues as at present. 

Below are three more of Jim's photos catching the spirit of this wonderful sport.

These are the Junior Olympics Festival in Rockport earlier this month.  The bottom one should truly be titled "ARE WE HAVING FUN YET?".   As noted previously, I cannot tell you names since "management" controlled scratch sheets in such a fashion to exclude DUFFSTUFF.  It certainly was not an intentional act!  Any questions?

The seventh PHRF NE race for Line #1 could not have been much better except for a mix up for David Hoyt and his Melges 32 #141 GOAT.  Enough confusion drifted from the protest hearing about the proper windward mark in race #7 to drop GOAT into second place for Class 2 - (YELLOW) behind Cindy and Jud Smith sailing AFRICA # 50141 into first place.  I believe that this was the only protest on our line for the regatta with David initiating action against the race committee.  Official details are seldom laid out  for us "outsiders", but the posted scores tell the story. 

 When I was a youngster racing boats at my old Chicago Yacht Club,  anyone was welcome to sit quietly at a protests hearing to expand their racing knowledge.  It is rumored that this is not the practice here in the East.  It certainly is not obvious that people are welcomed to observe.  I really found it rather boring after a while, but several people today expressed that sailors  should be welcomed to sit in without comments!  Why not ask "the boss lady" about it?

SHOUT #51918 a Farr 40 owned by Shout Racing was first in RED Class 1 followed by Tom Linkas' INDRA #522354.  In Class 3 YELLOW John Downey was first with his GAMBLER #41711 followed by Bruce Dyson's 8 meter PLEIONE #38.  Phil DiCarlo took first in GREEN Class 4 on HOTSPUR #40656 throwing out a second trouncing the fleet with Peter Engel's GOLDENEYE #40180 getting the second.

Joel Gardner and Cheryl Byrne served on the race committee mark boat while "Questy" Gringe  and Ashley Boyle handled  the pin boat.  PRO Susie Schneider summoned Ashley to help on ETO with the confusion of scoring thirty-nine PHRF yachts which seem to hit the finish line simultaneously.  Ashley helped Jennifer Tegfeldt and timer Brad Marvin support Susie's finish line calls.  Susie directed me to help with a small task which I enjoyed doing (even though I muffed it).  I was flattered to be noticed.  During a brief lull,  I jokingly asked how I was selected for this job.  Her very serious answer was "you are the bottom of the barrel!"  No smiles!  Any questions?

See you next Saturday for our final sailing weekend this year.  Maybe I will find some additional pictures by then!    I might just scoop a shot or two from the uncommented EYC webb site since none of them are available for DUFFSTUFF directly.  Any questions? 

Please note that MADDIE's SAIL LOFT OF MARBLEHEAD has re-opened after being closed for several months.  The POOPS recently met the new owner Loretta Lang and her very cute bar maid Ashley Valentini with her interesting tattoo.  I told her I would mention her in DUFFSTUFF and try to make her famous.  You know like "wanna be in the movies, honey?".  Jim Ayer used that line for years between marriages.  She said "I make myself famous!".   Anyway, Maddie's is the building where Ted Hood operated his first sail loft.  They are open daily for lunch downstairs and again at 1730 hours for dinner upstairs.  Further, POOPS is a group formed by Jim Ayer and Roger Drumm for luncheon with an invited guest each week.  They invited me a while back and cannot get rid of me.  Prosperous Old Obnoxious People Socializing is the translation of POOPS. 

With summer sailing ending, Gaele and Jim McCully suggest that DUFFSTUFF write about sailing things like "How to Time the Starts for Yacht Races".  That should give Susie S. something else to think about. But of course, she does not have time to read anything I write. 

PHRF NEW ENGLAND CHAMPIONSHIPS - Day #2 of 3 - August 23, 2008 - Fourth, Fifth & Sixth Races for 38 Yachts on Line # 1

Howdy from Bob Duff August 23, 2008,

Another near perfect day of PHRF racing for Line #1.  Three full races for four classes makes for twelve additional starts and timer Brad Marvin still has enough voice left to yell down four more on Sunday to wrap it up.  Remarkable!  That will be twenty-eight five minute start cycles in three days if all goes well.  We have had remarkably few OCS starts requiring individual recalls AND NO GENERAL RECALLS AND NO "BLACK FLAGS".  Again, remarkable!

I apologize for the lack of PHRF yacht details so far.  My delicate new relationship with this APPLE MacBook Pro is evolving slowly.  Maybe tomorrow will see more comfort and better reporting of the final results.  I must locate the source of yacht detail reports which elude me right now.  That is my objective for this report Sunday night.

PRO Susie Schneider again had Jennifer Tegfeldt with Bard Marvin and Ross Peterson  and me on the ETO signal boat.  Cheryl Burne was back on the mark boat with Susie's son Andrew working like the All American Sailer that he is.  Andrew called our attention to the fact that our blue "RC" flag was hoisted upside down.  My bad joke that it means "everybody must capsize" met again with the usual stoic looks from some of our crew.  "Questie" Gring ran the pin boat with new friend Jay Perry.

Gaele McCully motored out all alone to visit with us on her new motorboat.  Husband Jim raced with Seamus Hourihan on RUFFIAN #51373.  Notably, David Hoyt sneaked past the finishing gang in first place on  #184 GOAT in race #5 WITHOUT GETTING THE WINNER'S CANNON.  We heard Judd Smith's informative call from AFRICA that "The Melges" (#184) had not gotten her well deserved first place cannon.  Susie Schneider talked about giving her "two guns" when she won the next race.  That gratuity was omitted after recognizing the confusion surrounding a "two guns" yachting signal. 

Wind rolled around from 225 degrees magnetic at 1000 hours to 155 degrees at 1500 hours going further counterclockwise to 142 degrees as we wrapped up the day.   Velocity grew from some 6.5 knots to around 12 per my notes.  All in all a glorious time!

No current photos available again today despite the quiet clicking away of my censor.  See you Sunday night!

PHRF NEW ENGLAND CHAMPIONSHIPS - Day #1 of 3 - August 22, 2008 - First, Second & Third Races for 38 Yachts on Line # 1

Howdy from Bob Duff long after midnight during this first day of the three day PHRF N.E. REGATTA,  August 22, 23 & 24th,

This picture is a big big fleet of little little Optis recently at the Junior Olympic Championship we helped manage with the Sandy Bay Yacht Club in Rockport, MA.  I will not try to estimate the hundreds of kids and parents involved.  Hundreds of Optis were on other race lines.  We had over fifty 420 Championship boats and over thirty 420 Greens (beginners) on each of 17 starts attempted.  Nine of these ended up under "black flags".  The last start began with "black" in a dying breeze.  Susie Schneider (PRO) announced her purpose of avoiding more delays from General Recalls.  By this time the kids knew what was happening. We were trying to get in just one more race for the 420 Green fleet.  They needed it to qualify for just one throw out.  I thought it was handled very nicely except that the wind died completely before the "drop dead" time.  

One of our knowledgeable critics expressed displeasure with "black flags" for such youngsters.  However,  I feel that its use here was most beneficial.  These kids are very competitive and experienced starting in very big fleets.  They saw the "black flag" work very well in Rockport.  If that drives away a few of these young veterans, well....................! 

Circumstances have conspired to keep me up rather late to produce at least a modicum of information about the start or this great PHRF regatta.  I was precluded again today from current pictures and it looks like I must improvise without them.  Picture prospects are slim now and probably will be for the rest of this summer.  Maybe next year under a new administration?  At least I can hope!  I will try to be creative without any on-water help. The mysteries of politics confound me!  It is comforting to know that my tormentor promises never to read anything I write.

So much for pictures, beautiful file transfers and amazing APPLE improvisations!  It took me an hour or so tonight to figure that I had to fully reload my new APPLE browser SAFARI which worked (sort of) before I loaned this new box to APPLE for file transfers.  Watch your TV to see how simple and cheap this process is supposed to be!  I say the browser "sort of worked" because many web things I tried to review through SAFARI gave unsatisfactory results on the EYC web site.  The "big boys" at EYC say this is APPLE's fault.  I am beginning to think that these "boys" might be right.  I will figure that out and let you know in the future.  No one owning an APPLE admits to me anything but love and APPLE adoration.  I  will get there soon - I hope.  I will not regret leaving behind all those viruses!

 This ever so wonderful APPLE does not seem so wonderful just now.  It balks at loading the very few pictures APPLE's "geniuses"  migrated over from my virus infested antique DELL.  I asked these nice young people how much of my "priceless" data they brought over.  Like good sales people who tied me up 3 days doing a 30 minute job ( I would guess), they said "someone else did it and that they brought over everything that they could".  I had experienced withdrawal symptoms with my ONLY TWO COMPUTERS quarantined. Here I am all downhearted, paid $4,000 to .................. well, you know what I mean!  Like everything else, I will get over it.

Principal Race Officer Susie O. Schneider did her usual masterful job managing all the variables for three quite good races for four fleets totaling 38 yachts on Line #1 today.   Our yachts are PHRF's biggest "ladies" ranging from handicaps of negative six to plus 102.  There were two other lines for the smaller and the cruising yachts.  As an old one-design sailor, these PHRF folks still seem like "private jokers" to me, but what do you expect from a Texan who should be doing rodeos not yacht races.  Nevertheless,  I am delighted to be right here.  

Jennifer Tegfeldt functioned beautifully as "assistant PRO" while Brad Marvin and I did our little things as Timer and Flag Man.  Ross Peterson handle the Operator/Gunner job so well that Brad and I almost forgot how much we enjoyed working with Rebecca Bennett much of the summer.  She is out west at Arizona State studying to be an airline pilot.  Ross was driving us south today to our designated area on the chart.  I ask him if he were taking us to Boston.  With a wonderful grin he said, "No Sir! Texas"!  I liked that!

Tom Brennan  and Cheyrl Byrne ran the mark boat with a lot of hustle managing weather marks on a double sausage courses of 1.8 then 1.2 nautical miles for the smaller boats.  We had some VERY light breezes (3, 2, and then hardly any knots) at 220 magnetic.  Later it came back over 12 knots and Susie gave all but the smaller of our four fleets a 2 mile windward course. Wind moved from the 220 direction to 135 and then back to 150 magnetic.  

Jack Cochrane ran the pin boat with the able assistance of Rear Commodore Phil Smith. Susie took some interesting pictures of Phil hauling marks.  I would love to show one of them here, but Susie made it clear this morning that the race committee is for her boat races and not DUFFSTUFF.  The only brief verbal conversation we have had about my writing is something like "I have no time to read you".  That sounds like I am doing something wrong. Comment if you like!  I find it imponderable!  N.I.H.?

Two interesting things came up today.  Susie told everybody about the background of Cindy and Jud Smith's yacht named AFRICA.  It stands for "Another Friggin' Racer I Can't Afford".

The other fun thing was a hail from an old friend racing on KATABATIC about a mutual friend. The three of us have sailed together on a very big yacht and some smaller ones all over the western world.  Some of this was in "blue water" and two of us shared Hurricane Hugo at sea in 1989. Upon advice of council I am withholding both of their names for the time being.

From KATABATIC he yelled "I SAW ----------------------------ON TV".  I yelled back "WHERE WERE YOU?".  He said "ON A PLANE!".  I asked "WAS HE IN JAIL?"  as KATABATIC sailed away with the answer blowing in the wind!  I will try finding this friend tomorrow and let you all know what I hear.  Maybe!   I would bet that many of you know who both of these people are already.  Maybe I should have a contest!  Reply here in "comments" please!

See you again Saturday night! 

2008 Chandler Hovey Race - EASTERN YACHT CLUB - Sunday, August 17th

Howdy from Bob Duff, August 17, 2008, 2250 hours,

On the right is Jim McCully hauling inflated marks out to the race course earlier this week.  Jim, Susie and Rebecca Bennett had motored  our boats to Rockport last weekend for the Junior Olympics Regatta.  This makes an unusual picture taken by J. P. Dunn of Eastern Point Yacht Club while at Sandy Bay Yacht Club in Rockport for that regatta.

It was another beautiful day on the water for eighteen "big" yachts racing a 10 mile long course starting near TINKERs gong.   Weather could not have been nicer with wind at around thirteen knots from a little south of west and temperature in the mid 80s.  The corrected handicap results below are "provisional and subject to modification" for these PHRF Divisions:

3  Multihull starters  - winner Ted Grossbart in SUI 27 - AUDRA  ;second #7 TRIAD for

 Tom Cox.  It was a rare site to see them and their exciting speed.

3 Class "A" yachts - winning in 2 races was Tom Linkas  with # 52354 INDRA: second #9393 KATABATIC for Gordon Hall.  Third was Seamus Hourihan in RUFFIAN #51373. 

For 7 Class "B"s - Ward Blodgett #29 SIROCCO  finished first but dropped to second on corrected time by about 1 minute behind Vern Polidoro in VIGILANTE #51563. Third was Gary Weisberg in #144 HEAT WAVE.

Jack Cochrane of EYC race committee had two other RC people, Joel Kinney and Russ Wells pulling strings to help him take home a couple of trophies which went with a first for #157 Class "D" FALL LINE.   Jim Hosking got a first place gun in class "F" Cruising #30078 ARES.

Susie Schneider was her usual calm and effective PRO person.  She squeezed in a second race for the big Class "A" boats and would have done that for Class "B" but their radio-con failed to get agreement.   They just sailed home for the "prize giving".

Susie, Brad Marvin and I scurried around doing lots of jobs at once.  Ross Peterson was our operator/gunner and will be with us for the rest of the season.  Rebecca Bennett leaves tomorrow for freshman year at Arizona State.  

Cherly Byrne was with Bill Schoenberg on the pin boat.  Todd Sparling  and Michael Costello handled the mark boat.  The "lifting was quite light" for most of us.

Many of us will rturn next Fridayfor the three Day New England PHRF Championship.  We expect most of today's yachts with an additional number joining in.  We will run Line #1 which means that we get all the bigger boats.

I am calling it a day before midnight.  See you back here Friday night!