Quannapowitt Yacht Club

The Flying Scot North American Championships (NACs) were hosted at the Corinthian Yacht Club in Marblehead Massachusetts the week of July 10, 2006. A lot of hard work and dedication from the regatta volunteers provided a recipe for guaranteed success.

This year I chose to sail with my father, Ed Wojtaszek. My wife, Gloria, and I just had our second baby so I had no crew. My mother, who usually sails with my dad, never particularly liked sailing in Marblehead because she felt that it was always too cold, too wavy, and too stormy. It had been years since my father and I sailed together so we figured why not.

In the spring we practiced in Sharon Massachusetts at Lake Massapaug Yacht Club (LMYC), where my parents are members, with their fleet of Scot sailors. LMYC has a large fleet of Scots and many of the sailors there are the best in New England. We did relatively well during moderately windy days but we really did best when the wind picked up above 20 knots. Both of us weigh over 200 pounds so we could really work the boat in the heavy wind. As the NACs approached our basic strategy devolved to hoping for heavy wind.

Saturday, July 8^th rolled around and my parents came to stay the week to stay at our house. That evening we discussed the way that the measuring and launching was going to be handled. Apparently we were going to do it all in one day. It seemed impossible to accomplish all of the things that needed to be done in one short day. At other NAC regattas I have been too measuring and launching took two and sometimes three days! One day just was not going to cut it.

Sunday morning we woke up early and headed out to Marblehead. We were to begin the day at Marblehead High School for registration, weighing, measuring, sizing up the competition, seeing old friends and meeting new ones. We got to the school at around 7 in the morning and there were about 20 boats in the lot from people who arrived the night before. We unhitched the boat pushed it into a parking spot and headed inside the school for registration.

After registration we made ourselves available for helping out with whatever needed to get done. Most of the work is not that unpleasant and it usually involves some socializing so it can even be fun.

After a few minutes of standing around I was asked to help with measuring sails. Personally I do not like measuring sails. I don’t think anyone does. People are, understandably, sensitive about their sails. So measuring them can cause some angst, especially when you are marking them up with a pen and a stamp on the luff and leach. We were measuring sails in the cafeteria of the Marblehead High School. It was pretty hot in there and people started getting cranky after 4 or five hours of dragging sails around on their hands and knees.

While we were measuring my father got in line to head over to the Corinthian Yacht Club for launching. The club has a very small parking lot so the organizers were sending us over to the club one by one preventing a log jam in the club lot and the surrounding neighborhood. At 1:30 it was our turn to head over.

When we arrived at the club we were greeted by a very well organized team of volunteers that gave us directions on where to park and set up. Several staging areas for people to rig before launching were available. The Corinthian only has one hoist so launching a large number of boats in one day has to be carefully orchestrated. We parked, got the boat together, and launched. The launch process was very smooth except for the wind indicator on my dad’s boat got hit by the hoist on the way down. We also attempted to weasel a “good spot” on the club’s pier but there were no spaces left to be had. So the boat ended up affixed to a mooring out in the harbor.

At about 4:00 we finished up launching and headed back to the high school. Remarkably most of the boats had been launched! We were really impressed how smoothly things went. Measuring and launching 65 boats in one day was quite an accomplishment. We thought launching that many boats was going to be nearly impossible but it all went very well because of the great planning done by the event organizers.

Monday, July 11, was the first day of qualifying races. The wind was pretty consistent and we did have some problems with the current on the upwind leg but for the most part we did ok but nothing spectacular.

One thing I noticed when we got off of the boat that afternoon was how much of a role our size played. Both of us weigh over 200 pounds requiring vast amounts of supplies compared to what others need. When we were on the launch that taxied us back to the club from the harbor I noticed what other people brought for provisions.

They had small cloth coolers or maybe just a plastic grocery bag, while we had a huge cooler, with ice of course, a big sack of water bottles, and a trash bag from all the food that we consumed during the day. We could probably bring less but both of us have been traumatized by situations where we were rationing half a bottle of water with our crew long before the racing was over. Now we overcompensate. Regardless we learned a couple of things from that day and we were really looking forward to the next day because the forecast predicted higher winds.

Tuesday, July 12, we once again got to the club for the last qualifier race. Our hopes for higher wind ended up being dashed by light and variable conditions with a threat of thunderstorms. The race committee seemed confident that we would be able to have the race in the morning before any storms arrived so we headed out. As we headed out everyone had their VHF Radios tuned to the weather listening for any storm warnings. We spent some time cruising around in the light air waiting for the race committee to start the races. It can be frustrating waiting for race committees to prepare, especially with an impending storm, but they did a great job and waited for a consistent breeze.

The last race ended up for us in defeat. We were so frustrated and doing so poorly that we did not even keep track of where the finish line was. I could not even tell what direction we were going because of disorienting fog. But we consoled ourselves by eating lunch.

As we drifted back toward the harbor the winds became very light. People started to break out their paddles. After a few minutes of calm it became quickly apparent that something was brewing. Race committee boats started rescue procedures when the sound of thunder was heard. We connected about 20 boats together by tying a rescue line around the base of each boats mast, pulling everyone back to the harbor in a single file line. Situations like this make it obvious why safety requirements, like long rescue lines, are important and since everyone complied to the rules the operation went smoothly and we were back on the mooring in no time.

As we rolled the sails up at the mooring it was difficult to stay calm because lightning was beginning to strike to the North. We quickly worked through packing up the equipment for the day and called the club house for pickup.

When we got back to the club house a few minutes had barely passed by when a wild hail storm started pounding the club house. Personally I have never seen hail that big in my life so it was very impressive. The storm only lasted a few minutes and when it was over everyone figured that the show was over and moved on to other things. My father and I decided to head back to my house for the afternoon.

On the way back to Wakefield heavy rains fell. Streets were flooded along the entire route. The town common in Wakefield was completely submerged. Other than that we just assumed it was heavy rain… nothing more.

The next day we woke up ready to take on the challenger fleet. We were looking for some good sailing that day. As we drove to the Yacht Club through Marblehead we noticed that there were a lot of cleanup crews raking and picking up debris from the storms. About a mile from the club we saw a Flying Scot on its trailer heading in the opposite direction. At the time we did not think much of it. We figured there must have been a personal issue.

When we got to the club we noticed that one of the launches was on jacks in the CYC parking lot which seemed very strange because it had not been there the day before. Due to their size they also look like something that would not be pulled out of the water very often.

As we rounded up toward the club house there was a sign saying that the club waterfront was closed indefinitely which was even weirder. Approaching the club house there was a crane lifting boats that are dry sailed off of each other. At that point we new something had happened but I don’t think we were prepared for what we saw once we got a good look at the waterfront. Boats were basically everywhere they should not be, on the dock, upside down in the water, on top of each other, broken, missing parts, and some sunk. People were standing around looking stunned.

After a short while we met with Dianne Kamph, who told us that a horrible micro-burst came through the harbor right after we left the day before. She had tried to call my dad but she was not able to get in touch because he and my mom were at my house. People had been shaken up but fortunately nobody had been hurt. Looking around it was pretty obvious that the regatta was over and it was time to get the boat, or what was left of it, out of the water.

We headed over to the eastern yacht club where we were told that boats were going to be retrieved. The Corinthean Yacht Clubs ramp had been heavily damaged and was not safe. We went down to the waterfront to help where we could, pulling boats out of the water, opening drain plugs, retrieving parts.

My father’s boat finally came around and its mast had been bent in half. One amazing thing was that boats not 20 feet away were fine. We pulled out the boat and went home to prepare for the annual meeting that night where trophies were handed out for the qualifying races. We consoled ourselves with the fact that nobody was hurt. Flying Scot inc was also able to get new masts up to Massachusetts in a remarkable two weeks so nobody was off of the water that long unless they sustained structural damage that required heavy repairs to the hull.

Looking back on it now I realize that these experiences reaffirm in my mind what makes the sport and fleet so great. Not the tragedies, but the common experiences that we all share at every event pulling together, as a community, good or bad. I look forward to every one.

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