Another win for Southern Skimmer

[Tom Lathrop]

;D Graham and I entered the Southern Skimmer in the annual Summer Solstice Regatta run by the Whortonsville Yacht and Tractor Club.  It is a 10 mile race set at the junction of the Neuse River and Pamlico Sound.  The handicapper did not have an inkling of how to handicap the EC22.  Since we were the smallest boat, home built with a supposedly lower performance cat-ketch rig, they put us at the first starting time.  We opted to give ourselves a 15 minute later start with several Catalina 27s and some other boats.  We were able to go up wind better than any of those and led by a good margin at all marks. 

The handicapper looks with great disfavor on the race winners and always adds time to their starts in future races.  We will likely see another 15 minutes added next year.  We may have sandbagged a WEE bit.  The story of the race is on Town Dock website at: http://www.towndock.net/whortonsvillecup2007.html

This race is always good fun and the after race pot-luck feed with barbeque pig picking is always great too.

[Steve Day]

Tom,

Glad to hear that y'all did well in the race. I got a good look at Southern Skimmer when I was at Graham's last week and really like her looks. I wish I could have been around to see her race.

Keep on winning!

Steve

[Tom Lathrop]

Ray,

Take another look at all the photos on the link I gave. ;D :

[Peter HK]

The handicapper did not have an inkling of how to handicap the EC22

Same thing happened to me the first time I raced my 30 ft Folding Schooner. The handicapper didn't think a gaff rigged boat could be fast, we had a favourable, mostly reaching course after a short windward leg and won by over 30 minutes.

The handicapper looks with great disfavor on the race winners and always adds time to their starts in future races

Haven't won since

Peter HK

[JeffM]

Um...I'm still puzzling over the concept of a yacht and tractor club.  I suppose a tractor might win if the course were shallow enough...  and a keel boat would make a pretty good furrow if pulled behind a tractor...  Hmmm....

[Dale Niemann]

Tom/Graham,

Are you sure Graham won the race.  In the photo of "Southern Skimmer" it appears she is sailing herself.

Dale

[Tom Lathrop]

The Yacht and Tractor Club came about when sailing families started to move into a very small farming and fishing community situated on the water in eastern NC.  The idea of the club was a brilliant one to involve the local people with the newcomers who came from greatly different backgrounds.  It has worked extremely well to foster harmony and the annual Summer Solstice Regatta is one part of it.  The rest of us from nearby communities are glad to take part in it.

Dale, that photo was taken off Cedar Key in May.  The wind was very light and Graham and I were on the leeward side to heel the boat which works well with this beamy design.  Maybe you took the photo and are just pulling my leg.