Susan Hood Trophy Race - Port Credit Tradition

In the spring of 1955, Doug Hood, a member of Port Credit Yacht Club, approached George Cuthbertson the creator of C&C and offered to put up a trophy if someone would produce a simple measurement system for handicapping custom built yachts. Doug donated the trophy named after his brand new bouncing baby daughter Susan. Approximately 25 boats were measured and the first race was held in early June of that year. The course was Port Credit to Oakville to Port Dalhousie and back to Port Credit. In spite of a fire on one yacht, very little wind, and Doug winning his own trophy in a Cruising 6 Metre “Junge”, the race was a great success.

Today, the Susan Hood Trophy is presented to the yacht winning PHRF overall, with other trophies for the division winners. It is believed that this is the only case where the title trophy is not awarded to the winner of the “Grand Prix” class (CCA, IOR, and now IMS), although there are trophies for those divisions as well.
Excerpt of article by John Weakley

The race is a 73 nautical mile overnight race around the western end of Lake Ontario.  Starting at 8:00 PM from just offshore of the Port Credit Yacht Club competitors sail through the sunset to the Burlington Weather Mark then make their way to a mark off of the Niagara river before heading back across the lake to Port Credit.

In 2011 the racers experienced some amazing weather not unfamiliar to seasoned lake racers:

The video below is a cool trailer lead-up to the 2011 race:



Video below of Black Diamond, a Jeanneau 39i in a wild squall storm sailing in Susan Hood Trophy Race 2011. Black Diamond experienced all sorts of conditions on Lake Ontario from no wind for most of the night to a 50 knot squall, rain, sleet, snow and hail. Finally completing the 75 miles in 16 hours.


Video aboard BLAST: At around 11:00 the storm front hit us. We scrambled to reduce sail area as the winds went from light to sustained 30+ knots and we were being blown downwind at 10+ knots with just our main up. The boat was under tremendous strain since we still had a full main sail up and couldn’t get a reef into it so to avoid damage as the wind was continuing to build we rounded up into it and quickly dropped the main. Here’s a short clip from just before we doused the main.



Susan Hood on facebook

Cronkite Report - 1987 America's Cup

Taking us back to the turning point:

In 1987, sailing enthusiast and CBS News Anchor Walter Cronkite hosted an in-depth look at the competition for the 1987 America's Cup. The 2-hour show includes some amazing footage, insightful interviews, and of course the reporting thoroughness and style that made Cronkite an icon of American television.

To celebrate Walter's contributions to American sailing on this occasion, the NSHOF website is now featuring a two-part series entitled 'America's Cup: Cronkite Reports' where he chronicles, race by race, the 1987 America's Cup campaign, a watershed event in Fremantle, Western Australia. 

Mercy/McQuaid Sailing Team win 2011 White Trophy

Story from Rochester Yacht Club.

It took a total team effort for the Mercy McQuaid High School Sailing Team to win the 2011 Lawrence A White Trophy at the US Coast Guard Academy in New London CT October 15,16.

The White Trophy is by far the biggest High School Regatta in the Fall Season, attracting 21 teams from as far away as Sarasota Fl, Georgia, Chicago IL and Minnetonka MN, including the 2010 National Champion Antilles HS, US Virgin Islands.
High School Sailing combines the scores of two Fleets (A and B Divisions). Each School has one boat in each Division they sail two race sets then switch boats and Divisions. Scores are added representing the number in which they finished and the lowest score wins.

Very shifty and strong 20-30+ knot winds greeted the six sailors from the Mercy McQuaid team that made the trip. Lead by Team Captains, Senior Brendan Cook and Sophomore Maryn Cannon starting in A division and Sophomore Nick Sertl and Junior Danny Lawless in B Division.

The Optimist - Humble Beginings

The history of the Optimist Pram has been well documented. The ubiquitous little boat has been a proven trainer for many of today's sailing masters. If you are not familiar with the inception of the Optimist down in Clearwater Florida, you can hear the story firsthand from the designer Clark Mills as he recounts the events that resulted in the largest one-design fleet in the world. 

Blazing boats on Halloween - at it again

Halloween Boat Burning - LI Maritime Museum - West Sayville NY
The museum's annual Halloween Boat Burning is one of New York's most unique family events! Each year, someone donates a large, wooden boat that is simply beyond repair and we set it ablaze for Long Island's largest bon fire!

Each year at this event, we also raffle off a new wooden boat, lovingly hand-crafted by our boat shop volunteers to a lucky winner!

Halloween costumes encouraged.



Interesting video from last year's inferno - have to skip ahead to the three minute mark in the video to see them enkindle the sacrificial yacht.

Local sailing legend to retire

Local sailing legend, Bruce Franklin announced his retirement from yacht racing at Oak Orchard, but will continue to support the program in another capacity. Franklin stated that he made his decision to retire "after a long hard look." "I like the idea of sailing," Franklin went on to explain, "It's the actual sailing part that I need to give up. I'm going to continue to watch sailing; I love that. But, the actual pulling lines, tangling them around my feet, and putting over-rides on winches while trying to protect my head -- that part needs to stop." 

Skipper Ray Leonard commented on Franklin's decision, "He's a vital part Emeraude's crew, and I think other crew members look to Bruce to draw the heat off themselves when things get tense out there. I'm not saying that he's a whipping boy - because we don't actually whip the crew anymore. But, I'd say he was very important to crew morale." 

Franklin has requested to fulfill a very important role as the Committee Cottage. "I've got a really good vantage point to watch the races from my front deck." he explains. "I would like to run the races from my front lawn where I can keep track of the racing or take a walk if I want. I really only have to pay attention during the starts and finishes; that I can do."

The O.O.Y.R. Logo Design - Available

The design scheme for Oak Orchard Yacht Racing encompasses the iconic image of the newly built Oak Orchard Lighthouse at Point Breeze, N.Y. The lighthouse was destroyed in a storm in 1916, and with the rebuilding project, it has become the newest lighthouse built on Lake Ontario in the past one hundred years. So, it was an easy choice to include this image in the design. 

The design is available on clothing and other merchandise through CafePress.com.  CafePress the items are purchased at a nonprofit price. Just a few of the items are shown here in this posting.The online storefront in located at: http://www.cafepress.com/ooyr

THEN

NOW

The Ebb of Summer

The colors of autumn were beginning to show along Oak Orchard's treed banks, and the weather was like a summer's day this Columbus weekend. Up here in the north we have to shelve our summer skills and prepare for the cold that will turn this little river to ice.  The video of Emeraude making her way to the gin pole and readied for the yard, is a bit of an art/music video to capture the waning of our warm sailing days.

The Term Sailing - a Casual Observation

Over at Google Labs they have developed software that will search through over 5.2 million books: 4% of all books ever published! The Google Labs N-gram Viewer is the first tool of its kind, capable of precisely and rapidly quantifying cultural trends based on massive quantities of data.
So, what better way to test out the N-gram Viewer than to try out the terms "sailing" and "boat" just to see the trend from 1920 to today. The results are pictured below - just interesting to note the slow decline of "sailing" while "boat" seems to be making a slight comeback... It is also interesting to graph the phrase "yacht racing". The words did not appear in print together until the late 1860s. "Sailboat racing" did not appear significantly until about 1920. Yacht racing is still out pacing sailboat racing in usage today.

RED LINE = BOAT      BLUE LINE = SAILING

Oak Orchard Yacht Racing - Sailors' Night and the Black Pearl

SAVE THE DATE:  OCTOBER 22, 2011

Come enjoy a chef prepared, sit down, waitress served, spaghetti dinner at the Harbor Point Country Club.

Don't miss  the brigantine Black Pearl presentation "One family's journey on the road to restoring an icon" The owners, Amanda and Nick Alexander will be there for the narration and photo presentation.

Everyone's invited!   Skippers, Crew, Families, Friends, the more the merrier.

Sailing Participation mementos awarded.

Cocktails             5:00
Dinner                 6:00
Black Pearl Presentation        7:30


ALL THIS FOR ONLY $14.00 PER PERSON

EMAIL RESERVATIONS:  onedogfarm@yahoo.com

The Alexanders' Black Pearl:

The hull of the 73-foot-long Black Pearl is built of wood, its main mast stands 68 feet tall. It normally operates with a captain and a five-member crew, and at least half a dozen people can sleep overnight below the deck if they don’t mind being a bit crowded. Both the Alexanders are licensed captains, and their vessel often is used for sailboat training, especially among Sea Scouts.

The Black Pearl was built in 1948 by C. Lincoln Vaughn, a Newport, R. I., shipbuilder who used it as his personal yacht. He sold the Black Pearl in 1959 to Barclay Warburton III, who helped to promote the South Street Seaport Museum in New York City by anchoring the vessel at the museum’s pier in the early 1970s for sea music festivals.

Warburton sailed the Black Pearl to the Caribbean many times and to Europe for the first TransAtlantic OpSail race. In 1974, he organized the American Sail Training Association, and the Black Pearl became its flagship. Upon Warburton’s death, the Black Pearl was willed to the association.

After several owners and in desperate need of repair, the Black Pearl was purchased in December 2008 by the Alexanders.



Bone Yard Boat article link

San Francisco - Perfect Sailing Conditions

Beautiful cinematography in this video that captures the great sailing conditions of San Francisco Bay:

San Francico Melges 24 from sfmelges24 on Vimeo.

Canada's Cup Returns Home

The first time since 2003 a Canadian team has won the Canada’s Cup, regarded as one of the world’s most prestigious sailing races.

Bob Hughes

HOLLAND, MICHIGAN -- When Ada, MI resident Bob Hughes helped win the Canada’s Cup in 2007, he dreamed of defending and winning it again in his home state. But Sunday, Hughes’ dream came to an end as Toronto’s Vincere defeated Hughes and Holland’s Team Heritage. Hughes said he was incredibly disappointed he couldn’t do more to keep the cup in the United States. Josh Berenter | The Grand Rapids Press  (Read More)