 2018 Hospice Turkey Shoot Regatta, Great Racing, Food, Entertainment, and Fellowship
The 23rd Hospice Turkey Shoot Regatta was held this past weekend on the beautiful Rappahannock River and was a great success. Of the 89 boats registered for the 2018 Hospice Turkey Shoot Regatta, 74 showed up, coming from various distances. Racing was held between the Norris Bridge and Towles point. According to Jerry Latell Co-Race Chair and owner Ullman Sails of Deltaville and Hampton, Saturday racing did not look promising when the fleet headed out to the river with a forecast of less than 3 knots of wind. At about 70 degrees the temperature was perfect, skies sunny. Would there be wind? Just before the scheduled 11am warning signal for the first fleet Latell decided to put up the postponement signal and the wind started to pick up. With about 5 knots of wind Divisions 1 and 2 were started at 11:15am. On Saturday the larger A fleet boats raced a 10 nautical mile course with the B Fleet boats racing a 4 nautical mile course due lighter winds. Both courses were triangles with windward finishes and the A Fleet going around the triangle twice. Sunday winds were better starting at 8-10 kts going from ENE and shifting to East and lightening over the course of the race. Racing Sunday was a 7 nautical mile pursuit race where boats starting times were based on their PHRF handicaps. As explained by Samantha Van Saun, the concept of pursuit race is that if everyone sails to their boats handicap rating all the boats will finish at the same time. The course was a downwind start from mouth of Carters Creek up the North shore of the Rappahannock river to a mark at the mouth of the Corrotoman, from there a reach to a mark off the South shore and than a beat (heading into the wind so boats have to tack back and fourth) 2 miles up the south shore and than back across the river to the finish at the mouth of Carters Creek. The wind shifted East and lightened making the beat even more challenging. Although the wind picked up in the last hour of the race some boats could not finish before the 2:30pm time limit due to the slow beat. Surprising Results: For the first time in the history of the Turkey Shoot a Cape Dory Typhoon, sailed by Mike Miller of Fishing Bay Yacht club, won the pursuit race. Starting 27 minutes ahead of Dennis Hannick’s Goin’ based on their handicap, Jaunty finished 53 seconds ahead. The nearby picture shows both boats approaching the finish line. Overall Winner of the Regatta was Dennis Hannick in Goin his Trip 26. Dennis also won the Turkey Shoot in 2016. John McConnico, chairman emeritus and a regatta founder, presented Dennis’s team with the Virginia Spirit Trophy silver bowl and a certificate for a room and slip at The Tides Inn for next year's Regatta courtesy of Susan Williamson, Tides Inn General Manager. AGA Correa and Sons will also supply an engraving of Goin’ to Dennis. Second place overall went to Mike Miller in Jaunty and third place went to Hal Starke, Rick Peterson and Burke Johnson in Play It Again. The John and Carole Jean McConnico Trophy, awarded to the Yacht Club or Marina based on the sum of their three best finishers, was won by Fishing Bay Yacht Club for the third year in a row. Rappahannock River Yacht Club (RRYC) won this trophy in 2014 and 2015 and according to Tom Chapman, Co-race chair and Commodore of the RRYC, they plan to win the trophy in 2019. First place in Division 1 was Tommy Asch in Moya, with second going to John Ayres in Windaway and third place to Scott and Kimberly Vail in John’s Dove. Division 2 was won by Wayland Rennie, the most senior competitor at 90, in Trilogy with Jeff Heller’s Serendipity second and Tom Fink in Lee Penny third. First place in Division 3 was Ed Johnson in Hippo, a boat he both designed and built. Second place in Division 3 went to Team Latell (John and Andrea (Jerry’s wife)) in Dogfish and third was won by the Lamb’s Ondine, beautiful and fast! In the highly competitive Division 4, Goin’ was first, Play It Again second and Bob Fleck’s Mad Hatter, a two-time Turkey Shoot overall winner third. Bob congratulated Goin’ on their win and said he would get him at the 2019 Hospice Turkey Shoot. Joie de Vie, Russ Seltzer’s Cape Dory 33 won Division 5 with Joran Gendel’s great looking Alberg 37 yawl Elixir second ant Randy Alderks’ Eroica third. Jim Engle in Grey Fox, 2017’s overall winner was first in Division 6 with Richard Haslegrove in Quest second and John Tidwell in Gypsea third. First in Division 7 was Seabird, Mark Giegel’s Frances 26, with Jim Harding in Sea Gal second and Warren Green’s Voetsek! Third. The competitive Division 8 was won by Bill McClure in his San Juan 21 Thistledown (Bill also won the inaugural San Juan 21 Trophy made by John McConnico from two broken San Juan 21 rudders, a casualty of a previous Turkey Shoot.) Second in Division 8 was Silver Fox sailed by Schwab, Bearden and Richardson. The 12-boat Typhoon fleet (Division 10) was very competitive with the first three boats all finishing with four points. Mike Miller in Jaunty was first, second were RRYC’s Mike Kennedy and Tom Watkins in Radio Flyer and third were Mosby and Phil West in Goldfinch. The Doug Power Wobbly Compass trophy, awarded to the winning wooden boat in Division 9, was won by Charles Shaffner, in his 1926, 27.5 ft Herreshoff “S” Dolcefarniente for the second year in a row. Doclefarniente translates from Italian as “Sweet Idleness.” Finishing second in the wooden boat fleet was Bill Dickenson in Victorious, a McGruer custom 24, on a tiebreaker over Volare, a Stuart Knockabout sailed by Chris Little in his first-ever race. Chris said having Premier Sailing’s Arabella Denvir on board was a key factor in Volare’s finish. The “Most Beautiful Boat” award voted on by the Race Committee members was Jim and Shawn Lamb’s Ondine, a magnificently maintained Bristol 39.
More about the Event: The Race Committee, responsible for setting the courses, running the races, water taxis, registration and scoring was led by Tom Chapman and Jerry Latell and included Kimberly Vail (registration), Burke Johnson (historic ships) George Kuper, Jesus Lapera, Ned Crockett, Roy Combs, Samantha Van Saun and Ana Cristina Lapera. Karl and Nancy Hamm’s Karibbe Kat served as the Signal boat. So many boats attend the annual Hospice Turkey Shoot Regatta that some have to anchor in the creek and Dave Bronson organized a water taxi service to get them from their boats to the shore for the festivities. Frank Miller and Anthony Marchetti also of RRYC, helped. Friday evening after dinner everyone was greeted by an awesome sunset. The nearby picture shows Dave Bronson in the water taxi taking competitors back to their boats for a good night’s rest. The land side activities were supervised by George Bott. Warren Ryan, Commodore of Yankee Point Racing and Cruising Club indicated about one third of the club members volunteered to help, along with Hospice Support Services of the Northern Neck to make it a very successful event. Turkey Shoot Program sales coordinator John Tidwell along with many helpers raised over $22,000 in ads. Carroll Schwab pulled all those ads together into a very professional publication. As a side note, three months ago, a Lake Superior 17ft. wooded Kayak was donated to Hospice for raising money. The selling of raffle tickets was coordinated by Lynn Marchant a member of YPRCC. Ticket sales raised $3000 for Hospice. On Saturday night the winner was picked independently. Lynn’s work paid off: she won the Kayak! (see picture) George Bott, Co-Event Chair, thanked all volunteers, all sponsors and contributors. Among those, he thanked: Bruce Sanders, owner of the Rappahannock Yachts marina in Irvington, VA for hosting the land-side venue for the last six years; Frannie Bernard and her crew from Riverside Volunteer Hospice, who prepared and served all the great food for the Friday night cocktail party, Saturday night dinner, breakfasts Saturday and Sunday as well as hot dogs before the awards ceremony on Sunday afternoon; and the entertainers-- the “Deadrise,” Dr Greg Shivers band from Riverside Hospital who kept the party going after dinner Saturday night encouraging some great dancing after a long day on the water. The organizers also wish to thank the Coast Guard Auxiliary Flotilla 33, led by Pat Hogan, for providing their safety patrol services during the race.
According to Mr. Bott, the Hospice Turkey Shoot Regatta is jointly sponsored by Rappahannock River Yacht Club and Yankee Point Racing and Cruising Club, Ullman Sails and hosted by Rappahannock Yachts at their marina in Irvington. All proceeds go to Hospice Support Services of the Northern Neck in Warsaw, VA and Riverside Hospice Agencies serving Tappahannock and Gloucester. George expects that the when the final accounting is complete about $40,000 will be donated. More details of the event may be found at yachtscoring.com, rryc.org and at yprcc.org.
Photo Credits—all Jerry Latell, except of kayak winner—Warren Ryan.    
|
