Commodore Perry Race Notes and Results

Well, the Commodore Perry Race weekend has come and gone for another year. Let me first thank all the hard working volunteers on race committees, food preparation, party arrangements, the help behind the bar and our club manager for each of their efforts. I also want to thank the membership of the club for showing up in support. That is what makes this type of event the success that it can be.

Certainly one of the best highlights of the weekend was the Saturday night Reggae Party. What a great time, a great band, great food and a real crowd at the club that hung around well into the night.

Saturday we had two port-to-port races, one from Port Clinton and the other from Grosse Isle, each with six boats. The concept behind these races was to take advantage of our adjacency on the calendar with the Mills Race and encourage out-of-towners to come a week early, race both the Perry and Mills, and give them the opprtunity to lay their boats over at NCYC in between. For first year events, I think both were successes with a total of twelve visiting boats coming to North Cape via the two races. Eight of those twelve entered and raced our Commodore Perry Race. One of the PCYC boats wasn't even doing the Mills and so sailed back to PCYC on Sunday evening after our race. Thanks to them for coming!

We had 38 boats race the 2009 Commodore Perry Race, up from the 29 of last year, which is certainly an encouraging turn-around in a difficult economic time. The weather for the weekend was great but unfortunately we forgot to order wind for the start of the race Sunday. But after about three hours of near drifting conditions the wind gods finally took pity and provided a nice day of sailing for the racers. Thirty-five of the thirty-eight boats were able to maintain their sanity and finish the race.

I can't give you much of a report from the water since I spent most of my weekend involved with organizational responsibilities but I'm sure that those who were out on the race course have lots of stories of going nowhere, going the wrong direction, human sacrifice, and the need to impose rationing of the beer before the race would be over. Early on while we were in the clubhouse observing the lack of progress from some of the starters I was asked by one of our cruising members if the race had a time limit. My response was that the race needed to be over prior to the warning gun for the Mills Race next friday. Fortunately it didn't quite come to that.

Winners in class were as follows: PHRF A, Bill Bollin's Bad Fish, NCYC; PHRF B, Rich Potcova's Short Bus, TIYC; PHRF C, John Heagy's Baby Clown, NCYC; PHRF D, Chris Frederick's Odyssey, SSC/NCYC; JAM A, Tim Branson's Jagen, TIYC; JAM B, Matt Kern's Discover, JRSC/NCYC; Multihull, Ron White's Cheekee Monkee, CYC. Ron trailered his boat over from Chicago Yacht Club to be a part of the Commodore Perry and the Mills Trophy Race. PHRF Overall was taken by Bad Fish and JAM Overall went to Jagen. Congratulations to these winners and thanks to all who participated.

Sunday morning's complementary breakfast and the meal after the race were both well attended and the food was all consumed in a flash. A keg of free beer for the racers while they were waiting for awards after the event helped them to forget about the fickle winds of the day.

My philosophy as Yachting Activities Chairman is to provide the easiest and most encouraging opportunity for our club members and our guests to participate in racing at NCYC as is possible. I don't want to intentionally throw up any hurdles in people's paths to give them a reason not to be a part. I hope that from the participants' perspective at the Commodore Perry race this weekend those goals were met and hopefully we will be able to continue to do so here at NCYC.

I have attached the results of both the Commodore Perry Race and the results of the PCYC to NCYC Port-to-Port Race. GIYC scored that race themselves and unfortunately I do not have those results.

Kent Gardam