By Mike Ferring, Racing Captain
Around 4 o’clock on Saturday, December 9, you may drop the main, open a beverage, and mutter, “That was a fiasco!”
That’s what I wrote about the plans for the 2023 Governor’s Cup and, wow, did that prediction ever come true!
Around 11 o’clock on race day morning, a cluster of concerned sailors were staring into a 20kt north wind and wondering whether this event would happen at all—or, if it did, whether they wanted any part of it. Ed Huntsman called me from the mark boat to say the waves were five feet high and the wind was hurricane strength. Or something like that.
Not one to leave 39 Governor’s Cup entrants on the shore if it wasn’t necessary, I told them we planned to go ahead. It probably wouldn’t be what we planned, but they’d get a chance to test themselves and their boats if they wanted to.
By the scheduled one o’clock start, we were anchored and ready to go on the signal boat, but Ed and Debbie Huntsman, Bob Naylor, and new Junior member Jaden Weber were nowhere close to setting even the first of three required rounding marks. We delayed for 30 minutes. By 1:30, they still hadn’t gotten a mark down. We delayed for 30 more minutes.
At two o’clock it was obvious that our choices were to a) abandon, or b) do something that looked a little like a race. We went with option b. Keep your pursuit race starting times, sail around the now-placed north mark and finish.
Not even 45 minutes after the start, Tony Krauss surfed past the finish line on his Hobie 16, making a slashing signal across his throat, which I read as “I cut the course short and I’m heading in.” Nope. Turned out he was saying, “That was fun and now I’m heading in.” Or something like that. Steven Dawson’s Hobie 16 screamed past minutes later trailing a rooster tail. And then it was the Santana 20 of Martin Lorch with son Cedric and ASU sailor Sean Kenealy, the first monohull boat to finish—making Martin this year’s winner and custodian of the Governor’s Cup trophy.
Photo: Mike Ferring
In all, 15 of the 39 entrants took a start and 10 finished (some non-finishers could have sailed through the finish but chose not to). It was an impressive performance under difficult circumstances. The wind was always over 10kts and peaked in puffs of about 19kts, topping churning water. Martin Lorch said upwind was extremely difficult, often trying to round up his Santana 20. Downwind the ride was just… fast.
Devon Howe was the day’s most serious casualty. He capsized his MC scow at the north end and the best efforts of the mark boat crew and Devon couldn’t get it righted. They finally gave up and got a very cold Devon in the boat to warm up while his boat spent the night turtled on the shore. Many thanks to Emory Heisler for heading out the next morning with Devon and his son Brett to rescue the boat and get it, still turtled, to a mooring at Scorpion Bay.
Back on shore, new member Barry Bond (memorable name) was waiting in his Christmas sweater with a table full of welcoming goodies (memorable goodies), including many sweet things he’d made himself. I had a piece of cake that I’ll remember for a long time. Thank you, Barry.
We threatened to give out some additional awards besides the giant Governor’s Cup trophy, with winners and categories chosen “arbitrarily and capriciously.” Tony Kraus won one for “line honors,” the first boat across the finish. Grant Harless got one for Outstanding Rail Meat—having the most weight on the rail on this snotty day. And Devon Howe received one for “The Willing Sailor on an Unwilling Boat.” Each trophy was a bottle of AYC-branded rum. All the better to fortify against the chill of the lake and the too-many-knots of the day.
