Written and Photos by Mike Ferring
Now for something completely different! While Arizona was suffering the usual triple-digit blast of summer, some of us were gathering on cool and scenic Big Lake—an hour’s drive north of Anchorage, Alaska—for the Buccaneer North American Championship, or BNAC, as it’s called.
Bruce Lee holds both Arizona Yacht Club and Alaska Sailing Club passports and was one of the key organizers of this something-completely-different regatta. He pitched the idea to the national Bucc organization, and they enthusiastically backed it. Instead of towing a boat to a regatta, he suggested flying in and using a borrowed boat. To keep it fair, the regatta would be a round-robin, with each competitor in both A and B fleets sailing each boat.
AYC has long been a Bucc hotbed, and snowbird Bruce has joined the Arizona effort to rebuild the local fleet. It turns out his Alaska club is a cool-climate hotbed, too. He was able to come up with 12 competitive boats for the BNAC rotation.
Maryellen and I were invited to make the trip and serve as Race Committee. We enlisted my daughter Elizabeth, and the three of us ran 21 races in the regatta over the course of six days—four of them racing days. Since the sun set around midnight and the breeze arrived late, the races began in mid-afternoon and ran into the night. Completely different.
Tony Chapman signed up Sean Kenealy as his crew for A fleet. Kelly Beaver rounded out the group of us sharing a Vrbo house on the lake. Other AYC Bucc stalwarts who normally would have raced missed out: Emory Heisler was at a high school reunion, and Rob Gibbs was playing international tourist.
We’ve often heard that the BNAC crowd is a fun, low-key bunch, and the regatta is famous for its get-along vibe. Alaska was complete proof that the stories are true! With lots of racing, the final tally was: no protests, one redress, one general recall, three boats OCS, and no shouting.
Unfortunately, of the three boats I had to flag over early, two were Tony and Sean! That pushed them down to fifth place in the A fleet. Bruce jumped on a boat as crew to finish sixth in the B fleet. The BNAC Champions were John Weiss and Jay Foght—by the slimmest fraction of a point, the result of that redress. More details here.
Sixteen of the 21 teams were from the Lower 48, and they got to enjoy a week of Alaska sailing fueled by warm friendships and excellent local grub—things like moose chili, salmon chowder, and reindeer sausage. Most chose to make it an Alaska vacation, heading off after the regatta to see more of the state.
When it was over, Bruce asked Tony what he thought they could have done better.
“Not a thing,” he said.
I completely agree.
Mike Ferring also wrote an article about the BNAC for Sailing World. Check that out here!
