Smooth sailing to begin

By BEN WATANABE, Portland Press Herald Writer

Copyright © 2005 Blethen Maine Newspapers Inc.

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	Staff photo by Pouya Dianat The Manana division of the Monhegan Island race boasted the largest number of entries, with boats jockeying for position and a share of the wind.
	Staff photo by Pouya Dianat As the water churns from the wake behind the press boat, Artforms, Gryphon Solo and Ocean Planet, left to right, shoot out to a quick start in the annual Monhegan Island yacht race Saturday.
	Staff photo by Pouya Dianat The Portland Yacht Club's burgee flaps as one of the nine divisions starts its race in Hussey Sound. Boats raced a course that ends at the Portland Headlight.
	Staff photo by Pouya Dianat The Gryphon Solo, left, Ocean Planet, center, and Artforms cross Hussey Sound and the start line of the Monhegan Island Races on Saturday. The boats are competing in the open division. Wind at start time measured at about 10 knots.

FALMOUTH — Blair Knapp sat in the upstairs captain's room of the Portland Yacht Club on Saturday evening, trying to make sense of the progress that had been made so far in the 71st annual Monhegan Island Races. More than six hours earlier, 65 boats started near the entrance of Hussey Sound in Casco Bay and set course to end at Portland Head Light sometime today.

Whenever a boat comes in, its captain will phone his finish to the race trackers, headed by Knapp. While most of the trackers work in four-hour shifts, Knapp won't get any more than a nap.

"I'll be here most all of the night," said Knapp. Teenagers who hold part-time jobs and other roles at the club could not be lured to join the all-night vigil.

"The pay's not good enough" to attract them to the undesirable hours, Knapp said.

The Monhegan races began relatively smoothly Saturday, with a handful of boats making premature starts. The first of the nine classes started a little after 11:30 a.m., and little less than an hour-and-a-half later the final class set off. As of 6:30 p.m., Painkiller had made the most progress of the boats that radioed in, though that was no guarantee it was winning. Owner Rick Simonds reported that his boat passed the first mark of Cape Porpoise at 4:12 p.m.

The entrants compete for 11 perpetual trophies and prizes for the top three finishers in each class. Wind at start time measured about 10 knots and remained between 8 to 12 knots most of the day.

"That's more wind than we've been favored with the last couple years," Knapp said. "It was a good start and a good race so far."

Bruce Schwab got the best start in the open class aboard Ocean Planet, zipping ahead of the other two boats just after the starting gun. The open racers, like many of their counterparts in other classes, do not call in their positions because they don't want to give them away to competitors.

Add that to the unpredictably of the VHF radios the boats use to keep in touch with the race committee, and Knapp and company are kept largely in the dark until the boats cross the finish.

Out on the water, sailors in crews of up to 12 worked in shifts on the overnight course. Though the weather was sunny most of the day, the race had started out with favorable conditions in the past and ended cold and rainy.

Such conditions persuaded Charlie and Jackie Brown to end their two-day racing careers. For the past two years, they operated the press boat and took in the race's start in about two or three hours.

"Once you get wet on a boat, you're wet," Charlie Brown said. "There's no place to (dry off), and it's not comfortable."

As of Saturday evening, that had not discouraged any of the boats. There were no dropouts or reported technical problems, and a few Monhegan Class A entrants were on course to finish Saturday night.

Rain or shine, race co-chairman Geoff Emanuel said he hoped everyone finished. Should the weather turn sour today and the sailors gut it out to the finish, Knapp should be around to take their call.

Staff Writer Ben Watanabe can be contacted at 791-6428 or at:

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