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harlie Garrett recently won a sailboat race against of of the biggest names in racing. Gary Jobson is reknowned for his part in winning many sailing races. The America’s Cup, Fastnet. He was tactician aboard the 1977 America’s Cup winner, “Courageous”. On December 7th, though, the sailor from Oriental beat him across a finish line.

Charlie Garrett got to race against Gary Jobson because he was the top fundraiser at the 2013 Leukemia’s Cup. He, Bill Scott and Carol Small raised over $39,000 for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society of NC.

Charlie’s win is a story that starts earlier this year. A retired airline pilot who now is, as he puts it, “a truck driver for Triton Yachts,” Charlie was the top fundraiser for the 2013 Leukemia Cup Regatta. Overall, the event in June raised about $125,000 for the National Leukemia and Lymphoma Society of NC. For their efforts, the top three fundraisers – Charlie, Bill Scott and Carol Small – won a sailing trip to Captiva Island, Florida.

Charlie Garrett. Charlie is a retired airline pilot. He delivers boats – on land – for Paul Welles of Triton Yachts. He can now also say he’s won a sailboat race against a legend.

It was at that Fantasy Sailing weekend in early December that they and fundraisers from other Leukemia Cups would get to sail with – and against – Gary Jobson.

Jobson became famous as the tactician who won the 1977 America’s Cup aboard Ted Turner’s “Courageous”. “The tactician is the big guy,” Charlie says, “He basically tells the skipper when to tack, ” while the rest of the crew provides manpower and trims sails.

After winning that, Jobson went on to take many other top honors, including the Fastnet race. The sailing Hall of Famer has authored 18 sailing books and served as a TV commentator, nationally and internationally.

Gary Jobson visiting with sailors during the Fantasy Sailing weekend. Jobson has been chairman of the Leukemia Cup Regatta, the National Leukemia and Lymphoma Society’s sailing fundraiser, since 1993. In 2003 he was diagnosed with lymphoma. He has made a full recovery. Before the race, Jobson sailed with visiting sailors.

It’s fair to say Gary Jobson knows his way around a sailboat.

So it appears, does Charlie. He and his wife, Charlotte sail out of Oriental aboard their O’day 302, “Spindrift”, somewhat humbler than the ones that built Jobson’s reputation. But it wasn’t the only boat he knew.

In June, Charlie had sailed in the Leukemia Cup aboard Cheryl McFadden’s Colgate 26. The Colgate 26 is the same boat the Fantasy Sailing Camp sailors would sail during their race against Jobson. Having some familiarity with the boat would come in handy. Though as events were to prove, it didn’t create a lock.

Blue life jacket donned, Charlie meets his crew. The crew was made of top fundraisers from Leukemia Cup regattas held around the nation. In terms of money raised, Oriental finished 13th of over 40 national fundraisers.

Come race day, December 7 on Captiva Island, Charlie and eight other sailboats took to the course. Aboard each of the Colgates were sailors from various sailing clubs that had taken part in the nationwide series of Leukemia Cup regattas.

Charlie found himself with four crew members he’d never sailed with before. It was agreed he’d be the skipper.

Generally a laid back guy, Charlie took the race seriously. He reports that when he took the helm, he heard one of his crew whisper, “I think we’ve witnessed a personality change here….”.

“To me,” Charlie explains, it “was just a race against 8 other boats. I just wanted to win the race.” He says that he wasn’t focussed on racing against a legend. “I didn’t even think about Gary one time.”

Charlie and crew crossed the starting line in a favorable position, upwind of the fleet. They are sailing the boat on the left, sail number 1.

He and his crew got off to a good start – Charlie’s boat was among the first across the line – but there were challenges. After rounding the first mark, the crew scrambled to hoist the spinnaker for the downwind run. Instead of the large sail ballooning properly off the bow, Charlie related later, “The spinnaker shot off sideways!”

The spinnaker had been improperly rigged. “The spinnaker pole, instead of pointing out over the water, shot up by the mast. I’ve never done that in my life.” While the blown spinnaker hoist was particularly embarrassing, in retrospect Charlie saw a bright side: it lulled the competition in to a fake sense of security.

Charlie considers himself a better sailor than fundraiser. This made the blown spinnaker hoist extra embarrassing. His wife Charlotte, who was watching from another vessel, says when she heard laughter coming from Charlie’s boat, she knew everyone was having a good time and things would be okay.

Racing downwind Charlie, in the 1 boat (as seen on the sail), and next to him, aboard Boat 7, was Carol Small. During the second race against Jobson, her boat was in first place heading toward the first mark. Then the wind died and the race was abandoned. Her husband Ken says the important thing to remember about the Leukemia Cup is that it’s a fundraiser “with some sailing thrown in.”

Undeterred, Charlie and crew stayed focused and recovered from their mistake. They rounded two more marks and then as they headed toward the finish line, it became a two boat race – Charlie and one other boat.

Charlie decided to sail straight toward the finish line. The other boat opted to sail off at an angle, then turn back toward the finish, sacrificing distance for increased boat speed. Charlie didn’t know who he was sailing against until a crew member told him it was Jobson.

The winds by now were light. The two boats drifted across the finish line. Even after crossing, it still wasn’t clear to Charlie who had won. “Who got that one?” he shouted to the committee boat. “You did!” they called back.

He was later told that his margin of victory was “about 2 feet.”

Jobson and Charlie crossing the finish line. Charlie’s boat, in the foreground, drifts across the finish line. The winds were so light, the spinnaker collapsed around the forestay.

A win’s a win. Charlotte Garrett, who watched the race from a nearby boat, shows the international symbol for “we beat you across the finish line.”

Motoring back the marina, Charlie passed Jobson’s boat. Jobson tipped his hat. “That was thrilling!” Charlie said a few days later, still visibly awed by the experience. “To get a tip of the hat from Gary Jobson was huge. Wow. It was like hitting a few balls with Mickey Mantle. And hitting a few farther than he did.”

While winning the race was a thrill, “a high point of my sailing career”, Charlie says he couldn’t have done it with out his crew. It also wouldn’t have come about without his Leukemia Cup sponsors, Bill Scott and NuCor Steel.

Home in Oriental, he puts his win in to perspective. Yes, he beat a sailing legend around the course. Just as important, though, was helping the National Leukemia and Lymphoma Society with its fundraising efforts. “It’s a great cause,” he says of June’s Leukemia Cup Regatta. For Charlie, it proved a victory on many levels.

TownDock.net thanks Bill Scott for the race photos used in this story.

Posted Wednesday December 18, 2013 by Bernie Harberts