home

25

sailors competed in the 2014 Sunfish Masters championship on the waters of the Neuse River at Oriental on May 31-June 1. The sailors who ranged in age from their 40’s to their 70’s gave Oriental it’s first Sunfish Masters race and kept alive hopes of attracting more such races and adding muscle to its title as the Sailing Capital of NC.

The Sunfish Masters was held on the Neuse River at Oriental. Sailors came to Oriental from Illinois, Ohio, New York, nearby states as well as closer to home. It was open to sailors 40 and older. 23 men and 2 women competed. (Photo: Joe Mattea)

For some of the competitors who raced 4 times on Saturday and 3 on Sunday, the Masters was the first of two big Sunfish races they’d be coming to Oriental for this year.

In the 2014 Sunfish Masters, the overall winner was Bob Findlay of Chicago who started sailing Sunfish 47 years ago when he was 8. While the Masters in Oriental was his first time in NC waters, he’s no stranger to racing, having won he Sunfish North American title a quarter century ago. He says he’ll come back to the area in October for the Sunfish Worlds races. (Photo: Joe Mattea)

That is the case for the Master’s top winner, Bob Findlay, of Wilmette, Illinois. This October he’s coming for the biggest Sunfish race of all, the Sunfish Worlds when they’re held at Camps Seafarer and Seagull. Findlay says he came to the Masters in Oriental to check out the waters, having never sailed in NC before, despite a long run of racing not only Sunfish but a half dozen other kinds of one-design class small boats.

After the Saturday morning skippers meeting ended, Brian McGinnis of Sayville, Long Island was quick to get his boat in the water. A sailor for three decades, he’s competed in a number of Sunfish Worlds, and plans to return to Oriental in October when the 2014 Worlds take place at Camps Seafarer and Seagull. In the Sunfish Masters at Oriental, Brian came in first in the Apprentice Master division and 2nd overall.

Also returning to the Neuse River this October for the Worlds will be the Sunfish Master’s second place finisher, Brian McGinnis of Long Island, who also won 1st place in the Apprentice Masters division for those in their 40’s.

Larry Mass of Wilmington, who is the US Sunfish Class Association’s Southeastern representative — and a racer in the Masters — said the sailing on the Neuse this weekend was great. “The wind cooperated. You couldn’t have asked for better conditions, for better sailing.”

Preparing boats for launch at Bow to Stern on Saturday morning. Sailors reported steady winds for the last three races of the day

The contestants in the 2014 Sunfish Masters National Championship in Oriental.

Mass played a big role in bringing the Masters to Oriental. He says the Sunfish organization was looking for a town to hold the Masters and as when Sunfish was seeking a site for its 2014 Worlds, Sunfish’s Southeastern region’s representative suggested Oriental. This was happening just as a group of sailors in Oriental – Joe Mattea, Jerry Dasson, Gordon Kellogg, George Sechrist, Bill Michne and Jim Flaherty among others — were starting to actively promote the town — and its title, The Sailing Capital of NC – as a place to hold small-boat one-design regional and national races.

The base of operations for the Sunfish Masters 2014 was Jim Edwards’ Bow To Stern Boating Center. In two weeks, sailors at the other end of the age continuum will be on the grounds – and waters – there to learn how to sail at Bow to Stern’s Summer Sailing Camp. The banner, Oriental Sailing Capital of NC, is one of about a dozen that were made for various businesses in town to display.

(more of the story and photos, ahead)

[page]

As this weekend’s Sunfish Masters competitors experienced, there are good winds, little to no current or lunar tide, and open expanses with plenty of space where the Neuse River widens to meet the Pamlico Sound. Those natural attributes had helped Oriental get its title and in recent years, the Oriental Dinghy Club has been trying to get more people out sailing in its frequent weekend races.

Bob Finley with the dagger board to which his name will be added as the 2014 winner of the Sunfish Masters national championship which was staged this year in Oriental. He noted that the water wasn’t as clear on the Neuse as on Lake Michigan but that his time in Oriental – on and off the water – had been great.

On top of that has now come the effort to draw more sailors from away to come to this sailing capital and race one-design boats. The hope is that with two Sunfish events this year — as well as the Lightning class’ Southeast Regionals earlier in May — could be the start of something.

A few days after the Masters in Oriental, Larry Mass said that the USSCA could be looking for a place to stage the Southeast Regionals next year, an event that would draw 30-35 competitors. Then there’re the national championships – the North Americans. In two years, says Mass, Sunfish will be wanting to hold those North American championship races in a Southern town.

“2016 could be a real possibility in Oriental,” says Mass “if we have the facility to handle 72 to 100 boats.”

Larry Mass of Wilmington – who is also the Sunfish Southeast representative – sets out toward the race course. Beyond the weekend’s Masters, Mass is also working on Sunfish Words, which will feature 72 boats from around the world competing in the Neuse near Camps Seagull and Seafarer from October 8-18. In the Masters this past weekend, Mass finished 17th.

With the events Oriental hosted so far this year, the existing facilities worked. The dozen Lightning sailors in mid-May put in at the Wildlife Resources ramp at the end of Midyette Street. Most of the 25 sailors competing in the Sunfish Masters set out from the shores of Bow To Stern Boating on Smith Creek while others launched from the Oriental’s Town Beach, also referred to as, lovingly and accurately, as Miniscule Beach.

Jim Edwards, whose Bow to Stern Boating center on Smith Creek was where most of the sailors put in their boats for the weekend’s Sunfish Masters.

Events involving 72-100 boats, would clearly require more space. Those who’ve been working to promote Oriental as the sailing capital and a place to race have already been thinking about that. Joe Mattea says that if there was a prospect for an event the size of the Sunfish North Americans, he’d be honest and say upfront that the town didn’t have that .. now.

Mattea goes on to say that if the point is to bring more sailors to “Oriental’s waters” the options then expand to nearby places such as Camps Seafarer and Seagull or to River Dunes. And within the Oriental town limits, Mattea says there is Whittaker Pointe Marina. “It has a beautiful facility,” says Mattea, “but has not been explored yet.”

Joe Mattea, who is one of several people working to bring more one-class sailboat races — regional and national — to Oriental, to live up to its name as The Sailing Capital of NC. In this first year out, Oriental has now seen the regional Lightning championships and the Sunfish Masters national competition.

In the long run, Mattea says, it’d be good to have a site with a crane for expediting launches, plenty of parking for vehicles and boat trailers — and no power lines overhead so masts have clearance. For now, though, he says he’s happy that word is getting out about the Sailing Capital of NC and that Oriental is on the radar screens of those who look for towns to host races. “It’s not loud yet,” says Mattea, “but I think it’s a little bit of a buzz.”

Three sailors in the 2014 Sunfish Masters head out to the race course on the Neuse River near Oriental. In foreground is Ken Small who officiated the race from the Oriental Dinghy Club’s committee boat.

Meanwhile, it’s been a busy spring for The Oriental Dinghy Club. Often in order for a town to tapped for a race, a local boating club has to commit to organizing it and officiating. ODC officiated not only the Sunfish Masters this weekend but the Lightning Regionals in mid-May, and this coming weekend’s Leukemia Cup Regatta at River Dunes. And while ODC is not organizing the Sunfish Worlds — many of the officiating there will be done by ODC members.

Race photos, ahead.

[page]

As the skippers meeting was underway at Bow to Stern Saturday morning, the wind indicator on one boat was doing its job.

Frank Patch with his wife Lea Ann of Moyock, NC and his Sunfish with its daggerboard wheels.

You may not need a weather man to tell which way the wind blows, but a wind indicator helps. Frank Patch adjusts his on the way out to the race course Saturday morning. He says he’s primarily a Laser sailor but likes Sunfish because they’re fun.

The waters of Smith Creek and at Bow to Stern provided a moment to fine tune things, as Ricky Evans does here.

A moment of calm before the race.

Tom Katterheinrich of Lima, Ohio and St Mary’s Boat Club, sets out toward the race course Saturday morning.

Daggerboards to be put just so. Charles Rush, of the Lake Bluff Yacht Club, north of Chicago.

[page]

Off to the races, from the waters of Smith Creek to the race course on the Neuse River. A newcomer to Sunfish racing, Charlie Garrett of Oriental heads out to the race course.

Oriental’s George Sechrist sails toward the Neuse River race course from the Bow to Stern waters on Smith Creek. George is among a group of ODC members working to bring more small boat one-design races to Oriental. In the Sunfish Masters, George would come in 7th overall and 1st among the sailors in the 70-80 year age bracket.

Sonya Dean in the Sunfish Masters racing on Sunday afternooon. (Photo: Joe Mattea)

Moth-like at a distance, the sails of Sunfish on the Neuse River Sunday, the second and final day of the 2014 Sunfish Masters.

Sunfish Masters competition off of Oriental

[page]

Nancy Jaywork of Dover, Delaware came in 4th overall. She was one of two women in the Sunfish Masters. (Photo: Joe Mattea)

Sunfish don’t have much in the way of freeboard and with Sunday’s winds and waves, they appeared at times to have none at all…

Two sailors after the mark, against the backdrop of Oriental.

Mark Evans in the race on the Neuse. (Photo: Joe Mattea)

Paul Welles of Oriental whose Triton Yacht Service sells Sunfish. He finished 12th in the field of 25.(Photo: Joe Mattea)

[page]

Jacob Donkersloot of Gaithersburg, Maryland and one of the oldest of the Masters, near Oriental’s waterfront Sunday morning. The Masters sailed 7 races – 4 on Saturday and 3 on Sunday.

Alexander Dean, whose wife Sonya also was a competitor in the Masters. (Photo: Joe Mattea)

Sonya Dean of MOBYC (My Own Bloody Yacht Club at Harkers Island.)

Jack Bond of Oriental, sailing in his first Sunfish Masters, reports the wind was so strong coming off the sail that it kept blowing his hat off his head. He had taken the precaution of tying his hat to his vest via a piece of fishing line, and didn’t lose it. Jack placed 20th in the field of 25.(Photo: Joe Mattea)

Vantage point: Lou Mac Park and its Adirondack chairs.

[page]

Charlie Garrett of Oriental had a one word answer when asked how the sailing was on Sunday. “Wet.” 15 feet from the finish line of the 7th and final race, his sail filled with wind, which he couldn’t control because the line was wrapped around his leg. “Before I could get to the daggerboard,” he says, “ the boat turned turtle.” He went in to the Neuse, and got a Did Not Finish with the finish line just feet away. Back at Bow to Stern he was elated to learn he could toss that race out of the calculations. He finished 22 in his first Sunfish competition.

After a day of racing the boats and their crews came back ashore at Bow To Stern.

Clean up after the race.

Boats at Bow To Stern.

George Sechrist wrings out a sailing glove after a day on the water on Saturday.

The hose down.

[page]

The awards. Plaques for the various sailors who would win their divisions. (Those in their 40s were Apprentice Masters, 50-59 Masters, 60-69 Grand Masters, 70-79 Great Grand Masters). At left, the daggerboard to which would be added Bob Findlay’s name, as he was the overall winner at the 2014 Sunfish Masters.

Brian McGinnis who drove 11 hours from Sayville, Long Island to compete, took second place overall. Brian holds his plaque for 1st place in the “Apprentice Master” division, for the youngest of the sailors over 40. He plans to return to Oriental in October for the Sunfish Worlds at the camps. At right in photo is George Sechrist of the ODC, which organized the regatta.

George Sechrist of Oriental Dinghy Club with Bill Raney of Wilmington who finished third overall and first in the Grand Masters division for those in their 60’s.

Nancy Jaywork of Dover, Delaware took fourth place in the field of 25. While she was out sailing, she says her husband, rode his bicycle for 15 miles around the area and started looking in to real estate.

Bob Findlay of Wilmette, Illinois, north of Chicago, says the Sunfish Masters that he won this weekend was his first time sailing in NC. He says he came to see what the area was like for the upcoming Sunfish Worlds, which he’ll be back for in October when they are held at Camp Seafarer/Seagull.

Some of the members of the Oriental Dinghy Club who worked on the Sunfish Masters, from left, Bill Kirsch, Carol and Ken Small, Art Whalen, Joe Mattea, Todd Cox, Jim Hartmeyer.

[page]

After the races Sunday, a Sunfish almost buried its rail in the grass at Bow To Stern Boating Center.

Alexis Edwards, of Bow To Stern heads out to Smith Creek along with Sunfish Southeast Regional Representative Larry Mass of Wilmington to retrieve a Sunfish that had turned turtle on the race course. It was towed back as far as the shallow waters near Bow to Stern….

… which was where Alexis and Larry took over. The sailor, who was motored to shore, then tended to the business of hosing boat and sail down.

The waters at Bow To Stern where many of the 25 Sunfish launched from each morning.

Rolled up and waiting for another day of sailing.

Posted Thursday June 5, 2014 by Melinda Penkava