The Whortonsville Cup made its debut at the Whortonsville Yacht and Tractor Club’s 14th running of the WYTC Summer Solstice Sailebration. Three dozen boats competed for the cup and almost two hundred people showed up later for the potluck dinner and awards ceremony at Nick Santoro’s Ensign Harbor Marina.

With the America's Cup now humbled in landlocked Switzerland, the Whortonsville Cup made it's North American debut.

The Whortonsville Cup was inspired by Whortonsville’s attempt to woo the America’s Cup race from landlocked Switzerland. Unlike the America’s Cup, The Whortonsville Cup, a cookie jar shaped like a coffee cup, was filled with cookies.

Victor Simon Whitehead was generous with his cup of cookies

Winner Simon Whitehead was seen eating some of them and offering them around after the awards ceremony. In accordance with the rules laid out by Commodore Nick Santoro, Simon will have to replenish the cookie supply for next year’s winner.

Simon won the cup racing on a Capri 25 – the boat has no name -- rounding the last marker about 2 hours and 18 minutes after he started.

A last minute entry, Simon notes that he “had to go very fast” in order to catch up with the 2002 WYTC instructions he was handed.

Coming in second were Don Ogren on a Freedom 36, Cara Mia. Third place went to Mike Craig and fourth to Ed Bliss on a Sabre 36.2, Out of the Blue.

Simon Whitehead, Don Ogren and Ed Bliss with the Whortonsville Cup

The Last Shall Be First
And First Last, As It Turns Out

In keeping with long-time Whortonsville tradition, the first award given at the post-dinner ceremony was not for the first boats across the finish line but for the last.

Christy & Bob Gregory proudly show off the zuchini

This year’s Perseverance Award went to Bob Gregory who keeps his Westsail 32 “Brer Rabbit” at nearby Point Marina. For his four hours and 34 seconds on the course Bob and his wife Christie won a loaf of homemade sourdough bread and One Large Zucchini.

Under the staggered start times and Nick’s Specialized Handicapping Performance Formula, the 20,000 pound, full-keeled double-ender with two inches of barnacles on its bottom was the first boat to start the race. TownDock.net can report that the Westsail crossed the starting line smartly just 6 seconds after the race began and was first round the first marker. At that point the crew cheered and broke out the beer, perhaps anticipating what was next. After that, “Brer Rabbit” went in to working press mode, unintentionally being at a good vantage point from which to capture photos of numerous passing boats.
(Snowbird, see us for close-ups…which we’ll happily exchange for an even earlier start time next year.)

Other Awards
This Ain’t Augusta

Jane Tindall with WYTC burgee and beer coolers in hand

At the after-potluck awards session, Nick told the crowd that in fourteen years of the WYTC race there had never before been a boat crewed entirely by women. That changed this year, with Jane Tindall and the crew of her Cal 25, Janesway: Sue Henry, Linda Douglas and Rose Peterson.

Nick awarded Jane a WYTC burgee and two beer coolers (on the thinking that some confusion at the start of the race may’ve been caused by too-warm beer.) Jane and crew placed 20th of the 34 boats that finished.

The “It’s Not Whether You Win So Much As How You Play The Game” award went to Keith Payne for, as Nick described it, “entertaining a number of us for a half hour after the race with the spectacular job with his spinnaker.” It seems the spinnaker had so enjoyed the afternoon race that it was reluctant to come down. Crewmember Sandy Edwards, clearly a veteran of the race judging by her and her husband Charlie’s vintage WYTC shirts, accepted the prize, a loaf of homemade bread, on Keith’s behalf.

Perhaps the grand prize of the day came in the random drawings. Kris Nixon, who’d won some bread earlier for placing 9th, received something to wash it down with. Kris won a case of Bavaria Beer provided by Ralf “Scooters, Not Hooters” Heit, of Scoots restaurant.
Other drawings yielded an inflatable raft from the Inland Waterway Treasure Company, a bag of coffee and a mug from The Bean, and several IBM tote bags and chairs.

No Excuses – Still Going Sailing Award

TownDock.net would like to issue a Not Making Any Excuses Award to the crew of “Rhiannon”, Andy Denmark’s Cape Dory 27. In the third year of the WYTC, Andy and boat took first place and so it came as a surprise to hear on VHF Channel 72, late in this race, that Andy was pulling out.

“It started,” Andy says, “with running in to the committee boat at the starting line, and went downhill from there.”

Miscommunications, going off course, something about the timing of the spinnaker and the genny going up and coming down at the last mark. Thats where, with just a short leg to go to the finish line, Andy says he and the crew decided to keep sailing south and west toward Whortonsville.

Andy’s a veteran racer and had never had such a time of it. He’d never run in to a committee boat before. We asked if maybe he should cut himself some slack about that committee boat incident because, after all, he was sharing a starting time with 9 other boats, the most crowded start of the day. But Andy was having none of making excuses.

Sometimes, he says, The Fickle Finger of Fate points at you.. and there’s nothing you can do about it. Good races he says are not necessarily won by grand strategies, but rather by not making mistakes.

In the end, Andy says, he pulled out of the race because so many things went wrong.

T-Shirts Still Available

Demand for the Whortonsville Yacht and Tractor Club T-shirts was so high this year that the first batch sold out. But Nick Santoro says he’s ordered a few dozen more. Contact Nick if you’d like to buy one - phone 249-0823.

Also, for those trying to augment their WYTC T-shirt collection, Nick still has some shirts left from last year’s race available for sale. Those are in dark blue with a bright yellow print.