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lmost 2 dozen boats turned out for the Oriental Dinghy Club’s Neuse River Solo Race on Saturday. In this 28th year of the race for single-handed boats, Henry Frazer and his Etchells, ‘Orient Express,’ came in first overall. Second place went to Mark Weinheimer on the San Juan 21, ‘Orion’, and third to Bill Kirsch on ‘Zip’, an ensign.

The Neuse River and a 15 knot breeze provided some ideal sailing conditions Saturday afternoon.

No hands on deck other than those of the captain. ‘Beshert’, a J105, and Ken Lury in the Neuse Solo Race.(Photo: Sheldon Shikoluk)

Five classes of boats competed. Jerry Dasson of the Oriental Dinghy Club says that there was one class of multi-hulls and then four other groupings based on PHRF handicaps.

“The slowest boats were in the “A” class and had handicaps ranging from 222-264. So they started first, but individually based on their individual handicaps. The “D” grouping are the potentially fastest boats and had the lowest handicaps. They were the last boats to start.”

There were no spinnakers flying on Saturday. The big sails are a common sight in races involving multiple crew members who can handle all the lines. “For safety reasons and to make the race more inviting,” Jerry says, “spinnakers are not allowed.”

Part of the fleet in the 2011 Neuse Solo Race. Closing in on three decades, the race stands out because each boat has only one sailor on board. (This keeps shouting and crew tensions to a minimum.) (Photo: Sheldon Shikoluk)

While the competitors had staggered starts, this year’s Neuse Solo Race itself was delayed by a few weeks so that sailors and those running the race could have more time to recover from Hurricane Irene.

For the full listing of where the sailors finished in the race, click here.

(Jerry Dasson of the ODC and one of the sailors in the race offered an explanation about those half dozen DNF’s – Did Not Finish – on the results sheet. Jerry says he was one of about a half dozen competitors who were “navigational challenged and failed to go around the last mark before the finish line, Oriental 1. Personally, I was doing so well and noticed the “O” as the last mark to round in the Sailing Instructions and assumed it meant “optional.” I figured why bother! Who would have known!”)

Posted Monday October 17, 2011 by Melinda Penkava