1936 International Championship – Rochester, NY

1936 International Championship – Rochester, NY

The following results are from George Elder's book "Forty Years Among The Stars". In common with the early Logs it is interesting to note that in his results Elder does not give the yacht numbers of the boats which participated in the World's, but only just their names. It was not until the 1950 Log that yacht numbers were included in the results. From 1950 through 1976 both yacht numbers and names were given, but starting with 1977 frequently only yacht numbers were given. The last time both yacht numbers and yacht names were given was 1989.

In later years sometimes fleet designations were omitted. In these cases some of the more obvious fleet designations were supplied. Also from time to time only last names were supplied. First names, where known, were added.

Abbreviations etc: Dsa - Disabled. Dsq - Disqualified. Dns - Did Not Start.
Wdr - Withdrew. Ch - Chairman. B - Builder. * - Defending Fleet. 0 - No points, reason not given.

1936 - ON LAKE ONTARIO, AT ROCHESTER

Winning yacht No. 202. B - Owner, 1924.
Ch. I.R.C. and Meeting - G. W. Elder.

Regatta Report from the 1937 Star Log

ACE REGAINS WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP
by CHAS. E. LUCKE, JR.

The 1936 World Championship at Rochester was A Big Show, in fact the Biggest Show the world of small boat yachting has ever seen. It was a Big Show from every angle, whether you were competing, whether a fascinated spectator, or whether one of the busy officials. Proof of this can be seen in the most perfect motion pictures ever taken of our big classic which have been made available, in color, by the Eastman Kodak Company. 

Not only was it the first Gold Star series ever held on fresh water, it attracted no less than thirty-five champions of as many different fleets, seven more than ever before competed in a Star World Championship. Not only was a new high mark thus established in the point of entries; the average calibre of the contestants was quite high. Before swinging into the details of the Big Show we cannot refrain from a prediction, that if the mark of thirty-five entries is to be surpassed, it will be this year at Port Washington, where the Manhasset Bay Yacht Club and the course on Western Long Island Sound are superbly equipped to handle such a big gathering.

When the seven races had been sailed to get five completed con tests and when the last boat in the last race had gotten its gun as it crossed the line and when the Race Committee had figured out the scoring it was apparent that the reign of the West Coast was temporarily at an end. For Adrian Iselin II and G. Horder of the Western Long Island Sound Fleet won another Gold Star for Ace in piling up 159 points as against 156 for the defending By-C, so masterfully sailed by that veteran Newport Harbor com bination of Hook Beardslee and Barney Lehman.

It is very difficult to say anything about the recently concluded series on Lake Ontario without going in for superlatives. Most entries, a minimum of fouls, splendid courses, unrivaled hospitality by Commodore Edward Doyle and the Rochester Yacht Club and the members of the Twelfth District, magnificent daily and series prizes. Haul-out and wharfage facilities could not have been improved on; the diversions ashore were well attended; hosts of non-competing members came up to Rochester to see and admire and wish they were sailing.

Truly the 1936 World Championship may well go down as one of the most successful yachting series ever staged anywhere.

President George W. Elder presided as Chairman of The I. R. C. and did a magnificent job. Assisting him were Treasurer Timothy D. Parkman, William C. Atwater of Great South Bay, Charles E. Lucke Jr. of Barnegat Bay, former Vice-President Prentice Edrington of Washington, Commodore Edward Doyle and ex-Commodore Phil Hoffman of the Rochester Yacht Club, and Commodore George A. Corry.

The Coast Guard did a splendid job of patrolling, and they had a fleet of spectator craft ranging from fifty on poor days to well over a hundred on the closing day. Included were rickety wheezing old Lake excursion steamers with hundreds aboard, car ferries several hundred feet long and the usual variety of auxiliary and power craft all laden with spectators. Rochester newspapers carried daily front page stories and pictures and the Rochester station; WHAM of the National Broadcasting Company carried the excellent descriptive accounts by Phil Farnum of the Rochester Yacht Club whenever the progress of the race warranted going on the air again.

While there had been a really boisterous breeze for the three days preceding the series, so much so that tuning up sailing was pretty futile, by the time the fleet towed or sailed out of the mouth of the Genesee River for the start of the first race the breeze was as light as it was variable. Beardslee and Lehman got By-C going like a racehorse right from the start and on getting clear of all backwind they quickly worked out to a lead no one could shake. Johnny Arms in Andiamo and Adrian Iselin in Ace were second and third at the weather mark of the triangle. There was little in the way of change on the two leeward legs but on the next beat to weather Paul Shield and Larry Bainbridge brought Jack Rabbit up from fourteenth to fourth, eventually nosing out Ace for third before the finish.

The next two races were no races, that is Father Time and the well-known absence of breeze dominated the situation. In the first of these the fleet had gone less than half the course when the race was called with but a half hour remaining and an utter absence of wind at the time. By-C, Horace Havemeyer Jr.'s Vim from Great South Bay and Ed Jahncke's Tempe from Lake Pontchartrain were leading at the time.

In the next race, held on the supposed rest day the fleet was within a few hundred yards of the finish when the 3 1/2-hour time limit gun called a halt to the proceedings. Both Iselin and Beardslee were relieved at these two no races for in the first Ace was far in the ruck and in the second By-C was back around 21st place. After each of these events the hospitality shown by the Rochester Y. C. members in picking up the drifting racers and towing them in might well be emulated in some localities we know of where power boat men are inclined to take the attitude that anybody stupid enough to be becalmed in a sailboat ought to be made to stay out all night.

In the first race of the double header scheduled for the next day by the I. R. C. there was a decent little breeze at the start and, freshening all through the contest, a right fair wind by the finish. Harold Halsted pro duced the form many had expected of an Atlantic Coast Champion and wrested the lead from By- on the second weather leg of another triangular course. Beardslee led Harry Nye's Lake Michigan Gale VI to the finish and so worked out to a nice lead over Ace which had fourth.

That afternoon in a twelve to fourteen knot wind Havemeyer got his Vim really going on the wind, in the first leg of the windward and leeward. Ace led Gull for second while Jack Keith of Santa Monica led his fellow Californian Beardslee to the finish for fourth. The results left Ace and By-C far ahead in the point standing. There had been several withdrawals in the third race due to minor casualties like broken halyards and spreaders. It was a splendid showing for Commodore Symonette and his beautifully conditioned Nassau entry, as his third put him in the running.

The third race saw dashed hopes of several skippers who both before the series started and up to their downfall looked like real contenders. The first to see his standing tumble was Sam Smith with his Pioneer from Otsego Lake. Smith sailed a brilliant race to place fourth only to find after he finished that he had been over the starting line before the gun. He had neither heard the recall signal nor been free enough of boats to see his recall number and so he lost 32 points.

Another contender, Johnny Arms, with Andiamo got into a mess with Harold Halsted and a third boat at the end of the first round on approaching the mark. Halsted lost ten places before he got untangled and as the I. R. C. ruled after two hearings, Andiamo did not have an overlap on Chuckle at the buoy and was therefore disqualified.

With Pioneer, Andiamo, Chuckle all well down the list on points at the start of the fourth race the hopes of the Atlantic Seaboard were low indeed when Iselin and Ace were across before the gun and recalled at the start.

But Iselin and another skipper also over either heard the recall whistle or saw their recall numbers and they returned. Top honors in this contest were to go to neither of the series leaders but to Jack Keith and Ernest Phillips of Santa Monica with Turtle Star as they scored a splendid victory in the light air over Andiamo. Homer Clark of Sandy Bay took third in Sans Souci. And the leaders. Well, by the time they had navigated the triangle twice Iselin had done some fancy wind hunting to come up from last at the start to eighth at the finish with By-C right on his heels in ninth place.

Going into the last race therefore Beardslee still had a lead on Iselin of one point with the rest of the fleet practically out of it. Strange as it may seem these two top-ranking helmsmen ignored each other and went wind hunting privately in a race which saw the wind come from every direction on the compass and for goodly portion of the time from nowhere at all. The fleet was scrambled and unscrambled a couple of times and finally when a breeze resumed and defeated the time limit to the gratification of almost everybody it was obvious that Dr. Niels Martin of Santa Barbara with Pbar Lap had an unbeatable lead.

Following Pbar Lap at the finish were Ace and Tempe in that order with By-C placing sixth. Beardslee had come from far behind to do that well and in surrendering his championship he did so only after the gamest sort of a fight. In his second place Iselin garnered more than enough points for his championship and it must have been more than pleasing to him to have won it in a finale in which there was absolutely no teamwork or anything but the cleanest kind of sailing all around.

Thus was the Big Show sailed. Adrian Iselin had won his second Gold Star by uncannily consistent sailing without garnering a single 'first place. In almost any other series the performance turned in by any number of helmsmen would have won them the title. But one bad break or slip and there goes the series in such company as was on hand at Rochester. Too much credit cannot go to Beardslee, Halsted, Martin, Keith, and Havemeyer with individual wins and to fine showings in the face of adversity by Johnny Arms and Sam Smith and others.

The Rochester Yacht Club's facilities, masterfully directed by Commodore Ed Doyle and Philip G. Hoffman were more than equal to the occasion. And as one sports commentator concluded his write-up: "After all of the guns had been fired and flags hoisted for the winners in any sailing series, I always feel like firing a twenty-one-gun salute for the Coast Guard patrol and the Race Committee. Let it be said here that the International Star Class Race Committee at Rochester functioned about as smoothly as any race committee known about".

Certainly the 1936 World Championship will long be a pleasant memory to all who had even a glimpse of it. By that event the prestige of the Class cannot but have received a tremendous impetus in the minds of those the world over interested in intersectional, clean, genuinely competitive, Corinthian small boat sailing.