1965 North American Championship - Oxford, MD, USA
Regatta Report
by Mary Swaine
John Albrechtson, of Gotenburg, Sweden, won the 1965 North American Silver Star championship at Oxford, Maryland, with a 14-point lead over William Parks of Chicago, his nearest rival.
Racing the first two days was called off, first when it was impossible to finish a race within the time limit, then when the air was so light that no race could even be started. The 45 skippers began to think this really was light air country, that is, until Wednesday. The day dawned with a southerly that showed signs of picking up strength only after the boats were well on their way out to the starting area, where a double header was to be sailed. By race time the anemo meter showed a steady 20 and higher in the gusts. All boats were caught with the wrong sails.
Bob Lippincott, sailing Splendid, was away at the weather end of the line and tacked immediately toward the starboard shore in search of smoother water, followed by Norman Freeman's Jolly Green Giant of Ithaca (Lake Cayuga), New York. Lippincott tacked out too early to pick up the favoring slant that Freeman found in under the beach. Freeman moved the Jolly Green Giant into the lead at the first mark, followed around by Bill Lyon's Bagace, Hilary Smart's Hilarius, and Splendid.
The reach was a fast plane, with boats shooting off the crests of the seas as Lippy outran both Smart and the Lyon brothers, while Jolly Green Giant held the lead. As the fleet labored back upwind under the light-air sails, Splendid dropped to fifth, passed by Herb Hild's Desiree, Etchells' Shandry, and Hilarius. Some rigging troubles began to develop. Lippincott again took off downwind in clouds of spray, catching all but Jolly Green Giant. Desiree finished third.
The second race was started as soon after the finish of the first as the com mittee could get a new line set. In between races the gusts hit a new high. The start of the second race was again perfect, this time with Splendid at the leeward end and Albrechtson's Scandale in the middle. Miles Wynn, of New Orleans, also at the leeward end, took a hitch and crossed most of the fleet. Scandale, by a series of judicious short tacks up the middle, worked into a position between the fleet and the mark. Richard Stearns' Glider rounded the weather mark close behind Scandale.
Lippincott was seventh around, but nearly repeated his reaching work of the first race to move into third at the end of the lap. As Stearns rounded the home mark and trimmed sheets for the final windward leg, Glider's mast buckled and broke. Albrechtson, sailing well, held his lead through the second round to beat Lippy by about 10 seconds with John Sherwood third and Freeman fourth. This put Lippincott's Splendid in first place, one point ahead of Jolly Green Giant, with Scandale and Shandry seven points out of first in a tie for fourth.
The combination of heavy wind and sea and sails that were so full-cut that they put a disproportionate bend into the mast had taken a heavy toll of masts and fittings. As the boats returned to the yacht club, weary skippers and crews went to work repairing the damages for the next day's race or waited in line at the town's only sail loft. The start of Thursday's race was scheduled for 2 p.m. to allow as much time as possible for repairs.
A light shifty northerly spelled doom for many of Wednesday's leaders. Scandale, off at the weather end, tacked soon and headed east along with the major part of the fleet. The other group, containing Lippincott, Freeman, Smart, Hild, and others of yesterday's first ten, looked good on a long starboard tack out in the river, but were then left stranded as the tricky airs faded to a near calm. Tide also slowed the mid-river group, as Mead Batchelor rounded first for Aquarius' moment of glory of the week. Watt and Page Webb were second in Quasar. Scandale was seventh at this stage, while of the ill-fated starboard tack bunch, Jolly Green Giant was 29th, Splendid a splendid 31st, Hilarius 33rd, and Sapphire 40th.
There was not much shifting of the strung-out fleet on the downwind legs, but the last windward leg was a different story. At the last weather mark Shandry led, with Bert Williams' Sunshine second and Scandale third. The air was by now even rattier, and it was anybody's guess as first one group, then another, would move out on zephyrs. While Sunshine dropped 16 places, Scandale man aged to hold third, crossing the finish line only inches behind the Webbs in Quasar and Bill Pickford's Caprice. Scandale now held the series lead by six points. Next was Shandry with a 4-7-9, and Bill Parks and Buck Halperin were third in Shrew with 6-11-8.
Friday's fourth race started under overcast skies with the same up-and-down northerly and a haze that blotted out the shoreline. Albrechtson and Yule put Scandale across in the middle of the line and played shifts up the middle to reach the first mark third, behind Streeton's Esprit of the host fleet and Quasar, which was first. By the end of the first lap Stearns had moved Glider to the fore, with Scandale second, Albrechtson continued his climb to move into first by sailing a near perfect second windward leg. The 29-year-old Swedish ace racked up his second win with a handsome lead. Glider was second. Shrew's fifth moved her into series second, 15 big points behind the flying Swede.
Saturday was overcast with the haze so heavy that the marks were not to be seen until the boats were nearly on top of them. The breeze was light southwest. When the starting gun fired, most of the fleet had been carried over the line by a strong tide, forcing a general recall. A second start brought the same result. On the third try the five minute gun would not fire, so again a restart. On the fourth attempt the fleet was away to a beautiful start.
Most of the fleet, including Scandale, played it safe up the middle, but George Thomas took his Ingenue so far out on the starboard tack that it became question able whether he was even racing. When he finally tacked it was evident that he was racing very well. He picked up a shift and a big tidal lift to round the first mark far ahead of the fleet. Shrew was fifth and Scandale ninth. Offwind the gaps between boats simply lengthened out as the fleet became strung out over 15 miles of the course. On the final weather leg Ingenue barely maintained her lead, half a boat length ahead of Wynn's Flambeau. Wynn and Bob Thompson drove Flambeau hard to win the last race and the handsome Ned Hay Memorial trophy. First place in the series was a foregone conclusion as Albrechtson and his 17 year-old, six foot seven inch, crew easily saved their points on Siew and the others by finishing a safe seventh. Near the end of the race the skies cleared and a warm sun came out, and as Scandale crossed the finish line the committee boat hoisted the Swedish flag.
Results
1965 NORTH AMERICAN CHAMPIONSHIP - OXFORD, MD Place No. Name Skipper Crew Fleet Daily Places Pts. 1 4969 Scandale John AlbrechtsonGeorge Yule Vin 10 1 3 1 7 208 2 4845 Shrew VI William Parks Robert Halperin SLM 6 11 8 5 4 196 3 4975 Shandry E. W. Etchells Philip Botsolas CLIS 4 7 9 10 9 191 4 3742 Sapphire John Sherwood Charles McManus CB 9 3 19 7 12 181 5 3949 Flambeau Miles P. Wynn Robert Thompson NOG 12 8 28 4 1 176 6 4923 J. Green Giant Norman Freeman Andrew McPhersonIth 1 4 27 9 15 174 7 4928 Splendid Bob Lippincott Walter Flynn WJ 2 2 24 15 14 173 8 4949 Quasar Watt W. Webb Page Webb Ith 29 26 1 3 16 155 9 4840 Desiree Herbert Hild James Egan ERF 3 5 25 14 34 149 10 4544 Chimera E. Chester Peet Tupper Hale WLIS 22 16 4 8 35 145 11 4644 Flamingo Paul Woodbury Arnold Knauth CA 17 14 6 18 31 144 12 4905 Hilarius Hilary H. Smart John Weston CA 5 10 40 31 2 142 13 3971 Bonnie Lassie John McKeague Jack Lynch StJ 36 9 18 21 5 141 14 4820 Windy Jay C. Winberg L. Elfendahl Shil 13 dnf 1O 6 18 137 15 4855 Scotch Thomas Hislop Howie LippincottOwL 16 20 22 13 28 131 16 4340 Aquarius Mead Batchelor Robert Witt Mid 14 19 7 30 30 130 17 4730 Esprit II Jack Streeton John T. Trinter ES 26 21 35 12 8 128 18 4558 Blue Chip David Gaillard Samuel D. Hall CB 34 13 5 26 26 126 19 4841 Glider Richard Stearns G. Vandenburgh WH 8 dnf 34 2 17 123 20 4965 Bagace C. W. Lyon Jr Frank Lyon AH 7 -- 15 33 10 119 21 4874 Sunshine Bert Williams Walter Austin ChiH 15 18 17 37 24 119 22 4548 Chuckle Harold Halsted Lawrence Cox MorB 20 22 11 29 33 115 23 4844 Finesse Michael Flynn George C. Flynn ELIS 31 25 14 41 6 113 24 4883 GDB Kim Fletcher Michael ShanahanMis 11 dnf 21 11 36 105 25 4667 Big If Thompson Adams William RichardsWH 37 6 16 20 wdr 105 26 3858 Ingenue George Thomas Charles Simpson CLE 24 -- 29 28 3 100 27 4900 Sabre John Slack John Randak CLIS 38 15 12 38 27 100 28 4860 Valare R. Campanelli Joseph Scanza ERF 21 12 41 40 19 97 29 4956 Centavos Willard Hodges Alfred Jaretzki Sun 35 -- 20 23 11 95 30 4884 Lecherous Albert Lechmer John Lechner ChiH 19 24 13 39 41 94 31 4757 Cloud Nine Stan Lippincott Alan Lippincott WJ 33 28 39 24 29 87 32 4635 Lamb Chop David Kingston H. Miltenberger AH 39 23 23 35 25 85 33 4850 Mavourneen IV Bucky Moore Russell Brooks HB 18 dnf 36 16 32 82 34 4680 Caprice Wm. Pickford Chas. Lewsadder WS 23 dnf 2 25 wdr 78 35 4843 Lynx Ernest Hammer Russell H. Helm CLE wdr -- 31 17 22 68 36 4988 Sirene Kenneth Smith Gerald Swanton HB -- 17 37 22 -- 62 37 4847 Needle John K. Todd John K. Todd Jr ES 30 dnf dnf 27 23 58 38 4100 Conflict Daniel Hubers Paul Kniepkamp NCB 32 -- 30 wdr 20 56 39 4589 Cirrus Pike Sullivan Walter G.Pilcer GrL 28 27 38 wdr 37 54 40 3340 Kismet John McCrillis Donald Sieburg Sun 41 29 26 42 38 54 41 4443 Jomar Steven Simon Jessica Simon LOC 42 -- 33 19 39 51 42 4144 Finale Richard Miller Robert Witt CH 27 dnf 32 34 40 51 43 4970 Riptide V Richard Poole Patricia Poole GrL 40 dnf 42 32 21 49 44 3819 Fantasy Charles Jeanne Peter Weber WS dnf -- 43 36 13 46 45 4531 Magoo Philip Grifrin John Ahlquist SLM 25 dnf -- -- -- 21
