From the Projo
2002-09-30

The article from yesterdays race:

Light wind hampers Humphrey Memorial

09/30/2002

BY DAVE PHILIPS

Special to the Journal

BARRINGTON -- It's either feast or famine for the Barrington Yacht Club's annual Wallace "Bud" Humphrey Memorial Race the last two years.

In last year's race, skippers struggled to hold their boats together in winds of 20-30 knots.

Yesterday a representative fleet of yachts from clubs all over Narragansett Bay hardly had enough wind to blow out a match, and none of the 94 starters came close to finishing the 14.3-mile race around Prudence Island.

It was only the second time in the 23-year history of the event that no one has finished.

Unfortunately, there was no provision in the sailing instructions to postpone the staggered starts, which took 57 minutes to run off. There also was no provision in the sailing rules for shortening the course. But with the wind so light all day, the race committee might have shortened the race by half and still had no finishers.

"It was interesting racing for a while but we never saw a sustained breeze," said event chairman Tom Scott, who raced yesterday on his J-24.

The fleet barely had enough wind to clear the starting line against an incoming tide. Many, in fact, were late for their scheduled starts. An hour later the wind indicator on the committee boat was stuck on zero and most yachts were barely a mile down the course.

Not long after that, skippers began getting on the radio to tell race committee chairman Steve Terhune they were dropping out.

By 3 p.m., two-thirds of the competitors withdrew.

Half an hour later, a voice on channel 72 (Rons note: it was Vince from War Pig) asked anyone still in the race to acknowledge by saying "aye." Eight voices answered.

There was a buffet supper last night at the Barrington Yacht Club, but the silver plates, which were to have been given to the first three finishers, were put away until next year.

Scott, who has organized this event from the beginning, is the grandson of former Barrington Yacht Club commodore Wallace Humphrey, who died in a boating accident.

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