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Weak winds can't deter salty Barnacle stalwarts
Casual is key at area sailboat racing series
Friday, July 3, 2009
 Click here to enlarge this photo Staff photo by JAY FRIESS
Shawn Moore mans the helm as his sailboat, the Corvina, leads the competition around the buoys in Breton Bay during the opening race of the Barnacle Cup.
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For more information on the Barnacle Cup series, call Robert "Buzz" Ballard at 301-997-0726 or Shawn Moore at 301-247-7238.
It's a Saturday morning during the first race of the 2009 season of the ad hoc Barnacle Cup sailing competition. The air is still, and St. Patrick Creek is lazily drifting toward the Potomac River in an unhurried tidal shift.
This is not an ideal time for the control panel of Shawn Moore's sailboat, Corvina, to start keening like an angry osprey. The loud beeping is the marine equivalent of a red dash light in a car. Something's wrong.
"The simple matter of fact is that we're a sailboat," Capt. Moore says, undaunted. "We'll figure this out later. I think she's overheated."
The Corvina is not known for her luck. In 2001, her bilge pump failed for an unknown reason, and she sank in her slip. Moore bought her and restored her after the incident, and she's completed three Governor's Cup races since 2004. But now she's adrift in the creek with no wind and no motor.
A few minutes later, she's stuck on a silt bar at the mouth of the creek.
Moore reluctantly restarts the motor and works Corvina loose. The mainsail and the Jenny sail are raised, but they just flop listlessly. And now the trash talk starts on the radio. Three other sailboats are bobbing out near St. George Island, waiting for the Corvina, making light of Moore's predicament.
Robert "Buzz" Ballard, captain of Ramble On, asks if Moore needs a tow.
"I could use a tow, so long as no one is taking pictures," Moore replies.
The race "committee boat," a speedboat full of teenagers, roars to the scene and hitches up the Corvina, towing her to the starting line.
Ballard tells his fellow racers to line up, adding, "We'll just pick Shawn up whenever they get his butt over here."
The race begins just after noon, and the four boats set their course for a pair of white buoys in Breton Bay at a rip-roaring 1.9 knots, or a little over two miles an hour. There's little wind and no motor noise, so the tightly packed boats resort to banter for entertainment.
"Bob!" Moore shouts at the Evergreen. He points to his mast. "New sail!"
"That's cheating!" Bob Donaldson, Evergreen's captain, replies.
"If you ain't cheating, you ain't trying," Ballard says over the radio.
The Evergreen's rudder is acting funny and the boat weaves back and forth as Donaldson works out the problem.
"Bad engine, bad rudder; what else can go wrong?" Moore asks.
"No wind," Donaldson replies.
He's right. The breeze ranges from dead to fickle. Ramble On can't even keep its light spinnaker sail inflated. Corvina's crew takes the opportunity for a lunch of pasta salad, potato salad and fried chicken.
"If it was any fresher, we'd have to kill it," comments crew member David Densford on the chicken.
The crew swats away a cloud of bugs that materializes. Corvina inches along lazily.
Suddenly, wind.
Moore shouts orders. Densford and crew member Terry Larus drop their plates and scramble to their positions, adjusting the Jenny. Corvina begins to accelerate, passing the other three boats on their right and blocking, or "blanketing," their wind. Corvina takes the lead.
"We can't accuse you of having your engine on, because we know it doesn't work," Donaldson cracks over the radio.
Then the surge of wind dies. The ambitious race course the Barnacle Cuppers have laid out begins to look a little long to Moore. He picks up the radio and hails Ramble On, which is trailing a few hundred feet behind.
"We can barely see you!" Ballard says mockingly.
Moore asks him if he wants to adjust the course, adding, "I have to be at work next Thursday."
Ballard replies, "There's a lot on the line, here. We're talking about bragging rights."
The wind surges again, pushing Corvina to a race record speed of 3.1 knots. Corvina rounds the first buoy with several boat lengths between her and the competition.
"It's like rounding the first corner at Pimlico," Densford says wryly. "We may be the rabbit."
Corvina overshoots the second buoy and the other boats start razzing Moore over the radio.
"My crew doesn't know what to do in this position," Moore replies. "We've never been here before!"
Evergreen has obviously worked out its rudder problem and Donaldson is gaining on Corvina.
"I appreciate you letting us catch up," Donaldson says.
Corvina and Evergreen continue to play cat and mouse as the boats do a second lap around the buoys. The wind is holding up, and the Barnacle group agrees to restart the race so that everyone can fairly benefit from the new speed. But no one can figure out how to end the current race.
"We'll just go 'til somebody cries ‘uncle,'" Donaldson says before charging into the lead.
