It’s just a friendly get-together — they say
Issue 74 : Sept/Oct 2010
The silver lure soared into the soft late afternoon sunlight before splashing into the quiet water of Mattituck Harbor, Long Island, sending ripples out in a circular pattern. I hadn’t cranked the handle more than a few times before a fish grabbed it and took off, hell-bent on escape. After carefully playing it, I lifted it out of the water just as a stunning black 42-foot yawl coasted by.
“Cocktail blue, eh?” said the captain.
“Yeah, but he forgot my martini,” I quipped. We both laughed.
“Well, after we drop anchor, come aboard and we’ll offer you a real martini,” said the owner of the handsome yawl.
The owners of Golden~Eye, Richard Emmert and his son Mike, were warm, hospitable sailors whose verbal jousting with me became the cement that would bind a developing friendship. I learned that Golden~Eye is a 1937 Rhodes custom yawl built by Minneford’s on City Island, New York. Richard had discovered her in 1972, forsaken at a City Island yard. A restoration project of significant proportions followed.
As we sat in the cockpit that afternoon, the father-and-son team explained they were headed to many of the same ports of call we were. Over the next few days, we sailed in tandem and enjoyed their company on Long Island Sound. Then they popped the question.
“Say, would you like to participate in the Heritage Cup Series?” asked Mike.
“Race?” I asked, a quiver in my voice.
“Yeah, just for fun. Not very competitive at all.”
My experience in racing goes back quite a ways, aboard some really memorable boats in some very exciting races. The phrase “not competitive” never once entered my vocabulary, much less my head. When I embarrassingly caused a jib-sheet jam in the winch, I was horrified to see the owner take a meat cleaver and hack off a $300 piece of line. As a result of that experience, I have always believed the concept of “insanely competitive” more accurately describes sailboat racing.
“Oh, no,” Mike said. “This is nothing like that at all. We just get together for a friendly race around the buoys. We even have a class for good old boats like yours (a fiberglass 1969 Pearson 35-foot centerboard sloop named Viridian). Look at it this way — racing is a great way to polish your seamanship and navigation skills.”
Uh oh. Now there was no backing out.
A race for classics
So it was that Viridian entered the 2009 Heritage Cup Series, in Hempstead Harbor, Long Island. The series, born out of the cancellation of the well-known New York Governor’s Cup, is held the first weekend in October and was originally a regatta for wooden boats (in 2009 there were 18 wooden boats). To widen
interest in the series, Mike wanted to expand it to include fiberglass boats, and had been talking with Jim Cassidy, owner of Heritage Marine Insurance. Jim invited Good Old Boat magazine to sponsor the race that was to be named the Heritage Series for Good Old Boats. The rest, as they, is history.
Mike and his team added a Good Old Boat division for fiberglass boats designed more than 25 years ago. Only three boats signed up the first year. The next year there were four. In 2009 there were five. So, in addition to entering the 2010 race, I pledged to help Mike and the crew get more good old boats in on the fun. Hence this article and the accompanying photos.
Some beautiful boats (both wood and glass) competed in 2009. Winner of the Good Old Boat division was Trevor Wisdom, sailing Wizard, a C&C 35 Mk III. The overall winner on corrected time was Bill Simmons on Allegro, a venerable S-Boat. Golden~Eye came in second in her class.
Viridian came in first in the, er, “Yanmar division” — after slatting around for an hour in the pouring rain (with no wind) on the last leg, we turned the key and motored home so as not to be late for the cocktail party and awards dinner. That’s also part of racing, isn’t it?
Gary Miller has been photographing, writing, and editing for magazines, corporations and organizations for more than 25 years. He has also written, produced and directed hundreds of corporate and educational films and videos. He is an active freelance writer and photographer today.
Thank you to Sailrite Enterprises, Inc., for providing free access to back issues of Good Old Boat through intellectual property rights. Sailrite.com
