THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, September 10, 1995 TAG: 9509070219
SECTION: CAROLINA COAST PAGE: 10 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY RONALD L. SPEER, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 85 lines
FOR ALBEMARLE SAILORS, the season is now.
Late summer and early fall provide the best weather for people who go to sea under sail, with steady winds, cool temperatures and few thunderstorms.
It's an ideal time for cruising the rivers and sounds around the Albemarle, particularly on a weekend like this one with a full moon lighting the waters of overnight anchorages.
It's fun, too, to test your sailing skills by renting a small boat for a day sail, or taking lessons to learn port from starboard, a sheet from a halyard, the pointy end of a boat from the square end.
And if you're serious about sailing, several yacht clubs sponsor regular races for beginners and old salts.
Three of the biggest clubs in the Albemarle are the Edenton Yacht Club, the Pasquotank River Yacht Club and the Roanoke Island Yacht Club.
Those three rivals square off three times a year for the sailing supremacy of the Albemarle Sound, and most of the contenders take the challenge seriously.
Sailors from the three clubs battled in Elizabeth City earlier in the summer, and they renewed the rivalry in Colington Harbour last weekend, with the Roanoke Island club the host.
In October they'll sail the last leg of the Albemarle Sound Sailing Association's Triad Race Series in Edenton.
High winds added to the challenge in the races out of Colington Harbour, with 21 small boats vying for honors Saturday and 44 bigger boats in the competition Sunday.
Winds were a steady 23 knots Sunday, and many a rail (the top of the side of the boat) was under water much of the day as the boats battled gusts of up to 30 knots.
Lines snapped, sails were ripped and novices dropped out in the morning and afternoon races of about nine miles each.
Three divisions raced for trophies, with a class for boats with spinnakers (a big, colorful, balloon-like sail), and two-non-spinnaker classes based on ratings designed to make all boats equal when handicaps are figured in.
Non-sailors don't get very worked up about sailboat races, with famed sportswriter Red Smith once describing them as about as exciting as watching grass grow.
But if you're aboard a 30-foot sailboat in gusty winds, all sails up, jockeying for position at the start with a dozen other boats, you'll quickly discover that it really is more thrilling than watching paint dry.
And when a gust knocks your boat over to the point that seawater is pouring into the cockpit, you'll probably challenge Red Smith's assessment.
And when a jib sheet (the rope to the sail in front of the mast) snaps as you're coming about (turning into the wind to change course) and the sail is popping in the wind with the fearsome sound of a machine gun and you have to pull it in and tie on a new sheet while the boat is rolling like a wounded whale, it doesn't seem dull at all.
The skipper who handled the wind and the waves and his rivals best in the races off Colington Harbour was Jim Elliott, who won the spinnaker class and overall honors in a 32-foot Columbia named Nereid. ILLUSTRATION: Photo by BETTY O'CONNOR
Some of the 65 boats in the 12th Annual Albemarle Challenge Cup vie
for position during last weekend's race.
Graphic
RESULTS
Overall: Jim Elliott, spinnaker class and overall honors.
The top finishers in the large boat races:
Spinnaker Class: 1, Jim Elliott, Edenton Yacht Club, Neried; 2,
Pete Hunter, Roanoke Island Yacht Club, Ninewonone; 3, Tom Louis,
Edenton, Heart of Carolina.
Class A: 1, Arch Farmer, Pasquotank River Yacht Club, Feather; 2,
Karen Carney, Edenton, Spooners; 3, Dick Sowers, Pasquotank, Great
Escape.
Class B: 1, Lee Wallio, Pasquotank, Zippedy Doo Da; 2, Gil
Burroughs, Edenton, Barbara Jean III; 3, Ernest Davenport,
Pasquotank, Wind Fever.
Winners in the small boat races:
Lido, Shawn and Lisa Murphy, Roanoke Island; Flying Scott, Dick
Schultz, Morehead City Boat Club; Sunfish, Wayne Mathews,
Pasquotank; Open, Sam Ballard, Roanoke Island.
by CNB