THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, July 12, 1996 TAG: 9607100128
SECTION: PORTSMOUTH CURRENTS PAGE: 06 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Cover Story
SOURCE: BY IDA KAY JORDAN, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 105 lines
THE NINTH ANNUAL Cock Island Race, set for July 19-21, is expected to ``sell out'' again this year, co-chairman Jim Hawks said Tuesday.
``We have some competition this year with a race scheduled at Solomon's Island, Md., but I don't think we'll see any fewer boats,'' he said.
Deadline for entry is today at 5 p.m., when a registration form and entry fee of $60 must be at the Ports Events office, 355 Crawford St.
The race is limited to 300 participating vessels by a Coast Guard determination that more than 300 boats could create a dangerous situation in the working harbor between downtown Portsmouth and downtown Norfolk.
``There's never been a serious accident or any injuries,'' Hawks said.
Usually, the race committee has a waiting list of those who registered after the limit was reached, so Hawks anticipates that all of the spaces will be filled.
Hawks, a former City Council member, and Johnny Ellis, a Portsmouth native now living in Virginia Beach, have served as co-chairmen for four years. They took over when founding chairman Morton V. ``Mo'' Whitlow stepped down after five years at the helm.
The race was Whitlow's ``brainchild,'' Hawks said. Hawks, Ellis and Whitlow decided it would be a way ``to get sailors back to Portsmouth.''
Whitlow made the first effort when he went to Hampton to meet with some of the area's best-known and most serious racers.
``We needed to get the competitive racers,'' Whitlow said Tuesday.
The Cock Island Race encompasses two groups of sailors: the racers and the cruisers.
``The serious racers enjoy it because they are respected for their skills by the casual sailors,'' Whitlow said. ``The cruising-type sailors enjoy it because they are in the race, too.''
In fact, since the two were combined in Portsmouth, Cock Island is ``now being copied by others,'' Whitlow said. He said Chesapeake Bay races in Annapolis, Hampton and Fishing Bay all have added the cruising class.
``Actually, the race has far exceeded all my expectations,'' Whitlow said. ``I thought if we had 100 to 150 boats, we would have a huge success.''
The first race in 1988 drew 163 entries for a rain-drenched start off the Seawall.
That was the test for serious sailors from other cities. John Martin of Norfolk, skipper of the ``Mar Luv'' which finished first in the PHFR-N class that first year, admitted he was skeptical.
``We just came over here to support it because we'd like to see more races in the area,'' Martin was quoted as saying at the time. ``But this is great. Everything went very well, and the race was very organized.''
That was just the image Whitlow wanted to portray.
``The reputation of the event - and of Portsmouth - spread all over the Mid-Atlantic,'' he said. ``Sailors who come to Cock Island have only good things to say about Portsmouth.''
Whitlow and Hawks are both serious sailors. Both will be on the water next weekend, crewing for others.
But both men also understand the importance of an event that is geared to family fun, which is not usually true of serious races.
``Cock Island is half race and half party,'' he said. ``The real objective is fun.''
Even the name of the race has an aura of fun. Cock Island was a nickname given to Portsmouth a century ago by sailors who came to the city to watch then-fashionable cock fights.
Whitlow has called the event ``a serious race for non-serious sailors and a non-serious race for serious sailors.''
``It's really paid off for Portsmouth,'' Hawks said. ``That's because the participants largely are not Portsmouth people. We're bringing a lot of people from Portsmouth who otherwise would never have a reason to come here.''
The race starts and finishes at the Zero Mile Marker on the Intracoastal Waterway and follows a course out into Hampton Roads and around the Middle Ground Light.
The racers will be divided into 10 classes, with the first race starting at 9:30 a.m., followed by others at five-minute intervals. The events are visible to spectators on both sides of the harbor, with the best view from the Portsmouth Seawall.
The boats will begin arriving in town next Friday afternoon when skippers will check in and pick up race flags between 3 and 7 p.m.
Registered skippers and their crews will be entertained at a 5 p.m. cocktail party at Waverly Park on Crawford Parkway between Court and Washington streets. The party is expected to last two hours and attract about 4,000 people. A similar party also will be held on Saturday after the race.
``The Portsmouth Boat Club supplies the help for that party,'' Hawks said. ``They provide us with 68 bartenders for the party every year.''
Although the cocktail parties are limited to skippers and their crews, other entertainment, which includes street dances on Friday and Saturday nights, is open free to the public. ILLUSTRATION: Staff file photo by STEVE EARLEY
My Only Vice of Virginia Beach gains ground on Battlewagon of
Seaford during a past Cock Island Race. Entry deadline is today for
the event that attracts racers and cruisers.
With part of the crew serving as counterbalance, Vamp of Newport
News heels over in a breeze at the beginning of a past Cock Island
Race.
Sailboats in the PHRF B class start a Cock Island Race. The racers
will be divided into 10 classes, with the first race starting at
9:30 a.m. July 19. The events are visible to spectators on both
sides of the harbor, with the best view from the Portsmouth Seawall.
KEYWORDS: COCK ISLAND RACE by CNB