Opening Day at Rock Hall YC.

Today was the Rock Hall Yacht Club's Opening Day Regatta.  Invited classes were Classic Moths, Lasers, Laser Radials, and Windmills.  The forecast called for temps in the upper 60s, sunny skies and perhaps 9 to 10 knots of breeze out of the Northwest.  Originally we were supposed to have six Moths racing but two withdrew at the last minute.  No matter.  Four boats got us a separate start so life was good!  Rock Hall is roughly 2 hours by car from my home so with boat to rig and a skipper's meeting scheduled for 9:30 an early departure was called for.  I was on the road at 6:30 am.

Rock Hall Yacht Club is down the Chester River from Chestertown, Maryland.  The setting is very pleasant and very rural.  Getting to the club entails a drive down narrow roads which thankfully are mostly empty early on a May Saturday morning.

The first order of business after arriving is to off load boats from trailers and roof racks and rig up.  Fellow racers Bill and Shane Boyle are in the background getting their boats ready.  We launched boats at a small beach at the extreme right side of this photo.

The early morning breeze was reasonably steady but the race committee decided to take us a mile or so out into the bay in order to avoid wind shadows from trees along the shore.  We were scheduled to run five races but completed only two.  Moths started the third race but the wind died completely before we made the weather mark and with that, racing was abandoned for the day.  But, since one completed race constitutes a regatta, the race committee was happy even though the competitors wished for more.  It took quite a while to sail back to the club.

John Zseleczky took a well deserved 1st place in the Moth Class.  We chased his transom all day long.

Your diarist took 2nd place.

The back side of the engraved tumblers had a representation of the type of boat for each class racing.  The Moth depicted on my trophy is a design from perhaps the 1940s.  Rock Hall YC has a tradition for the trophy winners at the Opening Day Regatta--they get to have their trophies filled with their favorite tipple at the club bar on the house!  I asked that mine be filled to the rim with Mount Gay rum on the rocks.  A most satisfactory way to close out an abbreviated day of racing!

After the trophy presentation the club had their annual flag raising ceremony to mark the start of the new season, complete with firing a small starting cannon.  The cannon's report inspired every farmyard dog for miles around to bark in appreciation.  With that, John and I packed up our boats and headed home.  I arrived back in time to watch "Animal Kingdom" win the Kentucky Derby.  A good day out!