1st Annual Turkey Tack

The first annual Turkey Tack Regatta sponsored by Harken Derm and Quantum Sails turned out perfectly last Friday with all 18 FJ’s stuffed with sailors and a side of 5 Lasers. Mother Nature provided plentiful sunshine and 8-10kts of Northwesterly breeze, allowing both the highly-skilled and amateur sailors to efficiently tack or trot around the ~3nm course in under an hour.

Race Committee was ready to prevent fowl play.

Sailors arrived to the club and rigged their assigned FJ only to find out at the skippers meeting they would be sailing a completely different boat. A few sailors were seen running back to their original boats but it wasn’t to sabotage - it was just to retrieve their trusty bailers. All racers lined up at the SSA flagpole shortly before noon and were given a countdown to the Le Mans-style running start to their boats. On the signal, all sailors turkey-trotted to their newly assigned boats, pulled their mains up, and set off across the start line. 5 minutes after the last FJ crossed the start line, a 5-minute start countdown started for the ILCA fleet.

Once across the line, sailors had to sail up the Severn River to the red nun off the Naval Academy then turn southeast to sail down the channel out to G5 off Bembe Beach. Pumpkins both big and small were dropped along the way for sailors to try to grab for a chance to win a prize at the award ceremony. Some sailors turned back for a chance at picking up a pumpkin while others sped on down the course looking for the overall win. Once around G5 sailors had to beat back upwind, honor the shoal pole, and cross the finish line between the orange flag on the 3rd Basin and the green channel marker. The top two finishers were neck-in-neck crossing the line with 3rd place about 20 seconds behind.

The FJ fleet heads downwind to G5 searching for pumpkins. (Photo by Arthur Blodgett)

Sailors de-rigged their boats and returned to SSA with their pumpkins for the awards ceremony. Out of 11 dropped pumpkins, 10 returned - one is possibly still afloat… Wiiiiilsooooonnn! The 6 huge pumpkins had big prizes stemming from sponsored swag bags to a +1 rank in the finishing sequence. Winners collected a $25 gas card, a Hartge Yacht Yard swag bundle, a $50 Annapolis Sail Works gift card, a Quantum Sails swag bundle, and a voucher for priority registration for SSA Summer 2024. The winner of the +1 pumpkin went to a sailor in the middle of the fleet so it didn’t rock the boat too much this year. The 5 smaller pumpkin victors went home with mini SSA swag bags. Top finishers were awarded pecan, apple, and pumpkin pies sponsored unironically by Annapolis Sailing Fitness.

Special awards went out as follows:

Best Team Costume: Preston Senior and Jack Wigmore

Oldest Registered Skipper: Jeffrey Seltzer

Youngest Registered Skipper: Andrew Hanson

Top Finishers by Fleet:

FJ - 1st Place: Daniel Draper & Halsey Carter

FJ - 2nd Place: Trevor Davis & Reese Tindall

FJ - 3rd Place: Preston Senior & Jack Wigmore

ILCA - 1st Place: Peter Judge

ILCA - 2nd Place: Christopher Draper

ILCA - 3rd Place: Conor Mastromarco