2024 Oyster Roast Regatta
Annapolis Thistle Fleet #34 and Severn Sailing Association hosted the 2024 Oyster Roast regatta on October 12th and 13th. Fifteen Thistles took to the race course in a fickle westerly breeze. PRO Steve Podlich had to wait for the fleet to make it to the race course. The breeze filled in enough to get a start off, but shut down on the final run of the windward leeward course to shake up the fleet as various parts of the fleet experienced private puffs or holes, which shuffled the final order close to the finish. Magically, despite the slow finish, the wind picked up enough to start the next race, but again, the breeze was not consistent, although the right side of the course seemed to have more pressure and boats favoring that side tended to do better. By race 4, the wind was very light at the start. The fleet struggled to get around lap one, and the westerly breeze started to shut down on the second beat, only to be slowly replaced by a southerly, to the chagrin of the leading boats at the north end of the course. DRO Lisa Pline convinced Steve to shorten at the weather mark, more or less preserving finishing position for many in the fleet, despite some inversion as the filling breeze was erratic. Team Barbehenn won 3 of the 4 races, and was second in the other for a commanding lead.
The Oyster Roast is famous for the fall sailing in Annapolis but more so for the after party and dinner on Saturday featuring steamed and raw oysters. Rick Mayers with assistance from Rosemary Foltis and Doug Freeman oversaw the roasting of oysters in the SSA parking lot. Four boxes totaling 400 oysters were consumed, some raw, many steamed. Given the beautiful weather, we moved the appetizer and oyster tables to the new Opti dock, providing an excellent venue to take in the beautiful fall afternoon. Bill Lawson once again whipped up an over-sized batch of oyster stew, which was delicious as always with no leftovers. Numerous appetizers and a catered dinner from Red Hot & Blue rounded out the food offerings.
Sunday, the forecast was for the southerly to build during the day ahead of an approaching cold front. It took a while for any breeze to fill in, but by 10:30 we had a relatively stable 5-8 kt southerly, which built to 10-12 over the course of the morning. Three more races were completed with Team Duffett taking 3 bullets. Of the fifteen boats competing, 16 registered but one from Connecticut had car trouble enroute and didn’t make it, 8 were affiliated with SSA. Results are posted at the SSA website.
And to make it clear the club was fully utilized, since the MASSA Team Racing championship was also being run out of SSA with 10 high school teams of 3 boats each competing. With good coordination onshore, both groups were able to use the club facilities harmoniously. Note to self. With two SSA events running simultaneously, best for one to pick a VHF alternative to 65A, lest you want lots of unrelated chatter on the radio.
The Parramore Perpetual trophy, which resides in the SSA Stuart Walker trophy cabinet, was awarded to SSA non-resident member Brent Barbehenn and crew. The trophy was dedicated to memory of Paul Parramore in 1969 and sailed for in Jet-14s for many years before being rededicated by Michael Parramore for the Oyster Roast after the Jets stopped racing locally. Brent first won it in Jet-14’s in 1982.
The regatta was registered with Sailors for the Sea as a Platinum Level Clean Regatta, their highest level. Cairn Krafft organized the green team of volunteers and coordinated the efforts for the event. This year, we were visited by Emily Conklin, a Sailors for the Sea employee and TCA Clean Class Committee liaison, who was staffing a booth at the Sailboat Show. Emily was suitably impressed with the level of commitment Fleet 34 and SSA have put into making regattas more environmentally friendly.
Special thanks to Mary Pat McNulty for her behind-the-scenes organizational work and onshore support getting things set up for breakfasts, appetizers and dinner Saturday, and lunch Sunday.
