Statute of Liberty Race

Sandy Hook Bay Catamaran Club

Atlantic Highlands, NJ

July 2, 2006                                                                                         by John Bauldry

 

 

     Three of the “real” Detroit Tigers and a Hobie 16 made the trek over to New Jersey to take part in the annual Statute of Liberty distance race.  Fleet 276 was represented by Paul, Kim, Austin, Jack, Matt, Laurie, John, Susan and the De Boon clan.  Paul double stacked with Matt and we towed a single.  The plan was to meet at Matt’s early on Saturday, July 1st and caravan.  The route was easy…go south to Toledo, turn left and stop at the Atlantic Ocean.  Henk took a different route north of Lake Erie from his home in Sarnia, crossing the border at Buffalo.  11 hours on the road later (10 behind the wheel and 1 for stops) we arrived at the Sandy Hook Bay Catamaran Club.  We rigged the boats, got them on the beach and then went in search of our hotel.

 

     Sunday morning was sunny, warm and the tree tops were bending over at the hotel.  That meant WIND.  Matt was getting predictions from Windguru for wind in the low to mid teens.  The Weather Channel was predicting higher wind due to an approaching storm front.  The forecast was for 10-15 building to 25-30 with higher gusts during thunderstorms.  We hoisted the sails and prepped the boats for the 40 mile round trip journey to the Lady.  Even though it was warm and humid, we donned our wetsuits for two reasons…the ocean spray and body armor.  It was the right call.

 

     The starting line was huge.  It had to be with 78 boats.  The course was basically sail due north, go around the statute and sail back due south.  The wind was out of the southwest and building.  That meant a broad reach there and a close reach back.  Not very tactical…just go for max boat speed.  Matt was scrambling to find a crew and managed to find a fearless kid named Justin.  Paul sailed with Jack, Henk sailed with his son Martin and Susan braved the conditions with me.  We started the race downwind with chutes up and crews on the wire.

 

     Matt and Paul took off to the right side of the course and I stayed to the left after safely getting by the Navy ammo loading security zone.  I was following Dan and Kathy Kulkowski (locals) figuring they knew what they were doing.  Wrong call.  Matt and Paul jumped out to a huge lead going under the Verrazano bridge.  The wind inside NY harbor was shifty, gusty and building with lots of sail work and course corrections.  You had to dodge harbor traffic (Staten Island ferries and anchored freighters), debris (from the earlier heavy rains) and the shoreline.  Matt was toward the front of the pack at the statute only to see two of the lead boats (I-20 and Nacra F18) capsize.  Paul was charging close behind and the tourists on Liberty Island got to see first hand how fast catamaran sailing really is.  The largest cat in the race, a RC30 (30 footer) flipped inside the harbor by the sewage treatment plant and stuck their mast in the bottom.  YUCK.

 

     The trip back to SHBCC was a rough, double wire affair.  Ever been on the trap for 17 miles straight?  You get tired.  The waves would break against the windward hull with so much force that your feet got lifted right off the boat.  Susan had a couple of body crashes into the hull and I got pounded off the boat a few times.  Glad we had our body armor on.  All this while we kept a wary eye on the approaching weather from the west.  After what seemed like an eternity, we crossed the finish line.  The top four boats crushed the course record by finishing in under 2 hours and 45 minutes.  78 boats started.  63 finished.   Hobies of various sizes took 7 of the top 10 positions.

 

     Matt and Paul finished 4th and 6th respectively on elapsed time and corrected out at 2nd and 4th.  Both took home hardware.  Congratulations guys.  Henk finished 45th elapsed and 33rd corrected.  We came in 15th and corrected out at 24th.    We were just happy to say we did it.  We broke down the boats and made then road ready.  After the awards ceremony we drove back to the hotel and then to dinner.  During dinner a monster severe thunderstorm rolled through with spectacular lightning.  I’m glad we were not out on the water. 

 

     We played tourists the next day by getting on one of the commuter ferries and going back up to Manhattan…retracing our race course from the previous day.  Once on Manhattan we toured Wall Street, Ground Zero, the Empire State Building, Times Square and Rockefeller Center.  We ran into the De Boon clan (who were on their own touring schedule) at the top of the Empire State Building, at Times Square and on the ferry ride back.  Great sailor’s minds think alike!

 

 

Matt, Paul and Henk returned home on the 4th  while Susan and I stayed on a couple of days to visit family down by Philadelphia.  We drove down the coast of NJ and discovered a nice surfing beach with some fun waves.  I had the boards so we stopped and surfed for a few hours.  We returned back to Motown on the 6th.  Matt said the drive to sail ratio (20 hours of driving for 3 hours of sailing) was high but worth it.  What could be more patriotic than sailing around the Statute of Liberty over the 4th of July holiday weekend.  It was an experience of a lifetime.