Sandy Douglass Memorial Regatta: Lengend of the Moneky

The Sandy Douglass Memorial Regatta is the biggest event for the Flying Scot fleet on Deep Creek Lake. All of the top local sailor participate, as well as top competitors from the Ohio District. Throughout the summer my wife Stephanie and I take turns as driver and crew, but for the Sandy Douglass Regatta she always drives and I always crew. She is a much better sailor that I am, and I am a marginally better crew (most by virtue of being taller and heavier.)

The regatta schedule called for three races on Saturday, and two on Sunday. Both mornings began with light and variable winds. Prospects for racing looked poor. Fortunately ace Laser Racers Darryl and Kris Van Hutten and Keith Spinnenweber served as race committee. Either through knowledge and patience, or some form of special Laser Sailor voodoo, the Race Committee find the times and places with enough wind to sail, and all five races were held.

Steph and I did not perform particularly well on Saturday. With 20 boats registered in the Gold Fleet, all top level sailors, we finished in the middle or bottom in all three races. Crowed starting lines, variable winds, bad tactical moves and poor luck all worked against us. During the first race on Sunday we seemed to hit our stride. We had a clean start, and quickly tacked right for clear air. Once the fleet separated, we tacked again, and made for the far left side of the course. With good boat speed, we found good position, and followed a long lift nearly to the weather mark. We round the mark in third place, and turned down wind. The breeze dropped as the rest of the fleet rounded the weather mark behind us. Sailing downwind in the front of the pack in light air is a nerve racking experience. The wind fills in from behind, so the boats behind flying spinnakers tend to block your wind, and catch up while you bob helplessly. We had just enough wind to keep moving, but waited anxiously for the northwest wind that would carry the whole fleet up from behind. Luckily, as we drifted past Holy Cross point, new air came in from the South, putting us on a close reach. Steph and I reach very effectively with the spinnaker, so our worries of being caught slipped away. Unfortunately the two boats ahead had made better speed down wind, and were now out of reach. We rounded the leeward mark still in third, but with Ryan Schubert and a few other boats close behind. We turned back up wind, sailing to the finish line, and headed back to the left side of the course, hoping to repeat the gains we made on the first leg. As we sailed to windward, the breeze again dropped. This time, rather than a lift, we found the left side of the course crowed with spinnakers from the Silver and Master’s fleets. These boats effectively blocked the light wind, and we sat helplessly as Schubert and several other boats made gains up the right side, and passed us. We had another disappointing finish, and fared no better in the final race. Overall, we finished 14^th of 20.

An important tradition associated with the Douglass Regatta is the “Monkey Award.” Each year, as stuffed monkey is awarded to the sailor who finishes on place below the last trophy in the Gold fleet. This year, seven awards were given, so the monkey was given to the eight place finisher. The Monkey is a stuffed monkey about a foot and a half tall. He is an anatomically correct male monkey, and it is traditional that the previous year’s Monkey “winner” award the Monkey to the new winner by sitting him in the palm of the new winners hand in a manner that make the Monkey’s attributes extremely clear to the recipient. Furthermore, each so called “winner” adds some decoration to the monkey, so that over the past 20 year or so the Monkey had become sort of an amorphous heap of clothing, accessories, pets, hygiene products, and anything that could be devised to make receiving the Monkey more embarrassing. We were the 2010 “winners”, and as such, had provided the Monkey with a boat (made from cardboard and duck tape) to hold all his stuff, and a new sock monkey to serve as his crew, and provide a new palette for future Monkey winners to express their creativity upon. The 2009 Monkey winner was local favorite Meredith Dodd, who has been skippering on Deep Creek Lake since she was in her early teens, and who has been a friendly competitor to my wife and I for a nearly a dozen years. By a happy coincidence, Meredith was also received 8^th place this year, so Stephanie had the distinct pleasure of placing the monkey back into the hands from which she had received him.