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US SAILING
One-Design SERVICE Award
for the
John H. Gardiner, Jr.
Trophy
presented to
Harry and Karen Carpenter, Deep Creek, MD
The John F. Gardiner Jr Trophy for One
Design Service is awarded for ongoing distinguished service and leadership
in the promotion of one design sailing and class organization. It is with
great respect and admiration that I have the pleasure to honor Harry
Carpenter and his wife Karen with US SAILING’s most prestigious One-design
awards.
I want to take this time to share with you
about the kind of people Harry and Karen are… I first met them about 5
years ago – at a regatta of course- when I crewed in the Mallory
Championships in Flying Scott which I had never sailed before. As I was
headed to the event people said – “Oh, say Hi to Harry and Karen for me”….
“Oh, Harry and Karen will take good care of you”… “Harry knows everything
about sailing those Flying Scots ask him anything”… You see, Harry and
Karen build Flying Scots and provided a beautiful fleet of new boats and
planned to support the event all week. The regatta was a competitor’s
dream with beautiful weather, great winds everyday at 25 kts plus, and
brand new identical boats that went the same speed- well depending upon
the skipper… But put yourself in Harry & Karen’s shoes… imagine if you
were going to loan your brand new shiny fleet of 11 boats to 33 athletic,
aggressive, super competitive men (and a few of us women) who never sailed
a flying Scot, barely knew how to rig it, and all were going to push the
boats to the limit to win the regatta in big breeze. Could you watch?
Harry and Karen went on the water every day with everything including the
kitchen sink in their motorboat called “Scot’s Guard”. They looked forward
to watching their “boats” plane around the course and were confident they
would not need to fix many things as the boats are built so well. But as
the Flying Scots left and returned to the club in the small unfamiliar
channel in high winds, almost every skipper found the rocky shoal on a
daily basis……You all know that dreadful sound… you just can’t pull the
board up fast enough.... As the competitors quickly left the boats and
headed to the social events, Harry & Karen worked quietly into the early
morning light to repairing the boards to provide equal boats for the
competitors- every night without a complaint. They knew the importance of
keeping the boats extremely equal
AND they
personally still owned the entire fleet and hoped they would be in good
enough shape after the regatta to sell and recoup part of their
investment.
Harry and Karen first supported US Sailing
in 1996 by providing new Flying Scots for the Adams Cup finals and then
did so for the aforementioned Mallory event in 2000. .
Despite the long hours and little thanks,
they repeatedly return to provide boats and support to the US Sailing
Championships.
In 2002 they supported the Championship of
Champions
In 2003 they really outdid themselves by
providing a brand new fleet of Flying Scots for the Adams Cup Champs and
supported the Sears Cup (try keeping 11 boats going for 33 teenagers)
AND more
challenging yet provided another new fleet of FS for the ICSA Sloop
National Championship…try keeping 30 cool rad College sailing dudes happy
in the shifty East River in 25 knots.
But once again, this upcoming year he has
committed to provide Flying Scots for the combined Mallory and Adams at
American YC with 22 boats and the Championship of Champions in
Detroit!
Think about the amount of volunteer man
hours they personally put into these events by preparing the boats,
driving them to the host club, rigging them, maintaining them, being on
the water, derigging them and taking them home. While US SAILING is very
fortunate to have another boat company support our youth events in
exchange for title sponsorship and ongoing national recognition- We need
to recognize Harry and Karen’s quiet personal devotion to US SAILING -
perhaps Flying Scot Inc should be recognized as the unofficial sponsor for
the “other” championships.
The passion Harry and Karen have for the
sport of sailing is infectious and they continually give to the sport. On
his home waters Harry is literally the glue that keeps the flotilla of
Sailing School boats together for the kids at no cost--many
of you know what a big job that is! He recently learned of a start up
community sailing program in Washington DC who had donated Flying Scots
that were pretty beat up so he went to them and
offered to upgrade the fleet- at no cost- as he wanted the new sailors to
have a fun first experience. Now, please, don’t everyone go and ask him to
do that for you… Harry loves to give to the sport and has a hard time
saying no as his wife, Karen gently reminds him. He is always helping
people at regattas. He even helped me last year…. he loaned his personal
Flying Scot so our President, Janet Baxter and I could sail the FS Womens
Championship-, which we won. And on top of that he is one of the FS class
leaders and champion race in his own right.
I am so glad I met Harry and Karen at the
Mallory Championship five years ago. Our paths have crossed many times
since then. Either by fate or by luck, my husband and I now own a few
Flying Scots on Deep Creek in
Western Maryland and sail against Harry regularly.
We are fortunate to now know and love their wonderful family very well on
a personal basis. More importantly, Harry and Karen have shown us - and
thousands others- how crucial it is to give to the sport and with quiet
leadership and intense passion. Please join me in honoring Harry and Karen
tonight.
US SAILING One-Design Club Award
presented to
Bay-Waveland Yacht Club of Bay St. Louis MS
The 2004 One-Design Club Award goes to the
Bay-Waveland Yacht Club which is a club with 375 members that has been in
existence since 1896. Located on the
Gulf
Coast in the Bay St. Louis, MS, Bay-Waveland has a long and proud history
of supporting one-design sailing on and off the water.
In 2004, Bay-Waveland held 8 open regattas
with 51 races. In addition, Wednesday night summer races were held with
123 skippers participating all on the same line through a handicapping
system. And through this series, can you believe that only 4 races were
cancelled due to
Gulf
Coast weather? Bay-Waveland also hosted 4 major class events in 2004, and
club members are the recipients of 17 major class titles for 2004.
In the junior arena, Bay-Waveland are the
host to a local high school sailing program helping the team get started
and assisting in the acquisition of boats. Their junior program has four
sessions throughout the summer, raising future sailors in sailing camps
with 80 participants.
With pedigree and enthusiasm like this, It
is my pleasure to present the 2004 Club Award to Commodore Michael Haas of
the Bay-Waveland Yacht Club.
US
SAILING One-Design Leadership
Award
presented to
Russell Hoyt of Newport RI
The 2004 Leadership Award goes to someone
who epitomized the quiet leadership that is the backbone of so many fleets
around the country. Perhaps the name of all his boats defined his mission
– “Destination.” I’d like to read from the nomination letter submitted for
consideration:
The Shields fleet had had long history in
Newport, but got a real shot in the arm when Russell arrived.
Perhaps the most significant things he did
was to search throughout the
United
States looking for Shields that were no longer being raced, and then
brought about 17 of these boats to
Newport.
These boats were structurally sound, but needed a lot of cosmetic care.
Russell had purchased these boats and a new trailer for each. He sold them
at a price that I believe was less than he had invested, but made one
proviso. That proviso was the boat would be available for the Patriot’s
Cup, a team-racing event involving many international teams. These boats
were all bought in the Newport area, and as a result there was significant
increase in racing.
John Burnham, Sailing World Editor, says,
“The last two Shields that Russell found for Fleet 9 were trailered up
from
Texas in
2000 and offered at cost (not accounting for labor) in a lottery. My
friend Reed Baer and I were lucky enough to “win” one of these fixer
uppers and win the national championship two years later. Russell made it
hard to say no to buying a boat, and he also freely loaned us a trailer,
lifting gear, and plenty of advice whenever we needed it. All of us in the
fleet are in debt to his generosity, and the only way to ever repay
Russell is to simply pass it on.”
Russell went a step further in his effort to
promote the Patriot’s Cup competition by purchasing 24 suits of Shield
sails to be used only for team racing.
Occasionally Russell would participate in
the Patriot’s Cup as a skipper, but preferred to stand in the background,
assuring that all the yachts were well out fitted and then hosted a huge
party at his shop following racing.
Through Russell’s effort our fleet outfitted
24 boats for eight teams making this one of the largest team-racing event
in keelboats. Currently Shields Fleet 9 has about 50 registered yachts
and we have about 25 to 35 boats on the line for our Wednesday night
series.
Another facet of Russell’s contribution was
that he was a friend to all of us. Russell’s shop was located near Ida
Lewis Yacht Club and at
5 PM
each day except for race night, he would stop work and bring out the beer.
Anyone who wanted to talk about Shield’s racing or fleet politics was
invited. Through these conversations he convinced many of the “rock
stars”, who had migrated to Newport that the boat to race was the Shields.
When the politics within the fleet became
disruptive, Russell would quietly recommend some changes and peace would
be restored.
Russell died last summer from a brain tumor.
During the Memorial Service held in his honor at the New York Yacht Club
in
Newport,
I realized that we had not only lost a friend, but Shields Fleet 9 lost
one of its greatest benefactors.
Because of Russell’s low-key approach many
new members probably don’t appreciate his contribution, but for those of
us lucky enough to know him, we realized he left a huge void that will be
difficult to fill.
As I mentioned at the beginning, our local
Shields fleet is thriving. There are many factors, but many of us believe
Russell’s leadership was the primary factor. He wasn’t fleet captain and
wasn’t one of the hot shots leading the pack. Obviously he wasn’t a leader
in the traditional sense, but his influence behind the scenes is what many
of us feel is responsible for the growth of our fleet.
Charles Shoemaker, MD
Accepting the award on behalf of Russell
Hoyt is his son, David Hoyt.
US SAILING One-Design Regatta
Award
presented to
Bellport Yacht Club
The One-Design Regatta Award goes to the
Bellport Bay Yacht Club for hosting the 2004 Optimist National
Championship which attracted 430 Opti sailors from North & South America,
the
Caribbean and Hong Kong.
Bellport
Bay is a small club with 125 members – so to organize such an event, they
enlisted the local community; from the Kiwanis Club to the Jeep dealer and
grocery chain and even utilized public land to help launch and retrieve
from the Patchogue Village Shorefront Park. The Kiwanis Club organized 15
volunteers a day to help launch and retrieve the 430 kids/Optis and
dolleys, let alone corral the parents at a safe distance. The Kiwanis Club
also held a BBQ fundraiser which raised $5000 toward the event! Talk about
community support!
Bellport Bay YC and the community survived
the kids, parents and scoring of 5000 races over 4 days and I am pleased
to present the 2004 One-Design Regatta Award to Regatta Chairs Roger Baker
and Tom Conlin representing the Bellport Bay Yacht Club. |
