Standing in line for the buffet at the Annapolis Leukemia Cup Regatta’s Summer Gala party, Lynn Heintz doesn’t strike you as anyone too special. She’s nice, lets you cut in line ahead of her, and is choosy with her salmon selection. Making small talk is easy with her: she’s sailing in the regatta with her husband, John, on their Harbor 20. They’ve participated before. She truly believes in the regatta. “We raced in it last year and had a great time; then in December my husband was diagnosed with leukemia. The meaning of the regatta changed significantly for us.”
For a while it was uncertain whether or not John’s doctors would clear him for participation in the regatta. He underwent a bone marrow transplant at Johns Hopkins Medical Center on March 13, and doctors were cautionary about his ability to race. Lynn and John’s two brothers (one who was his stem cell donor) agreed to be on the boat regardless.
Of course, you’ve never met a sailor who wasn’t stubborn. And luckily John Heintz lives in a sailing town with a fundraising problem. John helped organize 23 other Harbor 20 owners to register in the event and raise money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society (LLS), helping to raise the funds to beat the cancer John was now fighting, and helping to make sure he got out on the race course on time.
All in all, 103 boats showed up on race day to take part in three windward-leeward courses, although the Leukemia Cruising Class, PHRF Non-Spin, and Multihull racers were sent around a nine-mile course using government marks. Elsewhere on the water, the J/80 fleet opted to stay off the official race course and instead held their own J/80 Fun Race, bringing cancer patients and their families out for a great day on the water (and raising almost $5000 for the LLS).
Within the nine one-design classes, competition was steep among friends. In the J/70 fleet, boats were quick to change their names to reflect their enthusiasm for finding a cure for cancer. Peter McChesney’s Cure We Will topped the leaderboard, with Walt and Tricia Pletcher’s Occams Cure and Todd Olds’s and Peter Iseler’s Cure Thing following just behind.
Classes were also competing to see who could raise the most money. Heintz himself was the top individual fundraiser, bringing in $16,493 for the LLS. The Harbor 20 fleet all together brought in nearly $35,000, contributing to the total $112,000 raised by the event.
John Heintz is back on the water today, in remission, and we have no doubt he will be back for the 2016 regatta, raising money with Lynn and helping to cure cancer. Join him. leukemiacupmd.org
Ken Mangano on why he participates.
"I began my participation with the regatta in 2005. I was a member of the Chesapeake Boating Club, and Kevin Ryman and others at the club were supporting the event. In the beginning, it was just a chance for me to race a club J/80 in a regatta with my friends. The next year my sister was diagnosed with Leukemia, and it became much more real for me. I became a stem cell donor, and my sister and my family were actual beneficiaries of the advances in a treatment that LLS funding helps produce. I began asking friends and colleagues to join in the fundraising aspect of the regatta. As the local J/80 fleet grew, some active members came up with the idea for the honorary skipper race. The local fleet is so supportive with members donating their boats and time to give blood cancer patients, survivors, and their families a chance to be part of the action and have a fun and unique experience as part of our honorary skipper race. The event has become a highlight of the local J/80 annual calendar, and fleet members are so enthusiastic about the chance to be part of the event and to directly interact with the families that LLS works to support."
