Chuck Sheets and his crew of Dave Lauser, Rick Prothero, and David Boonstoppel have won the National Hospice Regatta Championship series held April 29 through May 1, 2016 in Galveston, Texas.
Two days of racing were needed to qualify for the championship series on the third day. The competition was tight and the conditions at the edge with winds of 15 to 25 knots. Team Havre de Grace (HdGYC) started fast, with a first place finish for the initial race. But Race Two kept them humble after a fifth place finish. In fact, crew Rick Prothero had to climb up the mast to retrieve a line in the brief time between races, but that allowed the team to climb back to two second place and a final first place finish for the 5-race day. That positioned them in second place for their fleet, three points behind the team from Annapolis.
Conditions were great on Day Two, with 80 degree weather and 12 to 15 knots of wind, allowing four more races. The HdGYC team took first place in two of these races, enough to pull them within one point of the Annapolis team. But a foul called on the third race dropped the team from the lead into a third place race finish.
On the final day of racing, the top six team over both fleets vied for the championship. The odds seemed long for Team HdG, as they qualified as the fourth boat, but the conditions gave them reason for hope. It was the typical Chesapeake Bay kind of a day, with light winds (5 to 6 knots) and shifty. The five race “winner take all” series started strong for Team HdG with two first place finishes. Annapolis had third place finishes for both races, fading from their favored seed position. Race Three kept HdGYC in the running with a third to Nashville’s first, but they finished fifth on the fourth race. The team got a good start for the last race to post a second place finish.
Tension was high as the finishes were announced at the award ceremony: Charlotte Harbor, FL (6th), Annapolis, MD (5th), Long Island Sound, CT (4th), Lake Norman, NC (3rd). But the Nashville, TN team and Team HdG earned 12 points each. The tie-breaker rules awarded Havre de Grace First Place, based on their two first place finishes. Amazing!
Just three days earlier, Chuck Sheets, local dentist, saw his last patient before retirement, hung up his white lab coat and caught the plane to Houston, TX to do some sailing.
The National Hospice Regatta perpetual trophy will be kept in Havre de Grace until next year’s event. The trophy is in honor of Virginia Brown, who started the first hospice regatta at Annapolis in 1999 and went on to found the National Hospice Regatta Alliance which held the first national event in 2000.
The 2016 local regatta was held on June 4th. Winning boat, Casper, will represent Havre de Grace at the National Hospice Regatta next April.
