The
GulfStreamer Race News
Tales of the GulfStreamer,
December Binnacle Article
by Bev Hanson
Past Commodore Bob Ford has been engaged in new member
orientation for some time now and really should be no stranger to anyone.
A native of Daytona Beach, the Ford family has been
in this area for generations, but it was not until Bob retired from
the Air Force and returned home that he got into sailing. So, as some
might say, he got a late start in the regatta world and has been diligently
working to make up for years of lost races.
As skipper of The Last Mangas (there’s a cute story
behind that name, ask Bob to tell it to you sometime) Bob has been an
eager advocate for sailing in general, and racing in particular. Usually
seen in the middle, or hanging out on the fringes, of various race committees,
he has chaired the Club’s annual Commodore’s Cup race series
three times and served as Race Committee Chairman for the GulfStreamer
several times.
He raced in the 1997 TransAt (the now defunct, bi-annual
Bermuda Race) and voyages regularly to the Bahamas where he has raced
in the July regatta six times. The Last Mangas, which is a sleek 36
Beneteau, has left her mark in the Abacos since he and his crew won
1st overall in 2007 and won two races out of five in 2009.
This is a man who thinks you're not really sailing if
you aren't racing. He is again Race Committee Chair for the GulfStreamer
next year so it’s no small wonder my eyebrows went up when he
told me he would not be sailing to Charleston in the
2010 Race. He'll be motoring up I-95.
"I don't remember which race it was, maybe number 2 or 3, but
we had 20 boats that started the race and only five that finished. Because
we didn't have any wind, everybody else either turned around or they
went into another port or they motored on up to Charleston."
"But not you."
"No. We sat out there until wind came and got into Charleston
late Sunday afternoon. So while my family was eating in fine restaurants
and having a good time, we were sitting out in the hot sun eating sandwiches.
And my wife wants me to do Charleston with her this
time."
Well. . .who can blame her? Carole Ford is also a Daytona
Beach native and she followed her spouse around the world during
his military career so why shouldn't he follow her around Charleston
for a few days? She once told me, "If he had to, he'd sit out there
a week waiting for wind."
This will be the first GulfStreamer
without The Last Mangas. As an experienced GS
participant Bob did have a bit of advice for first timers. "There
are two strategies to this race," he says. "One is to sail
the rhumb line." (This is a french term which denotes the shortest
distance between 2 points. Because of the juxtaposition of Daytona
Beach and Ponce Inlet to the Atlantic Ocean and Charleston's
huge bay on the same body of water, it is possible to sail a straight
line from here to there.)
"The problem with that," Ford adds, "is that you're
dependent on wind off the land in the morning and wind off the sea later
in the day and at night, there isn't any wind. You need really good,
steady wind all day long to move you along. When the west wind and the
east wind meet during the day there is this little thermal thing going
on for a while until the ocean breezes really kick in during which you
have iffy, spotty wind."
Any boater will tell you this is not what sailors, especially racing
sailors, are looking for.
"Strategy number two," he says, "is to turn east at
the Main Street Pier as soon as the Sprint Race finish line is reached
and go hard for the Gulf Stream which is about 40 miles off our coast
at this time of year. It varies. You want to get there before the sea
breeze dies. Once you are in the Gulf Stream, it will move you along
all through the night, wind or no wind, at a speed somewhere between
3 and 5 knots. So you still make headway over night, but now you've
gone out of your way to do it. And because the Stream bears to the east,
the further north you go, the more seaward you become. So you can't
stay in the Gulf Stream or it'll take you to Bermuda. At some point
you have to give it up and head west or northwest for Charleston."
"So how do you know when to get out of the Stream and sail west?"
I ask.
"That's the $64 question," he laughs.
Racing or not, Ford is still next year’s GS
Race Committee Chairman and, as such, will be hosting the Awards presentations
on Memorial Day in Charleston. This will immediately
follow the Low Country Boil dinner.
If you've never been to Charleston on Memorial Day
weekend when the Spoleto Festival is in process, there's
nothing about that busy event to top the ethnic cuisine of the Awards
Dinner Presentations. Of course, you could fix the same thing at home,
but without the atmosphere of sticks rocking on water in the coastal
sun and sailors glad to be home from the sea for a while, it just really
wouldn't be the same. And perhaps, for the first time, P/C Ford will
be in the middle of it.
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