01945 Summer 2021

16 | 01945
her husband wins, she buys him a lobster
dinner.
Lynn Cooke prepares to keep time
on a battery-powered clock mounted
on a wooden plaque. As the frontrunner
rounds each mark, she will read out
the time for Tuula Snow to record. No
other conversation will be allowed in the
race committee booth, which ensures
everyone stays focused on the task at
hand.
Out on the water, the same silence
takes hold aboard each of the 13 Townies
sailing in today's race. Sailors test the
wind, milling around the harbor until
they see a yellow flag fall on the yacht
club porch and hear a horn that signals
that it's time to line up.
Three minutes later, another horn
sounds as a blue flag falls, and the
boats position themselves to have the
straightest shot to the first marker. After
another three minutes, a red flag signals
the start of the race.
"All clear," says race officer John Caslan
over the radio, and the Townies are off.
For each race, the committee chooses
a course based on the direction and
speed of the wind. Numbered buoys set
permanently throughout the harbor serve
as markers which the boats have to round
once, twice or three times, depending
on that day's course. Today, the course
markers are two green cylindrical buoys
known as "cans," numbered 21 and 22,
and the racers must make their way
through the course twice.
The participants in the race range
from seasoned pros to families with
children carrying bubble machines,
spreading glittering spheres behind them
as they float through the waves.
Alec MacMaster, Peg's husband and
the fleet's safety patrol, says as he follows
the Townies in a motor-powered yacht
club boat; when the couple's son was
younger, they would bring water balloons
along to the events, coordinating fights
with other sailors between races.
MacMaster said the games are part
of what makes the friendly competition
so fun.
"They're more about the joy of
sailing," he said. "Victory is important,
but it's not the most important thing."
Race officer David Graham, another
mainstay of the Marblehead Town Class
community, said that this culture is part
of why he loves the niche sport so much.
"I love their enthusiasm," Graham
said. "It's a labor of love."
The frontrunner, boat number 2086,
Boats in the Town Class race around Marblehead Harbor.
rounds the first marker, with the rest of
the fleet tightly packed behind it. Here
at the beginning of the race, a sailor
could reach out and touch her nearest
competition. As they sail farther, the
group spreads out more, with the fastest
vessels separating from the pack and
stragglers falling behind.
As they turn past the second marker
and head back to the starting line to
begin the second lap, a message comes
over the radio: The wind has changed,
and along with it the course. Now, after
the first marker, they will turn in the
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opposite direction to buoy number 19, a
red "nun" named for its pointed top.
The sailors take the change in stride,
changing tack to glide out of the harbor
toward Marblehead Light.
Finally, 45 minutes after they started,
the first boat, number 2086, crosses the
finish line. Seventeen minutes later, the
last Townie completes the course.
"Some people say that watching
sailboat racing is like watching grass
grow," said Graham. "I don't think of
it that way. I think it's a thrill in slow
motion." X
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