First off…a little history of the Enduro…
The original Enduro Race was a 24-Hour Race in dinghies. It started in the mid 1970s and ran 3-4 years. Usually 6-8 boats participated with boats from SYC and other clubs. In the final year a nasty storm came through during the night and brought the Enduro to a stop.
Sailors had to wait until the early 2000s before it was resurrected again for wet moored boats with a much longer course – around Croil or Sheek Island. And most recently, it came back to life in 2019 when the race time was reduced to 9am-11pm. Aragorn, Beethoven & Sealestial participated with Beethoven winning. Thank you to Nick for sending me some historical information about Enduro.
Sep 19, 2020
Under a blue sky, a chill in the air and very light winds 4 SYC boats set out Sep 19 for the Enduro race. The plan was to sail around Sheek Island from 9am – 11pm as many times as possible passing the front dock each time!
Aragorn (Skipper John Becker and crew Matt Becker & Matthew Ogonoski), Knot Normal (Skipper Scott Smith and crew Cory Petrie & Jeff Ridal), R&R (Skipper Robert Zwanenburg and crew Maurice Poulin) and Sealestial (Skipper Paul Rodrigue and crew Manon Rodrigue, Kate Miller & Ann Marie Blinkhorn) were anxious to get started.
After approaching and getting around the 2nd green marker it became quite clear that the skillful navigation of the currents in low winds to get safely around the markers would determine the winner of the race. And patience….lots and lots of patience!
Watching boats shift backwards and sidewards in the current, at times very quickly, was something to see. Everyone had trouble! But it was Knot Normal to make it around the 2nd marker first. Although they did slip into the bay afterward.
Quotable Quotes from our sailors:
Knot Normal – Should we take Beethoven? Scott was sure we would be faster in knot normal and more comfortable, and I (Cory) was not too worried about being comfortable but winning the race was on my mind.
Aragorn – Happy to say that we sailed comfortably into 3rd place behind 2 anchored boats.
R&R – So I tried to cut tight along red channel marker. Doh. When the depth sounder and chart says 4.5 feet. And yes, one boat hit at least one rock. A lesson to be remembered…always trust your depth sounder.
Sealestial – “Paul, Paul we are drifting we gotta make a move.” “No”, Paul says, “we are fine” and maintained his course. This was to be repeated several times throughout the day.
Sealestial and Knot Normal completed 2 laps around Sheek Island by 530pm. Followed by R&R and Aragorn. A 3rd lap was also completed by Sealestial and Knot Normal. A 4th lap was out of reach when the winds died late into the evening. Sealestial and Knot Normal tried in vain to make it to the red and green markers but to no avail.
Sealestial was the winner completing 3 laps before the other boats.
By midnight we were all in the screen room enjoying a laugh and a beer. It was a great day! A big thank you to Mike Bickerstaffe for taking care of the Rescue boat. Happy to report that it was not needed!
