Behind the Marks: 41st Schooner Festival Race

Gloucester’s three-day Schooner Festival commemorates the era of classic fishing schooners and their importance to the history of
Gloucester, America’s oldest fishing port. 

This modern race includes both traditional and modern schooners, echoing International Fisherman’s Race of the 1920s and 30s “for working boats, sailed by working men.”  That’s in contrast with the “dandified” America’s Cup racing during the J-Boat era in Newport.

These races were so popular and well-publicized at the time, that the victorious Bluenose, hailing
from Halifax, was memorialized on the Canadian dime since 1937. 

Now, the Race Committee (RC) was comprised three boats: Blue Sky, Tim and Alice Clarke’s 44’ tugboat; Selkie, Emmett Holt’s 32’ lobster boat; and Metal Shark, the MYC’s workboat, a 24’ aluminum scow.  With Blue Sky anchored at the start/finish line, Selkie and Metal Shark would have to move around the perimeter of the three-mile course, dropping the buoys for the schooners to round, then picking them up and moving them to the new position as the wind “clocked” to the south. 

At the Skipper’s Meeting, the RC explained our juggling act to contestants:  Blue Sky, a 44’ tug, would anchor the start/finish; Selkie, a 32’ lobster boat, and Metal Shark, a 24’ aluminum scow, would roam, dropping and moving buoys as the wind shifted.

Just after concluding the Skipper’s Meeting, a voice crackled on the RC channel: “There’s a good breeze now—can we start earlier?”

OK, let’s throttle up.  We decided that we could move the start forward by 45 minutes to 12:15 p.m., but it was going to be a “stretch.” 

Luckily, a contestant radioed that they couldn’t make it in time.

12:30 p.m. might work after all.

Three cannon shots were fired at five-minute intervals, and at 12:40 p.m. the first fleet of Large schooners—12 in all—were off.  Two of the fastest, Malabar X from Key West, and Narwhal from Jamestown RI, fought for the best starting position right next to Blue Sky.  They both bore off onto the reach with their bowsprits crossing the starting line just seconds after the starting gun was fired. 

Five minutes later, it was the Medium and Small schooners turn.  And then at 12:55 p.m., we fired the starting gun for these 12 schooners, the largest being Calabash, a 42-footer from Vineyard Haven, and the smallest, Redbird from Fairhaven and Lewis H. Story from Essex, both 32-feet-long.

Almost immediately, the wind shifted.  Instead of a reaching leg, the leaders were pinching close-hauled.  Do we move the mark mid-leg?  If not, many schooners couldn’t fetch it without tacking.  We moved it once—good for 20 minutes—before realizing the wind would make it tough for the big boats.  We couldn’t reset again without restarting the whole race.

We replied, “Yes Cap, 24 schooners are headed for a mark south of Thacher’s Island.”

“Fixed point, like a government mark?” he asked.

“Yes, an orange inflatable,” we said.

“Got it off my starboard,” he answered, swinging sharply south to skirt behind the schooners.

Then, with a laugh, he added, “I’m a racer from Long Island Sound. Looks like you’re having a great day. Good luck to everyone.”

Mercifully, he gave the buoy wide berth, threaded through the fleet, and carried on toward Boston.  Not your typical racecourse hazard.

Then, later, as the Large Schooners began their third leg, we needed the mark another 60 degrees south.  The day before, Emmett Holt and I had measured out 250-foot anchor lines, plenty for Gloucester depths.  But when Selkie dropped the last buoy, three miles offshore, the anchor line ran out with only six feet left.  Not enough to hold.  The crew had to haul it back and use Selkie itself as the mark.

By mid-afternoon, the smaller schooners were finishing.  The Medium and Small division were coming downwind from the southeast to the finish after completing one lap.  Phra Luang, a sleek black 41-footer from Vineyard Haven, crossed first at 2:27 p.m., followed by Calabash six minutes later.  In third was Malabar II, an Alden-designed schooner from the Vineyard, two minutes later. 

Rounding out the Small division finishers were Green Dragon, Bald Eagle and Isabella from Gloucester, as well as Eileen Marie from Boston, Elzabeth from Bristol, Lewis H. Story from Essex, and Sycamore from Wiscasset, Maine.

Among the Large Schooners, Spirit of Newport led the way, finishing at 2:47 p.m. on a tight reach.  Her crew lined the rail to salute as she passed Blue Sky’s stern.  Eight minutes later came Malabar X from Key West, then Narwhal from Jamestown, RI; Hindu from Provincetown; Alert from Bailey Island, ME; and Gloucester’s own Lannon and Ardelle.  Adventure, Tabor Boy, and Denis Sullivan were caught out by fading winds and missed the time limit.

As Emmett Holt put it: “We were chasing the wind all day—starting at 20 degrees, ending at 140—dropping marks in 200 feet of water. And when we ran out of buoys, we had to use committee boats as the mark.”

Tony Leggett, a resident of Manchester, is an avid, lifelong sailor.  This is the second year he served on the Mayor’s Cup Race Committee during Schooner Fest in Gloucester.  Leggett is also the Varsity Sailing coach at ME Regional High School.