Eugene Sailboat Racing

Ronald Smith:

Ron Smith is the former chief measurer for the Thistle boat class. He is also a member of the Eugene Yacht Club and has been racing for 45 years. This was his final regatta.

Tell me about yourself.

I’ve been racing one thistle or another for 45 years. We started in 1969 and the very first race that we sailed, I broke a wooden mast up at Huntington Lake. We now have aluminum masts that are equal in performance to the old spruce masts that came originally with boats.

How did you learn how to sail?

I was brought up on Long Island Sound. There was a yacht club there and my folks allowed me to get into the junior sailing program when I was 12 and that’s where I learned to race. Around 1947 we had a regatta where I sailed at the Pine Orchard Yacht Club and I saw my first thistle there. I grew up sailing displacement boats and went to college and sailed in intercollegiate racing and when I graduated from engineering college we migrated to California in 1955. We have been in California ever since. We bought our first thistle used in ‘07 and God it’s been a love affair ever since. It’s such a fantastic boat to race. This is my last regatta and if you were to look at my boat you would see in black tape on the sides “For Sale.” But I’m getting busy with other things we’re doing a lot of travel and I figured 45 years is a pretty good run. It’s just so wonderful to be in this class and travel around because I have literally hundreds of friends all around the country and these people all know me because I was the chief measurer for the class.

What is the chief measurer?

The chief measurer is responsible for taking care of the plans, doing interpretations regarding the plans and specifications, and also at the chevron events he’s responsible for setting up measurements so that we maintain a conformance. So that’s the chief measurer’s job. I was honored by the class to be able to do that for a number of years. And when you decide that enough is enough, then you move up the line and you’ll be first vice president and then the president. And that like I say, it’s just been a great honeymoon with this class for me. I’m sorry to leave it, but everything has a beginning, middle, and an end and I’ve come to the end. So that’s about my thistle story in a nutshell.

Paul Nelson:

Paul Nelson is a current member of the Willamette Sailing Club. He has been sailing for more than 40 years. He and his wife sail together as a team all over the west coast.

What is today’s event?

For thistles, this is the Pacific Coast Championships.  It’s also the Eugene Yacht Club Memorial Day Regatta.

What exactly is a thistle?

A thistle is a one-design boat. They’re all the same length, they’re all the same size, and the sail shapes are the same.

Are you the skipper of your boat?

Yes, I am a middle of the pack skipper. We actually sail with two in our boat. So when the winds are a little bit stronger, it’s too strong for us to keep the boat flat. Most thistles sail with three so it’s just our fault for not bringing in a third person to crew for us.

What’s the name of your boat?

“Irie”, which means in Jamaican, “no worries”. It’s actually a wooden thistle. It was made in 1957. It was restored; so it’s sailing competitively now with all of the brand new fiber glass ones.

For how long have you been sailing?

 Since I was about 10 or 11. I’m 56 now so that’s more than 40 years.

And what got you into it?

It was my mom; she bought us three boys a sailboat. Just shoved us off the shore and that was it. We were hooked after that.

Do you sail anywhere else?

We thistle sail all up and down the West Coast. We sail out of Willamette Sailing Club in Portland so we just trailer our boats from regatta to regatta and sail all over the place.

Do you know most of the people around here?

Yes, a lot of these people we have been sailing with for 30 years.

You mentioned restoration. Is that a current hobby?

Yep, I’ve got 4 wooden thistles that I’m working on now and I’m retired so I just wake up in the morning and head down to the shop and go to work.

Is it also something you consider a profession?

I’d say it’s more of a hobby. But no new wooden thistles will ever be made because you can’t legally make a new wooden thistle because of the class rules. So the only way to have one is to restore an old one. It’s a good thing because otherwise these old boats would just rot away. This way they are being restored and they will be good for another 50 years.

Jeanette Nelson:

Jeanette Nelson sails with her husband Paul in the Willamette Sailing Club in Portland, Oregon. She started sailing after she married Paul. Together they are one of the only husband and wife teams.

What brings you here today?

My husband and I have been coming down here for the last 30 years sailing boats.

So you sail together?

We sail together. We’re one of the only husband and wife teams.

Did you meet because of sailing?

I married into it. My husband had sailed his whole life and we got married and his mom had a boat, so we got a boat and started racing.

What’s your favorite aspect of sailing?

Really it’s the social piece. After sailing everyone hangs out on the grass and has a couple beers, talks, and laughs about everything that happened on the course.

What’s your favorite experience?

Winning and getting first place. When we first started out, we ran a boat and it was just the two of us. We were really good at it and we got first place a lot.

Has there ever been a difficult challenge you’ve had to overcome with sailing?

Absolutely. I remember one just 10 or 15 years ago. Our kids were young and we were trying to figure out our summer schedule. My husband really wanted to race all the time and I was like, “Great, but what are we going to do with the kids?” Then I just made the decision to jump in with both feet and become a sailing instructor and learn everything I could about it, and just ended up having a wonderful career as a sailing instructor for 10 to 15 years.

Are your kids into sailing now, too?

Yep. One lives in Vermont and he’s trying to hook up in Burlington with Lake Champlain. Our daughter lives in Texas and isn’t sailing right now, but hopefully they will both come back to it. They both were instructors, also.

How did you join your racing club?

A friend of ours was a member and he just talked to my husband and said this was a great place to weekly practice and lots of fun. So we’ve been members of Willamette Sailing Club for over 30 years.

Do you have a favorite sailing location?

San Diego was really nice, but this place is really beautiful, too. Our kids loved coming here, just running around having free range. There’s the swim area, playing volleyball, and feeling safe completely surrounded by just all sailors.  But San Diego’s really nice.

Bryce Compton:

Bryce Compton competed in the Memorial Day Regatta. He is not a member of the Eugene Yacht Club, but this is his third time competing in the Regatta.

 How do you enjoy the competition aspect of racing?

It’s a lot of fun, because we don’t always have one boat that’s the “They’re going to win, it’s not even a race anymore” boat. It always changes week to week because some people are trying to train new people. Some weeks you’re really spot on and other weeks you get wind shifts that you’re not used to. So it can change a lot and you can be first one week and last the next.

What got you in to sailing?

I have always wanted to sail since I was young. I grew up in the high dessert, so sailing was just a figment of my imagination. A few friends of mine knew a lot of people out in Eugene. One of my friends owns a sail loft and one day they were looking for a crew.

Do you feel like you’ve learned a lot since you started? Or do you feel like you have a lot more to go?

Both actually, there’s a lot to sailing. I feel I have come a long way from where I started. I’ve bounced around to different positions but I’ve always been on a thistle, a three-man boat. There’s still a lot more I can learn.

Jack Thomas:

Jack Thomas is a junior advertising major at the University of Oregon, who has been sailing since he was eight. Being a family hobby, Thomas used to sail with his parents; now he races with his friends and people he has met throughout his years of racing at Fern Ridge.

When I went out there I saw there were 2-3 people on each sail, what’s the ideal weight for sailing and amount of people?

It depends on what kind of boat you are on. There are boats when you only want to only have one person; even then on those one-person boats you want to weigh around 150 pounds or even less. Some boats, such as an Olympic boat, if your not 215 pounds, six foot, and bulky your not going to be able to sail. Usually the less people you need to have the easier it is to organize, and get a solid rotation.

Are you going to continue racing for the rest of your life?

I hope so; there are a few guys out there who are almost 80 years old who are still racing. There is a guy who is legally blind, but he has been sailing for so long that he can sail on just the feel. It’s one of the sports that you can do for the rest of your life. Even if I’m not racing, I plan to have a sailboat; I couldn’t imagine my life without sailing in it.

What advice would you give to someone who wanted to start racing?

Just show up. It’s one of those things where people are more intimidated by it than they really should be. The best way to start sailing is to show up and find someone and introduce yourself. Every sailor wants to get new people into the sport, because it’s a community and every new person we add is like gaining a new friend. People think I’m over simplifying it a lot of the time, but if you just show up it’s pretty rare to not find a team. If you have the initiative, there will always be people willing to go sailing with you.

Dean Mitchell:

Dean Mitchell is a leading member of the Eugene Yacht Club and chairman of its racing committee.

How long has the Memorial Day Regatta been going on, and what’s the meaning behind it?

The Memorial Day Regatta started before WWII so it’s been going on for quite a few years. They stopped it during the war for a while for obvious reasons, then picked it back up, and it draws boats from all over the northwest and California. We had, I think, 45 boats this time. There used to be 250 boats at these regattas and now we’re in the building phase. We’re getting a little bit larger each year, and we’re learning how to market a little bit better through the Internet. I expect next year we’ll have 55 – 60 boats.

What steps are you taking to get younger people involved and increase participation overall?

We’ve got special programs for high school teams to put together, and then the University of Oregon and Oregon State also have college teams. They’re out there sailing right now – they race every week. The hopes are that those people get the love of sailing and continue on, and that’s part of the building program. If people want to just show up, we’ll guarantee you’ll get on a boat. You can learn as much in one summer of sailing one or two nights a week as you can learn in 20 years of just cruising on your own. You learn from some really good people.

What is it about sailing that you are drawn to, and that is a draw for others who enjoy the sport?

There is something magical about getting from point A to point B using your wits and the sails. You can travel anywhere in the world just using the sails, and that’s pretty cool. When you get tired of sailing from corner to corner on the lake, and you want more of a challenge, then you start racing. Everybody on that team has a job to do, and if they do it well they contribute to the win. Everybody has an ownership in doing well and winning in the regatta. In our case, I have a rule on my boat that the number one rule is not to win the race. The number one rule is to have fun. The number two rule: See if you can win the race.