CHANGE IS IN THE AIR IN 1970
The early seventies was a period of change and maturing for the Valcour Sailing Club. The VSC had joined the Lake Champlain Racing Conference and was sponsoring the Valcour races. Much larger keel boats were joining VSC boats off Valcour Island and the New York boats would have to cross the Lake to participate in conference races sponsored by the Vermont clubs. These activities, plus the inherent limitations of the small Knockabouts, played an important role in how the VSC skipper was to think about sailboat design on Lake Champlain.
Change was in the air. Most notable was the sudden change in the racing fleet from Fall 1969 to Spring1970. One can imagine that there was considerable effort expended in boat acquisition that winter. Harry Walcoff led the move to organize a Pearson Ensign fleet while David McDowell championed the Paceship built Bluejacket.
THE BOATS
Although similar in some ways, there was enough difference between the heavy full-keel Ensign and the fin keel Bluejacket to provide much fodder for discussion on the relative merits of these designs. The Ensign, first been built in 1962, was produced by Pearson Yachts with William H. Shaw's refinements as a Midget Ocean Racing Club (MORC) offshore boat. Some 1700 boats were made. The Bluejacket was a Canadian boat of latter design produced by Paceship of Mahone Bay, Nova Scotia. With a fin keel and moderately light displacement, the Bluejacket, a fractional rig as was the Ensign, was clearly a very modern racing design.
| ENSIGN | BLUEJACKET | |
| Keel | full length | fin |
| Displacement | 3,000 lb | 2,000 lb |
| Sail Area | 235 sq ft | 200.63 sq ft |
| LOA | 22 ft 6 in | 22 ft 10 in |
| LWL | 16 ft 9 in | 17 ft 6 in |
| Beam | 7 ft | 7 ft |
| Draft | 3 ft | 3 ft 9 in |
| Ballast | 1200 lbs | 900 lbs |
| CCA rating | 20.8 ft | 21.8 ft |
| PHRF | 258 (1986)* | 237 (1986)* |
*PHRF ratings for comparison purposes, the 1970 VSC fleet used the Cruising Club of America Measurement Rule (CCA) as did all of the LCRC.
Recalling how the skippers felt about these two boats, Dave McDowell said that "basically the people who went into Bluejackets just didn't like Ensigns. The Ensign was an old design, very conventional keel, rudder, and so forth. The Bluejacket really represented a modern boat, so to speak, and I think that is one of the reasons some of us were more interested in the Bluejacket. The other reason was that it was somewhat cheaper than the Ensign."
THE VSC RACING FLEET OF 1970
| ENSIGNS | BLUEJACKETS | CRUISING CLASS | |
| Harry Walcoff | David McDowell | George Copeland | Rhodes |
| Herman Doh | Sherwood Keyser | Bill Rowe | Contest 30 |
| Bud Seawell | Thomas Brown | Dick Moore | Challenger |
| Jerome Resnick | John Grant | Skip Barnett | Electra |
| John McTernan | Robert Moore | Bill Empsall | M24 |
| Derek Allan | Herbert Koerner | ||
| Adam Krakowski | Alan Walker | ||
Commenting on the similarity of sail numbers for the Bluejackets, David McDowell remembers that he purchased his boat, #61, in the Fall of 1969. The sail numbers were essentially the same as the hull numbers. The rest of the fleet of Bluejacket skippers purchased their boats in 1970 pretty much as a group. Dave recalls that his sails were made by a firm in Nova Scotia while the others were made by Ulmer. On the Ensign side, he recalls that the boats came from a variety of sources, mostly used, except that John McTernan and Adam Krakowski purchased theirs new, he believes.
RESULTS OF THE SKIPPERS RACE: July 4, 1970
- David McDowell, Bluejacket #61
- Sherwood Keyser, Bluejacket #72
- Harry Walcoff, Ensign #23
- Bud Seawell, Ensign #504
- Herman Doh, Ensign #111
Although the Bluejackets and Ensigns raced as a mixed fleet, they were handicapped, with the Bluejackets giving the Ensigns time. Under the CCA rule, the Bluejackets were rated 21.8 ft. with a time allowance of 286.26 seconds per nautical mile while the Ensigns were rated 20.8ft and 297.25 sec/nm.; the Bluejackets owed the Ensigns 11 seconds per mile.
Incidentally, Skip Barnett's Electra #177 was rated the same as the Ensigns at 20.8 feet. Recalling the 1970 Skippers Race, Dave McDowell did not think that the results confirmed the Bluejacket as the better boat. He recalled that "given very light air, the Ensign could beat the Bluejacket. Come heavy air, though, the Bluejacket really excelled; it was absolutely a super heavy-air boat." While the Bluejacket gave the Ensign 11 seconds per nautical mile in 1970 under the CCA rule, a comparison of PHRF ratings in 1985 shows that a Bluejacket would give an Ensign 21 sec/nm.
LABOR DAY WEEKEND 1970
"BROWN, WALCOFF CAPTURE LABOR DAY RACING TITLES Plattsburgh - Tom Brown emerged as Bluejacket class champion and Harry Walcoff as Ensign class champion after a three-day Labor Day weekend of racing sponsored by the Valcour Sailing Club Each class sailed five races over Olympic and Gold Cup courses in strong winds from the north and northeast that averaged 25 knots and never dropped below 15 knots.
To determine the class champion, the Bluejackets counted results in all five races on a point basis of 3/4 for first, 2 for second, 3 for third, etc. The Ensigns determined class champion by counting the best four races by each boat.
Brown twice brought his Bluejacket across the line first and in the other races had two seconds and a third. Bluejacket first were also scored by Dave McDowell, Sherwood Keyser, and John Grant. Walcoff's performance was impressive with three firsts and a second as his best four races. Herman Doh was first in the other two Ensign races. The full results for the Bluejackets and Ensigns in the five races with order of finish and total points."
| Bluejackets | Ensigns | Tom Brown | 1 2 2 1 3 | Harry Walcoff | 1 1 2 2 1 |
| Sherwood Keyser | 2 4 1 4 2 | Herman Doh | 4 2 1 1 3 |
| Dave McDowell | 3 1 3 2 4 | Derek Allan | 2 3 4 3 5 |
| John Grant | 4 3 4 3 1 | Adam Krakowski | 5 4 5 4 2 |
| Bob Moore | 5 5 5 5 5 | Bud Seawell | 3 3 5 4 |
[from a newspaper clipping pasted to a VSC Bulletin dtd Sept.14,1970]
Harry Walcoff, then Commodore, possibly savoring his impressive victory, could not resist giving the rest of the fleet a little sermon on a subject many skippers have experienced at least once during their racing careers. He wrote then that:
"The aura of the 'bad luck' number seemed to have reached out and touched all but two yachts; or was it just despair and lack of knowledge of the racing rules. Several skippers commented after the race that they didn't think the race would count, or that so many yachts had to finish to make it official, etc. Once again must I quote my favorite, Paul Elvstrom, who said 'Knowing the racing rules and using them helps win races.' Our rules specifically state that a minimum of three boats of a class must start to be official. Our rules also say that the first yacht crossing the finish line must do so in three hours of elapsed time. It only takes one yacht crossing the finish to make it official."
Harry Walcoff and his crew participated in the 1970 Ensign Class Association National races in 1970. Sponsored by Ensign Fleet #4 in Narragansett Bay, the Bristol Yacht Club in Rhode Island saw 46 boats in that regatta. Sailing a borrowed Ensign, Walcoff placed 33rd among many local sailors of that area. (Ref: Ensign Class Association, Newsletter No. 3, October, 1970)
In the LCRC, Bill Rowe placed 17th for the season sailing Crisis, a Contest 30, and Dave McDowell placed 22nd sailing VALCOUR V, Bluejacket #61. The Vermont clubs where dominating the LCRC in 1970 and no VSC boat finished in the top three places that year in any of the six conference races.
1970: FINAL SERIES RESULTS
BLUEJACKETS