2015 Regatta Invitation

This year’s regatta may take on an international flavor with sailors all the way from Germany. Or maybe not. The race may begin at 3:00. Or it may not. Organizer Tucker Wachsmuth may sail as usual. Or perhaps not.

There are lots of uncertainties with regattas and this year’s is no exception. It’s hard to schedule wind and tides to suit a sailor’s purposes and, until the wetsuits have been donned and the contestants are in their boats, it’s often hard to know just who is participating in this annual Oysterville event. And it depends upon how many boats are available.

Getting Ready 2012

Regatta participants come from as near as Greater Downtown Oysterville and, this year, from as far away as Germany. The boats – all 14-foot laser class sailboats – are mostly based in Oysterville, several of them in Tucker’s boathouse. And, therein lies a bit of the regatta uncertainty – how many of the invited guests (like the relatives from Germany) will want to sail. Tucker, being the consummate host and generous guy that he is, has often said that he’ll give up his boat if there is a willing sailor who needs it. So… we’ll see.

This date for this year’s regatta was also a difficulty. The prerequisites are that the regatta needs to be in the afternoon (for the wind), on a Saturday (for optimum participation), preferably in August. As I (a total landlubber but enthusiastic onlooker) understand it, there was only one possibility this year. The tide must be high enough to launch to boats from the moorage at the foot of Clay Street and this coming Saturday’s 7.6 foot tide is the one and only.

Getting Ready 2009

Part of the excitement, of course, is the total uncertainty of it all. And, if there were betting folks among us, we would be hard pressed to figure the odds. This hasn’t been a big sailing year for some reason. Betsy Nordquist has been out a few times and maybe Tucker has, too. But, I’m not sure that “practice makes perfect” when it comes to sailing.

Who will win the coveted Oyster Cup? That’s will be the question on every lip in Oysterville when the starting gun is fired on Saturday. I don’t think the operable words are “break a leg.” Maybe “fair winds and a following sea”…