Chasing Roosters: My Fleeting Blip on the Radar Screen of the BBYRA

'Chasing Roosters' celebrates one hundred years of sailing

in the Barnegat Bay Yacht Racing Association.  Spearheaded

by arguably Barnegat Bay's most celebrated sailor, Gary Jobson,

this project along with an accompanying video was a few years

in the making, and it was well worth the wait.

I think the main focus of the book and video is the close-knit

community of clubs on the Bay, and the uniqueness that each

club brings to the table.  Some clubs have pools, some have 

tennis courts, some have both, some have neither.  Most have

bars, some have snack bars.  Some have lawns, most have 

gravel.  Some have beaches, some have bulkheads. Some 

used Duckboats for their junior programs, some used Diamonds,

some used Prams, some used Sunfish.  What they all have in 

common is a genuine love of sailing boats.  When the BBYRA 

season is in full swing, it is a true fraternity; regardless of which 

club you are a member, you are welcome anywhere, with open 

arms.  Their club grounds are yours.  Your money is good at their 

bars.  Their hoist waits for you.  Their members will patiently

wait for you to get out of their showers.  If you drink too much 

and need to leave your boat....and car in their lot overnight,

then Sunday it is.  We're sailors after all.

You know when people say that you don't appreciate something

until it's gone?  There are few things in my life that I miss more 

than summer Saturdays spent racing on Barnegat Bay.  But as a

child, and then as a teenager, it was more or less expected of me to

 sail down bay on Saturdays.  Whether I was crewing for

someone or sailing my Laser, I knew I'd be gone for the day.

It was something I had unknowingly always taken for granted.

Any given Saturday at Wagners'.  Another photo from this roll made it into the Metedeconk chapter of 'Chasing Roosters'

It's a drag getting up at 6 a.m.  But if you're gonna get to

registration in time you'd better make it there while there

are still donuts available.  That was my carrot on the end of the 

stick. Saturdays were long days when we sailed in morning and 

afternoon classes. My nickname 'Baydog' came from my 

cousin Cahil because I was always down bay. That eventually

 morphed into Bayhog, but that's another story (food-related). 

Usually, for up-bay races, we'd base operations out of 

Mantoloking, due to their decent amount of room at the hoist

 and the lawn for folding sails. For the same reasons, 

Toms River YC was usually our down-bay launch site.  We could 

quickly drive over to Island Heights or Beachwood to register 

and be back with donuts in time to head out to the racecourse.

We would always launch from Seaside on the final Saturday.

They had a long strip of beach along the road with lots of dried

eelgrass upon which you could nestle your Penguin and Laser.

Their parking lot and hoist patio were always jammed, but you

had to be there for the beer and trophy presentations following

the last day of racing.  I along with a lot of kids from Metedeconk

usually ended up on Jim Carson's 'Schnitzelboomer', where any

kid was eligible to drink as much beer as could be found on board.

It probably continues to this day..........

Seaside Saturdays were notoriously 'get home late' days.

Legend has it that my Dad's Mom, Mary 'Nana' Wagner,

the matriarch of South Drive, called the Coast Guard on more

than one BBYRA final Saturday, pissed that the summer squash

that she put on the stove at 3:00 that afternoon was overdone,

and 'where the hell could they be?'

A foggy Sunday down South Drive

Sundays were usually for kicking around 829 South Drive

in Metedeconk...sailing in the MCYC Sunday races, 

hosing off sails on the gravel, crabbing off the dock, floating 

in tire tubes under that same dock, eating...........................

..............and eating.  Dave looks hungry.

Dad won the Seaside race in 1977, but Penguin 7731 won the Bay

When one wins a Bay race, he or she receives the class Rooster

flag to keep for one week.  Write your sail number and race date

on the flag before returning it the next Saturday.  Some sailors like

 to see their name as well. Hmmmm........On the last Saturday of
the summer, the winner keeps the Rooster.  Obviously, it's
more important to bring the flag home as many times as
possible during that season.  

 Penguin 7731

Assorted flags.  Each week, pennants go to 1st, 2nd, and 3rd

place boats, with the host club's initials.  The BBYRA insignia,

the Barnegat Lighthouse, adorns the qualifying banner.  Dad's first

full season appears to be 1953, sailing the family Lightning at 18.

Jim, Dot, Jon, and Bob - MC 1

My parents, Jim and Dot, crewed for Bob Armstrong on the only 

Metedeconk E-scow at the time.  Dad was jibman, Mom on boards,

and Jon Eisberg on backstays.  Mom was black and blue all summer

long; in those days the bilgeboards were not flush on the deck, 

but rather stuck out of their trunks and were great for sitting on.  

Seaside Park, September 1978. No rooster for JW this day, but the championship banner and hardware were his.

My blip on the radar screen occured between the late sixties

through the seventies, with only occasional crewing

appearances in the eighties and early nineties. Those early

years, however, planted a seed for the passion that exists today.
  I follow the race results every Sunday and try to keep abreast

of what's going on.  I participate vicariously through BBYRA.org.
I recognize names in the standings that I knew decades ago,
and many of them are the children, and even some are the
grandchildren of those against whom I raced. 

I didn't spend decades or a lifetime on the Bay racing

like so many of those still involved.  I do, though, feel

a sense of legacy and belonging to this organization.  I never
 did particularly well in my Laser on the Bay.
 I did manage to get to a windward mark ahead of Peter
Commette in my Laser once, for what it's worth.
 In spite of that, I had many good years as a crew, always
 managing to surround myself with (okay, I was lucky
enough to have) talented skippers and mentors. All of that
imparted wisdom has accumulated over the years and made
me the confident sailor I feel I am today.  

In 1978, I got my first restaurant summer job at Jack Baker's
Wharfside in Point Pleasant Beach.  It was a good fit for
me, considering how much I loved cooking food and eating it.
It turned into a lifelong career, and it's been very good to me.
As many people know though, in the restaurant business,
you're normally expected to be at work on weekends.
This alone makes it impossible to sail in the BBYRA.

Who knows, maybe one day I'll put down the knife, and my
 wife and I will join a BBYRA club and resume this wonderful
summer ritual that at one time I didn't realize how
much I truly appreciated.