What I didn't get to do this summer; Sugar Island Encampment

One of the events I missed this summer, to my immense disappointment; I didn't do my annual camping/boating trip to Sugar Island during the American Canoe Association Encampment. Though I've retired from International Canoe racing, Sugar Island is my yearly chance to reconnect to the IC guys still hammering around in these pure, balls to the wall, sailing machines. My post on my 2009 Sugar Island campsite is over here (for some reason that video has my co-workers cracking up).

I filmed the 2009 Round Sugar Island Race (traditionally only raced once during the week but, in 2009, the IC sailors enjoyed it so much they ran it a second time). The course is twice around Sugar Island. After the first lap, you reverse direction. Start and finish is off New York Bay. I caught the action from Hurricane Point which, in the prevailing westerly's, has the most wind and a tricky cross chop bouncing off the shore.

The class has changed it's rules since I raced. The new rules International Canoe is much thinner (30") and much lighter than the ones I raced. In the video, Bill Beaver is racing "Lust Puppet", an IC I owned during the 1990's.

Round Sugar Island, 2009............

I ran into Paul Miller, another retired IC sailor this past week and he directed me to another International Canoe video, this one of the 2010 North American's in San Francisco (capsize city!).

Shot by Gail Yando, significant other of Del Olsen (Del, USA 243, who I must reluctantly report is my age, and still racing these beasts hard in a breeze).

Did you notice Erich Chase's partial wardrobe malfunction at about 7:38 into the video?

2009 Sugar Island Encampment

I was off last week, camping on Sugar Island, Canada. Sugar Island is part of the Lake Fleet chain of islands in the Thousand Islands and is owned by the American Canoe Association (since around 1903) and they have been hosting the Annual Encampment even before that time. In the 1920's and 1930's, the Encampment was a big deal; canoe clubs from up and down the East Coast attended, paddling and sailing competitions were held over the two weeks, there was a large dining hall and a ferry stopped over at Headquarter Bay to take on and offload passengers. Plus, during the Prohibition, Sugar Island was just inside Canada and you could legally imbibe alcohol, something that was readily enjoyed by American canoeists.

Today the Annual Encampment is on a much, much smaller scale, most of the canoe clubs from the past are long extinct, the dining hall either burnt down or was razed and the Island has returned to a wilder state, replete with raccoons, mink, deer. The International Canoes (I know they don't look like canoes but their heritage is very definitely grounded in the sailing canoes of yore) race the first week for some very old trophies. I haven't owned a race boat Int. Canoe since the mid 90's so I attend as a Int. Canoe alumni and help with race committee, connect with old sailing buddies, kibbitz with the current crop of International Canoe sailors and paddle my surf ski hither and yon.

More about the Encampment later but here is a video of my campsite.



Oh, I forgot to say that they cliff dive (into the water) off of Island 48. International Canoeists are masochists but they usually don't throw themselves off cliffs to the ground below.

New York Bay, Sugar Island and Decked Sailing Canoes

As the 12 meter yachts will be forever linked to Newport, Rhode Island, the North American decked sailing canoe and its modern incarnation, the International Canoe, will always be inextricably linked to a tiny inlet on Sugar Island called New York Bay. Bay is a grandiose term for a body of water you could easily throw a baseball over, but it has been the center of decked canoe sailing for over a century. During the July ACA encampment, the International Canoes race for trophies that arguably are the oldest in small boat sailing; the Crane, the Mermaid, the Butler, and the Championship.

The campsites for the decked canoe sailors and families ring New York Bay. There is a constant bustle of kids swimming, kayaks coming and going, boat tweaking for the next race. On one side of the Bay are the wooden floats where most of the IC's are kept. On the promontory, just beyond the floats, is the Steve Lysak cabin with a expansive view of the St Lawrence. There is a small beach where kayaks and IC's on dollies reside. New York Bay is tucked away out of the prevailing southwesterly's, so much so that one can leave the sails up during the day with no excitement.

Some photos...... As always you can click on the photo for higher resolution.

From the Edwin Schoettle book, Sailing Craft, published in 1928, there is a photo of the floats on New York Bay filled with 16X30 decked sailing canoes. The tent on the left occupies the same space the Steve Lysak cabin sits today.



Canoe floats on New York Bay over 80 years later. Some of the fleet at this years Encampment..........



Looking out from New York Bay onto the St. Lawrence. Marilyn Vogel sailing her ACA rigged open canoe. The Canadian town of Gananoque is about 2 miles in the distance.



Finally, International Canoes launch for the afternoon races. Note the varying techniques to navigate out of the windless New York Bay.


Note; There is an error in one of the titles of the video. Sugar Island is in Canada, not New York.

Honey, Did you enjoy your cruise across the lake?

In one of the strangest political, cultural and human psychology missteps, the United States banned the sale, manufacture, and transportation of liquor from 1920 to 1933. What resulted was probably the largest civilian disobedience of a national law in recorded history. Moonshine, brewing beer at home, underground bars - the speakeasy, bootlegging; Americans were going to get their hooch one way or the other.

I've written about the American Canoe Association encampment on Sugar Island, an encampment that achieved great popularity during the Prohibition, not so much for the canoe competitions as for the fact the Island sits about 1/2 mile inside the Canadian border on the St. Lawrence. During the two week encampment, canoeists from up and down the Eastern Seaboard could drink, and drink, and drink. It got so bad, the governing body of Sugar Island set aside a peninsula  on the Island for drinking and all the gambols that are inextricably linked to booziness, the gambling, the running around nude, the decibels, the peeing in the bushes, the fights. They named the peninsula "Buck Point".

And as the following video shows, even the cruising sailboat crowd got into the action.

Let's imagine the skipper's conversation with his wife after he got back from his "cruise" across Lake Michigan;

Wife: "Honey, did you enjoy your cruise across the Lake with Tom, Dick, and Harry?
Skipper: "Yes it was very nice."
Wife: "Well you look very exhausted. Was the weather rough?"
Skipper: (wink, wink) "Oh yes, there were some very rough days"
Skipper: "Listen Dear, how about you and I go look at a new car tomorrow. I've got some extra cash burning in my pocket"

Some Prohibition Footage from Steve Unkles on Vimeo.

Another Boat Nut (and Good Friend)

My good friend, Fran DeFaymoreau came down from Long Island two weekends ago for a visit. Fran is another long-in-the-tooth International Canoe sailor and at Sugar Island Fran brought his latest brainstorm, an older Chrysler MFG Sidewinder he picked up for $100 or so. Fran's idea is to put a canoe stern on this boat, a sliding seat and make it into an older gents EZY canoe. For Sugar, all Fran had the time to do was plop an International Canoe rig into the Sidewinder. He quickly found out the Sidewinder leaked like a sieve and the jury rigged IC sail plan was just this side of pulling something out and falling overboard. Fran is an excellent boat builder and given time, he'll have a working concept.

I have two pics of his drifter sail in his Sidewinder/IC at Sugar Island.

Header Photo: Happy New Year from Sugar Island

I was poking around some images on my computer when I came across this one, a photo that actually said Happy New Year on it. This photo is of a group of canoeists on Sugar Island, watching the sailing canoe races from the shade of the trees, their chairs perched on a smooth rock face that makes up much of the island. Year is mid-1930's, probably 1934 or 1935. I googled the name on the lower right, Geo. F. Lewis, and found out he was from Massachusetts and also in charge of the musical entertainment for the week. It would be a safe bet to assume that this is Geo. F. Lewis watching from one of the chairs. Here's wishing the readers of Earwigoagin the best for 2019.

1981 International Canoe Worlds; The Epilogue

What other memories do I carry from the 81 International Canoe Worlds?

1. I've done three other regattas where the housing, food, and dinghy park were based out of one site (excluding Sugar Island Week, where everyone is stuck on the island for a week). Today, it's not common to do that for regattas (except, like Sugar Island, camp regattas seem to be getting popular, which uses the same concept of throwing everyone together after racing). Having everything at Tabor Academy was good. Since most of us were on a steep learning curve, shared experiences across nationalities took on even more meaning.
2. I had a one year old infant at home that was an early riser. Keeping my morning routine, around 6:30 am I'd be up in the dim beginnings of daylight, sauntering among the different International Canoes scattered about the dinghy park. Just me and one of the Germans, who, very punctually, would hoist his sails with at least 3 1/2 hours before he had to launch. There's still something about racing dinghies waiting in the half morning light that I find very picturesque.
3. I developed later in the week, a physical affliction known only to sliding seat sailors; severe abrasions on each butt cheek from sliding in and out (several International Canoe sailors from that era slyly referenced such malady in the names of the IC's, i.e "Sticky Buns" and "Rosie Cheeks"). Mid week a lot of us were walking bow legged like cowboys. I thought I had enough padding but as I was to find out later, any movement whatsoever of the piece of clothing or wet suit that was layered next to your butt would act like sandpaper. The physical hurt ratcheted up so, that come Thursday, I was desperate enough (and I alone) to come up with the solution of taping up my butt cheeks with duct tape. It worked well enough for Thursdays racing but when I decided to remove them after the racing, the real pain began. I had no idea how many little tiny hairs you have on your butt. And with duct tape, there is no quick rip it off. Picture Steve Carrell's chest hair removal (movie '40 Year Old Virgin') in very, very, slow, slow motion.
4. I roomed with a young English sailor (I think Adrian was his name), who would attack his IC with a saw, hammer and nails every evening after sailing. On measurement day, Adrian found out his IC was considerably overweight. After determining that the previous owner had squirreled away lead weights in the hull (ostensibly to prevent nosediving), Adrian proceeded to cut huge square holes in the deck. He found the weights and then closed up the holes by nailing some scrap plywood he found laying around the dorms. He had seat carriage problems which he fixed by nailing some large 2X4's to the carriage. In all my time racing dinghies, I have never seen someone destroy in a week, what had been a very pretty cold molded International Canoe.

Finally a picture of a youngish Tweezerman standing (probably because it was too painful to sit) in the Tabor Academy dinghy park alongside his first IC "No Eyes". Thirty years ago, the sailing kit appears prehistoric!

Bob Halsey; A Salute

Bob Halsey, open canoe racer/sailor passed away about three weeks ago at the age of 93. Bob is one of two iron men Canoe sailors I came to know when I showed up in the International Canoe class in the early 1980's. Bob and Steve Lysak were already well into their 60's but had the strength and endurance of someone in their 40's. Bob would race the Open Canoe sailing events at Sugar Island, turn around at the end of the regatta, load the canoe with camping gear and go on a sailabout of the Canadian Park islands for a couple of days.

Bob was still swimming the Round Sugar race (over 2 miles in length) well into his 80's and when he went South to Florida, he would do the Rudder Club's Mug Race on the St. Johns River (the Worlds longest river race). A well sailed Laser usually takes 12 hours to complete the race, most time Bob and his open Canoe were on the water for 14 hours, finishing well after dark. Bob started his last Mug Race two years ago (he didn't finish that one, though he had previously won the slow handicap division with his open Canoe).

Bob had been a metal worker out of North East Ohio and he had that low key Midwestern, take it in, measure it, and then parse out a cryptic but insightful... this is how it needs to be done.... from someone who had been creating, and fixing stuff for his entire life.

He will be missed!

Bob, in his own words on his sailabout of the Thousand Islands.

Probably the greatest photo of Open Sailing Canoe Racing, Bob Halsey in his self designed and built sailing Canoe with the ACA rig, at Sugar Island. Photo by Chuck Sutherland.

Sea Story; Larry Haff on how Lake Sebago got it's name

At this years MASCF, I bumped into open ACA canoe sailor Larry Haff. I haven't seen Larry for two years and he related this gem about how Lake Sebago, NY got it's name.

Lake Sebago is one of two American Canoe Camps (Sugar Island is the other one) and sits about 30 miles out from New York City. It is a great paddling lake and top notch paddlers come out to train on this lake. For sailboat racing; it's the pits, literally, as Lake Sebago sits in a bowl where the wind seemingly never shows up. Over the years, Larry has been driven bonkers by sailing too many ACA open sailing canoe events at Lake Sebago .

Upon doing some reasearch? Larry Haff told me with a straight face that "Sebago" is the Native American word for "where the wind goes to die".

Look Ma, No Rudder (No Paddle Either); St. Lawrence Skiff

Last post in this series, unless a reader points me to another class. The St. Lawrence skiff is a traditional clinker double ended craft developed in the mid 1800's among the Thousand Islands, between New York and Canada. Usually between 18' and 22', the Skiff was originally an all purpose water transport between islands and the mainland. The St. Lawrence skiff was not paddled but propelled by oar or sail, and was always sailed with no rudder. In the late 1800's, with the rush of city folk to the outdoors, the St. Lawrence skiff became the craft of choice for the local fishing guides to take their paying city "sports" out on the river. Sailing races between towns on the river took place in the Skiffs, again using no rudders, just the movement of the crew (a la the Patin a Vela catamaran) to steer the boat.

Today the St. Lawrence skiff is built primarily as a rowing craft. Search on the Internet, turned up one sailing regatta a year, the Harold Herrick Cup, usually with around five St. Lawrence skiffs competing. In my 20 or so years of taking a summer vacation on Sugar Island , one of the Thousand Islands, I don't recall coming across a St. Lawrence skiff sailing without a rudder.

I was able to lift a picture of a sailing St. Lawrence Skiff from the online "Thousand Islands Life" magazine.



And from the October 1988 archives of the New York Times, the obituary of Harold Herrick, in whose name the St. Lawrence Skiffs race every year.

Harold Herrick Jr. of Clayton and Cape Vincent, N.Y., who died earlier this month, was an extraordinary fellow. He was a superb waterfowler and a staunch member of Ducks Unlimited, a supporter of aspiring wildlife artists, an acknowledged expert in antique duck, goose and shorebird decoys, and a master at handling the rudderless St. Lawrence sailing skiff. Harold had astonishing energy, ebullience and enthusiasm that often left the more cautious mortals with whom he was associated pleading for time to cogitate.

The Thousand Islands area of the St. Lawrence was his special love. He knew its history, its people, its reefs and channels; he knew where to find muskelunge, black bass and walleyes, and in late fall and winter he knew where to rig decoys on open water for bluebills and where to wait for black ducks in secluded coves and marshes.

Harold had no truck with sham or whimpering, and to the end he refused to dwell on the cancer that so swiftly ended his life. His time was up and he knew it, but even in his final hours he was arranging a fishing trip for friends or talking enthusiastically of the warm public response to a new book, in whose publication he played a major role, dealing with the history of the St. Lawrence skiff.

He did not rage against the dying of the light, but accepted it with a forthright dignity that those who loved him will always remember.

I'll have to do some more research on this craft, particularly on how you sail them.

Addendum;

John Summer, former curator of the Antique Boat Museum, Clayton NY, has left this comment, which I have brought up to the main post;

Skiffs typically had a fan-shaped folding centerboard, operated by a lever in the boat, similar to the Radix and other boards used in sailing canoes of the later 19th century. A Clayton resident, Montraville Atwood, had a patent on a 3-leaf folding centerboard. Rig was a 70-90 sq foot spritsail.

The majority of the skiffs had long, straight external keels with very little rocker, which facilitated tracking and reaching. To tack, the skipper moved forward, pulling up the board as he went, and crouched at the base of the mast while the boom went over above his head. Heading back to the stern, he pushed the board back down. To gybe, the skipper went to the stern and sat on the afterdeck, urging the boom across with a flip of the sheet. Smaller course corrections were variations of this weighting/unweighting, augmented by sail trim.

Header Photos from previous posts

Some blog housekeeping for myself. I wanted to document the header photos I've used in previous posts, before I started labeling them as header photos. For a slideshow, click on the first photo.

A Sandbagger off Annapolis Harbor...........

International Canoes on floating docks, New York Bay, Sugar Island...........

Classic Moth start, Midwinters, Boca Ciega Bay, Gulfport Florida......

Classic Moths on the downwind leg, Boca Ciega Bay, Gulfport Florida.....

Australian Historical 10 foot skiffs rigging on shore.........