Rock Hall Yacht Club hosted their 84th Annual Log Canoe Regatta on the Chester River Saturday and Sunday, July 6 and 7. The weather barely cooperated, but the race committee, the boats, their crews and their skippers were determined to finish the course. Chester River Yacht Club and Corsica River Yacht Club’s Log Canoe Regatta is July 13 and 14.
Last week, with temperatures reaching 90 degrees plus, humidity pushing the heat index to extremes, winds at about five knots, the starting gun sounded at 10:00 a.m. Seven log canoes crossed the starting marker just east of Lawyers Cove, Langford Creek. Winds would rest and gust again, die out, pick up. Saturday and Sunday’s airflow did not make for the swift, powerful show of speed and agility one sees on YouTube videos of these races. But the majesty of the betoken boats emerged nonetheless.
Since 1859 on the Miles River for the Douglas Cup, a Log Canoe Regatta has been a signature event at a handful of yacht clubs of the Eastern Shore of Maryland. Watching their distinctive sails open to the wind and their hulls slide at the surface of the water is watching living history. Miles River Yacht Club’s website chronicling the sport indicates these boats “were originally…for commercial oystering.” The sport grew out of the need to race one’s catch to buy boats and “this racing tradition continues with more than a dozen canoes – most built in the 1800s or early 1900s and listed on the National Historic Register.” The Bay herself is the solitary home of this type of regatta and this specific canoe.
“Part of the attraction of racing on these very special boats,” Pete Lesher, Chief Historian at Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum says, “is that we understand these boats date back to the 1880s. There is a sense that we are connected to and perpetuating a deep Eastern Shore tradition.”
Some of the owners and skippers of these boats are members of families owning the log canoes that extend back generations. But the crews themselves have changed and evolved over the decades, with the sport’s popularity soaring and waning. Skippers and their crews must practice and prepare for each regatta and Mr. Lesher indicates, “a culture develops unique to each boat.”
“If you’ve crewed on one of these boats,” notes Chip Lausman of Rock Hall, “then you know they simply don’t sail like other boats. Their tremendous sails and long, narrow design make it particularly important to prepare for all weather. You might have strong winds, thunderstorms. Or you might have to contend with hot, sticky days like last weekend, where you drift as much as you sail.”
Most crew members come from the yacht clubs themselves, or from family members of the skippers/owners, and from friends of friends. Many are students from local colleges with rich sailing traditions, like Washington College or St. Mary’s College of Maryland.
“There are three things you look for in your crew,” notes Jim Smith of Quaker Neck, Chestertown. “First, they must have knowledge of how the sails work. Sailing experience helps tremendously. Second, it helps if the crew are younger. And third, crew members must be tough. It’s not uncommon to walk away from a race with shins banged and fingers smashed, with splinters and bruises. We sail light. This sport is not for the faint of heart.”
Connie Ranney of the Rock Hall Yacht Club School of Sailing has been part of the race committee for her club’s reggatta for years. This year she was the scorer and notes that the culture of the different boats and their crews is like any organization. Teamwork is crucial to a crew’s success and every team is different. But the camaraderie and celebration of tradition makes attending a log canoe awards ceremony unique.
“There are other regattas, and other types of sailing vessels, but the log canoe requires something special – hours and hours on the boat, a lot of effort to downrig and stow her sails and boards. When the awards ceremony at the Rock Hall yacht club this year began, we had between 50 – 80 people attend,” she explains. “The energy they bring, the celebration of the sport, it’s fabulous. Everyone chats about the results and the race, and a buzz, buzz, buzz – it’s just a very fun time at the club.”
“We may, as crew members, feel like a bunch of crazy people on a boat,” says Pete Lesher. “But there’s an understanding, and a bit of wonderment, that there were folks that were just as crazy doing this 100 years ago. We celebrate skippers and dominant boats at awards ceremonies, but you also find the connectedness to the tradition as a whole and the specialness in an individual canoe that we hope to sustain by continuing to care for and race these unique boats.”
Liz Smith of Quaker Neck notes that things are changing in the world of regattas, whether the Log Canoe or other vessels.
“When I was young,” she notes, “we lived on the water. We would get on a sunfish and sail all over the Chester River, and our mother knew if we went out somewhere and it got too late in the day, we’d call her. And she’d come pick us up. But today, sailing seems to be losing popularity all over the country. Our culture is changing, not so many young people pick up sailing like we did.”
Liz Smith is only the second woman in the history of the regatta to skipper a log canoe. She was in her teens on a boat with all men at a time when women’s empowerment was forefront in the news.
“It was the time of women’s lib,” she explains. “In those days, there were a lot of people involved in Log Canoe.There were over 20 boats sailing in these events regularly. Only seven boats came out last weekend. My hope for the future of the sport is not only that it continues, but that it retains its rich history of limited gadgetry. The rules used to be much more stringent than they are now and of course, the sport will evolve, it has to. But these boats that have been in the water since the 1880s, they’ve lasted because they’ve been respected as the unique vessels they are.”
Each club’s Log Canoe Regatta culminates with awards and a celebration of the day. The Whittum Trophy is one of several perpetual trophies awarded annually at the RHYC awards ceremony. Unlike other awards given on corrected time, this award goes to the Log Canoe who finished first in elapsed time. This year’s winner of the Whittum trophy is 22-year-old Wade Anthony of Chestertown who skippered the Silver Heel. Mr. Anthony is currently the RHYC Sailing School’s head sailing coach and has grown the RHYC racing team from just five kids to 13 young sailors over the past 3 years.
Connie Ranney notes, “this young man is a fantastic log canoe skipper and human being. He learned to sail with us and has been a fabulous junior racer on the Bay. Wade has a serious passion for the sport. He knows how to talk to anyone, is so skilled and is a real leader. He grew our own sailing team recently from just five kids to 13 young sailors last year. And it’s exciting – now he’s earned serious silver for the Chester River clubs.”
Regina Oliver is a writer living in Rock Hall. Her Substack account may be found here.
Donna says
The article was very nice, but there is a correction. The correction is Liz Smith is the second female skipper to win a log canoe race