Evening star., 1939-04-16
Five Glasses Slated
For Competition
In Inaugural
Lightning SIoop Among
Recent Additions to
Washington Fleet

BY MALCOLM LAMBORNE, Jr.
What Capital sailors do during the
winter months will be revealed this
afternoon when racing enthusiasts
staging week-late Easter parade
gather off Hams Point for the OPEN
ing race of the Potomac River Sail
Ing Association.
Never idle, even when winds
howled outside and snow piled high
boating addicts made the most of
those long winter evenings. Many
will be out with new boats built at
home or purchased at various ship
yards. Others will have craft sport
ing new spars, new sails or rebuilt
hulls. 1t will be hard to find one
boat that won't have some new
gadget or trick to make it go Just
a little faster than last year.
There is one young couple who
turned their kitchenette into a boat
shop and seemed content to eat
their plank steaks out while plank
ing was under way at home. Be-
ing rather small craft, the ole
gag Of tearing down one side of the
house to get her out was not called
into play.
Small-BOat Group Grows.
This racing of small boats in To-
cal waters is not new thing-the
P. R. S. A. is going into its sixth
year of existence this fall-never-
theless, 1t only is recently that the
sport has received more converts
than perhaps any other recreation
since the days of miniature golf.
And if you think keeping tab on
all the newcomers is an easy task,
you have only to ask association
officials. Every other day now
they're receiving reports of some one
building a 20footer in a back yard
or a comet in some garage or a
dinghy in kitchen.
To attempt to pick likely winners
In the 20-foot restricted class, the
comet class, the snipe division and
A and B handicap groups, all of
which will get the gun today at
flve-minute intervals beginning at
2 pm, is useless this early in the
season. After all, racing is going
to continue each Sunday until the
first of June. And as you might ex-
pect, there are going to be some
dark horses among the newcomers.
Several New Comets.
Take the cometeers, for instance.
There is that new boat of Fleet
Champion Ernie Covert's, which, ac-
cordlng to one story, requires two
men to hold her down when Covert
starts to sand down the bottom. Or
Leslie Wright's new Fan Tan Ill
IN Fan Tan II Wright has several
times won the snipe championship
of Chesapeake Bay-which Just
went overheard this week at Capt.
tai Yacht Club. This boat, built to
special order on the Eastern Shore.
where the comet first saw the light of
day, is reputed to be as sweet a craft
as ever was lowered into the
Potomac.
In the 20foot class, Judge Prem
tice Edrington, oblivious to the
feverish building of 20-footers here
and nearby, has made a new lady
Of the Lady Avon and is out to re-
gain the class title lost last fall to
Twig Bush's Cricket II. About all
remaining of the old boat are her
frames and spars, what with bottom,
deck, centerboard and rudder new.
Lightning Sloop Here.
Perhaps no boat will receive more
attention from the critics this spring
than the new lightning class sloop
recently trailed here from Skane-
ateles, N. Y, by its co-oWners, Paul
Walter and George Buchan. A 49,
footer introduced at the last Boat
Show in New York, the lightning,
which was designed by Sparkman
& Stephens, already can boast of
more than a hundred registered.
This is record never equaled by
any one-design class in its first year.
The local boat will be permitted to
race in the 20-foot division.
Speaking of rejuvenations. there
Is the venerable A handicap boat
Sandpiper, owner by Louis Geiser.
Sandpiper has been rerigged with
the very newest of jib-headed hair
dresses and her sail area increased
to 300 square feet without her
powerful genoa jib.
Impetus to the growing snipe class
will be given with the reported ar
rival of three or four new snipes
from the Sparrows Point Yacht Club
fleet near Baltimore.
Fleet CxnfainS ChoSan
Bud Beavin, Wiki Mcneil and
Roger Gintling are expected over
for the first portion of the season
to tune up for their series, which be-
gins next month. The local fleet,
numbering eight boats, has been
increased by new craft. High
Lama, owned by DR.. Evart Warren
and so ably sailed last Sunday by
Wright.
This year in order to assure closer
cooperation between each of the
classes and officials, the association
suggested selection of fleet captains
for those who had none. Glass B
Is headed by Dick Shaw: class A,
by Geiser; snipe. Weston Valentine;
comet, Covert, and 20-foot, Edring-
ton. Again Jack Marsh heads the
Race Committee and will officiate
from his yawl Ranger, long since
accustomed to the booming of start
ing and finishing cannon.
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