Sailing season begins for new and experienced boaters

By Julia Boyle
THE ERICKSON TRIBUNE

All hands on deck! Model yachting season is about to begin. The first week of May, sailors across Maryland dust off their sails and test the waters.

For some, model yachting continues a lifetime of boating. For others, it’s a new hobby.

Helms-a-lee
“It’s entirely new for me, and as soon as I moved here it helped me expand my contacts. I guess that’s why I’m as faithful to it as I am,” says Jack Webb, the 2007 commodore of Oak Crest’s Blue Heron Yacht Club.

While Webb moved up the ranks quickly, Tom Linton, commodore of Charlestown’s Black Swan Yacht Club, put in his time. A longtime sailor, the transition from full-sized yachts to the 30.7-inch-long Victorias— both clubs’ standard—was natural for him.

Proudly displaying his newly completed, redhulled Victoria, Linton says, “There’s a certain level of enjoyment that came in seeing the day when I finally finished putting this model together.”

Get a ‘clew’
Like most model yachts, the Victoria is built from a kit, which standardizes the hull and fittings but leaves room for engineering the sails, mast, and spars.

“There are some definite skills to the way you rig your boat,” Webb says. “A lot of skippers fine-tune their boats, making new sails and using lighter materials like carbon and Mylar.”

The average cost of the kit runs around $200 when you add a two-channel radio, paint, and glue to the basic kit. But Rune Engblom, last year’s Black Swan commodore, says “It’s definitely a worthwhile investment.”

Linton says he’s ready to put his boat in the water on opening day, May 2. Each year, sailors and spectators alike gather at Charlestown’s Lake Charles and Oak Crest’s Lake Victoria to salute the fleet.

Sailing season
Both the Black Swan and Blue Heron Yacht Clubs race every Wednesday at 10 a.m. The Blue Herons also compete on Saturdays and Tuesdays against clubs from around the region.