A light June breeze tickled the leafy, spotted Sycamore as the sailors below prepared their Johnsons for launch.

As much fun as scow sailing is, and as wildly popular as this blogsite has become, it is rare to get enough scow fans on the same day at the same hour in the same place to launch two scows.  But the day before Father’s Day was an opportunity to trade in those paternal chits and break away for a morning of jousting on the Potomac.

Before the results, let’s introduce the teams.  In the 1974 M-16, with about 300 pounds of crew weight, we had new-timer Patrick  with the Golden State gadfly Jeff S, a veteran of Bay Area J-boat racing.  In the 1983 I-20, pushing 360 pounds of crew weight, were the challengers, Jeff Boom Boom C.  and veteran scow crew, Stew. Both boats were built at the same facility: Johnson Boat Works, White Bear Lake Minnesota.  Hence the “Johnson”Regatta.

“You’re gonna eat that bowsprit today,” Jeff S sputtered as the boats hit the water.   Stew looked over at his teammate Boom Boom and assured they would easily dispatch their foul mouthed rivals.  “I  untied their hiking straps,” he reported.

Unlike most regattas which has boats starting on the same line at the same time, the Johnson Regatta is more like a golf match in which competitors start at different times and measure themselves against inscrutable standards with shifting relevance depending on a variety of conditions including who is at the helm and how big he or she can blow a bubble with chewing gum.  Probably understandable that the standings after two races were still in dispute as the scowmen packed up their boats at the end of the morning and compared notes on the challenging conditions and heated rivalry.  Perhaps, given the light air and lighter crew, the M16 may have eked a narrow victory over the big 20-foot I20, proof once again that in light air and with reasonably matched crews, a smaller Johnson is better.

[album: http://scowsailing.com/wp-content/plugins/dm-albums/dm-albums.php?currdir=/wp-content/uploads/dm-albums/First Annual Johnson Regatta/]