Victory has a nice ring to it

Husband-wife team celebrate anniversary with Annapolis Yacht Club Double-handed Race win

Most couples go out for a fancy dinner or take a long weekend getaway to celebrate wedding anniversaries.

Allan Terhune and Cate Muller-Terhune elected to compete in a 24-hour distance sailboat race to commemorate their first anniversary of marriage.

It proved a rewarding decision as the couple was the big winner in the second Annapolis Yacht Club Double-handed Race last weekend. The Terhunes captured overall honors among 26 entries racing under the Offshore Racing Congress (ORC) rating rule.

Husband and wife shared all crewduties in terms of steering, trimming and changing sails on the way to winning ORC 2 class, which attracted 17 boats. They sailed Das Boot, an Italia 9.98, to the best corrected time inORCat 21hours, 18 minutes and 43 seconds.

That was a mere 17 seconds better than Abientot, a J/35 sailed by owner Roger Lant and crew MichaelWelin that was runner-up in ORC 2. Das Boot finished less than two

minutes ahead Abientot on elapsed time.

“Cate prefers distance racing more than I do. I spend most of my time doing buoy racing,” said Terhune, who has been part of championship teams in all sorts of small one-design classes. “It was good to seek howour skill sets merged. I did more of the sail changes on the bow, while Cat did most of the navigation. We organically went back-and-forth from steering to trimming.”

After attracting 17 total boats for the inaugural Double-handed Race, Annapolis Yacht Club officials were thrilled to see entries almost double to 37 for the second installment. Principal Race Officer Dick Neville sent the fleet on what was initially planned as a six-leg, 98-nautical mile course that traversed a wide swath of the Chesapeake Bay.

With a noon start off Hackett’s Point on Saturday, Oct. 3, the overnight race was designed to last 24 hours if conditions allowed. However, light winds prompted the race committee to shorten the course by eliminating the last leg from R2 into Annapolis Harbor.

Competitors were challenged from the outset as the first leg took the fleet approximately 18 nautical miles north to G83 Brewerton, located just off North Point State Park. Sailing in light northerly winds of less than five knots with an adverse current, itwas a time-consuming slog.

“Allan and I knew getting through the bridge quickly would be critical. We worked hard to get to the west side of the bay to take advantage of any shifts,” Cate Muller-Terhune said. “We both had sailed the Leukemia Cup in very similar conditions and the west had paid off that day, so we used that recent knowledge to our advantage.”

She described the jaunt from the Bay Bridge to G83 as “a lesson in patience” as the wind went extremely light and the duo performed multiple sail changes while trying desperately to find puffs.

Leg 2 was approximately 40 nautical miles and took the fleet south to R78, a government mark located in the middle of the bay just south of Chesapeake Beach. It was a beat thewhole way and lasted into the early hours of Sunday morning.

Das Boot hugged the western shore on the return trip toward the Bay Bridge then immediately switched to the Eastern Shore side after passing under the twin spans just after sunset.

It proved a fortuitous decision as the wind increased to 6-8 knots and Das Boot passed a bunch of larger, faster boats that were becalmed in the middle of the Chesapeake Bay. There was a spectacular harvest moon and the Terhunes watched with amazement as they moved to the front of the fleet while sailing along the length of Kent Island.

“I think that stretch was the key to the whole race for our team,” Allan Terhune said. “Our big move was getting over to the Eastern Shore in shallower water with better breeze.”

Leg3was north to R2, Leg4took the fleet south to G83 near Bloody Point and Leg 5 proved to be the last with Neville instructing the on-station committee boat to finish boats at R2.

“I’m glad itwas not super windy because we had not done as much practice as we needed,” Allan Terhune said. “Staying up for 24 hours is not easy. I never got tired during race because I was so focused and intense. Once itwas over, Iwas wiped out.”

Terhune could easily see upwards of 60 boats competing in the third annual AYC Double-handed Race. Two-handed distance racing on big boats is a discipline that has been added for the next Olympic games and is growing rapidly in popularity.

“I think this is the future of where the sport of sailing is going. Just the whole concept of adventure sailing is exciting,” Allan Terhune said. “There are so many unique elements as far as navigation, sailing at night and both crew having to be fully involved and working hard. Clearly, people are really getting into it.”

Meanwhile, sailing legend Randy Smyth teamed with Christina Persson to top J/105 class, which drew 11 boats. Teams entered in J/105 one-design were required to be co-ed. It was a repeat performance for Smyth and Persson, whowere J/105 winners.

Smyth was inducted into the National Sailing Hall of Fame three years ago based off his exploits as a multihull sailor, most notably two Olympic silver medals in Tornado class. The Fort Walton Beach resident is a past winner of the grueling Worrell 1000 and has numerous other major championships to his credit.

Paul Parks, whose wife Kathy was event chair, recruited Smyth to participate.

“Paul called me out of the blue about this race andwe sort of jumped in blindfolded,” said Smyth, who hasn’t raced monohulls since the early 1970s.

Smyth coached Persson, a Fort Lauderdale, Florida, native, while she was an aspiring Olympian in the Nacra class. They followed a similar strategy as the Terhunes, hugging the shoreline on either side of the bay as much as possible.

“When it’s light and you’re going slow through the water, it’s more about current avoidance. Our game plan was to play the current instead of the wind,” Smyth said.

Smyth and Persson were sailing Bat IV, loaned to AYC for the Double-handed Race by owner Andrew Kennedy. They realized early Mirage, one of the most consistently successful J/105s in the Annapolis fleet, had better boat speed.

Skipper Fredrik Salvesen and crew Molly Wilmer sailed Mirage to an early lead during the first leg before Smyth and Persson hoisted a spinnaker to go along with the genoa. That sail combination while on a close reach enabled Bat IV to slip pass

Mirage upon approach to the first turning mark.

Smyth noted the bigger boats that got out ahead stayed in the middle of the Chesapeake Bay because the forecast was for easterly winds.

However, it wound up being the opposite with a southwest wind changing the strategy.

Smyth and Persson agreed going into the race to allow themselves to take short naps whenever circumstances allowed. He felt that decision kept the team fresh throughout.

“I went to sleep for an hour and when I woke up there were no running lights ahead. Christina had passed the whole fleet,” Smyth said.

Another key decision came when Smyth and Persson performed a 180-degree mark rounding without dousing the spinnaker. They felt it was less dangerous to simply gybe the spinnaker and were able to pull off the maneuver because of the light air.

Bat IV was the fourth boat across the finish line and wound up beating Mirage by almost two hours, Smyth said.

“It’s challenging because the Chesapeake Bay throws your curveballs at every point along the way,” said Smyth, adding that he and Persson would likely return next year in hopes of a three-peat.