Sailors bring competitive edge to Wild Horse race

The start of a sailing race looks a little like feeding time in a shark tank.

All the sailboats swarm around the small committee motor boat, ready to pounce when the starting horn signals the beginning of the race.

The best starting position is closest to the committee boat, hence the swarming. Nonetheless, having 40-foot boats two inches from the 15-foot boat you're in is nerve-wracking.

The starting line is 900 feet long and perpendicular to the wind. The positioning allows the boats to open their sails.

"You want to make [the starting line] long enough so all the boats fit, but small enough so it's interesting," race coordinator Kurt Hafferman said.

The start of the Wild Horse Island Regatta on Flathead Lake on Sunday included an intense five-minute starting sequence.

Five minutes before the start of the race, a horn is blown and a blue flag is raised. At four minutes, there is another horn and a red flag is raised.

With one minute left, a horn is blown - tension skyrockets.

A good starting position closest to the committee boat gives that boat the shortest distance to the end of the island. This weekend's race had a starboard tack, meaning boats on the right side have the right-of-way.

At this point, boats are clamoring for prime position and it is all about timing. Get too much momentum and the boat can have a false start. Don't have any momentum and you won't false start, but will be last.

Only one boat, Andy Sponseller's "Mo' Joe," false-started. The boat had to turn around and go back to re-cross the starting line.

Sponseller's team was able to overcome the misstep and finish the race within the time limit. "Mo' Joe" crossed the line two seconds behind Bill and Linda Brown's "Dreamcatcher," but after the handicap was factored, ended up beating them.

Another factor during the five-minute sequence is the 19 other boats in the water. Hitting one isn't going to get you anything but an angry look and choice words from the other boat.

Three minor collisions and countless small bumps later, the race was under way.

There was a light wind during the start of Sunday's race, making the race about tactics instead of speed.

"It would be a terrible sail race if there wasn't any wind," Kurt said. "A light wind is challenging but can make the race kind of boring. It challenges the sailors to be better tacticians."

This race course was an eight-mile clockwise circle around Wild Horse Island.

"Every sailor has a different strategy and a race with light wind is all about seeing what strategy worked in the end," Kathy Hafferman said.

Once the boats started, it takes a while for the finish.

If after four hours, no one has crossed the finish line, the line is moved to where the lead boat is. After the first boat has crossed the finish line, no matter where the line is, all other boats have one hour to complete the race to be scored.

However, crossing the finish line doesn't mean victory; the boats' handicaps have to be figured into the timed results.

"Bigger boats have to win by a bunch to win overall," Kurt Hafferman said. "It's a correction factor."

If a boat is older, it has a higher handicap. A J-24 boat is a smaller boat, 24 feet long, but is also very fast. Most of the time, sailors have a sink and a place to sleep on these boats but some are stripped down to nothing. A J-24 won last year's race.

"That makes them 100-percent racing," Kurt said. "They have no other function."

Ken Yachechak has a 40-foot long J-40 boat that he backs out of his slip without a motor.

"Now that's a man," Kurt said. "That's the way it was done back in the day."

Yachechak's boat has a crew of 11 to act as counterweight and help with the larger sails.

"Sometimes, you can't get enough people on those big boats," Kurt said.

Another J-40 in the race was "Dreamcatcher." Because of the light wind, the boat had a tough time getting started.

Once the boats got to the other side of the island, the wind died.

"It was a hole," Kurt said.

Eleven of the 19 boats finished in the allotted time.

Jeff Fisher's "Maniac" crossed the finish line first with a time of two hours and 59 minutes. He stayed in that position after handicaps were added to take home his eighth Wild Horse Island race victory.

The B Class winners were Jeremy Keen and Heather Harp-Keen in "Chiaro di Luna." Steve Connell's "Flasher" won the C Class.

Fisher's reward was a sheep's head trophy, a pair of sheep horns mounted on a block of wood displaying the winner's names dating back to 1974, when the race begun.

The sheep's horns were picked because the animal is found on the island the race circles.

"You couldn't very well have a horse's head," Kathy Hafferman said. "That would be creepy."