The 2024 International 110 Nationals (September 16-20)
By Joe Berkeley
A competitive field arrived for the 110 Nationals in sweet Hull bay. My wife said, “You’re sailing your favorite boat (retread) with your favorite crew (Dr Ep) in your favorite place (Hull). Enjoy yourself.”
My wife is always right. The regatta featured a variety of conditions which reminded me a bit of the Rhodes 19 Nationals Hull hosted previously this past summer. During that regatta I watched Steve Uhl and his crew Kathleen Lane win the event. They sailed smart and consistent. I made a mental note that I wanted to sail like them.
Day one featured a light southeasterly. Our start had room for improvement but we knew where we wanted to be, which was up the right side of the course. We tacked, ducked, and headed right. The fleet headed left. We were rewarded for the courage of our convictions at the weather mark. Downwind we tried to stay in the pressure and jibe smartly.
Second race of day one Stewart and Tom Craig got off at the pin with a great start and they legged out. We worked the right and put a two up on the board. When I sail with Dr. Ep we try to have our heads out of the boat. I do my best to keep the boat moving and Dr. Ep’s head is on a swivel reviewing the breeze. She feeds me a lot of good information. One note I provide her is I am not as smart as her so she needs to keep it simple.
Day two we had a lighter breeze than day one. Steve Clancy and Josh hit the right side of the race course hard and won the first race of the day by a time zone. It’s fun sailing against US Blues because retread is number 632 and US Blues is 631. We won race four and took a three in the last race of the day. Hats off to Ann Craig who decided to get three races in that day as the forecast for Friday was grim.
Going into Thursday we had a 1-2-2-1-3. One more race and we would have six on the board and we had not burned a throw out yet. The breeze was up. We flattened out our main and got psyched to hike. Dr. Ep likes the look of the main with mainsheet tension on and traveler down a bit so we went with good Cunningham tension, strong outhaul tension, strong mainsheet tension, some backstay, and I eased the traveler in the biggest black meanie puffs. We added some jib luff tension and applied ourselves to the task at hand.
We won the race, Steve and Josh were second, and Bren and Erik snagged a three. We did the math and determined that the regatta was won. We could not lose. We burned a lot of matches in race six so there was something left in the tank for race seven but not a ton. Last race of the series, Ross and Eli got the bow out and sent it to win race 7. Steve Clark and Huf took second. Retread was third.
After the regatta, David West congratulated me and said, “I have to give Dr. Ep more than 50% of the credit.” I smiled and said, “I could not agree more.” Dr. Ep is a treasure. She feeds me good information and keeps it positive. We do our best to be there for each other when our performance has room for improvement. For my part, I want retread to be prepared so when Dr. Ep steps on the boat we do not need to think about the boat.
Thank you to Dr. Ep, Tom Craig, the RC, the entire Craig family, all of the folks who travelled and the hospitality team led by Charlie O’Connor and his wife Lisa. We had great racing and epic feasts.
It was a lot of fun to sail in Hull for the Nationals. There is a deep connection between retread and the Craig family. Eldridge Tide and Pilot Book was kind enough to run the piece that appears below. I believe it gives you the rest of the story of the love of my life.
Best regards,
Joe Berkeley
retread
110 #632
First Love
By Joe Berkeley
Everybody remembers their first love, the one that got away. Precious few get their first love back. The first time I saw her I stopped and stared. I was completely gob
Ahead of the forestay, where the spinnaker launcher normally went, was a hole in the deck where his poodle would poke his head out to look around. That was then. As I stood on my friend Will Craig’s lawn, I looked at what was the most beautiful International 110 I had ever seen.
A painter by trade, an artist by disposition, Will Craig was a tall and taciturn man who spent his days making old houses beautiful while he listened to NPR on his headphones. In his spare time, in a basement that was barely big enough to fit an International 110, Will rebuilt #632. He lovingly replaced each of the bottom frames, the plywood gussets, the deck, the sides, and the bottom. Like all wooden boat projects, the restoration took more time than Will thought it would.
When I saw her on Will’s lawn she was gleaming in the sun, near perfect. As a college student with limited resources, I was in no position to buy the boat. I did anyway. I didn’t want to. I had to. That first summer I rigged the boat and Will made sure I did it right. The plywood the boat was rebuilt from is known as Okoume, which is light, but perishable, so every time I drilled a hole, Will insisted I fill it with epoxy before inserting the screw or bolt.
With the boat rigged, it was time to name her. I didn’t know it when I bought the boat but Will had already christened her. A visitor saw Will’s work and said, “Is that a new boat?” He replied, “No, it’s a retread.”
The name stuck. When Retread was launched she was light and fair, fast and a pleasure to sail. She had, and still has, an extra gear downwind such that when she is in the groove she just goes.
I teamed up with Dave McGrath, a former hockey player, and we sailed every regatta we could, finishing third in the Nationals three years in a row. We swore that if we finished third again, we would throw the trophy into the bay. Finally, after years of trying, we won the Nationals in Boston Harbor in 1992.
There is a cliché that climbing the mountain is the easy part. Getting back down is tough. A decade later in 2002, after finishing second at the 110 Nationals in Newport, I had found a new interest. Late in life I started sailing a Laser. To become more fit, I rode my bicycle. Before I knew it, I was riding more than I was sailing.
I rode my bicycle for fun. I rode my bicycle to raise funds for cancer survivors. I rode my bicycle from my home in Hull to my job in Boston. I did all of the charity rides I could find, then signed up to ride the entire Tour de France route one day ahead of the professionals.
The Tour would take up a lot of time and a lot of money. Since I wasn’t racing Retread as much as I should have been, I sold her to some guy whose name I don’t recall. Seeing her go down the driveway behind a stranger’s car was sad, but it was time.
After the Tour, I trained for and competed in the Mt. Washington Hill Climb. I gave it a full effort and finished in the middle of the pack. Cycling is cruel sport in that it is a math problem. It’s all about how much oxygen your body can process, how much you weigh, and how much power you can throw. After the Mt. Washington Hill Climb I had a call with my coach who said, “You’re never going to catch the guys who rode in college. You should go back to sailing.”
Well, the truth is the truth and it is not nasty by intention. It just has a way of making things clear. I had to agree with my coach because I had almost been hit by cars, trucks, eighteen wheelers, pickup trucks, panel vans, cement mixers and Brinks trucks more times than I could count. I had experienced all manner of unmentionable injuries that occur when riding 10,000 miles per year. I felt immortal when I was on the bike. The rest of the time I was a mess. And it was time.
As fate would have it, the guy who bought Retread lost interest in her and sold her to Will Laidlaw, a terrific craftsman who goes for a sail now and then when he isn’t in his barn fixing boats. He bought Retread and installed a fancy new genoa trim system that was a huge upgrade over the vintage setup.
Best of all, Will agreed to sell me Retread. Some of her original woodwork needed attention and I thought it might be good to have a craftsman make new coamings. But Tom Craig strongly disagreed. He believed that his brother’s work could be and should be revived.
Tragically, Will Craig, who rebuilt Retread, passed away after a tough battle with ALS. Of all of Will’s work, Retread is the most beautiful piece of craftsmanship his hands ever touched.
I couldn’t disagree with Tom. I don’t so much own Retread as I am her steward. If I do a good job, I am an honorary member of the Craig family. With some help from a talented craftsman, Prescott Cronin, Retread’scoamings were restored.
Paying Prescott was not a problem, because at the time I was an important person in the big company where I worked. I had received the Man of the Year Award. I was part of “the company family.” I was a leader. Then one day after 17 years of meritorious service, I wasn’t. I was laid off.
That winter I rebuilt Retread as I rebuilt my life. I started my own creative business on my own terms. I recall one day when I was varnishing Retread and the phone rang. On the other end was Halsey Herreshoff returning my call for a quote that would appear in a story I was writing. I put down my Epifanes brush and ran up the stairs to open my computer. What a thrill.
That summer, Retread was launched with new paint, new varnish, new sails, and most importantly, new hope. I had made the journey from sailor to cyclist and back, from corporate cog to small business owner.
Dr. Linda Epstein agreed to sail with me, and we headed up to Marblehead for the 75th 110 Nationals hosted by Eastern Yacht Club. It was a good field of sailors, and we were fortunate to win the event.
Since then, the three of us have had some terrific adventures. Retread has won the Nationals five times, more than any other 110 in history. She has taken on many fiberglass boats that were built with more modern technology, but not one of them was built with more heart.
In the summer of 2021, Retread lined up at the Great Chase Race in Hull, Massachusetts. At this pursuit event, where the slowest boats start first and if the judges have handicapped properly, all boats would finish at the same time, she squared off with all manner of big boats in a fleet of 85 boats and took home Line Honors.
That win earned her another complete makeover last winter. This summer we launched 110 #632 and Dr. Ep joked that after all the rehabs the boat is really the “Re-re-re-retread.” Retread looks just as beautiful as the first time I saw her. I made the mistake of letting my first love go once. But I got her back for good.
Joe Berkeley writes, shoots, and directs from his studio in Hull, Massachusetts.
His work is at joeberkeley.com