Ithaca to Ithaca

Last week in Manhattan met the Cruising Club of America, famed organization of amateur yachtsmen who like to take small boats into the open sea. They had met to exercise the club's chief official function--the awarding of its yearly Blue Water medal to the amateur yachtsman (not necessarily a club member) who has performed that year the most "meritorious" seamanship. Medals for three years --1928, 1929, 1930--were given.

Thomas F. Cooke won for 1928. He sailed the ketch Seven Bells from Bradford River, Conn., to England, cruised her abroad for two years, and shipped her home. He won a medal because nothing happened to him. That meant seamanship, for he was in some bad places. He had five boys with him. The first day off Montauk the Seven Bells ran into a sea piling up under a northeaster. She skimmed through into nice sailing that lasted till she picked up Bishop Rock Light off the English coast. Here a terrific blow hit her, sent her shuddering into Falmouth, safe from the fate that lays traps at the beginning and the end of voyages.

F. Slade Dale won for 1929. He sailed the 23-ft. cutter Postscript 4,000 miles to the West Indies and back with one companion. On a black, windy night she went aground on Fisherman's Island, at the mouth of the Chesapeake. From there she went to Beaufort, N. C. by the inside passage of bays and canals. When there was no wind in the canals Dale and his friend would tow Postscript with a rowboat. She had trouble getting from Beaufort to Palm Beach, She cut over to Nassau, cruised through the Bahamas, stopped in Jamaica, rode the Gulf Stream home.

Carl Weagant, short, blond member of the staff of the magazine Yachting, won for 1930. He sailed the ketch Carlsark from Ithaca, New York, to Ithaca, Greece He took with him some Cornell students whose families had agreed to let them go to Newfoundland but made them promise not to cross the ocean. To keep them from breaking their promise Weagant shanghaied them. After passing out of the St. Lawrence they thought they were heading for Newfoundland. When they wondered why they did not reach Newfoundland they were halfway to the Azores.

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