Joe Hoffman - Figawi Race: Hyannis to Nantucket

IMAGES
of America

FIGAWI RACE

HYANNIS TO NANTUCKET

COMING BACK EVERY YEAR. Each year at the Friday night orientation meeting, each skipper is presented with a Figawi pennant, which identifies his or her boat as being in the race that year. These pennants become collectors items and, flown together, they indicate the owners years of participation in the race. Here is a boat owners collection of 21 pennants hoisted from the flag halyard at the Nantucket docks. (Courtesy of Ed ONeill.)

ON THE COVER: SAILING IN. After crossing the finish line, some of the Figawi fleet ease their way around Brant Point Light and are heading into Nantucket to tie up at the boat basin. (Courtesy of Arnold Miller and the Cape Cod Times.)

IMAGES
of America

FIGAWI RACE

HYANNIS TO NANTUCKET

Joe Hoffman

Copyright 2013 by Joe Hoffman
ISBN 978-0-7385-9917-5
Ebook ISBN 9781439643334

Published by Arcadia Publishing
Charleston, South Carolina

Library of Congress Control Number: 2012952827

For all general information, please contact Arcadia Publishing:
Telephone 843-853-2070
Fax 843-853-0044
E-mail
For customer service and orders:
Toll-Free 1-888-313-2665

Visit us on the Internet at www.arcadiapublishing.com

This book is dedicated to the love of my life, Felicia Penn.

CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This book would not have been possible without the help of all of the following people. Therefore, I would like to thank J. David Crawford, Leo Fein, Shelley McCabe, Charles McLaughlin, Jacquie Newson, Judy Notz, Patti Nurse, Blake Jackson, Ed ONeill, John Osmond, Tony Prizzi, Bill Thauer, Dick Vecchione, and Britt Crosby, from the Figawi Race.

I would also like to thank the staff at the Cape Cod Times, especially Bill Higgins, Steve Heaslip, John Leaning, Al Belanich, Jeff Bernard, David Churbuck, Geoff Converse, Rob Duca, Terry Pommett, Jim Preston, Kevin Wisniewski, and Vince DeWitt.

Allow me to remember some of those who are no longer with us: Richard Anderson, Fred Boden, Jeffrey Foster, Ed Sully Sullivan, Ed ONeill, and a very special friend who passed away in 2012, Howard Penn.

Most of all, I want to acknowledge and thank Dick Teimer and his Time Capsule archiving studio. This book would not have made it to the publisher if not for the counsel, expertise, and dedication of Dick Teimer, as we collaborated to get this Figawi project completed. Dicks devotion to the idea of producing the very best book possible about the Figawi Race to Nantucket was unwavering and allowed us to realize our goal.

And of course, to my wife, Felicia Penn, goes not only my thanks but all of my love for her support during the months of preparing and writing this book.

Joe Hoffman
March 18, 2013

INTRODUCTION

It has been 40-some years now since Bob Moose Horan and his brother Joe, along with Bob Red Luby, thought that racing their boats to Nantucket would be a good way to spend Memorial Day weekend. Therefore, with wives and a few friends aboard as crew, the three sailors set out from Hyannis to see who had the fastest boat to the island. That race would be the first of the Figawi Race Weekends and the beginning of what has become a Cape Cod tradition.

When the three boats arrived at Nantucket, the boat basin was closed. Needless to say, no one was on hand to welcome the winner. In those days, large sailboats were not common, and Memorial Day weekend was not a big holiday on the island. Nantucket Harbor was virtually empty.

The first Figawi awards party, in the races second year, was held at Capn Tobeys in Nantucket. The Figawi Committee, which, at that time, included Bob and Joe Horan, Howard Penn, and Luby, booked a room for 125 people. They had no idea, in 1973, as to what this sailboat race would eventually become.

Figawi soon began to grow by leaps and bounds. A lay day was inserted in 1979 as the race committee, now formally organized, turned the Figawi into a three-day affair. The welcome party was expanded to accommodate the fast-growing fleet, the Carl Flipp Clambake was added to Sunday afternoon, and Nantucket Stardust provided the party atmosphere for Sunday night under the brand new Figawi Tent.

In 1987, the Figawi Board of Governors introduced the inaugural Figawi Charity Ball, a black-tie affair that gave many people on the Cape a chance to be a part of the Figawi experience and, along the way, to raise a lot of money for Cape Cod charities.

A lot of people have contributed to make Figawi what it is today. Some of the skippers who deserve acknowledgment for their support over these many years include John Osmond, Buzzy Schofield, John Griffin, Barry Sturgis, Bob Labdon, Chuck Howard, Charles Prefontaine, Neil Tomkinson, Bob Cicchetti, Ian McNeice, and Bob Warren. Where would Figawi be today without organizers like Tony Prizzi, Charlie McLaughlin, Howard Penn, Dennis Sullivan, Milton Salazar, Jacquie Newson, Leo Fein, Donna Nightingale, and David Crawford, just to name a very few?

The most important thing about the Figawi Race is that it has endured. By design, it is a fun race to Nantucket and it is great sport. With this book, we hope to expose you to a true Cape Cod sailing experience. In the end, we hope you will come to know and appreciate the Figawi Race to Nantucket for what it is and what it has meant to so many of us who love the sailing tradition.

One

THE EARLY YEARS

Bob Red Luby, along with brothers Bob and Joe Horan, raced to Nantucket on Memorial Day in 1972, and they had a wager among them as to who would get to the island first. Bob Horan said later, Joe got off to a fast start and tried to run Red up onto the rocks over near Baxters Boathouse Club. But Red had the faster boat and sailed a helluva race.

Luby commented, Nobody had anybody onboard who knew how to sail a boat, but it was a lot of laughs. In fact, when Luby went below deck at one point in the race to visit the head, his crew did an about-face and headed in the opposite direction. That sense of misdirection may have led to the naming of the race.

Where the f*&$ are we? in Boston or on Cape Cod would sound like, Where the Fuh-KAH-wee?, which, when cleaned up for sports editor Ed Sullivan at the Cape Cod Times, became Where the Figawi?

THE BOYS WHO STARTED IT ALL IN 1972. Bob and Joe Horan, along with Red Luby, challenged each other to see who had the fastest boat to Nantucket. Luby won that race, but Bob Horan kept the Figawi going and growing over the next 40 years. Each year, about 225 sailboats rerun that first race and sail to Nantucket on Memorial Day in May. (Courtesy of the Figawi Archives.)

BOB HORAN AND BOB CUNNINGHAM, 1974. On the right, Bob Horan, who founded and promoted the Figawi Race in the early years, is pictured here with his friend Bob Fat Fox Cunningham on the streets of Nantucket in 1974. As the story goes, Cunninghamsailing with Horan on a 42-foot ketch named Caribougrabbed a runaway spinnaker sheet and, when the sail filled, he found himself flying way out over the water hanging on for dear life! When the boat leaned his way, he was dunked into the ocean and then quickly back into the air, never letting go of the line. Finally, when Horan tacked the boat just enough, the spinnaker sail dropped Cunningham onto the deck below. (Courtesy of the Figawi Archives.)