Bas Cobanli Memorial Race

—a guest opinion

RHUMB LINE remembers
by Steve Kibble

When I was a kid, Dad and I raced just about every SISC race for many years on GRETHA. This was a wooden 20' open boat with a gaff rig which would rate today somewhere around PHRF 350. It was a beautiful and fun boat and we even won a few races with it. But nobody would call it fast—that term was reserved for HAERETICUS.

I remember when Bas Cobanli was building HAERETICUS in the big shed at the side of the house where Jill still lives on Scott Point. My grandparents lived on the point and we used to walk the length of it on a regular basis. I remember even more when HAERETICUS showed up on the race course. This was the fastest, sexiest, sleekest boat I knew of. Young, impressionable kids sailing today might look at JJ FLASH in the same manner.

Bas won just about every local race with HAERETICUS. Most he won numerous times. If memory serves, he completed the Round Saltspring Race before 4:00 p.m. one year, which may still stand as some sort of record (if my memory is inaccurate, then it at least stands as a testament to the legend of Bas that I would believe he could finish in that timeframe).

I also remember that Bas was one of the first club members to own a computer—a Commodore 64. As chief handicapper, he developed one of the early programs to accept boats, ratings and distance measurements to produce instant race results.

About four years ago, some time after Bas passed on to the great sailing venue in the sky, three notable events happened, all around the same time. Firstly, HAERETICUS was purchased by a friend of Dad’s named Harold White, who rescued her from the owners of the time who had left her to languish against the dock in Nanaimo. Secondly, my best friend and sailing-partner-in-crime since a young age, Gordon Wylie, purchased a J29 with his sister Heather (Gordon had sailed for many years with us on BEOWULF and ELECTRA). And thirdly, Dad and Stuart Farson got together with Jill Cobanli to organize the first Bas Cobanli Memorial Race.

Gordon named his new boat RHUMB LINE, and decided to enter the Round Saltspring Race that year. Delivery was planned for the previous week, and once plans were set, we learned that the Bas Cobanli Race was scheduled for that Sunday. So it was set—this would be RHUMB LINE’s first race. Just as exciting, Harold brought HAERETICUS over for that race. What a sight it was to see her once again moored up against the Cobanli dock in Long Harbour.

For many reasons it was a nostalgic race for a lot of club members and sailors. But for me, it was amazing to watch HAERETICUS, with Laurie Neish on board, take on her old foe YEOMAN OF CESTRIA and battle it out all the way around the race course. It was reminiscent of their many epic battles of years gone by.

Through some strange fortune or good luck we managed to win that race. With only four people on board, and a boat we didn’t know very well I’m not exactly sure how it happened. Perhaps we were given a fairer wind by Bas himself, who may have looked down on us and recalled the number of times I was forced to watch HAERETICUS sail away and over the horizon to win another race. But the results didn’t matter. What was important is that the race was in honour of an influential member in the history of the club, and that everybody had a fantastic day on the water in perfect sailing conditions.

Sometimes history repeats itself—as it did this past weekend [Sunday, 15 May, 2005]. Once again we found ourselves delivering RHUMB LINE to Salt Spring in mid May. And once again we had the opportunity to compete in this race that remembers and honours Bas. And once again, we found ourselves in the lucky places on the race course. The only difference this time is that Gordon couldn’t make the trip, and I was fortunate enough to be given the task of skippering the boat.

I must admit, we had a good fight with FANDANGO and ELECTRA for most of the race. Several times we thought we had left them behind when, in some insane twist of sailing logic that is par-for-the-course in the islands, we found ourselves stuck in a hole and they suddenly caught up again. During these moments I wondered who Bas was favouring this year. Clearly he might chose to give FANDANGO, the sister-ship to HAERETICUS, the blessings of a more favourable wind. This thought was emphasized when, at one point while we were sailing side by side only one boat length away, our wind suddenly died altogether and RHUMB LINE stalled, while FANDANGO carried her speed and rolled right over us. I think perhaps Bas was trying to remind me that, on Salt Spring, every tack must be chosen perfectly in order to prevail victorious.

But overall we must have been lucky with those tack choices. Or perhaps Bas was ultimately sympathetic to me in my first opportunity to helm RHUMB LINE in a race. But most importantly, all the skippers and crew experienced another perfect day of racing in the waters that Bas once dominated.

As guests of the club, I must thank the Fleet Captain Racing, the racing committee, and all the racing members for letting us join in. I feel very fortunate to come back to Salt Spring to race in an area where I learned how to sail, and race in an event that honours one of the greatest sailors in the history of the club. I think Bas would appreciate the race in his name, and the sailors who make the effort to compete.