The Publisher
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Jul 20, 2010, 4:59 PM
Post #1 of 6
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Has ocean racing become less fun?
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by Bizzy Monte-Sano
The reports in Scuttlebutt surrounding the Newport Bermuda Race last month detailed the extent to which some teams are willing to go to win. It prompted me to recount an amusing anecdote relating to the 1946 Race involving my dad, Vinnie Monte-Sano, which reminds us how much more serious and competitive ocean racing has become over the last 60+ years.
The 1946 Bermuda Race was the first to be held after the hiatus which resulted from World War II. Dad had been invited to sail with Ed Waldvogel, then Vice Commodore of Larchmont Yacht Club, aboard his 46' ketch, ‘Voyager’. In preparation for the Race, a crew meeting was held during the winter, at which Mr. Waldvogel, suggested that, in light of the length of the Race and the return passage, any crew member who played a musical instrument should bring it with him for the purpose of entertaining the crew while at sea. For Dad, who expended considerable effort over a lifetime trying to elevate the practical joke to an art form, that request presented an opportunity not to be passed-up.
Vice Commodore Waldvogel had taken ‘Voyager’ to Newport and she was anchored in the harbor the day before the Race awaiting the arrival of her crew. (No laying at a slip in 1946!) Waldvogel was working below on last minute details, when he looked up and saw a bass violin coming down the companionway, followed by Dad. Not surprisingly, he was initially dumbfounded and said nothing as Dad placed the bass violin in one of the bunks in the main cabin. Finally composing himself, Mr. Waldvogel asked Dad what he was doing with a bass violin at the start of the Bermuda Race. In response, Dad said, "Ed, don't you remember that, at the crew meeting last winter, you suggested that if any of us played a musical instrument, we should bring it on the Race." Taken aback, Mr. Waldvogel responded that he had in mind that that if a crew member played a harmonica, a ukulele or perhaps a guitar, they should bring it; but taking a bass violin on the Bermuda Race was "out of the question".
Dad responded, "I do wish you had made that clear last winter. Unfortunately, there is nothing that I can do now; my wife, Peggy, has driven me to Newport and she has left to return to Larchmont." Dad went on to explain that the bass violin had been in his family for "generations" and that his father had brought it with him when he came to the U.S. from Italy. As Ed Waldvogel became increasingly frustrated with the situation, Dad acknowledged that, just possibly, the instrument was too large to be stored below, but perhaps it could be kept on deck. Dad, took the bass violin from the main cabin and carefully placed it on deck, on the starboard side of "Voyager's" trunk cabin, where he began to lash it down, leaving absolutely no room for anyone to go from the cockpit to the foredeck on the starboard side.
Predictably, Ed Waldvogel became more and more impatient and finally told Dad that he didn't give a damn what was done with bass violin, but it couldn't stay aboard. Dad feigned frustration and anger; he grabbed a winch handle and attacked the bass violin, pulverizing it into a thousand little pieces which he proceeded to toss overboard. Ed Waldvogel was absolutely overcome by remorse and started apologizing to Dad, who quickly revealed that the episode had been a prank; that he had recently purchased the bass violin at a pawn shop for $10, solely for the purpose of the ruse that had just played out. Both Dad and Ed Waldvogel enjoyed a hearty laugh, and perhaps a pre-Race cocktail.
I have no doubt that the crew work this year aboard the top ranked boats was much better than aboard ‘Voyager’ in 1946. Having said that, the fun and camaraderie achieved by Dad, Ed Waldvogel and their generation of ocean racers is certainly hard to match… and, unfortunately, may be a thing of the past.
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