Published on February 3, 2000  Mystic River Press by John Brooks
    A winner at Key West Race Week was the J-29 Tomahawk, which is owned by Bruce Lockwood of Groton Long Point.    This was Tomahawk's fourth trip to Key West for the series, covering most of the distance there and back via I-95.

    I recall driving to Manhattan for a meeting two years ago, and saw Tomahawk headed the opposite way on the Cross Bronx Expressway - coming home from Key West Week. The Tomahawk crew "was really good," Bruce Lockwood told me this past week, and indeed the crew - all local Fishers Island Sound sailors - sailed to a first in class for the week among 13 one design J-29 racers.  On Wednesday of the Race Week, Tomahawk was named as "Boat of the Day" by the Race Committee for an especially good fleet performance.  Considering that Key West Race Week is known for some of the best competition in North America, "Boat of the Day" among the fleet of 261 boats is quite an honor.  Since Mount Gay Rum happened to be the sponsor of that day's racing, I'm sure the award was suitably celebrated.  The week provided a range of conditions, including one light day, though the typical winter trade winds prevailed.  Although one day provided 20-22 knots of breeze - enough for an exhilarating spinnaker ride on a racing boat - there were none of the "wipeout" conditions this year like those that had provide some of the great calendar photograph material in some of the recent series.  Although Woody and Peter "Peb" Bergendahl often trade spots on the helm aboard Tomahawk, this year only Woody made the Key West series.  Since Woody is Bruce's stepson, this makes racing somewhat of a family affair.  Bruce and Woody raced with five others in the crew: Toby Halsey, Donzo Wilkinson, Andy Stoddard, George Tazzini, and Dave Mansfield (who handles the bow).  While the crew all qualify as from our local area, Andy Stoddard had to fly in from San Diego, where he has been working recently.  He is hoping to have a closer commute for racing the Mystic River Mudheads Wednesday Night Series this summer.  While some boats race with a designated tactician, Bruce said that a more democratic "committee" approach usually prevails aboard Tomahawk.  On some boats, that might be a recipe for indecisiveness or disaster, but the Tomahawk crew seems to handle it rather well.  Of course, it helps when the crew is composed of good friends who have sailed many miles together, and are comfortable with the interaction necessary to get the right (and timely) decisions made.  Bruce Lockwood has been a winning racing sailor for many years.  And he has been sailing for most of his 77 years.  "It's like a disease," he said, "I don't know any better."  He told me that he has enjoyed the one design competition that the J-29 class has provided.  He purchased Tomahawk in 1996, and now there are almost 10 that race regularly in Fishers Island Sound.  Although the boats were built in the early 1980's, the class is enjoying a revival in this area - to the point that they are now more popular locally than when they were new.  Many of the boats (like Tomahawk) are coming to New England from the Annapolis area, where (apparently) interest is moving into different classes.  Bruce still races his J-36, Arrow, which has won more than her fair share of races in the last two decades, and has also been cruised extensively.  A dozen years ago I recall calling in Northeast Harbor, Mount Desert Island, Maine, while cruising with Bill and Eileen Ames on their Luders 33 Black Arrow.  Bruce's [Green] Arrow was swinging on a mooring, having just returned from a few weeks in the Bay of Fundy.  If two racing boats aren't enough to keep going, how about three?  Bruce also races a Groton Long Point "A" boat, in the fleet at Groton Long Point Yacht Club.  This fleet, one of the oldest one design fleets in the country, was built at the Nevins Yard on City Island in 1905.  Old boats don't last forever, but this fleet (which still races a dozen races or so each summer), will get the chance to celebrate a centennial year in a few years.  Bruce Lockwood, three boats and all, wins my "Water Rat" award for the year.  As the water rat told the mole in The Wind in the Willows: "Believe me, my young friend, there is nothing, my young friend - absolutely nothing - half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats."