Sailing for silver

Avid sailor Phillip Hanvey had just graduated from Charleston High School in 1962.

After serving as student body president, named most likely to succeed and voted best all-around by his classmates, Hanvey planned to attend The Citadel that fall.

But it would never happen.

On July 9 of that year, Hanvey was at a friend's house helping him reset the mast on a sailboat when the mast came in contact with overhead electrical wires. Hanvey and Reuben Pitts III, who were pulling on steel wire stays, were killed instantly. Another friend, J.E. Schachte III, who was holding the wooden mast, was injured.

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Carolina Yacht Club Regatta

Sailors competed in the Carolina Yacht Club Open Regatta in Charleston Harbor on Saturday and Sunday.

In Hanvey's memory, some of his closest friends in the sailing community chose to honor him by establishing a sterling silver sailing trophy and awarding it annually to the sailor under the age of 21 who best demonstrates the values of sportsmanship, integrity and sailing skill as personified by Hanvey.

Later today, a new recipient will be named, hoisted on shoulders and ceremoniously dumped into the Cooper River at the climax of the two-day Carolina Yacht Club Open Regatta in Charleston Harbor.

The annual event kicked off Saturday with more than 150 boats of all sizes from throughout the Carolinas, Georgia and Florida competing in a series of different class events.

The Carolina Yacht Club race is the fourth of five Charleston area regattas throughout the summer. The others are hosted by Hobcaw, James Island and Charleston yacht clubs with the final leg set for next weekend in Rockville. It's hosted by Sea Island Yacht Club.

On Saturday, competitors tacked and turned with the wind, scurrying about the harbor's choppy waters on three marked courses between The Battery and Fort Sumter. They will be back at it again today.

Tommy Harken, 60, a steadfast sailor for 45 years, was one of them.

The Charleston resident and marine insurer launched his 16-foot MC Scow after being out a bit this year with knee surgery. The 1969 Phillip O'Neill Hanvey Memorial Trophy recipient was testing his ability to hang with his sailing buddies.

"I enjoy the competition and the people I sail with and against," Harken said.

Walter Prause of North Charleston couldn't agree more.

"It's one of the few sports where you can sail against the top people in the world from as soon as you can swim until you are gone," he said.

Prause, 44, started taking sailing lessons at 8. Ten years later, he sailed away with the Hanvey trophy in 1984.

Three years before that, he was the first recipient of the Henry Clay Robertson IV Memorial Trophy, given annually since 1981 to the best sailor at the Carolina Yacht Club Open Regatta who is 16 or younger.

On Jan. 1, 1981, Robertson, one of Charleston's finest young sailors at just 15 years old, died from injuries sustained in a freak dirt bike accident in Rockville.

Prause said sailors try to embody the ethics of both young men in all sailing events, a sport he calls self-governing.

"There are no judges or juries out there on the water," the Charleston Harbor Pilots employee said before entering the race. "We police ourselves. I liken sailing to a shifting chessboard. The wind is shifting, and the current is not steady."

Will Hanckel, 27, of West Ashley is a dual award winner, too. He picked up the Robertson trophy in 1999 and the Hanvey award the next year.

"There is nothing else like it," Hanckel, a concrete plant manager for Ashley Redi-Mix, said of his passion for sailing. "I like being on the water. The conditions are different every day. Every time you go out, you learn something new."

Charleston lawyer Lenny Krawcheck, 69, has been sailing since he was 12 years old.

"I love the competition. On the water, it's tough. We compete," he said. "On the land we try to help each other go faster."

The man behind this weekend's regatta and a few others in Charleston is Harvey McCormick.

Asked why the 72-year-old continues to serve as the principal race officer after about 10 years, McCormick, notebook in hand as he stopped to answer competitors' questions before the race, laughed and said, "So I can lose the rest of my hair."

Turning serious, he said, "I enjoy it. You see a lot of the same people, and we have a lot of fun."

Reach Warren Wise at 937-5524 or wwise@postand courier.com.