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2002 Gobble-Gobble MC Regatta - North 1st and
2nd!! Carolina Yacht Club is a great venue with plenty of parking right near the dock and lift and a nice boathouse right along the dock and lift area. The club is right in downtown, on East Bay near the most beautiful historic homes and buildings you will ever see. The harbor is a wonderful place to sail and definately my favorite spot. Many of us are lucky enough to stay with locals when we go there and that feature really adds to the enjoyment. If you have not been to Charleston you need to come to the Easter Regatta in 2003 to try it out. Even with a very discouraging weather forcast (breezy and cold) in the news, 14 brave and hearty souls came to the Carolina Yacht Club in Charleston, South Carolina. Tommy had hoped for 20 boats, but I think that the 14 who raced had at least 20 boats worth of fun and excitement in the regatta. Three races were held on Friday afternoon after Thanksgiving and three were scheduled for Saturday morning beginning at 9:30 am. Due to the wind direction, we were able to race right off the historic Charleston high battery (east side). This put the starting line within 10 minutes of the yacht club, which was nice. We also provided quite a bit of entertainment for tour boats and other on the water spectators. All three races on Friday were 5 leg windward, lewards withe start/finish line in the middle of the weather leg. The wind was from 11 to 17 all afternoon. The temperature reached 60 degrees and the bright sun kept the comfort level reasonable. The race committee, headed by Harvey McCormick did a great job. There were at least 3 safety/mark boats and the courses were set up to provide a winner in around 40 minutes. The last of the boats finished about 5 minutes behind the winner in all three races on Friday. All the racing was close and competitive from top to bottom of the fleet. In race one there was a big cluster monkey at the heavily favored right end that put Tommy Harken and Johnny Krawcheck way back at the start. Jeff Annis and Charlie Usher (with crew Gifford Ford) took off up the left side. From there to the end it was Jeff in front of Charlie by a boat length or two all the way to the finish. The last run included Charlie doing a luff-up move right before the zone with Jeff keeping the lead at the last mark. Then there was a four tack covering duel over the first minute of the last beat. In the end Jeff kept the lead by a few boat lengths. As Charlie approached the starboard tack layline he was going to tack safely below Tommy Harken the only problem being that Gifford Scott decided to accidentally fall out of the boat. With Tommy Harken hard charging on starboard tack and laying the finish line that only left a few seconds for Charlie to get moving again. He grabbed the only part of Gifford he could find, the rubber sailing boot (with his foot still inside). Then they sailed a boat length or two with Charlie dragging Gifford backwards. Suddenly the boot came off and Charlie only had the boot sans Gifford. Gifford swam (sorta flailed--you cannot swim very well full suited in foul weather gear ) to regain his crew position just in time to beat Harken by a few feet. Lenny Krawcheck, Ken Krawcheck and Mark Maranakos were 4,5,6. The Krawcheck family had a combined 19 points in race one. Race two saw Charlie Usher and Johnny Krawcheck starting at the left end of the starting line and running off into the lead by quite a bit. Lenny Krawcheck, Mark Maranakos rounded 3,4 with Jeff Annis in 5th. At the end it was Usher, Johnny K., Jeff, Mark, Tommy Harken, Ken Krawcheck then Lenny Krawcheck. A Charleston harbor tug boat pushed a ship through the course during this race right in front of our leward mark. The prop wash off the tugboat was interesting to sail through. The top four boats were able to get around in front of the boat while Mark Maranakos and Jeff Annis went behind the boat. The tug boat captain got on his loud speaker and told all of us "winning this race ain't gonna mean much when you end up on the bottom of the drink". I guess he thought that somebody cut it too close in front of him. This proved to be the best Krawcheck race with a combined 15 points! Race three had the most wind as the race started. Right before the start the wind went ten degrees to the right which helped Jeff Annis who started right at the boat as Charlie Usher started at the extreme left end. This put many boats ahead of Charlie and Gifford. They sailed in clean air for a while and then started chipping away on the right side getting back into the race. Tommy Harken rounded the first mark one boat length behind Jeff, but his cunningham tail got caught in his mainsheet block and he could not bear off for a while after rounding the weather mark, allowing Kurt, Lenny and Randy Draftz to slip by. On the second beat Mark Maranakos went to the right and sailed in smooth water along the battery side of the course to pass three or four boats. Some good come-backs happened today. In race one Tommy Harken went from 8th to 3rd. Charlie Usher in race 3 went from 7th at one time up the first beat to 3rd. Kurt Stadele was most consistent with 7,8,7 finishes. Mark Maranakos was getting better and better as the day went on with finishes of 6,4,2. At the end of the day it was Jeff Annis (5points) in first, Charlie Usher/Gifford Scott (6 points) second, Mark Maranakos (12 points)third and Tommy Harken (13 points) in forth and Lenny Krawcheck (15 ponts) in fifth. Saturday night there was a huge oyster roast/barbeque at the boathouse featuring a whole roasted pig and an oyster shucking party with beer and wine. There must have been two hundred folks there. It was a ton of fun. We were thrilled to listen to the story about how the docks are going to be improved at the club. They are adding over 600 feet of dock space and another dock with lift on the north side of the property. This will more than double the ability to put boats in because all of the docking space added below the lifts. This will be under construction at the Easter Regatta in April and fully functional by sometime in the summer of 2003. The Carolina Yacht Club is already one of the best places to race that I have ever visited and this will make it even better. Saturday morning there was a bright red sky!!! The wind was blowing 20 mph on the battery. Needless to say, we did not get a race in and we called racing off early in the morning so folks could resume their weekend activities. The prediction was for the wind to build throughout the day. Here are the final results: 1. Jeff Annis 1,3,1 5 points Note: Gifford Scott, crew for Charlie Usher received the Turkey Gobble Gobble Award for falling out in the first race. While the Blue Chip Regatta has the gutter ball award, Tommy Harken provided the Charleston version in the form of a Butterball Award. Nice job.
2002 Southeast MC Championship - North 1,2,3,4,5,6! Report by Eric Hood South East Regional Championships Day 1 Sailing and Events The last big MC regatta of the 2002 sailing season began today with nice winds and weather down here at Eustis, Florida the home of our annual MC Scow Midwinter Championship. Eustis club Commodore Martin Zonnenberg welcomed the group this morning during the opening ceremonies and then we were off to the race course for an on time start this morning. One quick note from Martin that was passed along at the skippers meeting was that anyone is welcome during the winter months to join the Eustis group on Saturday or Sundays for club racing. If you are in the Orlando and Eustis area they will loan you a boat. Just come, sail and have fun. Yesterday on Friday almost the entire group came early and we had a nice afternoon sailing interactive seminar. This was great because like most of our MC regattas we always have some new sailors who are sailing in their first MC regatta. Ed Sims and Jack Mattheus are the newest members of the “New Guys” club. They only get the tag for their first weekend though. We have added three MCs to our group down in this area and they are sailing up near Ocala just 20 miles northwest of Eustis. When we left the club tonight we had a couple from Sarasota sailing Smiley Freytags boat and they are interested in joining the group down here. Lots of activity down here with the sailing community. Before we talk about day 1 of racing I would like to point out a few things about the club down here. First, construction is well under way on the new club house. It should be finished in plenty of time for the MC Midwinter Championship. The club will also have large heads and shower areas which will be a nice compliment to the sailing activities down here. The club grounds have been reorganized and slots or stalls have been created all over the grounds making the movement of boats in and out work very smoothly. Nice job to everyone at Eustis. The club area and grounds look great! We had some very good sailing today. Large shifts were out there, mostly in race 2 but all in all it was some good racing. Two very good starting lines for both race 1 and 2. Race 1 we had southeast winds with velocity ranging from 5-13 mph. Race two was much the same but more out of the south. Race 1 gave a great first beat with very tight racing and several lead changes. I would say that when it was all said and done that probably six or seven different skippers led this first leg at one time or another. Shifts varied through 10 degrees so it was good solid tactical racing. Jeff Annis led the group at the first mark with Scott Slocum right on his tail. Jeremy Pape, Lenny Krawcheck, Bob Miller along with Jeff Annis and Scott Slocum led the group for the rest of the race. Good solid racing upwind and downwind on the long 1 mile legs for the W2&1/2 course. In the end for race 1 we Jeff just barely win over Zack Clayton who came in on a left hand corner shot. Scott Slocum finished third followed by Bob Miller, Jeremy Pape, Lenny Krawcheck, E.Hood, Lee Estes, Tom Harken and Tim Fredman to round out the top ten. This first race gave us a lot of side by side speed runs with fellow competitors on the long legs provided. The breeze died just after race 1 so we went in for lunch and then cranked up race 2 at 1:45 pm in the afternoon. As the wind rolled right the PRO and his team moved the course further to the south. Many of the competitors felt the breeze would keep rolling right but just after the start a big left came through causing a wheel effect on port tack. Those on the outside of the wheel never recovered. The first 10 boats on the inside of the wheel took off and left the rest of the group. This would be a race that the local sailors would dominate. It was very impressive considering how strong the field is here this week. You have over 10 of the top 20 ranked MC sailors participating in this last major event. Tommy Bahama Pro Cat Racer Alex Shafer who also is a MC sailor here at Eustis led this race from mark one till the end. Martin Zonnenberg was second for most of the race only to be nipped out at the finish line by MC ace Jeremy Pape from Atlanta. Local sailor Jim Farrell finished fourth with Jeff Annis finishing fifth. After two races here are some scores. The club was having some computer problems so the scores have not been officially totaled but they gave me results from both of the races. Jeff Annis 1-5 =6
There are a few lakes in the U.S. when it is good it is good. This is one of the them. Get ready and make your plans for the 2003 MC Midwinters. The Eustis Sailing Club is organized and ready for you to come. That is all for now. DAY 2 Perfect conditions greeted the sailors for day 2 of the Southeast Regional Championship. Wind conditions were 8-14 m.p.h. out of the south. Light rain showers were in the area but had no effect on sailing today. The races were scheduled for a 9:30 am start and there were no less than 20 of the 35 teams out early practicing for an hour before the races. The shifts were very small today putting a premium on boat speed and
clear air. Obviously starting well was important but the interesting
thing about both starts was where both race winners were and that was
in trouble. Having an escape plan off the starting Jeff's report: In the 4th and last race it was lighter at the start blowing around 6 to 8 mph when the start sounded. Eric Hood took a right turn after a bad start and headed for some wind. I went off the middle of the line and went left for 4 minutes and then went to the right when I saw Eric hiking way out to the right. Meanwhile, the left side was staying light and not looking too good on angle either. At the first mark it was Eric Hood and then Zack Clayton and then me. Jeremy rounded in the early teens. The best part of this regatta was watching Jeremy knock off one and two boats at a time until he finished the race 5th. He sailed the lifts and kept his cool. It was no easy task passing some very, very good competitors in that race. There were no big shifts or soft spots to help gain big moves on the fleet. By the last beat Eric and Zack were neck and neck as they sailed up the last beat. As they were watching each other I was trying to just cover the rest of the pack. Meanwhile I sailed into a couple of lucky shifts that enabled me to pass Zack on port tack and tack to beat him and lost Eric by one foot. In closing, I want to thank all the sailors who came to this big turnout Regatta. That's what made this regatta so very special! The race committee and the club members made us all feel very, very welcome throughout the regatta. Eric's report: It has been a great year filled with a ton of good memories. Thank you to all of our hosts , regatta chairman's, volunteers, race committees that make our MC Scow sailing so much fun. Stay in shape this winter; be healthy both physically and mentally.
2002 Nothin's Finer MC Regatta Report by Jeff Anis Lake Norman Yacht Club
A quick note from Tom "Bull" Schmidt, adding just a little "Bull" to this tale. (editors note: Bull attended the first Nothin's Finer Regatta) Bull writes: "I would like to say that anyone who has the time the fall regattas in the southeast are very pleasant. Charleston before the tide sweeps you out, Augusta and the Halloween Regatta and Charlotte's Lake Norman this week it was Nothin Finer. These regattas have all levels of sailors and it is what strengthens the system. For every one winner there are 99 duffers a.k.a. "the rest of the fleet" and everybody has fun racing at their level. There may be only one winner in the way of trophies yet everybody is a winner as good times and excellent sportsmanship are experienced by all. If you are in the colder places think about coming south next year for one or two of these wonderful events. You won't be sorry. Fondly, The BULL. The Report: Much goes into having a good regatta that has nothing to do with the on the water activities. Lake Norman Yacht Club and Allison Wilson, regatta chairperson made it happen both on the water and off this weekend. Upon arriving Tye Norberg, Nelson McRae and Jim Houser were right there saying hello and offering refreshments. That kind of welcome makes the weekend start off right. LNYC is twenty miles north of Charlotte, NC and is as wonderful and beautiful as a sailing club can be. Acres of green grass, huge clubhouse, two double ramps, ample camping areas, lots of nice new docks and a welcoming attitude combine nicely. This place could have held 125 MC's and crews with no strain whatsoever. Then there are the social hours, dinners, lunches and breakfasts all home cooked on the site by members. It is plain and clear that a lot of planning goes into this regatta. Nice new motels ten minutes away and plenty of eating establishments make it a convenient place to spend time. By the way, thanks go to the Highlander Fleet for sharing their event date with us each year. On the water it was fun and exciting. Races one, two and three on Saturday were great. The first two were triangles with a windward, leeward then windward finishing leg. The 3rd, 4th and 5th races were 5 leg windward-leeward. The winner took around 50 minutes each time, except the last race which took an hour and ten minutes to complete. Race one, two and three were in 10 to 18 mph winds. The starting lines were very square and the right length to make it fun and interesting. Jeff Annis won the first and third races and Randy Mintken won race 2 by a mile. Make note that at least four different sailors did 720 degree turn penalty turns on Saturday and several did 360 degree turns for hitting buoys. No on-land protests took place in this regatta. Race four was the windy race beginning around 9:30 on Sunday morning with cloudy skies and temps in the low 60's. At least two boats capsized and never got back into the race. What made a difference in this regatta from a speed and tactic standpoint was handling the high winds and figuring out when to be right and when to be left. Oddly, the same basic compass numbers held for all five races over two days. The key on speed was dropping the traveler as far as necessary upwind to keep the boat on track and even pulling the board up a few inches to ease the weather helm. One nice feature of this lake is that the waves were very small compared to most venues with similar wind speeds. You could pull the outhaul out tight and almost ignore the wave pattern upwind. Even downwind the waves were a very small factor. The shifts went from left to right. The wind would go ten to fifteen degrees to either side from time to time. Failing to sail mainly lifts in your program would prove costly. Sometimes you had to sail in a header because of boats right around you preventing you from tacking or situations where you were sailing a header on purpose to get back closer to the pack. The race committee did a great job. They had the course set on time both days and there was only a short wait between the races to reset the starting line and fine tune the weather mark. There was not a single boat over-early in this regatta which indicates a good starting line each race. The PRO and his help were from the Thistle fleet. Good job!
Here are the final standings: Grand Masters Krawcheck, Lenny Masters Rembold, Bill Overall Jeff Annis Note that 11 of the 22 boats were from Lake Norman. This is an impressive turnout from the locals. No doubt they have done a good job of growing their fleet. The local fleet did the race committee for the Thistle regatta two weeks ago and the club championship was in MC's last weekend. Both of those show how important the MC fleet is in that club. Good going. LNYC is hosting the Championship of Champions in Flying Scots this
year. The MC fleet is sending National Champion Justin Hood and nationals
runner-up Jeremy Pape to sail for us. Good luck.
2002 Augusta Halloween Regatta Report by Eric Hood The 48th annual Augusta Sailing Club Halloween Regatta saw 23 MC teams show up for this great classic. Absolutely beautiful weather here on Lake Strom Thurmond near Augusta. Check out www.augustasailingclub.com to view the beautiful 16 acre club grounds and history of this club. Also you can view pictures from the 2001 MC Nationals there. Several teams came early this week for some practice in between the James Island Regatta and this regatta. As always we have a “New Guy” (yes this can be a woman, teenager or a guy). Having this “New Guy” tradition we started about a year ago in our class is fun but it also shows the strength of our growing class because someone new is almost always at one of our 55 regattas. This year is it Don Browning from Eustis Sailing Club in Eustis, Florida. Don comes from the Flying Scot class. He sailed Weds., Thursday and Friday then of course today. Jeff Annis and Ed Durant our co-chairs for the 2001 MC Nationals welcomed once again everyone in attendance and certainly they have made everyone very comfortable. Most of the group is housed here on the club grounds. This regatta has bands on Friday night and then tonight with the Halloween costume party for kids and adults we will once again have “Johnny and The Red Hots” along with food from the famous “Pig Man” . Social is a big part of this event which really makes it fun. Classes sailed here include large fleets of Sunfish, Laser, Coronado 15, Optimists and PHRF for the keel boats. Today we only had one race to due very light west-northwest winds. Winds ranging from 0-3 mph. A scheduled W2 was set with full legs, a leeward gate downwind the first time then finishing with a downwind finish so we could get the next scheduled races off quickly. Our group started five minutes on a rolling start behind the PHRF class but many of them were late in the light air which made for a very interesting congested start with our 23 MCs, the keel boats and the short line. The windward end was heavily favored which stacked everyone up at that end except of a few of us who elected to go for clear air at the leeward end. Four of our MCs were busted by the line cops and had to restart. I started at the leeward end along with Mark Marenakos and Tommy Harken. We quickly scooted out on the group at the favored end simply because we had clear, clean air. Ed Durant and Jeff Annis along with Stan Stanton and a few others were surviving up on the right side of the course just skimming to windward of the several slow keel boats that were sloshing along in the light air. At the first mark it was Mark, then me, Ed Durant, Jeff Surles, Jeff Annis and Tommy Harken. Our group tightened up at the first leeward mark as the boats from behind brought the fresh breezed down. Never give, well never give in any condition but light air for sure. Anything can happen. Sticking with the group, being extremely still on the boat, keeping the bow pointed down and being patient. I sailed a very good first beat with my boom a couple of inches outside the transom corner of the boat. I was along side Tommy and Mark during this beat and they were doing the same thing. Those who oversheeted were in trouble quickly. In the end it was darkest water, the least tiller movement and patience that won the race. The first six boats all had different sail shapes and that did not seem to make a real difference in this drifter race just being still and reducing tiller movement, I mean really keeping the tiller still were keys to going faster in the tough slow conditions. DAY 2
Eric Hood of North Sails and Melges Boats won the 48th Annual Halloween Regatta this weekend in a field of 22 boats at Clarks Hill Reservoir near Augusta, Georgia. Eric sailed his new ZAP North this weekend. The top 5 final places were: 1. Eric Hood The racing was interesting and frustrating today in Augusta as Eric Hood of Lake Geneva, Wisconsin finished 3,1 today to win the regatta after a tie-breaker with Ed Durant of Augusta. Winning the very difficult 3rd race by only a single foot in the end over a fast charging Kent Stadele of Lake Lanier. The last two races were close and trying as ten boats finished in the same boat length in the first race. In the last race Eric Hood was leading most of the race by only a single boat length. The wind was from 1 to 10 throughout the morning. In the last race it took lots of patience to survive the trying conditions. The wind dipped to almost zero for fifteen minutes of the last run. As good a win as it was for Eric Hood, it was almost just as notable as to the final result posted by Ed Durant. Having tied for first and loosing on the tie-breaker, Ed showed lots of skill and consistency in the regatta. New guy Don Browning of Eustis, Florida is a nice addition to the fleet. We all enjoyed getting to know Don. You will all meet Don the second weekend in November at the Lake Eustis Sailing Club for their invitational MC regatta. Frank Pontious from Beaufort, SC is getting everybody excited about the possibility of converting three to five of their best single-handed sailors to the MC. Back in Augusta, Mark Miller, the son of long-time member Max Miller is looking for a boat. At least two other locals in Augusta are in the scow market as well. Bull Schmidt jointed Eric Hood in coming from Lake Geneva to sail "Sparky". Bull will go on to Lake Norman with Jeff Annis this weekend for the Nothin FIner Regatta. Mike Pepera drove in from Toledo, Ohio and brought his mom, dad and little brother. Kent Stadele from Lake Lanier was a new addition to the event and to the MC. He has experience crewing on an E-Scow. He almost won a race and finished 7th overall in the regatta which is very good for a first outing in a class. All in all it was a good fleet building experience at the Halloween Regatta this weekend despite light winds and rain. Everybody had a good time meeting new friends and enjoying the sailing environment. A big band played until midnight on Saturday and Spencer Shaddon played on Friday. The steak cookout on Saturday night and the Big-Boy Breakfast on Sunday morning were very special. Our next two regattas include the Northin Finer Regatta and then the first weekend on the first weekend in November the Columbia Sailing Club will host an MC Invitational at Lake Murray near Columbia, South Carolina.
2002 James Island Fall Regatta Report by Eric Hood James Island was the host for this annual fall MC Scow regatta. The setting of course was beautiful Charleston Harbor. The remains of the hurricane stayed to the west of us and we had beautiful weather. Paul Rossman regatta chairman from James Island Yacht Club welcomed the group with it’s traditional grits, bacon, egg and biscuit breakfast. A small crowd was here for a regatta that we expected to have 30 boats minimum. For those of you running small regional regattas I cannot stress the importance of dotting the I’s and crossing the T’s when it comes to notice of race. We had a mix-up on the calendar in the magazine and the posted time on the web. Two weeks the error was discovered by many and it cost us 20 boats this weekend. The one good thing that came out of the mix-up was a serious discussion among the sailors who attended on the importance of networking and planning. If you are running a regatta in a class like the MC Scow that holds 55 regattas a year you need to have your dates 1 year out, NOR (notice of race) six months out, all logistics with Herman for on-line registrations done and ready to three months out. While we had a small turnout we had some tough sailors . New guys ( always have to have some new guys/girls at each event) Teddy Turner, former America’s Cup winning crew member John Spence. Two real nice additions to the Charleston group for sure. Jeff Annis, Charleston Easter Regatta (Charleston World Champ) Champion Tom Harken, Jamie Kimball from Spring Lake now attending College of Charleston, Bill Rembold, Bill Sloger, Randy Draftz, Jay Bowen another new sailor from Charleston who works with Turner and Spence at their Charleston yacht business, Mark Marenokas, Bob Miller, Guy “Grasshopper” Mossman, Charlie LaFitte and myself for a total of 14 boats. Paul Rossman along with his team from James Island ran our races. We had a pretty good spectator crowd which was nice. The sailors in Charleston saw two fleets racing this weekend. Our MC fleet and the College of Charleston with a weekend event. The racing was tough. Three races were held in light winds and heavy currents going the wrong for each race. Basically a large high came in and sat on top of us. As soon as the regatta was over though the wind came up to about 15 m.p.h. while we were packing our boats up. Seems like that always happens after an event where the winds were not the best during the race times. Day 1 your birthday boy E. Hood jumped off to quick start with a 1-2. Jeff Annis had led this whole race until the end and I just got him at the finish line in a dying breeze. Jamie Kimball was second at the end of day two with a 3-3. Jeff Annis was third with a 2-6. Bill Rembold jumped everyone at the start of race two and won big in this one. Nice race Bill. Going into the final day the event could still be anyone’s with 1-3 races scheduled. Only one race was held and the breeze went flat with the second race Sunday being abandoned. Jamie Kimball came through with a big win which also gave him the regatta win and one full point towards the Blue Chip Championship next year. Mark Marenokas had a great race finishing second and that finish moved him into second. As they say in NASCAR, I cut a tire on the final lap had a bad race and fell to third in a tie with Jeff Annis.
Here are some scores. Jamie Kimball – College of Charleston 3-3-1 All of the DNS’s were current related and sailors did not clear the line within four minutes of the starting signal. Many thanks to everyone at James Island and Paul Rossman. Next year’s date, there will be only one will be announced soon. Also , the idea of a Thanksgiving Day regatta to replace this has been floated and would be the same concept as Carolinas Easter Regatta . Race on Friday, Saturday with Thursday and Sunday seeing no races. This potential regatta would be run as a joint effort by all the local clubs. Look for a poll on the web soon. Still some sailing to go. Augusta this week, the famous Halloween Multi-Class regatta, Dallas Dinghyfest the week after and in early November a regatta that is lining up to be a big one the Fall regatta at Eustis. See you there. Do not forget the big boat sale at Melges ends on October 15th. Also, check out the 30 some odd boats on the class website.
2002 Doug Sydor Regatta Report by Eric Hood Doug Sydor Regatta, Lake Winnebago, MO 31 boats 31 boats made it to the 2002 Doug Sydor regatta this weekend at Lake Winnebago MO. Race teams came from Shreveport, Dallas, Lake Lotawana and Zenda. Winnebago is one of the smallest lakes on the MC circuit and we are located just south of Kansas City. We started the weekend with 2 short practice races with Aimee Long and Eric Hood as PRO. They enjoyed calling me OCS to get the weekend started. Conditions were 2-5 mph with very smooth water. Paul Estes of Lake Winnebago won a practice race and Lewis Conger from Fleet 1 in Shreveport won the second race. Saturday brought rain and light winds. Bob Cooley from Lake Lotawana was PRO and he was assisted by Kris Long and Amy Pollard. Bob tried to get a race in before lunch but the wind disappeared and the race was abandoned. After lunch, we went out again in calm and shifty conditions. There was a sprinkle of rain from time to time, but it did not bother the group. We sailed a W2 1/2 and Eric Hood and Jeff Baldus jumped out to a big lead with Lewis Conger and Bob Cantrell not far behind. With conditions this shifty I thought we would see a few lead changes, but Eric managed to hang on. The start for this race was difficult because there was a big header just before the start and if you did not adjust quickly you were on the third row. Finding "lanes" of clear air and sailing to dark water was everything in this race. We tried for a second race but the wind disappeared. We ended the day with a party at Aimee and Mark Long's house. The group was fired up when they saw a perfect forecast for Sunday. The party went long. Sunday was very nice. We had a north breeze at 5 to 12 mph. The North wind is rare so local knowledge was limited. The temperatures dropped and the sun came out. We started our first race at 9:30AM and Bob Cooley set a perfect line. Robert Rimel and I went out 1 hour before the race to determine the favored side. We sailed on opposite tacks for 30 seconds with Rimel on the left side of the course and I sailed on the right, when we met in the middle, we would tack back to our side for another 30 seconds. We learned that the left side of the course was the place to be. We also learned that shifting gears would be important as some puffs required full hike with tension on the vang and at the end of the puff you had to ease the vang and get back inside the boat quickly. Race 1 was a W2 1/2 and it was me, George Silvey, Jack Kern and Jeff Baldus in the lead at the first mark with Wiley Pollard and Austin Chamberlin close by. Clear air and sailing the lifted tack was key. If you were in traffic, you had to find lanes and sail for the puffs. There was no motorboat traffic at all so the wind was easy to see. I got a bit excited and tipped over to lose my lead 1/2 way down the last beat. PRO Bob Cooley was very quick to get back and set another line and
Here are the top finishers: 1st, Mark Long Thanks to all that helped make this a great event. Special thanks to all that traveled. We hope to see more of you next year. Mark Long
2002 MC Scow Nationals Maxinkuckee Yacht Club Report by Eric Hood The 2002 MC Scow National Championship saw 91 teams come to beautiful Lake Geneva , Wisconsin this past week. Regatta co-chairman's Devin Farley and Smiley Freytag organized a great event for everyone. The schedule and class rules called for seven races over the three day regatta period with one drop race if we made it to seven completed races. PRO Martin Ford along with Gloria Melges, Mike Sherin and many others organized some nice practice races for the group on Monday afternoon with over 20 teams taking part. Melges Boat Works opened their plant for a factory tour and over 50 participants took part in the tours this past Monday. Day one saw two races held, day two saw three races held and today the last day we had one race. Unstable winds forced PRO Martin Ford to abandon race seven when time expired for the last possible starting time of 1:00 p.m. today. When you put together such a great team of PROs like we had this past week one thing you can look forward to are great starting lines. I would rate the starting lines as an A+ this past week. We had I think two general recalls and several individuals but all in all the starts were very fair. You know when the regatta chairman Dev Farley gets his number called that it must be fair and square J To give you an idea of how tough this field was this year check out
where some of our regatta winners of the past twelve months finished
overall in this regatta. Race 1 saw Jeremy Pape of Atlanta come out of the gates hot with Justin Hood right on his heels and MC scow legend Smiley Freytag finishing third. Smiley led the first two legs of this W2&1/2. Augie Barkow of Pine Lake one of Justin's sailing buddies from teenage days finished fourth showing some good moves. 2001 MC National's regatta co-chair and new elected class officer Jeff Annis of Augusta finished fifth. Race 2 and the last race of day 1 saw junior MC skipper Andy Labanauskas of Lake Geneva winning this windy race and Justin Hood finishing second again. Class officer Stu Oltrogge of Clear Lake, Iowa sailed a great race without crew to finish third. Fourth went to Jeff Annis and fifth went to Brian Heimsch of Big Cedar, Wisconsin. At the end of day 1 the leaders were in order were Justin Hood, Jeff Annis, Jeremy Pape, E.Hood and Augie Barkow. Day two with the Tuesday cool front a day to the east of Lake Geneva
brought light unstable northeast winds and a large high pressure system
which parked right on top of us. With a lot of patience the race committee
gave us two good races and one race that got crazy but was completed.
The final shape of this regatta took place after these races 3,4 and
5 were held. Race 5 shook things up quite a bit but did give some final
definition towards what the final outcome would be on day 3. Race 4 saw Justin Hood as the winner followed by Jeremy Pape and Augie Barkow. Fourth went to Kent Haeger and fifth to Brian Brickler of Lake Beulah. Lots of lead changes in the top group of this race. These first two races of Wednesday saw the edges of the course working better than the middle of the course. I think it was pressure related and clear air that helped the leaders get to the front on both of these races. It seemed like while being in the middle was correct as far as direction was concerned there was just less pressure because so many boats were in close proximity to each other. Sometimes pressure rules over direction when making your tactical decisions. Race 5 was the "Crazy Ivan". "Crazy Ivan" if you remember is when the enemy sub does his turn on the half hour. The winds were turning in all directions and velocities. It certainly must have been just as tough on our PRO and his staff as it was on the sailors. Personally I feel if the National Championship had six races over three days like we used to instead of seven there would not be pressure on the RC group to run races that are questionable at the National Championship. For the most part everyone was okay at the end of the race but it almost completely turned things upside down. Lots of frustration after the races but one thing we all agreed on was that the toughest job anyone out there had was not on a sailboat but making the tough calls on running the race. Our hats are off to the entire staff for running our races and doing there best under very tough weather conditions. "Crazy Ivan" race winner was again lightweight speedster Andy Labanauskas. Andy by the way did practice the whole last month going into this regatta on his home lake and just maybe or probably he saw some things the rest of us did not. Congratulations to Andy for two race wins. Zack Clayton made a huge comeback from the fifties in this race to get second. Third went to Rick Wilfert of Okauchee, Wi. Brian Heimsch finished fourth and Lath Keller of Torch Lake, Michigan finished fifth. The final day brought light unstable winds again but this time from the west-southwest. The velocity was up and down but enough to get a race started. The wind was up off the water in the middle of the course for the first beat but that was the place to be. Wind showing on the edges of the course pulled the fleet apart quickly into two groups with about 10 boats going up the middle and those ten made it to the first mark in as the first group to get there. The rest of the race the wind became very unstable but positions held until the last beat and then it got crazy again and a wholesale change of positions occurred from 5th on back. Justin Hood led from mid-first beat with Iggy Labanauskas in hot pursuit and right on his transom. In the end Justin won with Dave Bandstra finishing second, Iggy third, Ted Keller fourth and Jeremy Pape coming from way back to fifth. Final results are already posted on www.mcscow.org but here are the top ten, points and division winners. 1st - Justin Hood (crew Sam Pagnos) 23 Top Woman - Debbie Ziegler Look at how high some of these point totals and you can understand how tough this event was. Some highlights of the event no doubt was Buddy Melges giving the group an in depth history lesson of scows, Melges Boat Works, his family and his sailing. You could have heard a pin drop when Buddy was speaking. It was great!!!! Thanks, Buddy. The other highlight for sure was Commodore Keller presenting a lifetime achievement award to Smiley Freytag for all he has done for the class over the years. That was really great and believe it or not Smiles was moved and speechless. Thanks to everyone. Dev you did a fantastic job and we know there were tons of folks to many to name involved. Many thanks to everyone at Lake Geneva and also Bill Sills for providing one very large crew boat. We had a great class meeting which class Sec. Curt Bradley will post in our next class magazine. Many thanks to Herman van Beek and Bob Winter for all the scoring. Bob Pegel and his judges group from Milwaukee and Chicago. They little or no work to do.
2002 Culver MC and C Scow Fall Regatta Maxinkuckee Yacht Club Report by Eric Hood Culver Academy was the site for the 2nd annual Culver MC scow regatta which has now teamed up with the long standing traditional C Scow Fall Regatta. Maxinkuckee Lake is an outstanding Scow lake being a couple of miles long and a couple miles wide. The facility at the Culver Academy is perfect for large numbers of boats and people. This week we had 27 C Scows and 21 MC Scows. 21 boats for a second year event is fantastic. This fleet here is young but growing quickly. PRO Allen Becker and the Kilanders worked hard to give some good racing but a huge high pressure system settled in on us for the whole weekend. The wind finally came up on late Saturday though and we managed to get one light air race in. Tough decisions for both fleets had to be made right from the start. Go left where the angle to the mark was better or go right where there were stronger winds but the angles toward the weather mark were not as good. I think when you have winds that are light and even some glassy spots and patches sprinkled around the course that going for velocity must rule over direction most of the time. The big winners in both classes seemed to do this. Sitting as still as possible and moving your tiller as little as possible was very important for both classes. It also seemed that the lead boats in both classes worked on heeling their boats more than those who were in the back half of each class. Sailing hot angles downwind until the puffs came worked very well also. Here are some scores for the MC Scows C Scows Friday evening I gave a 2 hour clinic for both C Scows and MC Scows which was received very well. Nicest thing about this regatta was how nice all the people are here
and how much effort they put into the onshore activities. The food and
parties were outstanding. It is now Sunday evening and about the first ten of an expected 90-100 boats have pulled into the Lake Geneva Yacht Club for Tuesday's National Championship. Tour of Melges Factory tomorrow, Board of Governors Meeting, practice races at five. It is not too late if you are on the fence post. Special thanks to everyone at Culver especially the Furry Family and
Becker Family. Hope To See You In At Lake Geneva,
1st Annual Eastern MC Scow Championship Report by Eric
Hood
An absolutely incredible venue greeted the 20 MC teams at this 1st time MC Eastern Championship here in Keuka, New York. Keuka is one of the larger Finger Lakes in western central New York in the heart of wine country. Keuka is 22 miles long with an average width of 1 mile and 2 miles wide midway up the lake at Keuka Yacht Club. Check out www.keukayc.org for more details and history on this incredible lake and club. This club also has held the Eastern E Scow Championships and the E Scow Nationals in the past. It would be a great site for the Masters or National MC Championships. While the drive was long it was certainly worth the effort as it is one of the most beautiful spots you will find on earth. You can drink the water right out of the lake. The primary goal for the regatta organizers from fleet 76 here at Keuka was to have 20 boats for this first event and we reached that goal. Fleet 76 has six boats and a couple of lakes just west of here Lake Cuba and Lake Chautauqua also have several MCs. The potential for this area to be a large MC sailing center are fantastic. The ring leaders of fleet 76 include Peter Cunningham, Kim Cunningham, Steve Anderson, Lisa Anderson, Scott Cioe (former Spring Lake member), Dave Stenger and many others. The Keuka E Scow fleet members are running the regatta for us this weekend which really helps. At Keuka they race E Scows and MC Scows at separate times and that is how you sustain strong fleets and grow fleets. Some of these folks include many names you might recognize from E Scow championships including George Welch Sr., Irv Spear, Jim Hallahan, Adam Welch, Bobby Wilder, Curt Wright, Irv Spear , Ron Beyer and many others. Thank you very much for running our event. This is my 12th MC event of the year and I must say yesterday was the nicest sailing day of this year that I have experienced. With the hot summer and fluky winds we have experienced everywhere it was really nice to sail 1 mile beats in the middle of a large, clean lake. Our conditions on day 1 for the first three races varied from 8-15 m.p.h.. Just sitting on the high side and some hiking, no crews needed for the first three races. Courses for all three races were W2&1/2s. Race number one had several leaders with local sailor Pete Cunningham coming off the leeward end of the line while everyone else started at the windward end. The lake runs north and south . The winds thermal generated so the breeze was coming straight down the lake out of the south. There was a brief shift right at the start that pulled everyone up there except Pete. Pete led briefly, then as the breeze steadied out I led for a while then Skip Moorhouse took over for the majority of race 1. Brien Fox was hanging around in 2nd-4th throughout this race along with Jim Hoffman. In the end MC veteran Brien Fox just nipped out Skip for 1st with Jim Hoffman beating me at the line for 3rd. Pete Cunningham had a great race finishing 5th. Comeback of the day was Scott Cioe who finished 6th after being called over and restarting. He was way back and made a nice comeback. Race two was a really good race with the whole fleet rounding the first weather mark together except myself , Brien Fox and Skip Moorhouse who got about 100 yards in front of the group. The puffs were large in size and fairly easy to read. Shifts varied through about 15 degrees. Your primary mission when coming off the start was to be in the path of these large puffs coming down the lake. More times than not that was on the left or east side of the course. The sits slightly NNE to SSW and it was a south wind. Those who worked to the left early always faired well in this race. In the end I won, Brien had a good battle with Skip and Scott. E Scow ace George Welch Jr who we loaned a boat too was in second most of this race until he left the pack which cost him three places and still had a nice finish with a fifth. Lesson learned is that in the first half of a race even two-thirds through a race you really should stick with the group and focus on speed and boat handling. When you leave your group it should only be for short tacks looking a little shift or breeze here and there. Odds are if you leave for say more than a hundred yards you are taking a big chance if every single other boat is going the other way. "Top Gun" never leave your wingman!!! Race 3 was the best one yet with really solid wind. Big leeward end start with Curt Bradley winning the pin. Curt was so excited that he kept looking back instead of forward and losing valuable ground. If you win a start or even your position at the start and you have boats on your weather hip getting your backwind - focus for a minute real hard on going fast. Do not look back, look forward. After a minute or two of this focused sailing then look back and you will see that you have sawed everyone off, then you can tack and cross when get that first 5-10 degree shift. It was a nice start for class secretary Curt Bradley though. I went up the middle and was the first one to the new strong breeze and got a pretty quick lead while the majority of the group was stuck on the right side which had proved throughout the day to be the weak side going upwind. When I got to the windward mark I had about a 50 yard lead in the bigger breeze but saw that the offset was almost a hundred yards and set on a broad reach. I knew that if I did not screw around with controls, boards, ect… and just hiked hard that at this spot on the race course I could double my lead. That is what happened. Over the years I have seen more races decided, positions lost and won on this first critical offset mark. Focus on the breeze as you approach the weather mark, plan ahead for a fast and smart reach to the offset, know if you are going to gybe or just bear off when you get to the offset. Big gains can be made here. Great racing throughout the fleet here for this race. In the end I won with Brien Fox 2nd, Jim Hoffman third. After day 1 here are some results. As I write this day one report it is 9am on Sunday morning, the thermal has kicked in and they are predicting 10-15 mph winds. The winds are usually good here with the huge rolling hills that surround all of the Finger Lakes in this region. More shortly. Race 4 the wind has built to the point that you need a crew. Brien Fox came prepared with his girlfriend and crew Tiffany Blake. Some had crew options but only Brien took a crew and it paid off in Spades as he won this race going away strong adding a two points to his overall lead over me going into the last race. Ron Stryker had his best race with a sixth. Jim Hoffman was fifth, Scott Cioe fourth and Skip Moorhouse third. The wind was not quite as steady in direction as yesterday but velocity was very consistent at 12-18 m.p.h.. We always have the "New Guy" at each regatta and the new guy this week was George Welch Jr. who went for a "New Guy" swim this race when making a big puff gybe. George got the boat up and quickly added crew for the last race. Race 5 same situation . Brien was just too tough for me to bust through but interestingly Scott Cioe had a great race and won this race by a boat length over Brien and Tiffany. I came in third. Pete Cunningham finished fourth and Skip fifth. All in all today was outstanding racing with tough courses , nice lengths
and great racing. Final results will be posted on www.mcscow.org Here are the finishers
and their final points in order. Thanks to everyone who donated items for the Fleet 76 benefit raffle. Melges Boat Works, North Sails, Layline, Harken Yacht Fittings, Bully Hill Winery, Sailors Tailor and many others. The raffle was some big fun last night at a very nice sunset dinner here on beautiful Lake Keuka. This is a destination spot folks. Add it to your calendar for next year. Pictures will be provided to the class web site here in the very near future. Try to make it to Indiana for a great warm-up regatta the Saturday and Sunday just before the MC Nationals. Thanks again New York , we had a great time on your beautiful Lake Keuka.
2002 WESTERN MICHIGAN CHAMPIONSHIP Report by Eric Hood
The 73rd annual Western Michigan Yachting Association Championships were held this past week in Cadillac, Michigan. Cadillac was chosen as a site after an earlier experiment a few years ago where the WMYA chose this same venue to try something a little different than going to the regular member club sites. Most of the group in all the fleets stayed at the Sands Resort on the west end of Lake Cadillac which made for a real nice social setting throughout the long four day event.
55 MC Scows, 13 E Scows, 8 M20s, 8 C Scows, 8 Lasers and 19 Butterflies attended the event this year. The event was hosted by Grand Rapids Yacht Club. PRO Chuck Harrett, Stu Soule , Happy Fox , Midge Verplank, Matt Young and many others organized the race course and on water activities for us – many thanks for all the efforts so we could race.
Conditions were tough this week as a large Canadian high pressure system set in and gave us very unstable light air. That coupled with an unusually large weed problem made for some tough and frustrating racing. The last day saw some better wind but still unstable in direction. None of the fleets were unable to get all races in as we lost one day of racing all together with zero wind on Thursday.
In the MC Class we had three races over the four day regatta period. The most important thing throughout this series was to be ready for huge shifts coming from a number of different directions but usually the windward shore side of the courses was always favored. Also, tacking to clear your boards and having a weed stick were very important. Weed management while frustrating was an added dimension to the racing. Those who did it well stayed up at the front. Tactics were all over the place and only our winner really survived all three races with good scores. Race winners were Jamie Kimball of Grand Rapids, Cameron McNeil of White Lake and Chris Eggert of Spring Lake. Top ten finishers in order Chris Eggert - 13 pts, Jamie Kimball – 29 , Brian McMurray 34.7, Ted Keller – 34.7, Matt Cassady – 35, Cameron McNeil – 40, Dan Fink – 40.7, Scott Caston – 44, Dave Bandstra – 46, Pete Price – 55. Top Grand Master – Bob Miller, Top Master – Dave Bedau, Top Woman – Kelly Reese, Top Junior – Jamie Welch
As you can see from the race results and high points accumulated from just three races it was a tough go even for the top ten.
E Scows in order Doug McNeil 15.7, Tad Welch 23, Don Nelson 34, Pete Price 35.4, Brien Fox 37.1, Kevin Watrous 45, Peter Johanson 48, Paul Wickland 48 , Curt Miller 51, Rich Grant 58.7, John McNeil 67.7, Herb Knape 69, D.J. Edgerle 70. Next year at Torch Lake for the WMYA you can expect easily 30-40 boats. Plan now!!!!!!!!!!!!
C Scows in order Cameron McNeil (won all races) 0, Chris Craig 22.4, Tom Keenan 29.4, E.Hood 31, John Bolling 37.7, Karl Lanka 37.7 , BJ Harestad 51.7, Holly O’Brien 55.7, Erik Peterson 57. Word at the banquet party was a WMYA C Scow reunion regatta was going to be worked on this winter to help get the numbers back up for the Torch Lake WMYA next year. Getting some of our past champions like Bill Metcalf, maybe Buddy, Charlie Harrett, Doug McNeil and many others. We used to have 50 boats in this class and we need to help this great class get going again in the WMYA region.
Regattas coming up MC Nationals with 37 pre-registered, Keuka Eastern MC Championship with 12 pre-registered. Please sign up now to help the regatta organizers. We know we will have between 80-100 at Geneva for the Nationals and we believe there will be about 20 for the first Eastern Championships based on the talk at the regattas. Please sign up now.
Special thanks to my crew Elle Schurtz for all of the help this week with racing and organizing all of our boats. Special thanks to Jeff Annis for all of his help and promotion throughout the entire event at the WMYA. Congratulations to Jeff today who won the first two races of the Inland MC Championship with 35 boats at Oshkosh.
8 of us rode the car ferry from Ludington to Manitowoc last night with our cars and boats. If you have not done that trip across Lake Michigan it is nice when traveling to and from the states of Wisconsin and Michigan. Really makes it nice and fun for the group. The car ferry is a 400’ ship that carries 120 cars, 600 people has staterooms, restaurants, movies, great decks and takes four hours to cross the lake. If you are thinking twice about the long drive between Wisconsin and Michigan when making your next regatta choice please consider this option as it really made our trip nice.
That is all for now.
2002 MICHIGAN STATE CHAMPIONSHIP Report by Eric Hood
47 MC teams made it to this year’s Michigan State MC Championship. Held at Diamond Lake in southern Michigan this lake is one of our more unusual lakes on the circuit with an island right in the middle of the lake. Teams from New York, Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois and Wisconsin were represented. This was another record entry turnout in a year full of record attendance. Several participants like Bill Schacht of Grand Rapids said it was their first off lake regatta. We saw several first timers from Cory Lake. This seems to be a trend nationwide as sailors realize the fastest way to improve their sailing skills is to travel to other venues.
Unstable weather conditions were predicted for the first day and that is what we received. Up and down winds with huge swings from the west through the south and over to the east. This made for very tough conditions for the race committee to set good starting lines and courses. The PRO for the event gave himself a C, F, F, A for the four races that were held. Now he was probably being a little hard on himself but we did see some unusual racing.
Three races were held on Saturday. One start we started with an upwind start, race two we started with a downwind start and race three we started on a beam reach. Race one was a W1&1/2, race two another W1&1/2 and race three the drag race was a W2&1/2.
Race one was a pretty good race with southwest wind conditions but with huge right hand shifts with velocity that would come through once in a while. Being in the right place at the right time was more of a bonus than your boat speed and handling during this race. So we get through this quick first race with the following top finishers in order – Ted Keller, Scott Caston, Katie Banstra, E.Hood, Matt Cassady, David Harrison, Curt Miller, Bob Miller, Lath Keller and Dave Bedau.
Race two we started in almost nothing and on a dead run. It was crazy but it was an all clear start then shortly as the PRO had hoped the wind shifted back around to the south and slowly started filling in. The group was spread out with some groups moving and some at a dead stop. The wind seemed to be an equal opportunity heartbreaker though and everyone got to taste both good and bad during this race. Tom Wurster led most of this race only to be aced out at the end by first time regatta race winner John Hans sailing 1293 from Eagle Lake. Congrats to John and Tom for showing us around the course on this tough race. Others from 3rd -10th on this race in order – Ted Keller, Curt Miller, Paul Wood, Matt Cassady, Squad Car Fink, Dave Banstra, Peter Cunningham (all the way from New York and our regatta host at the upcoming Keuka regatta) and Katie Banstra.
Race three was a really unusual race as we reached the entire long course, five legs. After this one was over all of us agreed that while tactics were minimal it was actually a great test in boat speed and sail trim. Most of the time on what was supposed to be the upwind legs we were sailing at anywhere from 10-40 degrees off close hauled with big puffs. Traveler down, playing your vang and sheet was a full time every second deal on these legs. Keeping the boom out of the water was critical also because all of us were heeling probably more than we wanted to. Then the big lulls would come through and you would have to quickly back off the controls to keep from stalling the boat. You also had to keep your telltales totally clear with free air upwind because this truly was a drag race. Same thing downwind except here we were beam reaching and broad reaching. The big shots would come through and you would bear off to a broad reach to gain speed. This would put you below the mark so in the lulls you would work back up to a beam reach which would put you a little above the downwind mark. The next big gainer on this race was traffic management. As soon as the first boats rounded the first mark and for the rest of the race we had boats coming directly at each on opposite legs. I saw several teams make big gains and losses here. Sailing ahead and spotting your boat in free air and out of harms way was a great way to make progress in this race. The top ten in order – Dave Banstra, Ted Keller, E.Hood, Katie Banstra, David Harrison, Lath Keller, John Kimball, Scott Caston, Squad Car and Matt Cassady.
Now with three races behind us we were looking at two races today. Big winds greeted the sailors when they arrived at Diamond Lake today. Good steady 12-18 m.p.h. southwest winds were the order of the day. The scheduled 9:30 start was delayed for some onshore problems and this only allowed us one race today.
Ted Keller had an 11 point lead going into today’s race with about six teams all close to each other point wise for 2nd through 6th. A good start, the best one of the series spread everyone out pretty evenly. We had six different leaders in this race and Ted was bouncing around between 8th and 12th during the race. The door was open for several teams to challenge Commodore Keller but in the end Ted salvaged a 8th to protect his lead and win the regatta. The time clock and weather gods prevented us from having the scheduled race 5. In order the last race - Dave Banstra, Dan Fink, E.Hood, Matt Cassady, Katie Banstra, Scott Caston, Mark Weaver (sailing hull 92 from Grand Rapids), Ted Keller, David Harrison, Ron Stryker ( ask Ron about hitches on Lexus Roadsters).
Top Ten Overall in order Ted Keller, E.Hood, Katie Banstra, Dave (I’m cooking tonight) Banstra, Matt Cassady, Dan “Squad Car” Fink, Scott Caston, Curt Miller (Top Master), David Harrison, Tom Wurster (Top Grand Master). Top Mega Master was Dr. Chuck Nichols from Lake Geneva, Top Junior was Jamie Welch from Grand Rapids.
Danielle Ralston finished the regatta with two scores as she sailed her boat and then sailed with me on the last race. Thanks Danielle and little Sam took the hardware home for our second J
You cannot say enough for the Diamond Lake social team who fed us like Kings and Queens. We had hot breakfasts, great lunches and the famous Saturday night steak dinner.
All in all a great regatta. Remember, sometimes you have races that the group can get grumpy about but we are all in the same boat. The neat thing at the end of the regatta was how so many skippers were saying the same thing under very unusual and tough circumstances. Work on your boat speed no matter what the course or conditions. Same goes for tactics and boat handling.
Congratulations to Dave Bedeau who bought a boat at this event and Dave says he will grow his fleet on White Lake by selling his boat within the fleet.
Complete results at www.mcscow.org . See you at Cadillac in eight days for the Western Michigan Championship. Check the web site for other great upcoming regattas.
2002 ILYA INVITATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP Report by Eric Hood 2002 MC ILYA Invitational Championship - Clear Lake, Iowa 51 teams made it to this year's championship at Clear Lake, Iowa. Eric and Nancy Protzman along with Team Clear Lake have really put together a great event . Very well organized along with the help from Herman van Beek for registration. 45 of the 51 boats pre-registered on the website.The format for this event is six races, no throw-outs. The one minute rule is in effect for all starts. No mid-line boat has been used by PRO Craig Caslavka and his team. We are very fortunate to have such a great PRO and R.C. team. In fact it is the same team we had for the MC National Championship we had here a few years ago. The weather for racing on day 1 gave us an unstable east wind. Remnants from the storms and 7" of rain the day before. The locals all admitted that sailing in east winds on Clear Lake is pretty rare. So no local knowledge for the first day of racing. Three races were held on day 1. Race number 1 had winds ranging from 5-16 m.p.h., race 2 was 3-12 m.p.h. and the last race was 0-9 m..p.h.. Wind shifts were as large as 45 degrees for all three races. Wholesale changes on positions occurred throughout the day of racing. One beat you could be in 1st at the top mark and the next time up you could be in 10th or 15th. Patience was the order of the day and even the top group of sailors had trouble with this as it was real tough sailing. Sailing in the dark water was everyone's goal as the holes without wind were large and the puffs when they came down the lake were also large. You could not really chase them though. So some skill, some boat speed, good boat handling plus lots of luck and keeping your cool were the components of doing well on day 1. Here are some race results from the first day and you can see how crazy things were on the race course. David Harrison - Lake Geneva - 5-4-10 = 19 Complete results will be posted on Sunday afternoon on www.mcscow.org along with the reports from day 2 and day 3 . Right now we are sitting on the "Outing Club" porch waiting for the wind here on day 2. It does not look good for today or tomorrow as they are predicting winds of 2-3 m.p.h. each day. The big party tonight is here at the 120 year old "Outing Club" along with yard games this afternoon if we do not race. Some of us are going flying today with Scott Slocum who flew his plane up from Dallas. Last night's Melges/North party was a blast at the Surf Ballroom with J.D.Simo and famed blues specialist legend Lonnie Brooks. Day 2 - No races Day 3 A very light southwest wind for the scheduled start of race 4 today. After a short postponement and one general recall we started race 4. A lot on the line today as the tactical risks and decisions in a real light air race can make or break your finish score quickly. Making any mistakes in the light stuff really can make it hard to recover. Tactically all you can do is focus on the basic wind direction and try to stay in the dark water. Easier said than done. The fleet broke up into three groups off the starting line. One group taking a long starboard to the south shore, another group going up the middle and another group going to the north shore on a long port tack. By the time we made it to the first mark on the windward 2&1/2 course we had five boats from the left , five from the far right and one from the middle make it to the mark within a minute of each other. Many changes in position downwind but the race was pretty good through three of the five legs then it got a little crazy when the biggest wind of the day came in from the hard left when going up the 2nd beat or third leg of this race. This put 10 boats into a pretty good lead over the rest of the fleet. These 10 boats maintained their large lead and finished the race within the time limit. On the third leg regatta leader David Harrison who was in touch with Scott Slocum, myself and well ahead of Jeff Annis split from our group which proved to be fatal for his bid to win this major MC regatta. I had the lead going into the finish with Zack Clayton and Scott Slocum on my tail. I had not read my instructions carefully and for some reason thought we were on a 2 hour time limit , broke my cover thinking we just had 2 minutes to go instead of 32 minutes and made a dash for the finish line with a 100 yards to go and it cost me a race win. Never break your cover when going into a finish line. Never as David will tell you separate from your competition in a race where you have the math going your way as David did. Zack made a nice comeback from way back to win the race. Scott wins the regatta with solid and the most consistent sailing. Others who had their best races of the series today included Austin Chamberlin of Lake Lotawana and Ross Cardozo of White Bear both finishing in the top ten. Jeff Annis who at one time was in last pulled all the way back to 15th. Ronald Curio had a 10th and has shown great improvement this season proving practice and regattas do make a difference when trying to improve your sailing skills. Race winners - congratulations to Scott Slocum, Kelly Reese, Jeff Annis and Zack Clayton. Top Junior - Mike Risewick from Clear Lake who sailed very well this week. Top Woman - Kelly Reese had three great races with a 1-2-6 and one race at the other end. Top Master - Rick Trester who was last year's Master National Champion. Top Grand Master - Dr. Jack Kern who has been sailing very well this year and finished 2nd in race 3. While driving home one thing really stuck in my mind besides the incredible social schedule provided us at Clear Lake. That thought was how considerate PRO Craig Caslavka and his teams were to the competitors. Throughout the series they were always asking the competitors about their opinions on the courses, weather, delays and more. They really went all out for us under very trying unusual weather conditions. I think from all the kudos I saw being handed out to Craig and his team that the MC group really appreciated those efforts. It really is important that you thank your PRO and their teams plus become engaged in conversation with them when traveling to regattas. It helps them and you. The "Outing Club" dinner party on Saturday night was awesome. Held down at the lower end of the "Outing Club" on the porches of Frank Jefferies, Protzmans and the Schurtzs. Many thanks to all. I know it was a special treat for everyone whom attended. Thank you to all the club and team members at Clear Lake. I tried to count up how many people I could see visibly helping with this event and it was close to 40. Thank you to my crew Elle Schurtz, also Steve, Stu and Cheryl Schurtz for all of their help plus their crew tenders provided (2 Colbalts). Congratulations to Scott on the victory. Look at the scores and you will see how tough this regatta was. Scott Slocum 1-19-3-3 = 26
We still have some boats available for the Western Michigan Championship, Inland Championship and National Championship. Call Zenda today for details. Upcoming events - check out www.mcscow.org . Upcoming events being held in South Carolina, New York, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, Texas and Louisiana.
2002 GEORGE DORN MEMORIAL REGATTA Report by Eric Hood Day 1: Another record turnout for a late spring , early summer MC regatta. Just last week 63 in Kansas City and now 51 MCs made it to the George Dorn Memorial MC Regatta. 3 races were scheduled for today and two were held. 1 race tomorrow at 10:00 am will be held.
Today we had winds of 5-12 m.p.h. for race 1 out of the west-northwest and 10-18 m.p.h. out of the northwest for race 2 . Race 3 was abandoned due to high winds. The wind direction was good though in that it allowed us to race on the largest portion of Lake Beulah. For those of you who have not raced here , it is a U-shaped lake with lots of points and coves, relatively small.
The winds were very unstable for race 1 with big 20-40 degree shifts coming down at us before the start. With one minute to go on race one a large 30-40 degree shift to the right came down and the group off the windward end faired well while the majority of the fleet missed this shift. The course was a W 4&1/2. The first 10 boats of this race broke out from the rest of the group and got way ahead. The only skipper to come out of the left group was Zack Clayton who had a great duel with Rick Wilfert who led the first half of this race. David Harrison also led for a while. In the end it was Zack, Rick, David, Peter Ziegler (1st year in the MC), Bill Biersach, Dan Fink, Bruce Gallagher, Kevin Neal, Tim Fredman and Jim Pyott.
Race 2 it we had a lot more wind. A good start with things being pretty even across the board. I led the group up the center and then the big right came through much like the first race (possible pattern that many of missed). Local MC ace Hardy Will did not miss this shift and got a huge lead that he never gave up. Chris Pinahs sailed a great race and finished second. Next in order David Harrison (regatta leader after two), Dr. Thompson, Dan “Squad Car” Fink, Kevin Neal, Doug Stryker, Mark Wilfert, Bill Biersach and Steve Rotier.
Yours truly Dorn defending champ had a 14, 28. Thought I had tightened my shackles but apparently did not and blew up twice. Tighten your shackles everyday , then double-check. Check your tack shackle also as if it comes loose it can rip the tack slug out of our your mast. Saw that movie today also.
I think the keys to doing well today was to quickly recognize the big shifts. They came very quick , quicker than what seemed normal. Probably the small size of the lake and the fact they were hitting before they showed on the water. You had to really crane your neck around and look at the group. Usually we try to focus straight ahead and maybe up to 45 degrees off the bow both to port and starboard. Today I think it was more like 90 degrees in both directions if you did not want to miss the big quick shifts. Also, boat handling like at Lotawana for the Webb Regatta. You had to be able to tack and gybe quickly plus maintain speed. 2nd race too many skippers sailed with their travelers up and mainsheet eased. I know because I stopped to fix my vang , worked my way back to almost last and sailed with the back group for the rest of the race. If you drop the traveler , sheet hard, vang hard the boat is much, much easier too sail. Soft cloth sails hard Cunningham, hard cloth sails easy on the Cunningham, but hard vang in both cases.
Here are some scores (not necessarily in order- we are on the bonus system and I am working off copies of the scores sheets from the RC, not the printed finals)
David Harrison 3-3 Day 2: A great last race held here on Father’s Day today at Lake Beulah. Winds of 8-16 m.p.h. out of the northwest giving the group the best view of the lake. A good starting line spread the group out quickly. Much like yesterday the right hand side started out to be the best bet. Some lefts at the top kept the whole fleet pretty close and a lot of single file roundings at the first mark. Kevin Neal worked out on the group never to give up the lead for the rest of the race. I chased him around along with the father-son combo of Tom Wilfert in second for a while then son Mark Wilfert in a second for a while. I ended up second after a fun tacking duel with Mark at the finish line. Some others had their best races of the series today. Regatta chairman Doug Dorn had a sixth, Mark Wilferts 3rd moved him up in the standings. Tom Wilfert had an 8th which helped his series quite a bit. Lath Keller had a 7th to help make up for a 31,33 yesterday. David Harrison leading the regatta going into the last race had a tough day with an 18. Second year in a row for David to lose the regatta on the last day. He is sailing very well but just had a tough first beat and was not able to recover.
Today was a combination of boat speed and hitting those shifts again, much like yesterday. It was fun racing and Lake Beulah did a nice job of giving us the best course possible.
Kevin Neal walked to his first winner’s circle today. He not only won his first race at a large MC regatta but also won his large MC regatta. That makes either 11 or 12 different skippers who have won MC regattas this year. Just goes to show that the group is really getting good across the country. Having another record entry regatta also shows the strength of our MC Class.
About 12 weeks till the National Championship. Are you ready???????
Here are some race results . Complete results are posted on www.mcscow.org
Kevin Neal - Lake Geneva 8-6-1 = 14.75
A great time was had by all. Thank you to the Dorns and Wills plus their entire team at Lake Beulah. For more information about the North MC sails, contact the MC experts.
2002 MC MASTERS CHAMPIONSHIP Report by Eric Hood Day 1:
The weather for today forcast to be gloomy with threatening showers and storms in the area as the 90 degree temps finally left the area and the jet stream dropped down on Kansas City . Temps today were in the high 70s. For race 1 we had a west-southwest wind so we race up in the north end of the lake . Racing from bouy 1 to bouy 4 with a W3&1/2 course. A very good starting line was set and the first start was a go at 10:30am. I took about 105 digital pictures of
race one and presented them between races 1 & 2 today. Many of the
sailors were surprised by the big sag and how late everyone was to the
start. This was shown to everyone in sequence shots of the last 30 seconds
before the start and 30 seconds following the start. Shooting pictures
and showing them the same day is a great way to help everyone see the
good , bad and ugly during a race. We made sure everyone in the event
was on film. We had many different leaders today Clear air , getting in the spotty big puffs and boat handling were key to breaking out quickly. There were roughly three groups today. 1-6 sometimes 7 and 8 were the forward group. Group 2 was anywhere from 7-30 and then the group in back had a little seperation from the forward group . The group in back just did not have the wind pressure and that was caused the big wall of boats in front of them on this tight and narrow lake. Key- clear air and pressure. We went out for race two at 2:30 pm after the slide show but had to abandon the race due to light and shifting winds caused by storms in the area that had just moved in. Here are some scores in order.
Day 2-3 Tuesday night everyone was treated to an incredible feast at Jack Schwindler's
"Marina Restaurant." This was combined with the Melges and
North sponsored cocktail and appetizers party. Everyone made it to this
Day two was some tough up and down light air sailing for both races. Being patient was the key to surviving on this day. There were wholesale changes in positions. An example would be Tim Fredman's last race where he went from 40th to 6th on the last leg and a half of race 3. Many other skippers had similar experiences. For Race 2 the first race on Wednesday we had a light North to northeast
wind which made for a race with a good beat in the first 1/3rd, then
a straight line drag race for the second 1/3rd of the beat and finally
some more tacking for the last third of the beat. This was a triangle
race with a short run from 1 to 2 and then a long run down to 6 the
length of the lake then the long beat back for the finish. After a couple
of general recalls we had a clean start and Skip Moorhouse shot off
the starting line in the middle with great speed. Devin Farley had a
real good start down on the leeward end. About 15 boats came off the
line with good speed and moved quickly to the front of the pack as they
approached the straight line drag race portion of |
