Regatta Results

Results are up HERE.

This is what the places looked like through the regatta.

Rob Seidelmann is now ranked #1 in the nation.

Nor'Easterns - Third Overall

All I had to do today was pick up one point to capture third. I ended up with finishes of 3, 1, and who cares. I'll explain in a minute.

The forecast was bad again, zero to nothing from nowhere. So the powers decided to have a 7:00 harbor gun and an 8:00 start to take advantage of the morning thermal breeze. The roosters weren't up yet at 6:30 when I rolled out of bed. Let's just say the rum was barely worn off. And my migraine I got Friday afternoon was still lingering around too.

We dragged the boat over to the club about 7:15 and hit the starting area about 7:45. The wind was a perfect thermal with hints of East in the 8-12 South. The course was short so starts were going to be key.

Race 4 was my tone setter. I needed a good race to solidify third. I started left center in clear air rolling over Bob Cole with the tracks down and bow down. I banged a left corner and came back to the top mark third, I think. Downwind I tried all the new tricks I teased out of people the night before. I lost a boat. Progress. On the long upwind I moved up to third about 45 seconds out of first and about three boat lengths over fourth.

So downwind I'm in third covering fourth with the two hotshots battling for the regatta win battling for the race win. I find the person I have to beat to get third overall is deep in the pack. I start doing score calculations and realize there is not much chance at getting second for the regatta. So I cover. I lose 3 of the 4 boat lengths lead over 4th and round 3rd with control over the guy behind me. He tacks to clear. I wait until I get a shift then tack to cover. I gained 10 lengths on him, and closed some on the leaders. So I decide to sail for the win. I break right playing the shifts while the leaders play with each other. I ended up cutting the gap in half and extending significantly over 4th.

Now I'm comfortable in my score, pretty well locked in third place. So I decide to be a bit more conservative at the start. The boat is favored and crowded so I opt for the 2/3 down the line. I get buried, second row. The PITS! I blew it. I tacked over to port to clear. Miracles do happen - nobody tacks on top of me. My air clears and I start working the boat not even looking at the fleet behind me. Ten minutes of intense boat speed work squeezing every inch out of the boat later, I round the top mark in third place. Downwind I - wait for it - no seriously you have to wait for it - I mean we need a drum roll here - I lose one boat but PICK UP TWO BOATS, one of which was the eventual regatta winner Rob Seidelmann. Yes I gained places for the first time in the entire regatta downwind.

I round the bottom mark second. The pass upwind was hard. We both came off the bottom mark headed for the West shore, the best wind on the lake. The first people West would have an advantage, at least that is what I learned over my 30 years sailing this lake. I held my own climbing up on his hip, about 10 feet left of his line and 2 lengths back. I gain speed and close one of those lengths. But with a long ways to go we got headed and I dropped right into his backwind. I tacked and he continued West. I played 2 more shifts and when I finally went back West to meet him I was able to just barely tack under his bow in a safe leeward. That dusted him off me stern for the remainder of the leg. I rounded first.

So now I'm positively giddy! I have 5 or 6 lengths lead on him and a long way on the fleet. The worst case scenario now is second place. This is where my butt starts to pucker, my stomach ties itself up, and for some reason no position I sit in is comfortable. Relax. Breathe. I stare at second place. I don't even care where I'm going. I am parking my boat between him and the mark regardless. OK how do I relax? I need to settle down. I'm in control of a race win but not myself.

Now some of you are saying "Seriously? It's a local 20-boat regatta. Get a grip." Agreed. I was gripless though. I know my sailing skills I know where they fail. Any reader of this blog knows I suck downwind in these overgrown Lasers. Winning a race, beating Skip Moorehouse and Rob Seidelmann in a fair clean race with medium wind is a big deal. It's not a fluke wind, not luck related.

We gybe for the bottom mark. I maintain and even extend a little, then lose a chunk of the lead. I still have three or four lengths at the bottom mark. I lead us both West, tack for a layline to the boat and he tacks 20 seconds later. I get headed but carry on. I make one more tack for the finish crossing his bow by 1 length. I win the race.

Now I have to be cool not to stay in control of the race, but because I am cool.

Race six. I did the math. This race brings in a throwout. So I have a 7 to dispose of. If I do better than 7 I gain the difference between that and my finish. Fourth place can't beat me I have third locked. Now Skip Moorehouse is in second. He is six points ahead. If I win the race and he does worse than his worst race of 4th then his 4 counts and we tie. But he wins on tie breakers. So I can't win and can't lose. I could do like Rob Seidelmann did and sail to shore. He locked up the regatta after 5 races. But I decided to sail.

I started middle. Brent tried to roll over the top of me at the start. I should have hit him and made him do circles. But the gun went off and I was second row, stopped. Race 5 start was bad, this was worse. I tack to port to clear and yet again nobody covers me. This time I am first to the top mark but overlapped. Bob Cole rolls me at the offset so I jibe out to get rolled by Brent Gillette. Incidentally, Keuka had all top five positions in the race for that mark rounding.

Brent G and I go West. He is a tiny thing, maybe 150 pounds wet. He rolls me and keeps going. I pace him but can't keep up. When we gybe for the bottom mark I am 1 length behind him. The pack though is bearing down on us. He scoots off on some personal puff and I get rolled by the fleet. Seriously almost the whole fleet. I went from first to 11th on one leg. At the bottom mark I get pinwheeled on the outside, buried in between boats and stuck. I also was hit by Brent P on the outside. He went on to take 5th in the race without me making him do circles AGAIN.

The fleet marches West. There standing on the end of the main dock with a beer in one hand yelling at us is Rob Seidelmann. It was funny. We all overstand the layline and it is just a follow-the-leader all the way. Brent Gillette, who was right with me before I got rolled is leading the race. I round 9th. There is no chance of winning and no chance of losing. I kick my feet up sail straight down the lake, whistle, stand up, stretch, watch motor boats, fart, scratch..... From the guy passing me a couple hundred feet to my left I hear "Oh how the mighty have fallen." Whatever.

At the bottom mark I was 11th. The West is obviously the way to go. The leaders are on a big right. I go East. I don't hike, don't do much of anything. I picked up two boats, almost picked up two more. Final race finish was ninth. Regatta finish was third, all alone, solidly, with nobody in striking distance in front or behind me.

Overall I did as I expected, probably my best. If I had done a few things differently I could have scored lower. But I don't think I could have caught Rob or Skip. I have lots of learning still to do.

I helped people pack, ate lunch, got my trophy and bottle of wine, shook lots of hands with my new friends and towed my boat home. It felt good. Really good. When the scores are posted at www.mcscow.org I'll post a link.

Next regatta is Cowan Lake, OH, the first weekend in October. No Blue Chips for me this year.

OK, off to work on my sore legs, back, knees, and band aid my flesh wounds.

Nor'Easterns Regatta Day 1

The forecasts was bad. Most forecasts showed 3-5 Southwest. On this lake that means no wind. But this morning at 3:30 I awoke to waves lapping the shore. By 8:00 there were white caps. At race time there was still a pretty good breeze.

Julie towed the boat over to the club. I registered and met the sailors. Let's say I feel thinner and younger now. This is not the young fit crowd.

On the way out to the start my vang shackle fails. I replace it with the crew hiking strap shackle.

Twenty boats on the line. I get a middle line start, clean and fast. In minutes I am looking back at the boats around me. Wow! Pretty cool! In fact with the exception of one boat, there is nobody near me. I cross that boat. Rob Seidelmann. I looked him up. He won the Midwinters, and always places high. He is the hotshot. I cross him but he's on a layline. After my tack he has the inside at the mark. But wow! We have maybe 200 feet on the rest of the fleet.

Downwind he walks away from me. We round the bottom mark still with quite a lead over the fleet but I am 6 or 7 lengths back. We start the long port tack to the West shore. I hold my own. He bails out early and I go deep West. When we reconverge he is 1 length ahead. Then he walks away from me on the layline to the mark.

Downwind he walks away from me. Around the bottom mark he is 8 or 9 lengths ahead. He covers, I cover Skip Moorehouse. Race over.

Race 2 I nail the start, third to the top mark.

Downwind they walk away from me. I lose 4 boats. (A theme is developing)

Upwind I regain them all and close the gap. Downwind they walk away from me. I regain them and close the gap picking off a few boats on the last leg to get fourth. Skip Moorehouse wins, Rob third.

At lunch Rob tells me I am very fast upwind, higher and faster than him. OK I can go home now. I got my $60 registration's worth.

Race 3 after lunch is in a LOT more boat chop and a LOT less wind. I nail the start, but so did Rob. Skip and I go left, Rob right. At one point I thought I had the leg won but Rob recovers and leads the fleet on a big right shift to the top mark. I am coming into the pack on port. Not goo. I flop early, bow down for speed to get left for maybe 30 seconds, then tack on a header to reapproach the pack. I made up 3 lengths, just enough to lee bow the lead boat. I rounded third.

The person who was in 4th or 5th just behind me unfortunately got hosed. He ended up hitting the mark and fouling a number of people eventually rounding near last. If I were 1/2 boat length farther back I too would have not been able to make the mark and lost the entire pack. As it was I cleared the mark by inches.

Downwind they walked away from me. I lost 4 or 6 boats.

Upwind I go right, make it all the way to shore, play the shore breeze (hiking out) and pick up enough boats to round 4th. I round the bottom mark 9th. I pick up three boats then break a board line. On the last tack to consolidate 6th I can't lose my speed and lose the place by inches.

Brent Gillette went from fatal deep at the first mark to second place in that race.

I an in fourth place, one point out of third and five points ahead of fifth.

UH OH

Stiff competition showing up for the Keuka regatta in 2 weeks. I may have to work hard just to get top three.

Longest Single Leg of my LIFE!

Yesterday was a beautiful day for sailing. It was blowing South again, oh say 10-20 but more in the 10-15 range. Ok, yes, there was some rain in the morning, in fact lots of rain. But it cleared off.

1:00 came around and I was ready to sail. So I rigged the boat with the old sail, not wanting to blow out the new one. And off I went. I didn't want to exhaust myslef on the long beat to the starting area so I depowered the boat and kept it flat. The puffs were up there, some were real challenging.

I sailed to the start to find I was alone. I sailed to the club, which was really good timing as I really had to go potty bad. Half an hour later 6 of us left the club to race. And it started raining. Now when I say rain, there is a drizzle, showers, rain, pouring, and call Noah you are going to need an arc. Well this was not quite epic flood rain, but it was enough that we could not see the marks.

But the wind was still up. So off we went. It took me a bit to realize the heal of the boat was the rain hitting it and not the wind. I was pinching and slow. I freed up the sail, bore off a bit and got it moving.

Emily made me some nice new tell-tales out of friendship bracelet stuff, something that is acroos between thread and yarn. Well, it soaked, drooped, and wrapped itself into a nice tight knot around the stays. No tell-tales. Rain on the water made wind spotting impossible. Let's say it was real interesting, but not fun.

I was near last place. But in preparation for the regatta lenght races in a couple weeks, this was a long course, probably 1.25 miles per leg, plenty of recovery time. I picked some shifts, squeezed the water out of the tell tales, and made my way up to second place behind Brent P (rapidly becoming a pain in my butt). The rain had let up or stopped. Downwind I held on, and closed some on Brent upwind. But he was covering me tightly and there was no passing. So I fell back to cover the remainder of the fleet.

The wind was dropping. Race 2 started in 5 mph or less. Finding wind was the challenge. Brent G got to the top mark first by 10 lengths over a tie between Steve, Brent P and myself. I rolled both around the mark but wanted to get left. I had to wait and follow Brent P, sailing through his lee and passing underneath. That was not an easy feat. The wind was way down. Sitting on the low side and trying to find the mark I realized it was WAAAAAY down the lake. Let's say 1.25 miles at 2 mph in miserable uncomfortable conditions was not fun.

At times it looked like I was closing on Brent G. But at the bottom mark he was still 10 lengths or so ahead. I had opened a gap on Steve A and Brent P. I split right of Brent G trying to find better wind. I did. Over the next 20 mminutes he worked the middle and I worked the right. At the finish, he won by about 10 lengths. We both had extended over the fleet though.

Thankfully we called off any further racing. Those 2 races were more racing that the prior week's 5 races.

Really Big Wow

Yesterday was a perfect wind blowing stink from the South. The graph here shows the story with gusts into the low 20's. Reaching hard for a speed run, the outhaul let go.

Unfortunately that is not my story, it is that of my lovely wife sailing her Sunfish. I took the day to build a 12X20 section of dock to extend our pier out into the lake. Julie thoroughly enjoyed her day lounging in the sun and yes, sailing the Sunfish. It's good, because if she went the full year without sailing it, I was going to sell it.

Today is scheduled sailing. We have light winds from the South, rain, and a scheduled family gully climb. So who knows if I will even sail.

Friday evening I went to the yacht club to attend a memorial service for Brent Penwarden II, father of one of my best friends. It was my kind of ceremony, 3 hours of drinking with a 5 minute ceremony. While I was there I checked out the season standings. Through16 races I have 18 points after three throw-out races. Second place has 42 points. There are only three weeks left in the season with a regatta in the middle.

Between pre-season's racing with about a dozen races, and the 16 I have sailed season to date, I have sailed more races this year than any year previously. Very cool.

I also got a confirmation from another person that he will be purchasing an MC Scow. A couple more and hopefully we hit the critical mass where it becomes the fleet to join. I'd love to see a dozen on the line each Sunday.

A Question to Answer

There must be more than just my family reading this now. I got a question.

Q: Where are you in the standings now?

A: I'm not keeping track specifically. But last weekend I saw standings that were stale by a week or so. In that I was 5 points ahead after throw outs. Since then I have extended some. But I don't have anything locked up or anything.

The real question is how I would stack up outside out fleet. And that I still do not know. And it looks like schedules simply won't permit me to find out this year.

No Excuses Anymore - But I Can Find A Few More

Finishes today of 1, 1, 2, 3, 2. Nine points in 5 races with only 5 boats is not really a good day.

Race one was a charm. The wind was up, maybe 12-18 mph. Knowing I needed to crack off hard to stay upright, I chose to be the left most boat. I think I have the heavy wind dialed in now. I sailed it like a finn, tracked WAY down (loose at times), over trimmed, no vang. The boom drive the mast forward hard making the sail flatten right out. Outhaul and cunningham are still a mystery. I took the outhaul to the tape (max) and cunningham about half the cloth. It looked like there was a reef in the sail with a whole lot folded up at the base. But it was fast. I walked up, got room to tack first, actually overstood the mark. I was first by a load and just cruised the rest of the race.

Race 2 was starting to show holes in the wind. I did the exact same start and first leg to lead again. It wasn't as much of a lead but it was enough. So after two races I'm feeling pretty good. But every time I think about seeing a sweep day (my gaol now) I blow it. This was no different.

Next race I led to the leeward mark with only Brent right behind me after Sean did a spectacular death roll half way down the leg. Brent tacked left upwind on the last leg. I covered. We both sailed the wrong way, but had plenty of distance to burn. Unfortunately we burned too much. I finished second when Brent G went right and caught a nice shift.

I screwed up the start of race 4 and was 5 seconds late at the boat. Brent P split right and found a nice wind. I tacked under him on the layline, but had to tack 2 lengths short of him to stay in clear air. I didn't make the mark. I rounded 2nd, then lost Steve downwind. I closed to 20 seconds at the bottom mark still saying to myself the race wasn't over. They went left to play with each other, I went right and proceeded to turn the 20 seconds into 2 minutes. Oh well.

Last race was time to redeem myself. I went left off the start, tacked quickly on a header and crossed the others. But Brent P went right off the start. We came together with me ducking him this time and tacking after I crossed. We got to the top mark 1 length ahead of me. Downwind I lost ground on him, frustratingly. Trying anything at the bottom didn't help. Finishes were set.

I won the day, but there were lots of issues. I replayed everything in my head on the long sail downwind to the cottage. Weeds on the rudder for 2 races - CHECK OFTEN you loser (me). The sail...when the air lightened up it was miserable. Shape was impossible to get. It is now off the b oat. I think I will switch to the new sail for the next couple weeks. Tell tales - they were useless. The bailing twine lasted a couple months but it is dead now. I need to load up the sail and the stays with real tell tales.

But the real issue was between my ears. Sail the wind. Stop pulling moves that are stupid. Extend. Close the gap. Whatever. Quit pulling a Spear move when losing.

I also took a chunk out of the deck today when I had to run back inside for my watch. The dock was merciless.

The family was at Buffalo Bills Stadium watching DCA competition. I could be there with friends and family. Why do I sail?

Two Weeks Off - One Day of Sailing

Ok I have to qualify, 2 weeks off meant working Mon-Wed each week, checking e-mails constantly, working issues over the weekend, and of course the loads of family time. So actual sailing opportunities didn't present themselves often. When they did I had to choose between those and fixing broken cottage things or playing with the kids or sleeping in.

So no pleasure sailing at all. I did get out for a racing day, finishes of 3,1,2,1. I think I have about a 7 or 8 point lead for the season. That will go away in an instant when I skip a week.

What I did do over the past 2 weeks was laugh, probably more than the prior few months combined. I very much enjoyed the company of my kids and family, extended family, and lots of friends. I'd love to write a witty recount of the best of the vacation, but I only have a few moments to write this. Maybe some other time.