Our youngest skipper George Kutschenreuter leading Grand Master Milt Haeger into the finish line of race 6 at the ILYA MC Invitational Regatta
© Candace Porter
The Red Carpet treatment was waiting for 43 skippers and teams who made it
to this year’s annual three day event. If you ever want to learn about
volunteerism and great service the Lake Beulah Yacht Club would be a great
source as they do it up right all the time. Fantastic in and out launch
service. Over the top dinners and great lunches. Communications are crystal
clear. Even at the awards lunch a short 1 hour after the last race all race
results were already posted along with dozens of great images of all the sailors
racing . Check it all out on
www.lbyc.us Great club website too if
you are looking to upgrade your local sailing website. Also, spectator boats
were always available. I know my wife Sue, Marianne Fink and several others
really appreciated that nice option.
Lake Beulah is one of our smaller inland scow lakes and long ago native
Indians actually called it Crooked Lake which is pretty darn accurate. Just
Google Lake Beulah and you will see what I mean. We had hot weather and great
water temps for the three days of sailing. Winds were challenging and really
put PRO Jeff Labonte and his great staff of leaders to the test. With a lot of
patience and persistence though we got all six races in. On day one we waited
all day for wind and then at 4:30 the breeze came . We had two races between
4:30pm and 7:30pm in light 5-7 mph southeasterly winds. Day two on Saturday we
had 3 races from a unusual straight southerly direction in light winds ranging
from 3-9 mph. Then a good ol’ traditional southwest in 7-13 mph for our final
race on Sunday. As I said the RC work with the five boat team was fantastic.
Many thanks to Nan Norris, Candace Porter, David Porter, Jeff Lippert, Jeff
Labonte and about a dozen other great RC volunteers.
Onto the racing. First , I have to mention it was great seeing so many new
faces jumping into our MC class. Tough young sailors, very competitive women
always up at the front, great veteran sailors and most importantly new skippers
to our class. Teams from 14 clubs and 5 states were present. You can sense
that folks are gearing up for some of the great major events coming up soon
which include the Inland Championships at Minnetonka, the Western Michigan
Championships at Crystal Lake and the National Championship at Lake Keuka.
Watch
www.ilya.org ,
www.wmya.org ,
www.mcscow.org and
www.melges.com for more information
on all of these upcoming championships plus many regional and other regattas
that may be of interest to you.
While I personally struggled with a lot of silly mistakes this past weekend
at times I sailed really well. Ended up 5th out of 43 when it was all
over. What I clearly remember though is at different points getting it handed
to me by teenage skippers Charlie and George Kutschenreuter, Women skippers
like Andrea Jarecki who finished 11th overall along with the
always extremely tough Kelly Hirn and some of our veteran Mega Masters like Milt
Haeger. It was fun to see skippers doing well throughout the whole age range
and across genders. The MC class truly is a great boat for anyone who has a
desire to race in an extremely competitive class with a high performance
boat.
Our regatta champ had an extraordinary week. Actually we now call him
Clark Griswold as in “Family Vacation’s” Clark Griswold. The champ started the
week on a long road trip from Connecticut with wife and child. We think he
possibly might have had a camper in tow and we still are not sure about the Aunt
or dog as seen in Family Vacation. He then comes home to Lake Beulah where he
grew up and stole all the candy by winning and winning big this week in a
borrowed boat, with a borrowed sail. No more suspense – Clark Griswold a.k.a.
Zack Clayton not only put on a training clinic before the event but also put on
a clinic during the six races this past weekend. In fact he had already won the
regatta before Sunday’s final race.
Race winners – were Paul Wood from Lake Geneva, Zack Clayton officially
from Lake Eustis, Paul Reilly from Cedar , Stefan Schmidt from Mendota and
George Kutschenreuter from Beulah. Top Woman was Andrea Jarecki from Beulah,
Top Master was Bruce Gallagher from Pine, Grand Master was Peter Toumanoff from
Pewaukee, Mega Master Milt Haeger and Top Youth George and Charlie
Kutschenreuter. Top Five Clayton, Gallagher, Jeff Surles, John Porter
(Beulah) and EHood.
This regatta was all tactics and boat handling. While speed was good and
solid tacking and gybing was important it was more about being in the right spot
at the right time. Breeze was up off the water a little bit so I think looking
back on some mistakes I would say if you strayed from the pack you were running
with that you put yourself in jeopardy. It was racing were you wanted to be
near the top 10 for 4,5,6 of the 7 leg courses then make your move on the last
leg or two. If you tried to do much in the first 2/3rds of the race more times
than not it was risky at best. Pre-race practice really was important to
understand how the wind was not quite showing on the water as it appeared. Fun
stuff for sure. If any of you have questions and want to visit more about this
event I would be glad to share specific thoughts with any of you. Just write to
me at
eric@melges.com
Get geared up for the big events coming soon that include the Westerns,
ILYA Champs, National Championship, Team Championship, Blue Chips and a host of
other events you can find on
www.mcscow.org