Midwest District Launches its Own Travel Series

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As we here in the Midwest saw other districts launch successful travel series (I’m speaking mainly of the Dixie Lakes district, thanks to the late Charlie Fowler), and because we’d also like to encourage sailors in our district to travel more within the district, we decided to create our own Midwest District Traveling Series. 

Our plan is that each club in our district may nominate its regatta to be included in the series, though only one regatta may be nominated per club. Some clubs, like Carlyle and Eagle Creek, host two or more regattas in a year, and it wouldn’t be fair for them to have a home court advantage (ie not having to travel) more than once. The Districts (held this year at Eagle Creek, June 21-22) will always be included in the series.

The Midwest District covers a lot of highway miles, from N. Dakota to Indianapolis, so we had to come up with a reasonable number of regattas sailors had to participate in to qualify for the trophy. We decided that 50%, or the next nearest number, would work, so if five clubs nominate their regatta, participants must sail in three of them to qualify. In the event of a tie the trophy will go to the boat that sailed in the most regattas.

To qualify skippers must also be a member of a Midwest District club and a member of FSSA.

Clubs will send their nomination to our district governor, Ben Williams. 

I imagine it might take a few years for the idea to catch on, but so far this year we have five regattas signed up, which is great! They are:

·      Flying Scot Midwest Districts, Eagle Creek Sailing Club, June 21-22

·      Sheridan Shores Race Weekend, Wilmette Harbor, July 26-28.

·      Ephraim Regatta, Ephraim Yacht Club, August 2-4

·      Egyptian Cup, Carlyle Sailing Association, September 2-3

·      Glow in the Dark Regatta, Clinton Lake Sailing Association, 27-29

I am hopeful we’ll have some Scot sailors who’ve been considering traveling and this series will provide just the impetus to do so! See you on the circuit!

Great 48 at Lake Norman is Crowded with Boats!!

Ben and I pulled into Lake Norman this afternoon for the annual Great 48 and instead of six or seven boats on the lawn I counted 14, with the 15th pulling in right behind us. It's a mob! It is no surprise, considering the North Americans will be here in mid-July. Everyone is here to try to psych out  the lake in anticipation for the NACs.  I heard someone at registration say they expected 40 boats. That will be a very long starting line!!

Ben and I have set up our tent. It'll be good camping weather; it's chillier here than in Illinois and the forecast promises a LOT of wind, with gusts in the low 20s. 

So far we have seen Kim and Dave Thinel from Tampa, Frank and Marianne Gerry from Chicago (actually members of Clinton Lake this year), Ryan Malmgren, who is sailing with John Wake, and many, many more!

Hopefully I'll have energy after we sail tomorrow to make a short report on the sailing itself.
Stay tuned.

Here we are at the annual Chattanooga Choo Choo at Privateer Yacht Club. Ben is smiling, and we are having fun, but my goodness! The sailors here keep joking that it is monsoon season....

 We drank many, many toasts to Charlie Fowler, a sailmaker, former Flying Scot district governor and founder of the Dixie Lakes District, who died April 21. We will all miss him very much.

 Everyone else was hanging out at the clubhouse. We put Sophie in and then dashed for cover as the skies opened again!

Can you see the rain spewing off the boom?!That's us sailing in a downpour!

We've sailed in all conditions at Chattanooga but it is safe to say this is the wettest we've ever been. Still, we got in three races yesterday and after the first few squalls it turned into a surprisingly pleasant sailing day. I just hope all my gear dries out so I can put it all back on and do it again today!

Post Mortem..

First, here is a question. What happens when you have "Wreckless," "Irresponsible" AND "Knot Guilty" (Willson Jenkins, a lawyer) on the race course at one time?! I leave it to your imagination!!

Well, I don't know what happened, but I totally dropped the blogging ball after Saturday morning, resulting in zero information about the regatta at all!! Things did look doubtful, but we all piled in our boats and headed to the course, where the wind mamby-pambied around for a while; here, then gone, then here again. That gave the race committee fits, but finally they decided there was enough wind to race. That first race became painfully streaky at points and was one of those races that was very unpredictable. Still, it was a race!

Plus, the wind picked up a bit after that. I'm not saying we were hiking or anything, but we were all moving and the wind was fairly consistent. So we got the desired four races in on Saturday, which, based on what we saw in the morning, was a  miracle.

Ben and I were feeling pretty darn good, too. We'd had some really good finishes, including a second place (behind Jeff and Amy Linton, 2012 North American champions among other things, so that's practically a first place!), and the other finishes were pretty high also. It was only after dinner, when we went to check the standings, that we discovered we'd been OCS (on course side, ie over the line) in TWO races! Ugh. That's a first.

What we "learned" this regatta, numbers (any numbers!!) are better than letters!

Still, we had a great time. The total number of, not just out of town, but out of district boats, was a real testament to how much traveling race organizer John Kreidler has done over the years. One day we'll get him up to the Glow in the Dark!!

Here is John with Ben in Lake Hartwell's really really nice clubhouse.

Sunday was a bit more of the same, with light winds but it looked promising. At one point Ben and I were both on the high side! That was great for four of the five legs, at which point the wind completely died, the water was like glass. ... need I say more?!

Anyway, that was it for racing, and we all congregated back at the clubhouse for a nice lunch and trophy presentation. Winning skipper Jeff Linton made a point to note how much traveling John Kreidler has been doing and strongly urged others in the Dixie Lakes District to do the same. Amen!!

In South Carolina the azaleas are in bloom

Hard as it might be to imagine, in South Carolina, where we are attending the Dixie Lakes district championships at Lake Hartwell, spring has been here for a while. Trees are blooming and azaleas are exploding in color everywhere you look. The club and grounds here are lovely and the club has many dedicated racers and experienced race committee members. Plus, check it out! Doesn't the club house look church-like?

Western South Carolina, it turns out, it central to many places. There are sailors here from New Orleans, Sarasota area, Maryland and Ohio and it seems that it took each of us about the same amount of time to get here. We got here Friday afternoon, set up our tent and our boat and enjoyed visiting with John Kreidler , who is hosting, plus Tom Hohler, Chris Czapleski, John Wake, Jeff and Amy Linton, Wilson Jenkins, and Corky and Molly Hadden. This morning, although it is beautiful and sunny, the wind has, for the moment, abandoned us. There is much talk of playing Cornhole and drinking beer....time will tell......

A Week of Extremes

First, the good news, we got two races in in moderate conditions. Yeah! The bad news is that although we had time to run another race the wind died and then got so squirrelly the race committee finally sent us in, just ahead of the 2 pm. cut-off time.

Chuck and Luther had a good day but couldn't hold off a challenge from Lady Hope, sailed by Henry Bernstein. Still they brought home a lovely, personalized second-place trophy.

Overall, it was a fantastic week. We saw dolphins, pelicans, osprey, and even a manatee. We connected again with old friends and made some new ones. It's a great start to our 2013 sailing season.

There's always tomorrow...

Well, PRO Judy Hanlon really, really wanted to get us out there today.  And so we waited, and waited. Swapping tall tales, buying more than we should from Coral Reef and generally yucking it up. And our waiting, we thought, was rewarded when Judy sent us out about 2 pm in maybe 11 knots. Very civilized considering what we'd had all week. But then... the wind built, the committee boat kept drifting no matter how many anchor lines she put on the boat, and finally after working valiantly for 30 minutes, time ran out and she sent us back in. Still, we had a nice ride out and a fun ride back ... until we all had to dock simultaneously. These photos show us all approaching the docks!

Tomorrow is our last day but it promises (so far) to be moderate, so maybe we'll pack in four races or so before we have to say adieu to Sarasota.

This first photo is Eric Bussell and Chris Tesdal on Windtalker during the 11 knots phase...

 And this is us all coming home...