Several Midwest District Boats Sailed Down to Chattanooga This Weekend...

Sometimes I have to remind myself that the Chattanooga Choo Choo is not a Midwest District event because so many Midwest District boats have come to it over the years. It is not a terrible drive for many of us. Certainly not any further than, say, Ephraim!  This year the event had 24 boats and by my count four of them were from the Midwest: Bronson and Rachel Bowling, Bill Vogler and Eric Sutton, John Cassada and Kerrie Seven, and Ben and me. Often more boats come from Clinton Lake but the stars did not align so well this year.

The stars aligned well for many of the sailors, however. with Bronson and Rachel finishing fifth in a highly competitive fleet, and Bill Vogler and Eric Sutton in seventh, both ahead of the locals who typically clean up at this regatta!! The event was full of not just Dixie Lakes sailors, but those from Texas, Florida and the Carolina District. 

As usual, the hospitality was marvelous and the food was out of this world! i don't know how someone can cook salmon for so many people and have it come out so flavorful and moist. I want that secret!! 

The food was PHENOMENAL. Really stellar. Still thinking about it. YUM!!!

Anyway Saturday the wind was supposed to fill in from the south/southwest. There wasn't much in the morning and the race committee postponed to 1:30 hoping it would show up. All I can say is, it was a kind of frustrating day. Last year the regatta consisted of one two-leg race and Sunday it rained like a monsoon. This year we had 2.5 races (the last shortened also to two legs). Granted, it could have been worse, but on our boat it seemed like the kind of day that had miscellaneous streaks at various parts of the lake and if you were lucky to be in one you were golden. Otherwise you sat and watched others sail by. But having said that, Tom McNally, who flew up from Orlando and sailed with Bill Bruss, managed to win two of the three races and several other racers also had consistent performances so maybe it was just us.

Our best moment was taking off from the entire fleet in the last race. We managed to find one of those private puffs that lifted us right to the mark, at least 1/2 leg in front of everyone else. This is a vulnerable position in these conditions and we were fully prepared to have the entire fleet come down on us with some fresh wind. Although that didn't happen, Sandy Eustis and Tom McNally both made a play but we held them off in just a whisper of wind. The race committee thankfully called the race after two legs. The sad thing for Ben and me was that because it took all but four boats more than 20 minutes to finish behind us, they all were given a 5th place finish. So any chance for us to recover from our 23rd place finish in the first race was lost! I understand the need for that rule, it means when something goes wonky with a race there isn't such a penalty. Still, that hurt!

Bruce Kitchen, from Ohio Districts, usually
sails with his wife, Lynn. He wanted to make sure everyone knew Jim Blackburn was just a place holder!!

The race committee did a great job with the wind they had. It's just that the wind could never quite decide where it was going to come from. The high point for me of the event was seeing Chris Czapleski (the late Tom Hohler's crew/wife), who came to crew for Sandy Eustis, whose normal crew/wife Keith, had other plans for the weekend. I hadn't seen her since last summer when she and Tom came up to Sandusky for the NACs, so that was marvelous. Hard for her, to sail with someone other than Tom, but good overall, I think.

Sunday we woke up to a cloudy, grey, quiet day. The race committee watched the radar hard and decided to send us out since there were no thunder/lightening predictions. Just as the race started the rain came and with it, the wind died completely. Completely. We ghosted along for about 3/4 of a leg before we heard the welcome sound of the race committee abandoning the race. We then de-rigged in pouring rain. Maybe next year the conditions will be different!!

This seems the best illustration of Sunday. Can you see how wrinkled my fingers are? That's just from sailing and then putting the boat away in the rain!! The pouring rain!!

Bottom line, the race committee and the entire group of volunteers at Privateer did an amazing job. It was so fun to see Lynn and Bill Bruss, Patricia and Rob Fowler, Scotty Cline, Tom Clark, Hannah Ginese from Privateer and the Florida sailors, Mark and Michele Taylor, Tom McNally and Charlie Clifton. It turns out it's not much further for them than for us to get to Chattanooga which is good to know. It confirms for me that Chattanooga is a great location for the Women's NAC which will be held there September 15-16. Put that on your calendar!

The Flying Scot Community Has Lost One of its Brightest Lights

Greg Vitt of Carlyle Lake died yesterday after battling a fast moving cancer. Even before Greg got sick, the Vitts were always a couple who seemed to live life to the absolute fullest.

And Greg made the most of his last days, surrounded by family and friends and even getting to the beach. Greg and Linda are some of the most enthusiastic and high energy sailors I know. They energized the Carlyle Fleet in a way that I hadn't seen in many years. They were so much fun to be around. I remember they came to Ephraim two summers ago and spent extra time going to wineries and taking boat tours and everything. They enjoyed it so much we all made a plan for all of us to do the same the following year. That plan ended when Greg was diagnosed. We will miss Greg terribly.

More Accolades for the Midwest District

This might not qualify as an entire post, but I wanted to pass along some other achievements from our Midwest District. I was reading the US Sailing newsletter and learned that our very own Delavan Lake Yacht Club received the National One-Design Regatta award for "developing, promoting and managing the year's most outstanding one-design regatta." I'm not sure what event that was (not a Flying Scot one, unfortunately!), but still! Yay Delavan!!

I think this might be the same award Ephraim won the year they hosted the NAC. And that WAS for a Flying Scot event.

Anyway, just another reminder that our Midwest District is going strong! And there is hardly any more snow on the ground, so that's great news, too!!

Reflections on Midwinters

Dear Universe, I'm not amused. We now have at least one inch on the ground. Grrrr.

Now that I'm home, I'm thinking about the big take aways from this Midwinters.

My first one is how proud I am to be part of Fleet 135. As you hopefully read elsewhere, our newest member, Jim Colegrove, won the Sportsmanship award for all the help he gave others at the ramp. And last year Eric Bussell won for all the hard work he's put into the publicity/video for the class. Not to mention our fleet winning fleet of the year in 2017. All in all, an incredible group of people, with more incredible people joining us every day. In fact, the last day of the regatta, Mark and Michele Taylor, who are based in Florida but have no home club, joined Clinton Lake Sailing Association.

The Colegroves also are not based near the lake, really. But they needed a club and they loved the energy of Fleet 135. They joined to show how much they appreciated that. Maybe our fleet will be the fleet for wayward sailors or something! Anyway, a fine and wonderful group of people!!

Another big take away is to try to think outside the box on the racecourse. The first race on Wednesday we were on fire. But in the second and third races, that same approach didn't help us. We let the wind confuse us and then I just threw up my hands. I want to practice this season taking a moment to think to myself, okay, that's not working or that is confusing, what else can we focus on? For example, on Wednesday, perhaps we could have registered that whatever the wind was doing, tacking on the "shifts" was not going to help. Let's pick a side - based on possible current or land mass or pressure or something - and just sail fast on that side. Ryan's theory also was that perhaps the wind was extra disturbed in the middle of the course.

Remember, we are talking 40 plus boats just in the championship fleet. That's a lot of boats. There was never any really clear air or section of the course. You had to always be watching out for others. In regional events, if you can get out near the front you don't have the same kinds of challenges. So I'm going to work on that this season. Getting my head out of the boat and thinking of a new approach if our current one is not working.

I guess that's all I had to say about this event. But I'm happy to be home, despite the stupid snow on the ground and I'm determined to continue to work hard and get better at sailing.

Signing off.

Thursday: We Tried , We Really Did!

Well, the executive summary is: we didn't sail on Thursday.

Rick Wojnar thinking deep thoughts

But it wasn't for lack of trying. I know the forecasts were for high winds, but at the dock it seemed about as windy as Wednesday...maybe a bit more, but nothing we couldn't handle. The fleet postponed putting in for a very long time, trying perhaps to see what the wind was going to do. Finally, at 11:15, there was nothing to do but take off and head to the course. The sail out was fine. Windy, but certainly within the guidelines. I was thinking it was likely the wind would lie down a bit just like it did on Monday, and even on Wednesday.

Unfortunately, that is NOT what happened. Quite the opposite. As we reached back and forth across the line, just trying to conserve our energy, the wind built and built. The gusts were bad. In between it was barely manageable. Finally, about five minutes before the start, I'd had enough. Just then the class president (Bill Vogler) and the National Championship Committee Chair (Carol Claypool) both got on the radio to the race committee. As soon as they started talking about wind speeds (20.5 knots) and class guidelines, I was done. Ben did not argue with me, surprisingly. We headed in and about five minutes later the race committee abandoned racing for the day. The sail in was quite challenging, and one boat went over but quickly righted itself. So although we sailed more than two hours, we had no racing to show for it.

Boats ready to go, but not sure about the wind

Still, that's how it goes sometimes. This regatta was a challenging blend of lion and lamb (you remember that saying about the weather in March, don't you?) By rights, since it was the end of March the weather should have been as docile as a lamb, but I'd say we had lamb/lion/lamb/lion conditions for the week.

All was not lost, at least not for Fleet 135 sailor Rick Wojnar who took advantage of the winds in the morning to windsurf. Eric Bussell took some amazing drone footage of that which you can find online on youtube if you search for blown out at Sarasota.

Tyler Andrews sailing Sophie (our old boat!) and Andrew Fox from Birmingham Sailing Club as his crew

Ryan and Stacey, who finished fifth!

Hard to believe this gorgeous weather. We came home to 30 degrees and snow!

Two very experienced drivers on tractors made putting in at the ramp easy peasy

Jennifer and Michael Faugust spend a fair chunk of the winter in Sarasota, but they are headed north any day now