First Day at Sarasota

Yesterday was the first day of racing at the actual Midwinters. The club, Sarasota Sailing Squadron, has two ramps with long docks, and one hoist. The organizers developed a pretty creative system to help get all the boats in the water. We have one number that goes on our bow and on our trailer and also matches our parking spot number. They have a posse of young men driving several tractors that put us in the water, then return our trailer to its designated spot. Coming in, they see our bow number, drive off and get the trailer in that spot, arrive at the ramp with our trailer, help get our boat on the trailer and then drive off to drop it in our spot before zipping off for the next boat.

At least eight boats from the Midwest district are here: Jay Lott and Cain Gottleman, Ryan Malmgren and Carrie Carpenter, (both from Ephraim) Shannon and Mark Wilfert, Chuck Howting and Luther Torgerson (Madison), Larry Klick (Medicine Lake), Eric Bussell and Steve Hartman, John Heizer and Jen Liu (both from Clinton Lake), Felicia Bamer (Carlyle Lake) and us.

We had nice light wind yesterday, which Ben and I really enjoyed. Gotta run! I see the tractor coming with our boat on it and I gotta go help put it in.

Davis Island, MidWinter WarmsUps

Well, hard to believe but it has been 80 degrees down here in Florida! Saturday and Sunday we did the Davis Island warm up regatta. We had 29 boats - our Midwest fleet was nicely represented with Jay Lott and Ryan Malmgren from Ephraim, Shannon and Mark Wilfert from Madison, and Ben and me from Clinton Lake.

Saturday night was Hawaiian shirt night, though the dress ranged beyond shirts to dresses, flip flops (mine but no one else saw them!), doo-rags and more. The organizers had almost a dozen sponsors, so there were tons of prizes, both for best Hawaiian outfits, farthest distance traveled (our own Jay Lott, who drove three days on his own from Ephraim!!) and closest, Jeff and Amy Linton, who I believe can walk to the club if they are so inclined. Carrie Carpenter won best Hawaiian outfit for women with a lovely dress in an exotic Hawaiian print. Sandy Eustis, of Keowee Sailing Club in South Carolina, won for men. Our table helped in the voting, since he was sitting with us and with Tom Hohler and his wife, Chris. Since voting was a voice vote and Tom has a really loud voice, I'm telling you, really loud!, we pushed the voting to Sandy!

The race committee was tough, "promising" us 10 races over the two days. No one I talked to was thrilled at that prospect, I can tell you! We never got that many races in, which was a relief. Still Saturday we had four races. That's a lot for those of us who haven't sailed for more than six months. The winds settled a bit and clocked right as the day went on, not counting some dramatic flip flops the last race.

Today we woke to really high winds and white caps everywhere. Jeff Linton announced he wasn't going out in those conditions and all the crew that were nearby cheered him. But an hour later the wind came down, so that we all changed our mind and headed out. We were looking at a nice, mellow day of 5-7, though there were still waves. Unfortunately, by about halfway up the first windward leg the wind built to the point where we ran one race and then race committee sent everyone in. I think there were a few breakdowns but everyone stayed upright and came off the water smiling.

The regatta committee did a great job; it was really well run and out-of-towners were made to feel really really welcome. On to Sarasota Sailing Squadron!!

Hitting the Road for the Midwinters

Running around trying to both pack up for the trip to Davis Island (for the Midwinter warm ups) and Sarasota Sailing Squadron for the Midwinters, and tie up loose ends at work. I need another 10 hours!! Ah well, once we hit the road none of that will matter, and whatever doesn't get done can be dealt with later. If we can just remember sunglasses and sails we'll be all set. The snow has just melted here in Urbana, Illinois, and it's kind of hard to get my head around packing for sunny and 70-degree weather. Sigh, life's tough, isn't it?!

Who else is headed south from the Midwest District? Will we see you on the road?

Ephraim Yacht Club, 2011 Ephraim Regatta

Please be the guest of the Ephraim Yacht Club at the 2011 Ephraim Regatta, the 106th consecutive Ephraim Regatta. Last year this was one of the largest Scot regattas in the country, with 30 boats entered. The EYC expects to host the 2012 Flying Scot Midwest District Championships, so the 2011 Ephraim Regatta will be a good way to gain some local knowledge in advance of that event.

The Ephraim Regatta takes place in a beautiful sailing venue (ask anyone who attended the award-winning 2009 NAC), and includes two excellent parties (with beer). We are an easy weekend trip for anyone in the Midwestern district.

The NOR, Welcome and Information Letter, and Registration Form are now posted at www.eyc.org/racing

Contact me with questions: jaylott01@gmail.com

Hope to see you there!

Jay Lott
FS 5698
Ephraim Regatta Chairman

Fall 48 Sunday

Way to go Ryan! After a goofy Saturday, with many fleet "inversions" as Ben likes to call them, Ryan began Sunday with 20 points and then had two bullets Sunday to climb all the way up to fourth place. Nice job!
Blowing at about 10-12 with gusts to 15, the wind Sunday was more consistent than Saturday's conditions. And boy, was it fun. We got two good races in. Ben and I liked the first race most since we managed to place second just behind Ryan. That was our best finish ever at Lake Norman.
The race committee was unusual at this regatta. As far as I could tell, as the last boat crossed the finish, they blew the five-minute horn and began the series for the next race. That caught a bunch of us flat footed. In fact, Ryan said he was hove to above the finish line and looked up to see an "on course side" flag, which was referring to him. That was the first he realized the start sequence had even begun. And he STILL won that race!
We headed out pretty fast since we delivered Sophie to Harry for a few off-season repairs. Harry, very nicely, met us in Morgantown so we didn't have to drive all the way to Deep Creek. It feels funny driving the rest of the way home with no Sophie behind us. It will be even weirder to look out our back window and see the garage empty. Wait, here's a thought, maybe we could actually put a car in our garage now?!

Fall 48: Saturday

Wow.  Talk about challenging conditions.   For example, we had worked up to 3rd place at one point, when half-way down the second downwind leg  the wind died, and then after a few minutes shifted right into our teeth, and then after a few more minutes, we watched it build again from the original direction as a dark line of wind a 1/2 mile away.  As it came down, it brought the whole fleet down with it, hooting and hollering in some cases.  At the leeward mark it seemed as though at least half the fleet felt it had an inside overlap on the other half. 

We'll see what Sunday has to offer.  I'm hoping for two races that don't have multiple "fleet-inverting" shifts...

Ryan Malmgren is also here, so the Midwest District is pretty well represented. He is sailing with a former Lightning sailor, Michael, who, despite yesterday's conditions, says he is sold on Flying Scots.

After sailing we had a nice visit around a roaring fire with Mark and Maria from Moraine Sailing Club in Pennsylvania. That was particularly nice because we had gotten quite cold on the water. The high temperatures were in the 50s.

More later!

Fall 48

Season is winding down. On our way to Lake Norman we drove through snow. We made it to Mooresville at dinner time and stopped at "Joe Fish" for a wonderful dinner.  NO CAR TROUBLE (so far).  After dinner in the nice warm restaurant, we set up the tent in the dark, in the rain.  Debby's hands got pretty cold, and so did mine, which I demonstrated for her later in the tent by putting them on her bare skin.   Once we got the tent set up, we had a very nice evening reading while snuggled into our zipped together sleeping bags.  Much nicer than any $60 motel room...  Just now finishing up breakfast at "The Daily Grind".  Looking forward to seeing Ryan, who had planned to arrive Friday early enough to sail a bit to break in a crew who is new to Scots.  The lake was beautiful at dawn.  A steady breeze, but "red skies".  I guess we'll be testing the old "Red sky in morning, sailor's warning".  More later.