(click on picture for larger version)

Nineteen boats showed up this year for the Spring Lake Fall Regatta. Sailors arrived Saturday morning to a calm lake and temperatures in the mid-50's. After a brief skippers meeting at 10am, Pete Price (our RC for the weekend, assisted by his wife Nancy) announced two races before lunch with a slightly different course planned. We sailed modified 2's, with the starting line and finish line mid-way between the windward and leeward pins. This course allowed the RC to run a maximum number of races.

The first race began shortly after 10:30. Wind was East-Northeast 5-10mph. The shifts were dramatic and hard to predict in these conditions. Large holes were created that you had to avoid or you would immediately be passed by several boats. The tight race course also made this interesting as boats became stacked up at several points during the race. The key here was to keep the boat moving through the holes and still position yourself correctly to take advantage of the next shift. After several lead changes, Chris Eggert called it best and squeeked out in front to take the first bullet of the regatta.

The next race was more of the same conditions, with the wind actually becoming a bit more spotty towards the end of the race. At the last leeward pin, there were eight or nine boats stacked up all rounding the pin at the same time. Charlie Lind made it to the pin first and got away from the pack. He sailed a nice loop up the right side of the course and took the gun. Nice going Charlie!

After a quick lunch, Pete got everyone back on the water. While everyone was eating, a nice thermal kicked in from the west and proved to be consistent at 10-12mph. The same course was used in the afternoon and the RC was able to get four good races off. As the afternoon went on, the wind picked up a bit. Several teams added crew. These races were short, quick and intense. The starts were very important as the first mark was a very short distance away. With the wind continually clocking around 15-20 degrees, it was key to decide the favored side of the course at the last minute and make the right call off the line. There were a lot of lead changes in these races. After the sixth race of the day, the fleet headed in. Kyle Verplank made his famous flank steak recipe Saturday night and a fun time was had by all.

The boats were launched Sunday morning to a steady 5-10mph south breeze. Pete set a similiar length course as the day before. Three races were sailed in increasing breeze. The course was set such that with the wind shadow coming off the shore, it was slightly favored to enter the mark area from port. As boats flopped to starboard to make the layline, there were several instances of tight, close calls and a few circles as boats found themselves boxed out. This made for some fun spectating and aggressive boat handling.

After nine races, (including one drop race), Rob Kimball with 25 points was the guy that had the best average, but not by much. Coming in second with 26 points was Cam McNeil and Chris Eggert took third overall with 27 points. These guys were almost dead even after nine races! Coming in fourth with 38 points was Pete Fox and Joe Rotunda rounded out the top-five with 49 points.

This regatta was a lot of fun to sail in and to watch, as the number of races that were sailed made for some tough racing and entertaining spectating. The lead changes in this regatta, pin by pin, were fast and continual. Overall, the time spent on the water was about equal to running a couple 2-1/2's, but the starts and mark roundings were almost doubled. Good practice and a fun, high intensity experience.

Thanks to Kyle Verplank for hosting the regatta. Thanks to Nancy and Pete Price for taking their entire weekend and running a great regatta on the water. The races were short and demanded hard work from the RC - Nancy and Pete pulled it off with no problems. Thank you to Matt Young, who at the last minute gave his time to handle the scoring - with nine races, this was no easy task. Thanks to Emily Molesta and all of our SLYC volunteers for the lunches and the steak dinner, and thank you to Connie Molesta for the appetizers on Saturday night. All in all, it is the volunteers who make events like this successful at SLYC.

Make this regatta a priority next year - we will be running a similiar format with quick, short races and a lot of them! It is a great excuse to get out and practice for the Blue Chip or just work on your boat handling skills and have a great time! Mark it on your calendar - September 13th & 14th, 2008.

Congratulations Rob Kimball on a well sailed regatta from start to finish!!

Pl	Skipper		Div	Club/ST	Sail	R 1	R 2	R 3	R 4	R 5	R 6	R 7	R 8	R 9	Total
1	Kimball	Rob		SLYC/MI	2142	2	7	2	5	3	1	1	6	5	25
2	McNeil	Cam		WLYC/MI	2166	6	6	1	3	6	4	4	1	1	26
3	Eggert	Chris		SLYC/MI	2436	1	2	3	10	2	DNS	3	3	3	27
4	Fox	Peter		SLYC/MI	1928	15	3	5	4	1	3	7	7	8	38
5	Rotonda	Joe		SLYC/MI	2139	10	8	4	6	12	2	DNS	5	2	49
6	McNeil	John		WLYC/MI	2131	3	4	9	8	10	10	DNS	4	4	52
7	Molesta	Andy		SLYC/MI	2187	5	10	7	1	4	6	11	9	15	53
8	Lind	Charlie	MM	SLYC/MI	2124	8	1	8	7	5	7	12	17	9	57
9	Gassmann	Mike		SLYC/MI	2372	4	9	15	13	8	8	2	2	12	58
10	Rundquist	Andy	M	GRYC/MI	1842	11	12	6	2	11	5	8	15	17	70
11	Allan	Graham		WLYC/MI	1567	9	18	10	11	9	9	14	8	11	81
12	Bandstra	Ken	M	SLYC/MI	1770	7	13	14	15	16	12	5	13	6	85
13	Bedau	Dave	GM	WLYC/MI	2205	14	11	16	14	14	17	6	10	10	95
14	Miller	Bob	MM	DLYC/MI	2384	13	15	13	12	7	16	9	12	14	95
15	Lanka	Lara	W	SLYC/MI	2416	12	5	18	16	19	13	10	14	13	101
16	Gates	Ryan		WLYC/MI	2010	19	19	11	17	13	15	13	11	7	106
17	Walborn	Lynn	W	SLYC/MI	1857	16	14	12	9	15	14	15	18	16	111
18	Jones	Doug	GM	SLYC/MI	1739	17	16	17	18	18	18	16	16	18	136
19	Streeting	Stephen	M	SLYC/MI	1666	18	17	19	19	17	11	DNS	DNS	DNS	141