Do the social members deserve a huge round of applause or what!?!?!?! Thank you to all of you who brought amazing dishes to share at the first party of the year; as always, you outdid yourselves!  Outdoing one’s self must be a trend… Emily Haugerud and Meg Casey put together yet another outstanding Yearbook; thank you ladies for all your effort in this huge task! If you didn’t pick up your yearbook at the party, expect to see your mailman with it this week.  Speaking of the party, we had quite a few new members come and join in the festivities; it was so great to see so many fresh faces enjoying the summer at the CLYC!  A slight interruption to the joy of comradeship, libations and indulgence of fine delicacy was had in order to present the entire Club the 2021 USSailing One Design Regatta of the Year Award for its running of the  2021 MC National Championship. As Stu mentioned, it was a collaborative effort of MANY people that created such a great experience for 119 boats here in Clear Lake. Opportunities to host a regatta of this magnitude don’t come around often, but when they do it takes an enormous effort.  The Organizing Committee, Mark Tesar, Stu Oltrogge, Margaret Oz and Dan Allen, thank you once again for your assistance!

During the party a sign up was displayed for the multiple volunteer positions needed at the upcoming ILYA X boat and Optimist Championships; another opportunity to show the country how Clear Lake runs regattas! While that signup was largely successful, some spots are open and the organizing committee of Margaret Oz, Andi Tisor and Kristin Ebeling still needs some help.  Please contact Julie Oltrogge (the Queen of volunteer round up) to see what help is still needed; clyciowa@gmail.com. The ILYA X Boat Championship will be sailed July 27th – 30th, with the ILYA Optimist Dinghy Championship on July 31st – August 2nd.

Don’t forget the next party on the schedule is June 18th, at the YC facility downtown, starting once again at 6:30.  More info on this next week…

Mother Nature has been a very fickle and moody fictitious creature this Spring… Wind, rain, storms, sun, more rain followed by less wind, then a whole bunch of wind…This past weekend was no exception…The Memorial Day Regatta was sailed a week late due to the original weekend being blown out; the respective PRO’s did a fantastic job getting racing in when they could between the storms, when the wind was actually blowing.  The X and MC fleets sailed just one race, but the conditions for that lone race couldn’t have been much better from a wind perspective…A solid 13-14mph with gusts to 18 according to Bill Casey. Both fleets saw the race come down to a tight finish; Jude Sorensen was able to hold off the feisty group on the final run to claim the bullet (anticlimactic horn) in the X fleet.  Todd and Mark Tesar battled down the final run in dramatic fashion with Todd holding on to win; what a great way to start the year!  The E fleet wound up with 3 incredible races!  Ultimately it was a big welcome back to Emily Haugerud; she showed everyone she didn’t lose her touch during her maternity leave by dominating the fleet with a 1, 2, 1.  The full results are as follows:

Our youth contingent has been spending a lot of time in Okoboji lately!  We had eight instructors attend an ILYA Instructors Clinic last week…This week X boaters Jude Sorensen with crew Thea Sorensen, Finley Nyhus with crew Grayson Harris and Elle Ebeling with crew Avery Tidrick, attended a racing clinic… Of course they also got to stay at Bay Bridges Resort and go to Arnolds Park; I’m guessing that was no fun at all………..Back to sailing – A clinic coached by Gordy Bowers; for those of you who don’t recognize his name, Gordy is okay as a sailor and coach… Head Coach of the US Olympic Team from 1986-1988, multiple National and ILYA Champion and former sailmaker.  Did I mention he’s in both the USSailing and ILYA Halls of Fame? What a great opportunity for our kids! I asked for and received many comments directly from the skippers; here are a few of the notables:  “We sailed in circles all morning…”, “Everything was so complicated until Gordy explained it so we could understand”, “The most intriguing was sailing backwards, because we hadn’t spent time on that before!”, “The clinic was about how to handle a boat, but also about how to bond with crew and fellow X sailors…” “At 81 years young Gordy still jumped on every boat and helped with tuning and tactics!”  Sailors don’t get the opportunity to learn from people like Gordy Bowers and Ted Keller (last year’s West Water Clinic coach) very often… The members of the Sailing Center Board and their counterparts in Okoboji deserve a long standing ovation for their efforts!!!!  Next up for the X boaters is the 3rd Annual West Water Clinic right here in Clear Lake June 13-14… Once again they’ll meet up with teams from Okoboji, but this time teams also come down from Minnetonka!  I’m hoping to have a wrap up of the West Water event from the kids as well next week, stay tuned for that!  Just an observation; if Finley Nyhus writes papers half as well as he texts regatta reports he’s got his school classes nailed!

The Sailing Center opened for instruction earlier this week as well!  Check out their website, www.clycss.com to see the specifics of sessions and curriculum.  If you have time, go down by the Club and see the smiling faces of those kids!  You’ll want to register your kids immediately after seeing that! As I mentioned in an earlier edition of this most famed publication, Ana Starbeck will be leading the Center this year.  She has a number of years under her belt and a great crew of instructors ready, willing and able to present the basic concepts of sailing all the way through racing concepts!  Of course it’s not just the kids who can take advantage of the Sailing Center; adults have the opportunity to come and learn a love of our sport and hopefully join the club and become racers as well!

In just two short weeks the “Major regatta” season gets underway! Six of our MC sailors will be making the short trip up to Gull Lake Yacht Club around Brainerd, MN for the MCSA Masters Championship.  A regatta held annually just for those MC sailors 50 and older, it’s a premier event with no shortage of super star sailors!  Byron, Oz, Steve Dunbar, Stu Oltrogge, Mark and Todd Tesar will be in attendance all trying to make their claim to the hardware!  The C Nationals will also be held around the same time, I’m not sure that we’ll have any Z boats in attendance; unfortunately I wasn’t able to catch up with any of them at the party last weekend…  Next week I’ll have a more thorough list of upcoming events with dates and locations.  Until then friends…

Stay in the Clear Air,

Dan Allen
MC 2811 – Relentless
E scow Z-11 – Wild Side
dsallen@cltel.net
www.clyciowa.com
www.clycss.com