Let’s start with a note from Jason Gordon; “On behalf of the Outing Club, I wanted to extend a huge thanks to the yacht club board and members. The party was excellent. The OC members enjoyed the party.  The yacht club clean up crew was great. Thanks again.”  Indeed the party was excellent, thanks again to all the OC Members for their hospitality!

The next party will be here before we know it!  August 12th at the famed, perhaps infamous Tesar/Oltrogge/Tesar Compound on North Shore Dr.  Many more details will be available in the coming weeks, however, MC Fleet you’re going to need to start searching for hors d’oeuvres ideas now if you intend to keep pace with the previous social events.

Last weekend was nearly a complete bust in terms of racing…With the exception of Saturday morning, it was a great weekend to be on the lake enjoying activities other than racing…

PRO Charlie MacNider, while hesitant, made the absolute correct call to have the Saturday morning fleets come out on the water. It was shifty, puffy, holey (is that a word?), light but still the right call.

16 feet long, 420 pounds without a lot of sail area… Yeah, X boats struggle a bit in the lighter air but our youth sailors did a great job navigating the tough conditions.  The racing was very tight from what I could see, almost white knuckle nerve wracking tight.  Leif Lundberg used his experience and new knowledge from his many regattas to take the bullet in the lone race of the weekend.  Like I said though, the racing was close; Elle Ebeling and Jude Sorensen were right behind pushing Leif, move for move, eventually finishing second and third respectively.  Finley Nyhus was fourth, followed by Avery Tidrick, the Harris brothers and Charlotte Tisor.

The Melges 15 fleet was noticeably absent from racing… Perhaps a mutiny against Mother Nature’s summer shenanigans!?!?! Can we really blame them?  Nah, we’ll let it slide.  Fingers crossed for more breeze this weekend!

The MC’s started first as usual – well the starting order was the usual but nothing was “typical” of this start… Emily Haugerud and Dan Allen were both called over early… Emily Haugerud gets a 9 out of 10 for her comeback performance after being OCS; Dan Allen gets a 1 out of 10 for his crowd amusing, mast-hooked pirouette with Jesse Tidrick. Jesse receives a perfect 10 for his sportsmanship and not losing his cool on Dan. My sincerest apologies go out to Jesse for making a mess of his Saturday morning.

Back to the racing!  Showing his light air prowess this time… Brad Oz, though he was pushed on the last beat, led wire to wire! He’s on fire lately, not necessarily with race wins, but consistency is paying off and he’s moving up the leaderboard! Stu Oltrogge finished second with Emily, who was over early, finishing third.

The E and C fleets weren’t able to get any racing in due to the unstable conditions last weekend.

As I mentioned last week, here comes the busy portion of regatta season.  In the coming weeks we have: Optimist Inlands, X Inlands, M15 Inlands, and the ILYA Championships (the Big Inland).  We have a ton of sailors who will be attending these events, a few of the youth sailors will be attending 3 events in a row.  Avery Tidrick, Thea Sorensen and Sofia Albee will be racing starting today at Lake Delavan for the ILYA Optimist Championship, good luck ladies! The ILYA X Championship starts Sunday in Lake Geneva and we have 5 boats attending.  In the Senior fleet we have Brady Amble, Elle Ebeling and Leif Lundberg sailing in the 44 boat fleet. Jude Sorensen and Avery Tidrick will be racing in the 48 boat fleet. Billy Starbeck and Finley Nyhus are making the trip as coaches.  Mark and Deb Tesar along with Stu and Julie Oltrogge will be in Lake Geneva as members of the Race Committee team as well… That’s quite the showing for the CLYC!

Melges 15’s from around the Inland will begin arriving in Clear Lake on August 3rd to finalize their registration for the ILYA Melges 15 Championship; racing begins August 4th. An enormous thank you to everyone who has volunteered, you’ve made Julie Oltrogge’s job much easier for this event having come forward rather than be called upon!  Around forty 15’s will thrash the lake (hopefully) in search of the coveted title of Champion.  We have 7 boats from here in Clear Lake participating this year; remember, this is the first year of our official fleet and already we host the Inland… WOW!

We have quite a bit of anticipated participation at the ILYA Annual Championship at Lake Geneva… Currently we have 1 E boat, naturally our road warrior Z-9 team helmed by Brad Price.  We also have 4 MCs currently registered with more having indicated they plan to attend.  Don’t forget sailors of the A, E, C and MC fleets; this regatta is ours next year…Show your support for Clear Lake by participating this year and talking up participation next year!?!?!

For Sale: 2022 X-Boat – Opportunity to own one of the newest four X boats. Includes these items bought new with the boat in 2022: Melges trailer and hold-downs with spare tire, seadek flooring, tapered mainsheet, full deck cover, envelope cover, rudder/tiller bag, and Quantum mainsail & jib. Also includes 2023 Quantum mainsail and jib used only in regattas this season. Available at the end of August. Pictures can be provided.Price – $20,000 Contact Marcus Lundberg damfino999@yahoo.com | five zero seven-363-0634

Next week will feature a wrap up from the Opti and X Inland along with a preview of the Melges 15 Inland Championship.  Until then folks…

Stay in the Clear Air,

Dan Allen
MC 2811 – Relentless
dsallen@cltel.net
www.clyciowa.com
www.clycss.com