It’s been an amazingly busy two weeks for the members of the CLYC.  Last minute family vacations, the Iowa State Fair, YC parties, regattas, more regattas and getting ready for back-to-school… Before we get into all the details of YC goings-on from those two weeks, let’s touch on some notes regarding this weekend.

Starting Saturday, Hobie Cat Fleet 10 (Clear Lake) along with Division 7 will be hosting their annual regatta here in Clear Lake. As usual, so they can have a wide berth for their race course, the CLYC fleets will be moving further West for racing.  Don’t worry, we won’t fall off the edge of the Earth if we go slightly beyond the line between Reely Point and the Island; most likely we won’t have to go that far anyway. The schedule of course will remain the same, the E fleet will be racing Sunday afternoon this week as well.

Two separate parties were held at the Compound a couple weeks ago; those three families are gluttons for punishment!  The MC fleet party was Friday the 11th and was absolutely fantastic.  2023 Fleet Captain, Dave Haugerud, prepared the meal and I’ll tell you what… Dude can cook!!! Smoked pork, brisket, mac and cheese, it was just amazing! Thanks Dave for hosting the bunch! Jesse Tidrick was elected to the honorable position of MC Fleet Captain 2024; that brings about a change of venue for the fleet party and we can’t wait!  Saturday the 12th was the social event for the entire club and what a showing that was!  Three properties full of food and drink with happy people mingling; I even heard of cases where mild coercion may have been used to convince members to crew…of course that’s just plain rumor, nothing like that ever happens, does it Molly Harris?

An old man’s memory sometimes fades, which happens to be the case when it comes to club racing from two weeks ago… AND since I was absent last week, I don’t have a full run down for you.  What I do have are some highlights which I made notes of:

Elle Ebeling port tacks the entire X fleet:  The first start of the day on Saturday, 8/12, a big left shift came down the lake and Elle set up perfectly, crossing the fleet with ease and eventually winning that race big.

 (photo credit – Brad Price)

The MC fleet continues to be strongest in terms of turnout, sometimes hitting 15 boats!  In addition to having a larger fleet, it’s very mixed up and tight racing. Race wins can easily be followed by a finish outside the top 10. It’s quite possible for anyone to win any given race and those wins are hard earned. Last weekend though, Todd Tesar bucked the trend and recorded four consecutive bullets!

E boaters continue to rip the lake apart Saturday and select Sunday afternoons. Thankfully no capsizes lately, however, a few minor breakdowns have occurred.  Ask Jake Sorensen and the Z-16 crew what snapping spectra on the vang sounds like… A couple hours on a Saturday evening and Jake had the boat ready to go for the next day!  The 13 and 23 teams are trading firsts and seconds as the season winds down, setting up for an exciting conclusion to 2023…

This weekend is the last weekend of 2023 Championship racing… The race for the Championship is wrapped up in the X fleet, however, the race for second isn’t over yet!  Jude Sorensen and Elle Ebeling are separated by just .02 points, the racing this weekend will determine the second and third place teams.

The E and MC Fleets are still in hot contention.  Stu Oltrogge and Mark Tesar are separated by less than .3 points in the MC fleet. Mark is gone this weekend at the MC Masters Championship in Michigan so his average won’t change… Stu must be careful not to finish too far away from first and raise his average and he doesn’t have enough races counted to sit on shore…

Check out the results in the E Fleet…The Z-23 and Z-13 teams are TIED!  Once again, the winning and losing rests in the hands of a capable skipper; Emily Haugerud and the Z-23 have to win races to retain the title of Fleet Champions.

The Melges 15 fleet is finishing its inaugural year… It looks as though the Fleet Championship is in the hands of Dave Atkinson; 5 straight bullets in the second series has a way of doing that. As one of the “Veterans” of the 15 class, Dave has done his fair share of fleet development this year.  He’s used three different crews, bringing more and more curious folks into the sport!

The ILYA Annual Championship was held last week at Lake Geneva Yacht Club in WI.  One E boat team and six MCs were in attendance: the Z-9 E Team of Brad Price, Will Price, Kelly Purviance and George Kennedy; in the MC was Dan Allen, Nathan Kotz, Randy Kotz, Chris Krogh, Marcus Lundberg and Stu Oltrogge.

Thursday was the first day of racing for all the fleets. The morning brought heavy winds and BIG waves for the E fleet, a condition which Brad and team typically like best! The winds came from a generally west direction at 16-22 mph gusting to 27 mph (it seemed higher) brought faces of joy, exhaustion and despair to the crews. A few breakdowns, capsizes and collisions occurred during the two races, thankfully our lone representative wasn’t one of them.  The Z-9 sailed a great first day, scoring a 34th and 20th in the extremely deep fleet! The wind strength continued to build through the day, eventually gusting well into the 30’s and kept the A and MC fleets on shore.

Friday – ugh, no wind in the morning for the A’s and MC’s after the cold front slid through, the sitting on shore continues.  The E fleet made an attempt to race in the afternoon, however, upon reaching the first windward mark the conditions deteriorated to the point the race was abandoned and the sailors were sent to shore.

Saturday was a banner day at the LGYC; winds from the South at 13-18 mph with higher gusts… I’m not sure if the waves were wind induced or power boat induced, but they were large. The 72 boat MC fleet finally got some racing in… 3 consecutive races in fact, which had previously been against the ILYA protocols, thankfully a change to the SI’s and NOR was made last minute to allow it. Stu and Deb played the consistency game perfectly… Race finishes of 11, 9, 11 put them in 6th place overall, the top Clear Lake boat. Dan Allen was the second CL boat in the standings, he finished in 18th overall with a 13, 34, 17 scoreline. All six sailors in the fleet had flashes of brilliance and represented the club very well. The top ten consisted of 4 professionals, 1 former Olympian and the winner, Matt Fisher, was the winner of the 2020 MC Masters Championship held in Clear Lake… Did I mention he’s also a former World Champion and Pan Am Games Gold Medalist (Lightning Class)…?

During the afternoon racing the E scows completed two more races, bringing their total to 4. Brad Price and the Z-9 team sailed consistently again Saturday.

Sunday morning brought more high pressure and flat water without a breath of air. In the end, they finished a very solid 22nd place overall in the 58 boat fleet!  The number of National and World championships in that fleet was far beyond my fingers and toes…

Just as important, if not more, are the Race Officers at our regattas; Mark Tesar was in Lake Geneva serving as the E scow PRO.  Mark and his team did a tremendous job on the E course!

Full results can be found HERE.

A nice photo gallery can be found HERE

(photo credit – Doug Wake/Vakaros)

A few more regattas are still on tap for 2023; the largest of them all is the E Scow Nationals being held the week after Labor Day in Madison, WI… 2023 is the Centennial Year of the E Scow and celebrations have been had around the country all year.  This event is the culmination of it all. Imagine it, 120 (yes 120 boats are registered) E scows on one single starting line, windward mark roundings, setting spinnakers, leeward gate roundings… YIKES! We have two teams heading over to Lake Mendota; Brad Price and team on the Z-9 along with Emily Haugerud and the Z-23 team. Both teams are chomping at the bit to test their skill in such a large fleet!

Several MC sailors plan to attend smaller regional regattas this fall, we’ll detail those at a later time.

We can’t forget about the least coveted award of the year and the enjoyment we all get from “Honoring” its recipient… The Blooper Award… Get your nominations to Stu Oltrogge ASAP! clyciowa@gmail.com

Hopefully everyone has stayed hydrated and cool this week and will be able to make it out on the lake this weekend!  See you out there, until then…

Stay in the Clear Air,

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