You can breathe now… Seven days, one hundred sixty boats, in four classes, representing twenty five clubs from all over the Midwest; we as a club just made our friends and rivals, across the ILYA jealous and envious of our edition of the Championships.

Hundreds of willing and able volunteers….196 volunteers to be exact, were recruited by Julie Oltrogge!  The combination of members and non-members, local and non-local was impressive; the “Thoughtfulness” and “Craftsmanship” of every volunteer was incredible. Organizations like the Lions Club, Rotary and First Mates all chipped in to help make our regatta the best it could possibly be and Clear Lake shined! Some like Dave Atkinson were there, seemingly non-stop, the entire week; others a shorter time, but the assistance and volunteerism of our club is unmatched.  If you don’t believe me, go to another ILYA club and see how their regattas flow, it doesn’t compare to ours! Not having a private boat yard and cranes doesn’t mean we can’t achieve amazing results!

To all of our volunteers; this event could not have been such a success without you! The regatta is so much more than just sailing; it’s parties, launching, retrieving, guidance and hospitality… That’s where all of you excelled and made this regatta so wonderful and memorable for everyone involved.

The most common quote was, “Amazing”, “Why didn’t we come here sooner?”, “We need to come back here!”, “Clear Lake should be in the rotation.” Many sailors commented on the comparative ease of the launching and retrieval process; that process could not have flowed any better.  A HUGE congratulations and thank you to Chris Oz and Casey Martin for their attention to detail and creation of order from possible chaos!

ILYA Commodore Todd Haines presented CLYC Commodore Casey Callanan with the commemorative ILYA burgee in honor of hosting the event.  The honor is significant for the CLYC as we would like to become part of the permanent rotation for the ILYA Championship Regatta (Currently 5 Clubs rotate hosting the Regatta). Don’t worry friends, it will be 2031 before it comes back!!!

A full racing wrap up of the event will be in next week’s Crows Nest, however, here’s some highlights of the racing:

• Dave Haugerud was part of the I-49 A Scow team which took 4th place overall.
• Finley Nyhus was part of three different teams; 1 A Scow team and 2 C Scow teams (one of which was two Olympians!). He was third and eighth in the C fleet!
• Garrett Summerfield was on a C boat helping legend Andy Burdick and his daughter sail to a 4th place overall finish
• Bill Nicholas had a 16th place finish and was the top CLYC C Scow
• Brad Price was the top CLYC E Scow finisher, with two races in the top 15.
• Emily Haugerud had a 10th place finish in Race 1 and despite some breakdowns was the Top Female sailor in the fleet
• Dan Allen won Race 1 of the MC Regatta and was the top CLYC sailor finishing 11th, Mark Tesar took 3rd place in Race 2.

It’s been a couple of weeks since the last edition of the Crows Nest; other than the regatta, it’s great sailing and amazing parties, we had some other excitement within the Club!

The race of the year, better known as the Russ Schurtz Memorial Dad/Mom/Lad/Lass Race was held a couple weeks ago now. After years of waiting, the group had nearly perfect conditions to race. Seven fearless, perhaps fearful teams left the dock and embarked for battle. As far as I know, the parents made it out unscathed and without tears from the words of their children on the water. As many expected, Marcus and Alida Lundberg led most of the race, however, the competitive nature showed it’s teeth near the end.  An exchange of tacks between the Lundberg and the Gordon/Summerfield teams made for an exciting finish. With less than 100 yards to go, Jason Gordon with crew Garrett Summerfield turned on the speed and out tacked the Lundberg’s to take the win. Congratulations to Jason and Garrett on winning the most important race of the year!  Wait a minute…we have more great feats from the race! Brad and Grayson Harris finished third… Brad is a “non-sailor,” well kind of; he’s a sailor now!  Brad commanded the X boat with authority, sailing a great race! Fourth was Ryan and Brady Amble; that’s a big X boat team!  They sailed fantastic and even better is having Brady back on the water, we’ve missed his smiling face all year!  Jake and Thea Sorensen finished fifth, followed by Laura with daughter Avery Tidrick and Todd Allbee with his daughter Sophia took seventh!!!

This weekend is the return of Club racing; it’s the last weekend of Season Championship racing for the year.  Fleet Championships are up for grabs in a couple fleets; will the standings change, can the 2nd place boats make a move??? Oh the drama…

Adding to that drama will be the necessity of moving the racing further to the West.  The Annual Hobie Regatta is the weekend; they’ll be using the main part of the lake.  As you’re sailing out to the course or home, please be mindful of their course and stay out of their way.

This weekend is also the last CLYC Board Meeting of the year; Board Members, you should have gotten a notice with the agenda via email from Dan Allen.  That meeting will be at the CLYC Headquarters on Sunday, 8/25 @ 15:30.

Several Blooper Award nominations have come in…Don’t forget about the annual tradition of publicly humiliating your friends and family during the trophy presentation on Sunday, September 1st.  We’ll have more details next week, but this will be a catered event at the YC with dinner starting around 5:30 or so.  Following dinner will be the Annual General Meeting and awards.

As you’re reading this three sailors, who are obvious gluttons for punishment, will be sailing at the MC National Championship in Lake Geneva, WI.  Currently 95 boats are registered from all over the country.  Good luck to Dan Allen, Mark Tesar and Todd Tesar.

For Sale:  1999 Melges X Boat, complete with Melges trailer, full deck cover, envelope cover, 2 whisker poles, floatation panel .  All rigging updated in 2019.   2022 Main and Jib (NS), 2015 Main and Jib (NS), 2009 Main (NS), 2008 Jib (NS). $5,000.

Sold Separately: 2024 X Boat Main and Jib (Quantum, new/unused) $1,000 for set

Contact Ryan Amble 515-988-8634

That’s all for now.  As I mentioned, look for a full ILYA Championship wrap up, results from MC Nationals, results from Club racing and much more next week!  Until then friends!

Stay in the Clear Air,

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