September 10, 2020

Another season in the books… As everyone knows it was a season like no other; the Pandemic caused many disruptions in our daily lives, made a mockery of regatta schedules and put an initial damper on our party plans.  The positive here in Clear Lake…..  Everyone came together, we had a full schedule of club racing, our parties went off without a hitch and we all had the opportunity to enjoy the lake as much as we could!  If you would like to know who to thank; send those thanks to Commodore Hank Anderson and Vice Commodore Chris Long.

Many of the membership don’t realize the tremendous effort put forth by our Officers this year.  Hank prepared response after response to the DNR who didn’t think we should race.  Chris organized the parties, keeping everyone safe and enjoying their experience at the same time!  Many, many thanks to them both!

As we all know volunteerism is the backbone of what sets our club apart from many others.  It takes everyone coming together to make operations run, the building to stand and the camaraderie felt by each member.  While every member should be recognized for their efforts in helping the club, we have two chosen each year by our Commodore for special recognition.  These are people who have gone above and beyond to assist in any way they can; for 2020 Commodore Hank Anderson has awarded:

Charlie Crane Memorial Trophy (Contributions to CLYC):  David Atkinson

The Loose Anchor Award (Behind the scenes contributions):  Marcus Lundberg

As if COVID-19 wasn’t a big enough problem, it seemed Mother Nature was cranky this season also…. Despite her efforts, our race committees managed to put on high quality, fair and fun racing.  29 races in the MC fleet, 25 races in X fleet…. The E fleet didn’t fair as well this year in terms of quantity of racing, however, the quality was amazing.  Thank you to all those on the race committee teams:  HRO Charlie MacNider, Cathy MacNider, Mark Ebeling, Casey Callanan, Bill Casey, Tom Erickson and Denni Sue Erickson.  John V couldn’t be on the water with us this year and for that we’re pretty sad, however, his contributions didn’t cease. We would like to thank him for allowing the use of the famous Boat 4.  Without these volunteers we would have no racing, not to mention the great race committee support we’re spoiled with!

The Annual Russ Schurtz Memorial Dad/Lad/Mom/Lass Regatta was held after multiple delays.  No delay could dampen the fun had by the adult skippers and their adolescent crews!  In the end it was Marcus and Leif Lundberg taking line honors and the newly donated traveling trophy!  Thank you to all who participated this year!

The racing this year was fun, competitive and in some cases “friendly fierce.”  In the X Fleet Leif Lundberg captured the Championship trophy with crew Isaac Smith.  Defending champion Sam Ludwig with younger sister Stella were a close second.  The entire fleet sailed superbly this year, all making huge strides in their abilities, especially the Ebeling girls who took home the Seamanship Award for most improved! Look for more boats and even more competition in the X fleet in 2021.

The MC fleet saw one of the most competitive years from the top of the fleet to the bottom in recent memory.  The story though was at the top; If you recall the 2019 results was a points tie between Mark Tesar and Stu Oltrogge, eventually Mark Tesar won on a tie breaker.  This year however, wouldn’t end in a tie breaker, Stu Oltrogge claimed the fleet championship with a weekend to spare after a nifty handful of finishes put the Tesar brothers in the rear view…

E boats are always majestic on the water.  This year the King wasn’t at all; it was the Queen laying majesty above the rest.  Heavy winds or light, Team Loon skippered by Emily Haugerud seemed to be dialed in.  The results were close with the Z-13 and Z-9 boats for most of the year, but, in the end great finishes were posted when needed and the Z-23 took home the honors.

C boaters… Hmmm, they raced some…. They fished some… I believe one of them even broke out a 30+ year old sail one Saturday afternoon… When the dust settled from their grueling 6 race season it was Tom Birdsall coming out on top winning the Championship Trophy no one has seen in a decade!

Final Season Standings:

X Fleet:                                                    MC Fleet:

Champion: Leif Lundberg – Z11            Champion: Stuart Oltrogge – 2606

2nd: Sam Ludwig – Z88                            2nd: Mark Tesar – 2718

3rd: Elle Ebeling – Z15 (S)                        3rd: Todd Tesar – 2401

4th: Danny Starbeck – Z00                       4th: Emily Haugerud – 2340 (S)

5th: Jude Sorensen – Z7                           5th: Randy Kotz – 2574

6th: Finley Nyhus – Z48                             6th: Brad Osmundson – 2605

E Fleet:                                                      C Fleet:

Champion:  Emily Haugerud – Z23 (S)    Champion: Tom Birdsall – Z2 (S)

2nd: Mark Tesar – Z13                                2nd:  Bill Nicholas – Z3

3rd: Brad Price – Z9                                    3rd: Steve Swift – Z100

4th: Ebeling/Callanan – Z10

5th: Will Cooney – Z7

(S) denotes the Seamanship Award for each fleet.

Perpetual racing trophies are also given each year to individuals or teams:

Tom MacNider Memorial Trophy (CLYC Most Improved): Emily Haugerud – E Fleet

R Lyle Bergo Memorial Trophy (Top X boat regatta performance):  Danny Starbeck

Marie O’Brien Alcorn Memorial Trophy (Best regatta performance in an adult class):  *Will be awarded to the top MC at the Masters Regatta*

And who could forget the Blooper Award?  Well, it seems as though no one was prone to any kind of mistakes this year; at least none that couldn’t be bought by hush money or committed in the blind spots of watchful eyes.  This year the obvious choice:  COVID-19

Don’t worry, you’re still being watched…. You’re still eligible during the off season.  So…. No taking 20 something year old men for rides down moguls, make sure the cats if they freeze, do so outside, please make notes as to where your trailers are and/or boats are stored and if you happen to see anything happen, PLEASE, don’t keep it to yourself!

More fun is still on the horizon for 2020!  The MC Masters Nationals is still on the schedule, the final preparations are being made and the pieces are starting to fall into place…. Well most of them anyway.  Mike Starbeck still needs volunteers to drive spectator boats holding crews and the watchful, wondering eyes of other interested parties.  Please get ahold of Mike if you can help!  Mike Starbeck 319-290-9088. Currently almost 50 boats are registered and ready to do battle on our beautiful lake in late season conditions!

I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone for their kind words and encouragement throughout my first year writing the Crow’s Nest.  It’s been a really fun, great opportunity for me to keep up with YC gossip, lightheartedly poke fun and most of all keep all of you in the loop.  Special thanks need to go to Brad and Margaret Oz for reminding me of various points through the year, my “Editor At Large” Stu Oltrogge, Mark Tesar for always getting me results and those anonymous sources keeping me abreast of all the latest!

Talk soon!

Stay in the clear air.

Dan Allen
MC 2577 – Relentless
Dsallen@cltel.net
www.clyciowa.com
www.clycss.com