September 23, 2020

In Clear Lake the regular sailing season typically ends at Labor Day; this year however was a little different (which should come as no surprise to anyone).  The 2020 MC Masters Nationals was contested last week here in Clear Lake, it was great to see 46 MC’s on the starting line! Sometimes, they were ripping, sometimes they were drifting, but, at the end of the weekend they managed to sail 5 very good races of the 7 scheduled.  Nothing but smiles, thanks and “see you in June for Nationals” were heard across the parking lot at the end of the event.

Clear Lake put on a great showing; not just in hosting the event, the sailors all over 50 years in age for this event, showed their skills to the country.  9 sailors from Clear Lake raced the event; 3 of those sailors finished in the top 10, 2 others had top 5 race finishes!  Fleet 36 (that’s us) knows how to make their presence known!  A great big congratulations and thank you need to go out to Mark Tesar, Stu Oltrogge and Margaret Oz.  Not only did all three collaborate co-chairing the event, they each sailed in the event and managed to make everything operate smoothly! They can’t however make this happen without bunches of volunteers; Randy and Diane Kotz, Emily and Dave Haugerud, Brad Oz, Deb Tesar, Ann Beasley, Nichole Sorensen, Bob Krogh, Andi Tisor, Chad and Rebecca Nyhus, Mark and Kristin Ebeling, Drew and Meg Payne, Ken and Paula Hanus, Dan Allen, Jeff Griffin, Pat Craven, Mike Starbeck, Dawn Barkema, Joann Nicholas, Scott and Chris Long, Hank Anderson, Julie Oltrogge, Marcus and Julie Lundberg, Brad Price, Charlie MacNider and his race committee, Hunter Calanan, those people that agreed to drive a spectator boat and all of those people that pitched in when, and where, needed.  Thank you to all of you for the assistance in running the regatta!  Our appreciation can’t be described with simple words.

It was Matt Fisher from Hoover Sailing Club in Ohio who won the event… Who the heck is Matt Fisher you ask; he’s a pretty ok sailor…  He’s just a World Champion in the Lightning class, multiple National and Regional event winner in the Lightning, Thistle, and MC….  Well pretty much every boat he touches.  In my opinion, that makes our sailors’ efforts and finishes even more impressive!

Clear Lake sailor results:

6^th – Stu Oltrogge (race finishes – 22, 7, 6, 6, 5)

7^th – Mark Tesar (race finishes – 26, 4, 20, 2, 3)

10^th – Todd Tesar (race finishes – 8, 8, 18, 22, 7)

Steve Taylor – (4th in race 3!) – 2nd in the Grand Master Division

Byron Beasley (5^th in race 1)

Dave Atkinson, Brad Oz, Eric Protzman and Randy Kotz all had some great highlights of their own making us all proud with their performances.

This regatta was the only event sailed after the official announcement/declaration of the COVID Pandemic in the MC fleet…. It gave the sailors more than just a great regatta, it was an announcement to the entire MC Sailing Association what the CLYC members are made of!  As I mentioned earlier, we heard many comments of “See you in June for Nationals.”  This comment in particular is fantastic for us to hear as we, the entire CLYC family, are again hosting the MC Sailing Association back here for the 50th MC Nationals Regatta.  Stu says we’re expecting 80-100 boats; I say we’re expecting 100+ and aiming to break the attendance record for an MC event.  Big plans are already in the works and it will once again be “All hands on deck” in order to make this event the best regatta in CLYC history!

With that, I’m sad to say, we’ve come to the close of another sailing season.  Folks are already taking off for their respective winter surroundings, heck, some are already gone!  The docks are coming out and the barges are pretty quickly removing lifts; soon the beautiful waters of Clear Lake will become iced over and only memories of 2020 will exist next to the dreams and hopes for 2021.

Have a great off season,

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