The stage is set for the next CLYC party of the year! Saturday, Saturday, Saturday, July 16th at Jeff Brakke’s residence, 1929 N Shore Dr, Clear Lake!  Entertainment; yes we have that; Brian Sink, one of the Cedar Valley’s finest artists will be on site doing his thing! The multiple terraces, fire features, water features, full bar and great friends… What more could you want?  Oh, right, food… Pulled pork, potato salad and pasta salad will be coming from Louie’s; E, C and MC fleets, please bring a dish to share and supplement our main course!  Now, what more could you want?

Two weeks is all we have until the arrival of hundreds of X and Opti sailors, not to mention their families, friends and coaches!  Registration numbers continue to climb even as the final touches are being made.  Our Commodore Mike Starbeck could use some help with spectator boats; yes, hundreds of loyal followers will want to get out on the water to watch the intense racing during both Championships… Please contact Mike to volunteer your services!  michael.starbeck@gmail.com

Last Saturday started out looking promising with a nice light breeze for the X and MC fleets. All eight X boats once again made it to the line Saturday morning!  A hard fought battle commenced in race one between Leif Lundberg in the Z-5 and Jude Sorensen in the Z-7.  Leif came out on top by a slim margin over Jude with Sam Ludwig in third.  The MC fleet saw many lead changes in the smaller yet very tight fleet.  Eventually, Dan Allen squeaked out a lead over Todd Tesar to win race one.  Both fleets started Race 2 in very light conditions and only went downhill from there; the race was abandoned in the 3rd leg after the wind died completely.

Saturday afternoon was a bust for the E and C Fleets; after the wind faded on the morning group, so did the hopes of any racing in the afternoon.  PRO Tommy Erickson can’t catch a break; that’s two weeks in a row with no races!  Fingers crossed for this weekend!

Rain, nearby storms and wind greeted the sailors Sunday morning… PRO Charlie MacNider made a fantastic call keeping the sailors on shore for a short delay, then bringing them on the water for some high octane racing!  The X boats were far too close together for me to call from my vantage points on the water; what I’m told is Jude Sorensen and Finley Nyhus had a tit-for-tat, trading places type of race.  A critical leeward mark rounding was the difference that put Jude ahead, ultimately winning the race.  A heavy building breeze with good sized waves…Todd Tesar starts twitching in conditions like this. It goes without saying it’s his favorite condition and he showed it leading from start to finish.  Byron and Ann Beasley tried to give Todd a run only to watch him put the hammer down.  Byron and Ann finished second with Eric and Nancy Protzman right on their heels.  A smart decision yet again by PRO Charlie MacNider and Casey Callanan putting up the A flag and sending everyone home as the wind had begun gusting to 27 mph on the last leg!

Evidently the X boat parents thought the breeze was a little too strong to hold the Russ Schurtz Memorial Dad/Mom/Lad/Lass Regatta last Sunday afternoon…  I suppose we’ll let them get away with not racing when it’s blowing out of the South at 20-30mph; the makeup date is August 7th.  We’ll just have to wait patiently with great anticipation until then.

You may remember from last week’s edition the mention of teams traveling off lake in search of hardware and glory…? Mark Tesar attended the ILYA MC Invitational at White Bear, just 30 boats showed up, but that smaller group had an enormous amount of sailing talent! A light air regatta wasn’t really what Mark had in mind, but he made the best of it and picked up more knowledge to use down the road! Brad Price and crew, CLYC’s certain winner of the “Road Warrior Award” (if there was one) along with Team Loon attended the ILYA E Invitational at Pewaukee Yacht Club. While no hardware was brought home, some “relative glory” was attained; Team Loon had two top ten finishes along with a joyful reunion with Emily Haugerud’s Maid of Honor, Alison Kent. Alison was back home in Wisconsin taking a break and visiting family; ok she was working too…She is one of the owner/operator/columnists of www.livesaildie.com, a great website featuring all the latest sailing news from around the globe (maybe they need a new columnist…haha). If you watched any AC racing, you may recognize Alison as she was on site covering that event! She wrote a great recap of the E Invitational for her company. Oh yeah, the winners of these two events; Pros… Eddie Cox of Melges/Quantum and Andy Burdick of Melges/Quantum won the E and MC events respectively.

We’ve established this weekend is the most anticipated social event of the year, it’s also regatta weekend yet again!  The Jack MacNider Regatta will be held this weekend for all fleets; be ready for back-to-back races on Saturday… Most likely you were ready for those anyway as we are down races.  E fleet, you get a “double regatta weekend”… Since you’ve been skunked for two straight weeks, the 4th of July Regatta continues to be carried over; that means Saturday will be scored as the 4th of July Regatta and Sunday will be scored as the Jack MacNider Regatta.  Yes it falls just right on a planned weekend of Sunday E boat racing, now let’s just hope for a nice breeze.

Beginners, boat handlers, advanced, racers, adults; everyone is welcome at the Clear Lake Sailing Center.  They have openings available in the remaining sessions; the equipment is all in order, the instructors are ready and willing… Sign up your kids, heck, sign yourself up for the adult classes… It’s an experience that will last a lifetime, introduce the kids or allow them to continue the journey down the watery path! www.clycss.com

I hope to see everyone at the party Saturday!  Until then…

Stay in the Clear Air,

Dan Allen
MC 2811 – Relentless
E Scow Z-11 – Wild Side
dsallen@cltel.net
www.clyciowa.com
www.clycss.com