JULY 12TH "NO WAKE" TROPHY RACE REPORT

(Photos courtesy of Lisa Duret and Dick Bray)
Due to high water, the entire lake was a no wake zone. It was warm, sunny,  and we had a very good and fairly constant wind from the west. It was a great day for a race. And two more of our fleet made it off their trailers for the first time this year and onto the lake.  This lessened the impact of the entire Voelz dynasty being away and not racing with us.  We were glad to have Lance Snider, his brother Kent, and nephew Nick sailing the Sunbird.  And Steve Tadd and his crew Luis Chavez sailed the beautiful (and fast) wooden Thistle.

The Thistle.... and an interloper

We had thirteen sailors, but  there was only one Laser and one Butterfly.  There are several more boats and more importantly, their captains, we would like to see finally get on the water and join us at the protest meetings this year.  Hint: One is a Y-Flyer and two, maybe more, are Lasers.  They are all candidates for the ghost sailor of the year award. And speaking of ghost sailors, Larry Olson made a cameo appearance observing the end of the second race from his paddleboard, and did an impressive job of fighting the wind. 

We also welcomed a new Committee Boat volunteer Dick Bray, and were delighted to have Dave and Linda Maudlin back volunteering with us again along with Beth Auld, Bob Orben and Mimi Riffle.   And everyone was in the mood for a protest meeting, which was a real family affair, with age ranges from very young to not very young (only numerically of course since any Grandview sailor is among the youngest of the people you know).  We used all of the Truex’s chairs, and most of their real estate. 

Lots of fun at the protest meeting

Thanks very much to all the above-mentioned volunteers and hosts, John Gall for setting up, Kevin Preuss for organizing the race, and Jim Riffle for sacrificing the Hobie, and champion crew Arlene,  to John Gall for this race, and backing up the patrol boat as another safety boat.  Thanks also to whoever took down the marks.

Our last mark and the nearby starting line were not far from the north part of the slalom course, and the first mark was to the southwest toward Orben’s cove.

Sailors at the start and....another interloper

Marks were to be rounded by turning to starboard (right).   With the wind from the west, many were tempted to sail to the port side of the rhumb line (direct line from the start to the first mark), but as Bob Orben observed based on years of experience at Grandview, that proved to be a trap.  The wind shadow of the hilly point off lot 22 would block your wind just as you were getting close to the mark, as you got close to the south shore and further into the wind shadow.   Those who stayed to the starboard side of the rhumb line had less chance of losing to the wind shadow of the hilly point.  Catey Hale is right; we need names for these landmarks.

The wind direction was tricky from the first to the second mark, sometimes almost on a close reach (wind coming across front half of boat), sometimes on a beam reach (wind coming perpendicular to boat) and sometimes on a broad reach (wind coming across back half of boat).  You had to keep “teasing the sail” to achieve proper trim.

The first race was the “July 4^th” Trophy Race (We don’t dare sail on July 4^th anymore).  Kevin Preuss dominated the fleet with the second place finishers, Tadd/Chavez coming in over two minutes later on a handicapped basis followed closely by Tom/Matt Schroeder.  In that first race, three boats were side-by-side , inches or less from each other (must have been quite a sight) most of the way from the second to the third mark on a beam reach (uh oh, memory test: we just defined “beam reach” in the prior paragraph).  Leeward (downwind) were John Gall/Arlene Truex on the Hobie catamaran.  In the middle were John Auld/Paul Hass in the Y-Flyer, and windward (you guessed right, upwind) were Tom Schroeder/Matt Schroeder in the JY-15.  This situation was discussed at length later at the protest meeting with some expert input from Tom Jennings.  We think John Gall and Arlene, being leeward, and having the right of way over both other boats, or John Auld/Paul Hass having the right of way over Tom/Matt, could have forced the windward boat(s) off course.  Just like Jim Riffle did to Voelz/Schroeder as shown in the photo in the May 31st race report.  The boat doing the forcing could only justify this if they were sailing a “proper course” to the third mark.  But the trio of boats were so far from the third mark, this could easily have been justified.    Instead, Tom Schroeder got some banter going with the others by forewarning them that it was clear they were all going to be overlapped by the time they got to the mark and that he expected them to give him room at the mark, which they did.  Tom reports that while distraction was not his intention, he had an inkling he might have been on thin ice. 

Re-living the race: bottle caps are boats, cups and cans are marks, fingers and toes are...fingers and toes.

Prior to the second race John Gall and Arlene Truex discussed what they should do differently, and agreed they needed to approach the first mark from the starboard (by now you  know which “hand” that is, right?....right) side to avoid the wind shadow of the to-be-named point.  Their planning paid off.  The catamaran caught a fast wind and overcame its handicap.  They finished one full minute ahead of the next-to-finish boat on a handicapped basis, Sherri Agnew.  Sherri must have tried something different as well, finishing second. Kevin Preuss had another strong race finishing third on a handicapped basis.   Tom Jennings reported that watching from Truex’s dock he saw nearly all of the bottom of the JY-15 for a split second.   Nice save Matt!

Sailors, volunteers, and other race observers are encouraged to add their version of these events and to, correct, comment or otherwise add some salt to this report by using the comment feature below.  After all this report came from only one very biased vantage point in the race, and yours might have been better!

First (TROPHY) Race Results: 

Laser Class:  Kevin Preuss 1^st Place

Butterfly Class: Sherri Agnew 1^st Place

International Class (on handicapped basis): Steve Tadd/ Luis Chavez 1^st Place, Tom/Matt Schroeder 2^nd,  John Auld/ Paul Hass 3^rd, Kent/Lance/Nick Snider 4^th, John Gall/Arlene Truex 5^th.

Overall on Handicapped Basis (not for scoring) Preuss 1^st, Tadd/Chavez 2^nd, Schroeder/Schroeder 3^rd, Auld/Hass 4^th, Snider/Snider/Snider 5^th, Gall/Truex 6^th, Agnew, 7^th.

Second Race Results: 

Laser Class:  Kevin Preuss 1^st Place

Butterfly Class: Sherri Agnew 1^st Place

International Class (on handicapped basis):  John Gall/Arlene Truex 1^st Place, Auld/Hass 2^nd, Matt/Tom Schroeder 3^rd, Tadd/Chavez 4th, Kent/Lance/Nick Snider 5^th.

Overall on Handicapped Basis (not for scoring) John Gall/Arlene Truex 1^st, Agnew 2^nd, Preuss 3^rd, Auld/Hass 4^th, Schroeder/Schroeder 5^th, Tadd/Chavez 6th, Snider/Snider/Snider 7^th.