Frostbite Race
Oct. 13, 2001 Strong winds and waves
made for a perfect day on the lake. Chairmen
Chuck Hastings and Mike Kleppinger hosted a huge
feast afterwards at High Point Shelter.
Club
Race 9/29/01
We've
been lucky this year. Almost every event has had
great wind and weather. Saturday Sept 29 we tried
a new format for the club race: a reverse start
PHRF eight mile race. We started using the buoy
at Pattersons Harbor with the slowest boat
starting at 2:00 pm and each faster boat starting
up until 12 minutes later. Gary and Cyndy
Robinson were on a straight run almost to the dam
when I started with my Santana 23 last. (My San
Juan 24 has 2 more weeks to wait for the new
mast) The wind was quite gusty from the south
measuring 15 with gusts to 22 with large
direction shifts. They were followed by Ken
Anderson and crew, then Chuck Hastings and
Joel Mellman. The fleet jibed at the
center buoy near the spillway and beam reached
down the lake to the North cabin area buoy. With
a full main and 115% jib we were overpowered in
the largest gusts. I followed the path of the
boats ahead since they all had depth meters. We
were crossing more shallow water over the old
town. You guessed it-my 5' 3" keel hit hard
on some cement jolting the boat! Of course we
could have had it raised some; now I'll get to do
some patching later.
It
was fun to watch the boats ahead heel over
plenty, as did we, when the wind hit. Since the
next leg was a beat I went forward to reef the
main now on the reaching leg. We were all
converging a little but Robinsons held a
commanding lead at the second buoy. Going
back upwind to the Pattersons finish mark was a
challenge. Several of the boats were overpowered
and the wind and waves were not letting them
point high enough to lay the mark without
tacking.
Everyone
was sailing short handed and Joel and Chuck were
solo. More crew weight would have made life
easier. Looking ahead of my Santana, Gary, Ken
and Chuck were off to leeward of the mark
but Joel was laying it when 80% of the way to the
finish. Suddenly Joel too fell off the layline as
he came out into the opening of the hills to
Pattersons. The wind was blowing a different
direction with those huge 22k blasts. Joel
tacked once to finish and nipped the Robinsons
taking first place sailing solo. Ken Anderson was
losing ground in the shifts and I slipped in for
third. Chuck needed more crew balast and finished
5th also sailing alone. This was an easy and fun
way to spend an afternoon on the lake. Afterwards
we went for dinner at Old Mexico in Rep City to
finish off the day.
Womens
Wilderness Weekend Aug. 18,
2001 4 cruisers gave half
day long rides to 27 ladies teaching the basics
of sailing and had a lot of fun too. An
evening steak dinner at High Point Shelter and
singing with Dave Klein's Wild Clover Irish
Band capped off a great day. Doug Okinga chaired
another fine event.
Trans
Randall 2001 was the best yet! A short
night race on Aug 10 kicked off a wonderful
weekend on the prettiest place to sail in the
Midwest. On Sat. the 11th the reverse start PHRF
race began in light winds but increased steadily
to 10-18. The race was a reach all the way up to
the 20 mile turn around buoy which was placed
right behind a 2 foot deep sand bar making for
some exciting tacking and a number of groundings.
A MacGregor 25 sailed by A.K. Tosyali from Omaha
liked the wind and reaching angle and led the
race easily the whole way. Near the last hour of
the race as all the boats converged, the Mellmans
re-passed the Santanas and then were the first to
fly their chute on the tight reach to the finish.
This inspired Sawyer to set his spinnaker to hold
his slim lead over Luke and Joel and family. As
the fleet turned into the last bay for the half
mile run to the finish line Sawyer almost caught
the MacGregor and took second by 5 seconds with
Mellmans third by 32 seconds. Most of the 15
boats finished within minutes after 40 miles of
racing! Kleppinger and Hastings finished well in
their Hunter 25.5.
The Hog
Roast regatta July 21 was the best party
of the Summer again. Six boats raced on a great
but hot summer day with Doug Ockinga taking the
honors. Sawyer 2nd and Robinson 3rd. Gary and
Cyndi then hosted a tasty roasted pork dinner on
the beach to a large crowd of sailors and guests.
Thanks!
The Harlan
Challenge 2001 was a success June 23-24.
Perfect winds carried the fleet from Gremlin to
Pattersons to Prairie Dog to Alma and back to
Pattersons and finishing at Gremlin. Jim Bozung
won the distance race with Kleins second and
Robinsons third. Sunday more good winds provided
for tight buoy racing with Sawyer winning race
one and Kleins second. Race two was abandoned
when Kleins mast came down. The overall Harlan
Challenge champions were the Kleins!
June
3 Club races were blown out by strong
winds and rainy conditions. Several boats were
out sailing anyway testing their mettle against
Harlan's wind and waves.
May
19 Club races were sailed in perfect
conditions. Five boats raced and several more
cruised around the lake just enjoying the day.
Two windward-leeward courses were set with a
tight starting line. Plenty of windshifts
seperated the fleet. Lots of sunshine gave many
of the crew their first sunburns of the year. Afterwards
Bob Houlden brought a bucket of walleye fillets
and Joel fried them with all the fixings! What a
day!
Fifth Annual Balsa Wood
Blowout 2001
The
club's first regatta of the year was held March
3, 2001 at the Kearney AmericInn pool in
conjunction with the annual meeting. A good
turnout of new boats and older but refined boats
were present. By changing pools each year the
skippers are challenged to guess the right sail
size and boat design.
Joel
Mellman had another innovative design that turned
out to be too well ballasted to be fast enough.
After some middle round weight reductions he had
a contender but was unable to come back from the
early round losses. Several others also went with
the huge canvas philosophy-Sawyer, Hastings, etc
and couldn't withstand the gusts from the 3 fans.
It
came as little surprise then that last years
winning catamaran made by John Gerber was
undefeated again this year. The extremely
ultralight short boat was very fast and sailed
very straight. Gary Robinson challenged in a
similar short cat design but was only slightly
slower taking 2nd place.
Annual Meeting March 3, 2001
Commodore
Gary Robinson held a nice, short meeting before
the Balsa Wood races where plans were made for a
fun summer. Officers remain the same with Jay
Sawyer being "honored" with the title
of Secretary as well as Treasurer. This year we
will emphasize fun activities on and off the
water with a little less racing. Check out the
schedule and then add some of your thoughts at
our next planning meeting and dinner to be
announced later.
The
new mast raising pole at Patterson Harbor was
reported to work well and will be improved this
spring. New club T-Shirts are available for sale;
contact Jay Sawyer. Todd Nichol has moved his
"Bad Medicine" over to Patterson
Harbor. Others may if space is available due to
projected low water this year. Mike Kleppinger
and Chuck Hastings have added spinnaker gear to
their Hunter 25.5. Gary Robinson and Jay Sawyer
are new boat owners! ? ! Gary picked up a Mirage
23 in Florida at a bargain price and it is a
beauty-in very good shape. Gary will sail the
boat at Harlan Lake. (Bet he is looking for lots
of crew=ballast!) The Mirage is similar in speed
to Jay Sawyer and John Gerber's 1980 Santana 23
purchased in Indiana in March. The Santana is
getting ready to race by Super
Sport Marine and will be docked at
Johnson Lake.
Late breaking news: an old Venture Cat has
been donated to the club by Lean Brandt of
Kearney. It will be available to members and
their kids to teach catamaran sailing. There is
no trailer so we are looking for some free
or inexpensive trailer to keep it on to haul down
to the beach.
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