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Michigan
- Ontario Districts RACE
COMMITTEE This years Flying Scot regatta at Portage Yacht Club brought the Michigan – Ontario District Championships to the annual fall regatta. Though a predicted forecast of sunshine all weekend actually turned out to be only half true (it was overcast Saturday – one would say “Michigan Gray”), it did not deter 29 competitors from participating. It was the best turn-out for either the Hot Scot or a district championship in over 25 years with 15 boats from off the lake to help make this a real fun event. With such a big group, the greeters Doug McIntosh, Fritz Wagner, Forest Rogers took care of all the parking lot issues. Cassandra Fletcher (the official in-water person and director extraordiniar) made sure everyone got their boat in smoothly (maybe her next job should be guiding planes in and out of the tarmack at the airport). Competitors had two divisions from which to choose: the Championship (20 boats) and Challenger (9 boats). Two starts were provided so that the challenger division, with many new comers, could concentrate on competing against skippers of the same competitive level. Saturday found the wind out of the Northwest steady but with that ever changing shiftiness associated with the lake. The race committee (PRO Craig Kivi) did a tremendous job of placing the windward mark so it was very hard to fetch. Fairly short starting lines made for some hair raising moments. Remarkably there were few individual recalls and not one general recall. There were a few first day highlights. In the championship division Dan O’Haver (#4529) came out of nowhere in race #1 to conveniently snatch first place from 2003 champion Forest Rogers (and unlike the year before Dan did this without a self induced headache). After giving himself plenty of pats on the back for a job well done he promptly found himself in race #2 watching PRO Kivi give him the index finger right after the starting signal which he misinterpreted for “start over”. Opps, there goes that nice first place finish! Knowing that they had have a great finish in race #3, both Dan and Mike went deep into the play book and went into their infamous “no shirt” mode. This author thinks that the conventional thinking on their part -- this would be less drag -- may have had some merit. Silly them however, when it’s that cold goose bumps only create more resistance. Their “Hail Mary” failed to do the trick. In the challenger division, team Ingall (Beth and Andy #4691) showed their competitive spirit by showing up in their tie die uniforms. The ‘60s live on!! Andy did a great job demonstrating in the first race just how much water one of these shirts can absorb when you go overboard. For some reason he and Beth decided to go on a shrimping expedition where he quickly found out how a spinnaker can go from weighting like a feather to weighting like a waterlogged Sunfish. In interviews afterwards, the skipper could still not explain how he fell out. Fortunately, the service boat was near by to assist in getting him back in his boat. Other first day highlights included watching Bill Pfund (#5193) sail so well with his teenage kids aboard. They flew the spinnaker as well as anyone out on the course. Paul Lee (#13) is always fun to watch. In race #3 after going around the windward off-set mark he just caught a nice stream of air and literally vanished on the fleet. In the challenger division, Todd and Suzanne Moore (#2397) saved their best sailing for the end of the season as they earned 3 bullets. So good were they in race #2 going into the finish that they even took their spinnaker down early. Ahhhhhhh there is nothing like a little confidence to end the year. And who says age matters as Jim and Marie Davis (#784) sailed as though they just purchased their boat earlier in the year as they consistently finished in the top third of the championship fleet. After the racing, the competitors met in the yacht club Park for hors d'oeuvres and refreshments. The author will forever remember this event for the food. After sitting in on several meetings prior to the event, I must confess that it became harder and harder to tell if we were having a regatta or an eating exhibition that just happen to have a few races thrown in. Headed up by Suzy Hawkins and Suzanne Moore, they made sure that no one left with an empty stomach as sailors munched and socialized with a the meatballs, chips, dip and special cake commemorating the event. It appeared that the fleet goal was accomplished judging by all the happy smiles. Sunday the sailors awoke to find conditions quite a bit different than the previous day with clear skies, sunshine and mirror like water conditions. The only race to be held this day was the one to see who could get their boat out first and ready to trailer which happen to be won by none other than Jim Grant (#2851). When everything was packed up, the troops proceeded to munch on hot pizza (29 in all) and liquids. Afterwards District Governor and Fleet #20 Captain Michael Ehnis awarded trophies for the top 3 finishers in the challenger series and the top 7 in the championship series. Winning top honor in the Challenger series and bouncing back from their mishap the year prior were Todd and Suzanne Moore (#2397). Winning the District Championship trophy for a fourth time was Paul and Denise Lee. A special big thanks to all those who helped from the PYC group who headed up the following committees to ensure a fun regatta for everyone: Brian Hawkins shirts and the budget; Suzanne Moore – food; Suzy Hawkins - food; Craig Kivi - race management; Todd Moore – Food (and making sure the fleet captain didn’t flip out over all of this). The fleet captain never could have pulled this off without all their contributions. We look forward to next season and duplicating the success of this year’s event.
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Midwest Sailing -- Home Page -- Portage Yacht Club
Located in Pinckney, Michigan 12 miles northwest of Ann Arbor: Maps & Hours Phone: 734.426.4155 E-Mail: sail@chartermi.net |
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