The Lake Pontchartrain Multihull Championship regatta was a success in spite of the weather. We had commitments from 25 teams mid week. Two A-Class sailors bailed out on Thursday night and two Corsairs arrived and rigged on Thursday but decided to leave on Friday AM.
Lots of rain on Saturday morning that finally started clearing out around 1:00 PM. The remaining southerly teased the RC going to SW and then backing to E before settling back to SSW. The 1st race was held in 0-5 knots, the second race (A-Cats only) in 5-7 knots, the third race in 8-10 knots, and the last race in 8-14 knots.
This morning the breeze was in the high teens gusting into the low 20's. The A-Class decided they were not chancing their rigs and the F-18's decided after an hour to not chance it since the forecast was for strengthening. It was a good thing they did because the wind recordings for the planned start time went up to 25-30 knots and stayed that way for the next two hours before settling back down for the afternoon (as I write this) at 15-20 knots.
Results were:
A-Class (9 boats)
!. Woody Cope
2. Bob Hodges
3. Ben Moon
F-18 (5 boats)
1. John Tomko
2. Tommy Tyrone
3. Chris Green
Open Spin (2 I-20's and 3 F-18HT's)
1. Mark Smith
2. Mark Ederer
3. Patrick Pettengil
Corsair (2)
1. Mike Parsons
2. Tami Shelton
The competitors were very enthusiastic about the sailing venue and the feedback we received will make this event a reality for next year. We hope to plan it at least 2-3 weeks after Spring Fever to encourage more participation. We were forced into the date this year to keep from conflicting with the Corsair Nationals and the Alter Cup.
Thanks a bunch for those who supported us this year. We appreicate your faith in us that we could pull the event off despite the doom and gloom forecast. Pontchartrain Yacht Club was delighted to be your host and looks forward to presenting an even better event next year.
Bob Hodges
Great venue, great time...
First race yesterday had less than 5kn at the start. 10 minutes after the start I think we were maybe 10 yards over the start line. Couldn't tell whether we were on a port or starboard tack! Finally someone put up a spinnaker about 20 yds from the start and we started moving somewhat. How about a 180 deg wind shift for ya? I was like.. don't they call races off for wind shifts like this? Mark Smith replied that you couldn't have a more fair wind shift so why call it? Good point I guess...
Second race was better But 2 general recalls made us have to wait for the As to finish. There was a boat on the pin side I believe that started heading up and realized they could take everyone up because of a wind shift the line wasn't square. Someone else can add to that discussion.. I was a little lost about what was going on because I was getting yelled at by everyone for being in a bad place.
Third race for the spin boats was good.. everyone was a little more cautious about the start. I screwed up immediately after the start when I tried to tack onto port after just going over the line only to put myself into irons for a little bit and away the fleet went. We were headed to the windward mark after overstanding a bit and I grabbed the traveler line while the crew was out on the wire with the mainsheet. I thought..
wind is coming up, may need to reach a little, better grab the traveler line...
Popped my butt over the side and SPLASH... yep.. forget to hook in!
Screwed up my finger holding onto the sheet in the water for second. Sure was cool looking at the boat sail away with the crew out on the wire. I was waiting for him to go over but it didn't happen. Took him a while to sort things out and get back to me. Rounded the windward mark and set the spin and was doing well despite not being able to get out on the wire because I had bent our new tiller ext. Gybed and did the thing I seem to have developed a talent for... either not playing the trav/mainsheet right or heading up too much too fast and over we went. We actually had made up some ground on the fleet before I ended up in the water the first time but we we obviously screwed up that race. Did a crazy screaming reach to the finish and we were done for the day.
No racing today because the wind was out of control. Some people coming over the Pont causeay said the water was insane and the gusts were also.
Great time though, great to see 3 HTs out (we joked that this could be our
Nationals
).
Gotta figure out how to make the boat go faster and definately need to do some serious drills.
Will definately try to be back next year for this race (and hopefully there will be a 5 boat fleet of HTs for our next
Nationals
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this guy took pix of everyone setting up on Sat:
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Thanks Bob and PontYC for a lovely time. Food good, hospitality good, it's all good! Do it again!
Bob, sorry I bailed out on you, I got the boat all ready to go, and my wife and I just couldn't believe the weather would get better in time for a race, at least good enough for a 17' Center Console. I was wrong. I will try to get to the next regatta and take some photos. I have been away from sailing for way too long. That looks like a great facility too!
No worries Alec, given the forecast we had to deal with.
Again thanks to all the teams that made it despite the weather warnings.
Bob Hodges