Regatta Notebook

Crew: David Ames. Finishing Place: 2nd out of 22 boats.  ( Results here ) I sailed with David Ames for the first time this past weekend at Ephraim.  It was a great opportunity to get some different sailing perspective from the reigning North American Champion.  My goal for the regatta was to improve boat handling and boat speed so I can ultimately compete with the elite sailors in our class.  I feel I made some great strides this past weekend but still have a ways to go.  Sailing with David was fun and he overwhelmed me in a good way with vast amounts of knowledge and tips to the point where my head felt like it might explode at times.   It will take some time to fully digest all those nuggets of information and incorporate his driving program with mine, but this weekend was fun and I learned a lot of helpful stuff.   Race 1   (3rd Place - Light Wind) In race 1 we worked on some low speed boat handling at the start.  We parked on the line at the boat for 1.5 minutes  and accelerated fr

Crew: Richard Alonso. Finishing Place: 9th out of 24 boats with a DNF.  ( Results here ) This is only second time racing with new crew member Richard Alonso from CLSA.  He did an amazing job at the Radioactive Race #1 and we were going to see how we fared against the competition at Carlyle at the Egyptian Cup.    We experienced a regatta killer tragedy on the first race while competing for the lead with Lynn and Bill Bruss and this disaster would carry into race 2 and 3.  We rounded the first upwind mark in first place (I love it when that happens) and rounding the first downwind mark with Lynn and Bill Bruss, Richard pulled the main sheet from inside the block and tangled it up in a way that cannot be explained by the laws of physics.  It would result in a DNF in the first race and screw up our 2nd and 3rd races because we were limping around the course with a dysfunctional mainsheet.   On the second day we would be back to form.  We rounded the windward mark in first place on the fir

  Crew: Ben Williams. Finishing Place: 4th out of 8 boats The local CLSA Thistle Fleet 66 is an up-and-coming racing fleet and I see potential with this group.   I borrowed a high-end Thistle a few years ago and recruited experienced thistle crew and dominated the local Hike Out Regatta event.  It's not much fun when a regatta lacks competitive racers who can challenge you, but the fleet and the events are now showing much promise.  Kelly Chang is a local grad student and Thistle racer from New York who has friends with high-caliber racers on the East Coast and she has been successful in recruiting them to race at some CLSA thistle events.   Kevin Arrow and Mike Gillian are competitive regional racers and are now showing up more consistently to CLSA thistle regattas.   Gerry Christman is the local thistle Fleet Captain and he has been traveling to regattas and is improving his game.  Last but certainly not least, a few newer racers including Tom Johnson and Max Christie/Nooreen Meg

Regatta: Space Coast Invitational 2021. Crew: Greg Florian. Finishing Place: 3rd Place out of 11 boats ( Results Here ). This would be my first time traveling with Greg Florian and we had a ton of fun driving down all the way to Florida for a weekend regatta.  It was a solid performance where we were the fourth best boat and we finished third.   I was hoping we'd have something for Jeff Linton and Bill Bruss and Tom McNally and Andy Hayward after doing so well at Lake Monroe but we just didn't.  There was a Robby Brown racing who I've never met before and he was very good and sailed 3-up so he had some extra weight.  The wind was blowing 20+ and my hands were barely functional after the first race.  Greg was not used to crewing on a Flying Scot and he was battling a learning curve.  I was trying a new brand of gloves and a new mainsheet. They just weren't working.   After the first race, the next two races were pretty much survival and we hung in better than everyone ex

In this video I show you how to flatten your rudder blade.  When you sail with a flattened rudder blade, there is less resistance on the tiller.  Whether this helps you sail faster is up for debate, but I'm told most of the elite sailors in our class sail with a flatter blade.  Rod Bussell Fleet 135 Fleet Captain 

  Regatta: Lake Monroe 2021. Crew: Richard Wojnar. Finishing Place: 1st place out of 7 boats.   Watch video of victory speech .  We were excited driving to this regatta because it was a small but very competitive group of racers where we all agreed that any of us could win it.  I was sailing with Rick Wojnar and the wind was projected to blow so I was feeling very confident.  We raced two races on Saturday in a big wind and good sized chop and finished with two bullets.  For you non racers reading this, a bullet is 1st place.  Scott and Laura Marriott put up a good fight upwind, but we just seemed to dominate with superior boat speed both upwind and downwind.  Everything was just clicking and we just felt like we had a gear that nobody else did.  It was a new feeling but it sure felt good.  At dinner on Saturday night after day 1 of racing, the roles had reversed as my friends were encouraging me to have another drink and telling me the wrong starting time in hopes I might show up late

  A rough day sailing is still better than a good day at the office and a rough regatta weekend in Florida during the winter months is better than a weekend in Illinois.  I thought Eric was crazy when he first suggested we borrow a Flying Scot and race at the Tampa Regatta at Davis Island Yacht Club.  Sarah and I took our first introductory lesson with him and joined the club just this past season.   After taking lessons and earning our US Sailing Certification, we were allowed to borrow Blue Eyes and practice most Wednesday nights on the weekends.  He had invited us to crew for him at the Egyptian Regatta at Carlyle and we continued to develop our sailing skills every week at CLSA.  Our most notable highlight was the day we won the start during the starting clinic against so many experienced racers.  We were getting better, but in no way did we think we were ready to compete by ourselves against top Florida talent.   Eric assured us there would be a team of CLSA racers looking after

  Regatta: Tampa Regatta 2021. Crew: Rick Wojnar. Finishing Place: 10th out of 20 boats racing. Tampa has become my favorite travel regatta.  This year we finished mid fleet but the score card doesn't represent how well we sailed.  We broke a vang fuse in the last 1/4 of the first upwind leg of the first.  Rick is a strong dude and just shredded the thing with one big arm pull.   We had great upwind boat speed and would round the first mark in third, but we'd get destroyed on the second upwind in big wind and drop to the back of the fleet because we didn't have a vang.  This is so incredibly frustrating because we wanted to break out and start winning trophies during these Florida District races and quit screwing ourselves with avoidable mistakes.  I feel Rick and I together are a very strong team and we have the boat speed and boat handling to compete with these guys if we could avoid mistakes.   We'd finish 12th after passing some boats downwind on the second downwind