Crow’s Nest 09/01/22

The time has come; I simply can’t believe we’re on the verge of closing down the 2022 season already.  Seemingly just a blink of the eyes and the season finale is upon us. This Sunday, September 4th at the Yacht Club building, the Awards Dinner will be held.  Dinner will be at 5:30pm; artful creations brought to you by Chef Raul of the Gyro Place will be served! Cost for dinner is $10/person. The awards presentation will begin about 6:15; please be sure to bring back the traveling trophies on Sunday so they can be awarded to this year’s winners.  The trophies for the sailors are just the tip of the iceberg; don’t forget about all of the “Circumstance Awards” like the R Lyle Bergo Trophy, the Marie O’Brien, the Harold Crane and of course the famous Blooper Award! You have just a few more days to submit your stories to Stu, oltrogge@clyciowa.com.

Before the Awards Dinner we still have some racing to do!  Each fleet will race at their normal time both Saturday and Sunday.  X’s and MC’s should expect back-to-back races on Saturday with a single race Sunday.  E boats, you’ll have your typical back-to-back races Saturday afternoon, no racing on Sunday.

Last weekend the E and MC fleets each had their annual fleet parties.  A huge thank you needs to go out to both hosts!  Wil Cooney with the backing of Shane and Kelly put out a beautiful spread for the fleet and made everyone feel at home; thank you to the Z-7 Team! Jake and Nicole Sorensen put on a fantastic event Saturday night for the MC fleet; in fact they didn’t miss a beat when the weather forced everyone indoors!  An incredible weekend of fantastic eats, beverages, camaraderie and decision making!  Speaking of decision making; the 2023 E Fleet Captain will be Jake Sorensen and his new Z (#TBD) Team; sorry Jake, that’s what happens when you don’t show up!  The new MC Fleet Captain will be Dave Haugerud, once again, you just can’t miss those parties!

The Second Series winners and Fleet Champions have all been decided.  I’m not going to disclose the Fleet Champions yet, although with a few clicks you can find out anyway… The final weekend of championship racing went something like this:

Each fleet was moved to the West slightly to accommodate the Annual Hobie Regatta.  Does anyone recall my comments from last week about the Northeast breeze?  It seems as though the South breeze can be classified as insane as well… Perhaps it was the atmospheric conditions, perhaps it was our location relative to the shore; regardless it was incredibly shifty with hard hitting downdraft puffs.  No matter which class you were in, you had to be ready for anything… Jude Sorensen really liked the conditions presented in the first X race as he walked away from the fleet!  Leif Lundberg finished second with Elle Ebeling finishing 3rd.  Aside from a slight increase in velocity, not much changed for Race 2; this time Leif took the lead and never looked back, winning handily.  Sam Ludwig finished second, Elle Ebeling once again finished 3rd.  Saturday racing in the MC was a pre-party of sorts; 3 capsizes (2 by one boat) and a fallen mast were the highlights (lowlights if you were one of the unfortunate ones).  Race 1 was led start to finish by Brad and Margaret Oz; nothing says “I’m back” like drubbing the fleet!  Mark Tesar was second with Stu Oltrogge in third.  Race 2 started in a building breeze and then dropped and then built and then dropped… Mark Tesar was master of the shifts and puffs in this ordeal leading Stu Oltrogge and the Oz’s to the finish.

Sunday morning… Same wind direction, same course location, ugh… Elle Ebeling came out jammin’, focused and ready to race.  Race 1 was owned by Elle hitting the shifts and driving the boat hard through the big puffs.  Finley Nyhus had another great race finishing second with Leif Lundberg in third.  The second race was held in unchanged conditions, this time however, Leif Lundberg controlled the fleet crossing the finish line well ahead of everyone else.  Elle completed her great day with a second, while Finley did the same, finishing third.  The MC races were very tight and competitive once again…..Once again it was the usual suspects putting the finishing touches on great seasons.  Mark Tesar won the first race over Stu Oltrogge with Brad Oz again in third.  The second race was won by Stu with Mark in second and Todd Tesar making his way back to third.

E racing:  Team Loon…. End of story… Ok not really, but they did take it to the fleet Saturday afternoon!  A pair of wins for the Z-23 while everyone else struggled with each other. The Tesar’s had a rough Saturday; first Todd breaks an MC sidestay then their E mainsheet breaks and the starboard line breaks… Ooops.  Despite the breakdowns the Z-13 Team had a 2, 4 scoreline… Brad Price had a nice day with a 3, 2 and the Z-94 Team comes in with a 4, 3.  Sunday afternoon was a different story than Saturday; the wind was blowing hard, I mean VERY hard… PRO Tommy Erickson called the fleet out as it was still below the newly set topline of 25mph gusts; the fleet aside the Team Loon (perhaps Looney) decided to stay ashore. The wind did eventually begin gusting around 30 mph and the idea of racing was scrapped.  Apologies from the E fleet to Tommy Erickson.  We really should have made an effort to notify you of our intent not to race on this particular occasion and didn’t. We will in the future make a much better effort to notify you of our intent.

We’re still looking for used boats, MC’s in particular.  If you have one that’s sitting around collecting dust and may consider parting with it, please let me know.

The E Scow Nationals is coming up in a few weeks; it’s being hosted by our friends up at Minnetonka Yacht Club.  58 boats are registered already, that includes two from Clear Lake.  Brad Price and his team along with Emily Haugerud and her team will be on the line vying for top honors.  MC Nationals will be held at the end of September in New Jersey; we have a nice group planning to attend!  Dan Allen, Mark Tesar and Steve Dunbar are all registered; Nate Kotz will also be making his way down to the Jersey Shore from Boston to give it a go!  Good luck to everyone!

Next week I’ll give you a full rundown of the final standings in each fleet as well as the “Circumstance Award” winners.  Until then friends…

Stay in the Clear Air,

Dan Allen
MC 2811 – Relentless
E Scow Z-11 – Wild Side
dsallen@cltel.net
www.clyciowa.com
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