Crow’s Nest 08/07/25
PARTY ALERT!!!!: Saturday, August 9th at the Outing Club starting at 6:00pm. E fleet skippers and crew, CLYC Board Members and CLYC members who live at the OC should bring food items to share. As always, Vice Commodore Andi Tisor will have the “bar” stocked with fantastic libations of many varieties to tame your thirst. Of course drinks of the non-alcoholic variety will be on site. Please be respectful to the residents of the Outing Club and remember their residences extend onto the deck, please don’t wander their areas. Parking is allowed on any of the residential streets but South Shore Drive. Please enter the grounds by walking through the south parking lot and around the south side of the building. Arriving by boat? – please use the main dock and stay off of the swimming dock.
Isn’t it amazing how the older we get, the more we long for the times of youth and enjoy recalling those memories with the friends we made back then!?!?! Those memories are shared 20, 30, 40 in some cases 80 years later and with each passing year they’re recalled with greater fondness despite the exact details perhaps getting a bit fuzzy…
Dr Tom Hodgson, de facto ILYA Historian, gives a speech before the ILYA X Championships every year and he often talks about the event in a context of friendships rather than competition; I’m paraphrasing but, “You won’t remember who won this regatta, but you’ll remember forever the friends you made…”
This year the ILYA, with input from Minnetonka Yacht Yacht Club, decided to test the idea of “The Dinghy Champs”; The Optimist, X-boat and Melges 15 fleets sailing back-to-back-to-back. 3 Fleets, 9 days and lots of crossover from one fleet to the next. The CLYC had 3 Optis, 6 X boats, 1 Melges 15, 2 Race Committee members and their spouses, 3 coaches, coach boats, parents, siblings and spectator boats; I’m told the number of people for the 9 day event was around 1,000… WOW!
Our three attending Optimist racers all completed in the Green Fleet, which is the best place to start your racing career! Alex Berding, Isla Sorensen and Oliver Thompson woke up Saturday morning to a steady 12-13mph breeze, but the power boat chop came on quickly. 4 races were sailed on Day 1 and some good results were had by all! Oliver Thompson stormed out of the gates with a 9th place finish in race 1 and had another great one in race 4 with a 5th place finish! Isla had a 5th place finish in race 2. Alex in his first regatta ever, improved his results with each race, scoring a 12th place finish in race 4!
Day 2 the wind was a bit lighter and the powerboat chop, which Minnetonka is famous for, really kicked in! Only two races were completed on Day 2 due to the rough conditions; Alex once again improved through the races and ultimately finished 24th overall. Isla found her groove in Race 6 scoring an 11th and finished 19th overall. Oliver started Day 2 with a 13th and finished the event 17th overall! WE have a great group of kids in our Opti program and next year promises to be even larger!!!
Following the Opti racing, the “controlled or managed” chaos ensued with roughly 100 total X boats, their coaches and their families all trying to control the already managed chaos! Minnetonka did a pretty darn good job from what I understand and no incidents were reported. Day 1 of the X Champs was similar to what we’ve seen all year; a whole lot of sitting and waiting! At least they had a nice spot on Light House Island and a nice cool lake to relax in while waiting!
Day 2 was a touch less waiting, three races were started, only two were finished! Race one started off with a good breeze that shut off half way through forcing an abandonment. That means, Race one was scrapped and the next start was Race two… That didn’t happen until around 4pm when both the Senior and Junior fleets got going in a 7-8 mph breeze and a bit of chop. Around 6:45 the fleets finally got back to their moorings and were promptly swept off to Light House Island for the evening festivities!!!
A 9am warning on Day 3 was a great call! Winds at 10-12 with gusts over 15 from the NE had the both fleets grinning with joy. The PROs for each fleet made their intentions of holding 3 races known and off they went. If you’ve never witnessed the X boat Inlands launching and “commuting” to their respective starting lines, it’s pretty crazy! That’s a lot of sailboats, a lot of coach boats, a lot of spectator boats; you can feel the joy and anxiety (mostly from the parents) in the air.
At the end of Day 3 a total of five races were completed in varying conditions and of course some varying results. Our top Senior Fleet sailor was Jude Sorensen with crew Will Price; our top Junior Fleet sailor was Sofia Allbee with crew Xavier Prestholt. All the sailors should be very proud of the showing they put on at Minnetonka and the lessons they learned. Those lessons are what will carry them forward and make for better results… BUT – what did Dr Tom say? They won’t remember who won that regatta, they’ll remember the friends they made!
On to the Melges 15 fleet where we had just one lonely boat participate… Maybe more next year? Finley Nyhus with trusty crew Matt Doane ventured to Minnetonka and successfully navigated the exiting X boats and their swaths of support to represent the CLYC. The Melges 15 fleet is very dynamic and charismatic in that it caters to all manner of sailor. From kids under 16 to adults over 70, they all competed together on a level playing field!
In a case of Groundhogs Day all over again, the teams encountered light winds and plenty of chop, making the racing difficult in the 70+ boat fleet. 5 Races were managed over 3 days; I’m not positive but I’m told the wind may not have gotten above 10 mph for the M15’s. It was a tough regatta for the boys from CL but once again, many lessons were learned. I’m sure the duo will come back with new ideas and concepts to put in place and fare well in the coming racing.
While plenty of fun was being had in Minnetonka, back in Clear Lake the fun was also abundant! While I certainly can’t detail the specifics of every race, here’s a few highlights from the past two weeks of Club Racing:
- After returning from X Champs, Sofia Allbee and Xavier Prestholt used their new found confidence to win their first race in the X boat fleet! Congratulations Z-3!!!
- It was a girl power weekend in the X boat fleet; 3 of the 4 races were won by girls – Avery Tidrick had two wins and Sofia Allbee with one.
- The E fleet finally got some racing in! Team Loon took full advantage scoring 4 straight wins!
- The C fleet also sailed 4 races last weekend; Merrit Becker took wins in three of those four races with Bill Nicholas claiming the remaining win!
- Last Saturday, young Griffin Harris crewed for his cousin Will Finstad in the Melges 15 and then with Emily Haugerud in the E boat – the net result was a 4 win day!
- Todd Tesar dominated the MC fleet with two bullets and two seconds.
- In the Melges 15, Will Finstad won both races Saturday and Brad Thompson took both wins on Sunday.
- With just 3 weeks of Championship Racing left the X Boat Fleet Championship is coming down to the wire. Just .04 points separate Jude Sorensen and Garrett Summerfield.
In other news around the Club; you may have noticed a beautiful new block walkway around the large flower bed at the Yacht Club… From sod, to grass seed, astroturf and concrete, many different solutions to an eyesore were explored. At the end of the day; John and Carolyn Hanson came through and donated the money to appropriately fix the problem for generations to come. The new brick pavers are fantastic looking, match the colors of the Clubhouse perfectly and now we have no worries of people ruining the grass! Thank you Hanson’s for everything you do!
If you recall, I mentioned Brad Price competing in the Transpac Race a couple weeks ago. He shared with me some pictures from the event, I can’t help but share them with you! A couple interesting facts Brad shared with me: The race spanned 2225 nautical miles, sailed in 12 days. During that time, he never slept more than 2.5 hours at a time (due to watch shifts) and lost a total of 9 pounds during his adventure.
Just a touch different than Clear Lake I would say… Congrats Brad on checking off another bucket list item!
I believe that’s all for now. Until next time, friends…
Stay in the Clear Air,
Dan Allen
MC 2811 – Relentless