2009 4th District Championship

Gull Lake, Michigan –

A traumatic event can often make you appreciate life more fully.  However, I am not sure anything could change my appreciation of racing in Gull Lake Michigan.  The people are extraordinary.  The water is beautiful and the racing is better every year.  What could possibly enhance this experience?  Even tuning my rig on the water made me take a second and realize what a wonderful place I was in and how privileged I was to be on the water and racing a sailboat with my friends.   

Gull Lake is hosting the 2009 Great Lakes Championship; the first time in at least 14 years.  In those 14 years, the boys in Gull Lake have gone from weekend warriors to making their own boats.  In those 14 years, Gull Lake has risen from a few boats to at least ten solid contenders, while still maintaining their brand of competitive but friendly charm.  I feel like part of the family when I come to Gull Lake.   

25 boats arrived and were ready to go this morning.  The wind was from the Southeast at about 5 knots.  I was a little tired this morning but I was aroused from my grogginess with a eyeful of Patrick Gudat’s crew cruising around the parking lot in a lime green Speedo.  I had to catch my breath.  Maybe he was changing into his gear. Nope. 

He jumped on the boat ready to rumble.  Good lord what is going on here?  I mean, I have seen Europeans and Brazilians wear a Speedo in the parking lot but I have never seen anyone race in a Speedo.   

First of all, it must be horribly uncomfortable raking your skin across the deck and its hardware.  Not to mention the effect on his hardware and Patrick, what is he thinking? 

By the way, Patrick did not object, enjoyed the ride, and regardless of their results seemed somewhat satisfied.  What is going on with his hardware? 

We lost 10 boats by making sure we kept a wide berth of those guys.  Excuse me; I think I just vomited in my mouth.   

Afterwards, a collection was taken from all the sailors to buy him proper attire for tomorrow, seems like a great way to earn a new hiking suit. 

The first race saw stargear.net going first and second.  However, at one point on the first leg it appeared that Pat Londrigan and Mike Wysockey were way ahead of the rest of us.  These guys haven’t sailed since the eighties as evidenced by their pair of Vaurnet sunglasses, their pair of Ocean Pacific shorts, their pair of Sperry Topsiders, and as they were leading, their pair of erections.  Due to his growing excitement, Mike couldn’t hike hard and the lead was squandered.  Rick Brethorst and Arthur Anosov were second and Stewart Hall and I won the race.  Greg Smith and TC Belco were a close third.   

This is an eight boat series and with three races in light wind and the remaining five races in a predicted heavy breeze; avoiding a major pitfall on day one was the safe strategy.  This is the strategy Stewart I adopted on race two.   

We took the lead and jibed to the right side of the course, where the velocity had been all morning.  Hello fifteenth place and the consolation prize… an eyeful of a lime green banana hammock.   

This, my friend, was all the encouragement we needed.  We climbed up to fourth while Jon VanderMolen and Geoff Ewenson skated to a big victory and Todd Gay and Trevor Wallner finished an easy second.  Tom VanderMolen and Steve Ticknor slide into third.  We dropped to sixth. 

In the last race of the day, V3, or the three VanderMolen brothers, decided to make a statement and were first, second, and third after two legs.  Jon VanderMolen and Geoff Ewenson had a small lead at the leeward mark over three other boats, we were a distant fifth.  But, Rick Brethorst and Arthur Anosov slid into second busting up the V3 plans. 

Then, the wind became unpredictable, Jon Vandermolen and Geoff Ewenson, due to no fault of their own, slipped to fifth and Rick Brethorst and Arthur fell to sixth.  We were blessed with a third but had a ball trying to fight off the tight cover being applied by the other VanderMolen brothers.  Tom VanderMolen and Steve Ticknor sat on us and Jim VanderMolen and Jon Klerk sat on us harder.  We did a line plunge but Jim did it better and held second. 

On the schedule, we have three more races tomorrow and two on Sunday, plenty of wind in the forecast, looks like a banner day.

Day 2 – We awoke to some serious rain and thunderstorms.  Two more lines of thunderstorms were appearing to the west, so it was going to be a long wait before any action on the racecourse.  Around 2:00 pm, we were on the water and looking to race.  The wind was as steady as it turned out to be all weekend.  The wind was from the Southwest and the line was favored by 10 degrees to the pin.  Greg Smith and TC Belco nailed the pin at top speed and pushed up to weather of the rest of us, heading to the left side of the course.

Stewart Hall and I decided to eat Greg and TC’s backwind just to stay on the lifted tack while the others tacked away for clear wind.  At the weather mark, Greg and TC had a one boat length lead on us and the fleet was content to mix it up in a battle royale for third.  The battle only let the two lead boats stretch out and sail the rhumbline. 

The course was a triangle then a windward leg and a leeward leg.  The first reach required both of us to fly the pole so Stewart and I decided that we would drop the pole at the jibe mark assuming the next reach would be tighter, we were right.  However, Greg and TC didn’t drop the pole and we were allowed to slip inside and pass them by the next mark.  The group behind continued to bite and scratch each other.  We held our spot the rest of the way and Greg and TC held the wolves at bay for second.  Rick Brethorst and Arthur Anosov edged out Rob Maine and Howard Ferguson for third.

The next race presented the exact same conditions and line setting and Greg and TC nailed the pin again and we ate their dust… again, to the left side of the course… and Greg and TC enjoyed another lead over us at the first mark with Rob Maine and Howard Ferguson in third beating back the wolves. 

Unfortunately for Greg and TC, they were too low on the first reach and lost the lead.  Rob and Howard soaked it low on the second reach and let Greg and TC beat back the wolves as they all sailed high.  This allowed us and Rob and Howard to stretch out a little and secure first and second. 

At this point Stewart and I enjoyed three firsts, a third, and a sixth with only three races remaining.  Have you heard the phrase, “…and then the wheels came off?”  The sixth race started around 4:45 pm and the wind was dying.  We were taking a beating on the first leg and lots of our “friends” had some choice words for us when we executed a port tack approach to the windward mark.  

Now, those of you who have not sinned can cast the first stone.   I should hear the crickets now.

At least five boats were overlapped on starboard, the inside boat was the ever gracious Tim Delaney.  To underscore his demeanor, I must note that Tim sails with his wife and the “sweethearts” and “honeys” don’t stop flowing even at the end of a long trying day. 

Later that night, I told the bartender, “I’ll have what he is drinking.” 

Anyway, Tim’s boat was not moving, the other five boats to weather of him were moving and started to alter course to sail high and avoid him.  I don’t know what he was doing and why he was parked at the mark, maybe he was whispering sweet nothings into his wife’s ear, I don’t know, but what I do know is that there was a patch of navigatable water between his parked boat and the mark.  Stewart had the brilliant idea to sail through that patch.

The boats sailing around Tim thought that I caused him to alter course so they cast dispersions towards me, I tried to tell them it was Stewart’s idea and besides Tim never had to change course, so there was no foul.  They were not persuaded, even one of the spectator boats started yelling at Stewart. 

Anyway, I asked Tim if he changed course and smiled and said that he had not changed course, so we all sailed on, the Delaneys in bliss, the other boats in rage, and Stewart and I hurling towards some bad Karma.

We found a way to finish 19^th. 

Rob Maine and Howard Ferguson won the race with and Jim VanderMolen and Jon Klerk in second and Todd Gay and Trevor Wallner in third.

After six races and a throw out race, we six point lead over Jim VanderMolen and Jon Klerk and seven points over Greg Smith and TC Belco. 

Day 3 – As expected the wind velocity increased and it was coming in at about 215 degrees.  As we practiced, the wind seemed to increase and come from the right side of the course.  So, we hovered to the right side of the committee boat and waited for an opening, none appeared until about 15 seconds before the gun. 

Just then, Todd Gay and Trevor Wallner, the controlling boat next to the committee boat, put their bow down and created a nice patch of navigatable water for us to start (Stewart’s idea by the way), we slid into that patch then tacked to port immediately.  We hit the right shift and were leading at the weather mark.

Jon VanderMolen and Geoff Ewenson were fifty yards behind with the fleet bearing down.  We jibed to stay on the rhumbline; big mistake, hello 10^th place. 

Jon and Geoff led a brigade of nine boats around us like we were standing still. Three legs later, the first 12 boats finished within 20 seconds of each other in big breeze.  It was so compacted that Stewart couldn’t tell me what place we finished nor how many boats were in that clump. The only thing that was apparent was that Rob Maine and Howard Ferguson won the race and Greg Smith and TC Belco were the tail end of the clump.

Going into the last race, we had no idea of the scores except that we gained on Greg and TC and lost boats to Jim VanderMolen/Jon Klerk and Rob Maine/Howard Ferguson, how many… it was a mystery. 

So, the only strategy was to cover Maine/Ferguson and VanderMolen/Klerk. 

The last race presented a real challenge to everyone.  The wind was swinging 30 degrees at a pop and ranging from 20 knots to seven knots, so the changes in angle and speeds betweens the boats were dramatic.  Don Parfet and Craig Lockerbie made it look easy and they took the lead, according to Rick Brethorst, Don Parfet was leading because he was wearing Rick favorite undershirt (what? that doesn’t sound right).

We found our competition and sat on them.  Then a blast of wind hit, Rob and Howard jibed to starboard and we were in a tight spot on port.  I was having difficulty jibing the loaded up mainsail.  Once accomplished, I was hurling toward the ever litigious Gene McCarthy and the right leeward gate, this was not going to end well.  I wrestled the helm enough to miss Gene McCarthy and then wrestle it back to aim it at the mark but I had no rights on Gene McCarthy and Rob Maine.  Then, as the McCarthy wildly jibed around the mark, a small patch of navigatable water appeared, and we spun around the mark just missing McCarthy, another Stewart Hall idea by the way.

We found our competition again, and sat on them.  It did not work, Rob and Howard who were behind and to leeward of us while sailing upwind, peeled off our stern sailing in different wind and thirty degrees higher.  They sailed right by us.

We started to bleed boats.  When it was over, Rob and Howard worked up to 4^th only to slip to 8^th within yards of the finish.  Rick Brethorst and Arthur Anosov went from fifth to first within yards of the finish… and we finished 12^th. 

Sailing into the dock, no one knew who won the regatta.  After talking to the Race Committee, no one knew who won the regatta.  The RC was pouring over a tape recorder trying to get the 7^th race scores correctly.  The RC poured over a photograph to get the scores correct, still no progress.  Finally, they decided that three boats would be scored fifth in that 7^th race because they could not determine who was fourth, who was fifth, and who was sixth. 

Rob Maine was claiming that Rick and Arthur won the regatta.  Rick was sure that Jim VanderMolen and Jon Klerk won the regatta, I was only sure of one thing; Al Covington beat Art Riley to secure a little known but popular wager.

As it turned out, we won the regatta with 34 points, Rob and Howard were second with 35 points, Rick Brethorst and Arthur Anosov almost won the regatta with a strong finish on the last day with 36 points, Jim VanderMolen and Jon Klerk were fourth with 36 points, Greg Smith and TC Belco were fifth with 39 points, Tom VanderMolen and Steve Ticknor were sixth with … points, Jon VanderMolen and Geoff Ewenson were seventh with 42 points, Todd Gay and Trevor Wallner were eighth with 44 points.  Todd and Trevor were 10 points from first place, in eight race series, that is a little over one boat per race. 

There were hundreds of scenarios where anyone of us could have spared that “one boat a race” and won the regatta.  Sailboat racing is alive and well in the Midwest.

The RC did a wonderful job and the Gull Lake fleet entertained like no other. 

As I tried to convey after the regatta, the simple things in life are more fully appreciated by me and my family.  Sailing on a beautiful lake against and with my friends is a fine example.  Sharing a drink and a laugh with some of the finest people I know, is even better.

Before I left to race, I renamed our boat “The Tin Man” after a poem I wrote about my son Jack and his struggles.  When I arrived home Sunday night, the Tin Man was waiting for me at the end of the driveway.   We took our time enjoying the evening, making our way to our home, together… carrying that huge trophy.