S2 7.9 2007 Class Championship Regatta Details

"Marco..... Polo...."

The 2007 Class Championship regatta may have been the most unexpected challenge in recent memory. The predominantly light air on Thursday and Friday required intense concentration. Any moment with your eye off the ball produced a huge penalty. Saturday required skill in shifting gears. And the entire regatta was a great lesson in lane management. It was great fun.

Things got going on Wednesday under a scorching sun at the Milwaukee Yacht Club. Everyone was rigging within 100 yards of the host club so there were plenty of 'extra' hands to help with masts, launches and the occasional fetching of a beer. It's always a pleasure to see so many friends.

It was immediately obvious that we were at a first-rate venue. Milwaukee Yacht Club was a FANTASTIC host and the 7.9ers were treated to the very best that sailing has to offer. The yard guys on the lift offered to crane in all of the boats, even though there was a public ramp just on the other side of the parking lot. They even used their bobcat to move your trailer for you. Unreal! The tent on the lawn was set for us and the view of the harbor couldn't have been better. First-rate indeed.

Unfortunately the forecast winds didn't quite look quite as first-rate. It blew 10 knots for about 20 minutes on Wednesday evening, as predicted, then died, also as predicted. At that point it looked sketchy for the next three days. Paul Latour recounted his story from the previous weekend when the light air and left-over lump "incapacitated" his crew. Paul was in rare form.

Thursday dawned as one of those beautiful mornings that sailors hate. Lots of sun. No wind. And as the 10:00 harbor gun sounded, few of us held out much hope for the day. That was bad enough. But Friday looked worse, according to the computer models.

Fortunately, they were wrong...to a degree.

After a short postponement, the RC got things under way. The breeze had settled in from the North, in the QQQ degree range, at about 6 knots. Not much, but it was steady. The fleet stayed reasonably compressed for a while, but it soon became evident that Frequent Flyer (Boston), Songbird (Friedell / Richfield) and Rebel (Spierling) had their speed set ups on target. They legged out and finished 1,2,3. The premium was on concentration, and trimmer / driver communication. Race two was more of the same, but just a little lighter. Lots of boats had "all dogs in the house" upwind. Songbird got the bullet. But the Flyer crew fell off the pace and finished 6th. K2 (Padnos) showed great form with a 2nd and the ever-popular Relentless guys, with Gutsy at the helm, shook off the haze with a third.

Race three was a struggle in a dying breeze that was moving right. Yikes! But the fleet stayed remarkably compressed. When it went down to near zero on the 2nd upwind and the thermals kicked up, we put up our chute three different times. It was all about clear air. Ol' Blue Eyes (Schwarz) tacked away / outside of us, in what looked to be a suicidal maneuver...only to come steadily jogging back across the top of all of us on the right about 10 minutes later. Of course the downwinds were a trimmers nightmare. It was so easy to run over your apparent wind that the fleet looked like apprentice sprit boat sailors out there at 'hot' downwind angles.

The day was a great contest, IMHO. Very challenging. It was light to be sure. But it was not that patchy / shifty nonsense that makes for crap-shoot sailing. The odd breezes affected everyone equally. On the day, it was Songbird in 1st, K2 in 2nd and James O'Dell's Tenessee crew on Thriller in 3rd.

Friday looked about as promising as Thursday, except that it was overcast. Then things got interesting. The fog rolled in. And as race 3 got going in 5 knots out of the North, the fog really rolled in. A third of the way up the first leg, we could see one or two other boats, and those only occasionally. Again the wind was quite consistent, although the left seemed to have paid off just a little better. Concentration was again at a premium, especially with the disturbing OUUUUUU-UMMMMMM from a wholly invisible lake freighter somewhere WAY too close nearby. They must have been working their radar hard. All noses were eventually accounted for at the finish. It was Songbird, Relentless, and Paul Tobias in his beautiful #71 Liason for that race.

The sun magically re-appeared for much of the rest of the day, and we continued to sail in modest 4 - 6 knots breezes for the next two races. Flyer got back in the game with a 2nd and a 1st. But Songbird posted a 6th and a 4th just to keep things interesting. They didn't want to end the day too far ahead. Judging by the cross-eyed looks from most crews back at the docks, it had been a very trying day. What little brain power was left over (not that there was that much to start with) was quickly extinguished at the bar.

Saturday was a tease. Sunny and light at first. The RC, with Jarod Silverman as PRO, continued their fine work by hoisting the AP flag for 30 minutes to let what little breeze there was settle in. And settle in it did. By the start of race 7 we had an honest 10 - 12 knots at QQQ degrees! There was very little time to shift gears before they banged off the first start of the day. So, once again you really needed your head in the game shifting gears...both upwind and down. There were a few shifts up the beats. The angles downwind were very different from the previous two days racing. And all the sail settings needed big adjustments. Still, lanes were critical. Flyer, Dash (Bonvaillet) and Magic (Pawlowski) posted in-the-money results for this one, race 7. 

Unfortunately, Schwarz and crew on Ol Blue Eyes had an inner shroud explode right above the swage, and lost their mast at the top mark of the second beat. It was the only sad moment of the regatta. Fortunately, there were no injuries. And it was a great testament to Peter's love of the sport when they motored down to watch the last start.

The breeze moderated a bit for race 8. The Hard Tack crew just hammered the start about 10 feet from the committee boat....only to hear the PRO call everybody back. About 1/2 the fleet was OCS. Things got going again, but in a very different manner. Flyer and Songbird were match racing in the barging zone to starboard of the committee boat. It looked like a nice opportunity for a couple of boats to tuck up underneath them. But somebody near the boat got too aggressive and got their nose a bit too high. Somehow Flyer peeled out, but six boats got closed off, high of the RC. Ouch! Hard Tack got caught up in the mess and Song Bird might have been last to get to the line. Flyer, Dash and Itch wound up on the podium for race 8.

When it was all done, the regatta results were amazing:
- Everyone had a top 10 finish
- 13 boats had a top five finish
- And, remarkably, 13 boats had a bottom five finish.

It was a very challenging regatta. Oh, and did I mention the current?

-Tom Elsen