WMYA 2004 Regatta Recap

Western Michigan Yachting Association
75th Annual Championship Regatta
Hosted by the Crystal Lake Yacht Club

Western Michigan YA, Crystal Lake, MI
August 5 - 8, 2004

     Let's start with the name of the lake, Crystal Lake. No doubt one of the gems in this world. White sand bottoms, no pollution or weeds and crystal-clear hurt-your-eyes blue water. A big lake in the northwest corner of Michigan, right up against Lake Michigan. Great weather, 175 boats and incredible organization by the host club, Crystal Lake Yacht Club. That was the setting for the 75th Annual Western Michigan Yachting Association Championship.

     56 MC Scows, 16 C Scows, 27 E Scows, 61 Butterflys, 15 Lasers - Wow!!! PRO Charlie Harrett and Midge Verplank, along with Happy Fox, Kathy Fox, Judy Lind, scorer Nancy Price, Stu Soule, Ross Reuterdahl and a large number of assistants from Crystal Lake did a fantastic job with the race management. Day 1 and Day 4 provided really great winds while day 2 and 3 put up a big challenge for the race management teams. Considering what kind of wind conditions were presented, they for sure gave us the best racing possible. Ross Reuterdahl, the event protest committee chairman, had no work for the week as the sailors took care of all legal matters on the water. There were lots of turns both for marks and fouls but it was really clean sailing which makes for a lot more fun when handled this way.

     Socially the event was huge. Major parties every night that were awesome. Many traditions were upheld in style from the dancing, to the great food, new friendships made and old friendships refreshed. It was a blast for sure.

     Now on to the racing. I will touch a little on each class. Complete results can be viewed at several sites including the Crystal Lake Yacht Club site, www.wmya.org, www.melges.com, and off course www.mcscow.org. One class missing from this report is the Laser class but it posted on some of the above sites.

     Our future in Western Michigan looks bright with a huge Butterfly fleet this year.

     In the Junior Division the point spread between the top boats was close which shows the racing and talent levels are good. Charley Knape from Grand Rapids won the event with a strong 3,1,3. Second went to Alan Walborn of Spring Lake who had a 5,5,1. Jordan Hatt won the tie-breaker with Spencer Powell for third. Taylor Moore who finished 14th also won a race.

     In the Open Division Scott Anderson from Grand Rapids edged out Reid Pierce by one point with a 2,2,1 to Reid's 3-1-2. The other race winner and finishing third was Austin Hagen from Crystal Lake.

     All the Butterflys and Lasers were kept on the sandy beaches in front of two local club member homes up on the north shore which gave us a lot more space at the club for the larger boats. Many thanks to the Greenes and other members who provided their homes for all the Butterflys and Lasers.

     The C Scow division got a sailing lesson from Cameron McNeil who had a strong 1-2-1-3 for the win. Cameron brought a tear to everyone's eye at the awards with his dedication of the win to Doc McNeil who recently passed away. All of us not only in the C Scow class but the entire WMYA will miss Doc for his dedication to his family and their sailing. A great friend for sure.

     Rookie Bearcubs Ted Keller and Pete Comfort from Torch Lake sailing their newly donated boat from Melges Boat Works won race 4 by a boat length and also secured a strong second for the weekend. Congrats to our new Rookies no longer Rookies now. Chris Craig had a great race win for race 2 finished third. EHood and the Zenda Express team had great speed but sailed a lot of extra miles during the event this past week finished fourth. Tom Keenan top Master for the event was fifth.

     The MC Scow class had some great racing with some big changes in the scores throughout the event. It looked initially like the Jamie Kimball, Ted Keller and Tom Brown show, until the last day when some big changes occurred during the last race. The big winner of this year's event was Chris Eggert from Spring Lake who was in good shape going into the last race and closed the deal with a big win. Rob Terry from Crystal Lake, who was very consistent throughout the event, finished second and Ted Keller from Torch Lake finished third. Check out the scores and you can see the big swings in this class this week.

     In the E Scow class it was the Rob Terry show. If you were to give a MVP award this week it would have been Rob. He not only won the E Scow Class but finished, as mentioned earlier, a strong second in the large MC division. Sailing was exciting for the E Scows as they probably saw the most wind this past week with their early race on Thursday and the late race on Sunday. We also had two of the experimental Asymmetric Sprit boats here. Ted Greene and Larry Price from Crystal Lake both had some exciting races that had the 50 boat spectator fleet on the edge of their boat cushions. Don Nelson from White Lake finished a strong second with a 5,1,3,3,3.

     I think the biggest lessons learned this week was that if you did not go out for a full practice beat and run before your first race of the day you more than likely would have some tactical problems. Speed was important for sure but knowing where to be on the big courses going upwind on that important first beat was critical. The starting lines were very large but set very squarely to the breeze. More times than not the breeze favored the left side of the course going upwind and the right side going down. I would say this was true for 80% of the racing throughout the week. There were some rights and when they came it was usually just velocity related. Even though Crystal is a very large large lake, we never really had too many wave issues to deal with. So it really all came back to that first beat. Also, remember when the lines are oversized in length it usually pays big time to make sure that leeward bow is clear for at least one boat length or more if you can do it. Start fast, know where you are going well before the start. Take that extra time to go out and do that first practice beat and run each day.

     Many thanks to Crystal Lake Yacht Club, regatta co-chair Walker Wynkoop and his entire team. Special thanks to Ted and Arlene Greene for housing the Zenda team.

     Lots of places to see all the results including the Crystal Lake Yacht Club, Western Michigan Yachting Association websites and of course www.melges.com. There are some incredible scow pictures to be viewed and also purchased at www.westrichphoto.com.

     Mark this regatta down. It is one you need to do. Next year Spring Lake, Michigan, where Ross Reuterdahl promised to the crowd the lake has been widened and all powerboats removed :-) See you there.

E.Hood
Zenda Express
I-45 and MC 2289
Melges Performance Sailboats
and North Sails Zenda