TOVELL/CHICOINE WIN INAUGURAL ERIE YC (Fleet 83) REGATTA
Showing great skill in both the two very heavy air races Saturday and the two very light air races on Sunday, Craig Tovell & Alec Chicoine (4200) placed 4-1-1-4 to capture 1st place in a very competitive 16 boat fleet at the Erie YC August 13-14. Ralph & Matt Sponar (5702) sailed "Hummingbird" to the runner-up spot with 1-7-5-1, overcoming a capsize on the run to the finish line in the second Saturday race. Lon Ethington & Meg Gimmi (5070) came up from Florida and battled for the regatta lead with 2-2-2 until being caught on the wrong side of what little wind there was in the final race and winding up 10th.
Friday was a beautiful day for arrivals and a wonderful pre-regatta party put on by the local fleet utilizing the Diemel's backyard! It gave us all a chance to catch up with long-time friends and to meet the enthusiastic new Windmillers of Fleet 83. Out of town guests were housed in the homes of fleet members and on "borrowed" boats secured in slips at the Erie YC. This spacious club even has bicycles available for getting around the grounds! We all missed John & Anne Danneberger who had a car breakdown (not the trailer!) enroute to the regatta.
Saturday brought all the wind (and more) that the fleet could handle. The Race Committee set a WLWL course with an offset mark and a gate. It was difficult to keep boats driving upwind in the 20-25 mph winds and very tricky planning and jibing downwind. The Sponars showed exemplary boat handling to take the bullet ahead of Lon & Meg who were somehow able to depower enough to keep the boat relatively flat and yet retain upwind speed. In the second race Craig Tovell and his Laser-sailing crew Alec Chicoine dominated but again Lon & Meg took second. The final run found jibing problems as the Sponars, Faths & Deimels all capsized. The Sponars did their usual amazing recovery moves and salvaged 7th. Lisa Fath's capsize was due to a clevis pin holding the shroud to the hull shearing from the force of a jibe (see Jouster article for more on this). Including earlier capsizes & other problems, only 11 boats finished this race. With the wind building to even greater strength, the race committee wisely decided to end the racing.
Sunday morning found totally different conditions with extremely light airs. The first race was set as a 2-lap WLWL course like Saturday. Tovell & Ethington battled for the lead with Tovell getting to the right hand gate first, heading back upwind and hailing a support boat to get out of his way--only to discover that the race had been shortened to 1 lap and he had already won! After Lon/Meg took their third consecutive 2nd, the Huntleys followed with a second consecutive 3rd. Larry Christian suffered from being OCS and only becoming aware after sailing a considerable distance up the weather leg--thus leading to an unfortunate 11th.
The final race started in very light airs and appeared to be a battle between Craig/Alec and Lon/Meg for the regatta title. Most regatta leaders went left on the beat with only the Sponars finding a key moment to tack back to the middle. Craig bailed out ahead of Lon/Meg who were left nearly becalmed with the Demlers and Huntleys. The Sponars turned 1st and Allen Chauvenet/Lisa Hayes thought they would turn second until Dan & William Claxton (4450)came down in a great puff to just edge them around. On the run to the finish, Ralph & Matt held on to win while Larry/Allie found a great slant of wind off to the left, jibed in it and passed everyone--except the Sponars who were just far enough ahead to make it over the line first. the Claxtons did some outstanding sailing and held third with Craig/Alec coming up to just nip Allen/Lisa at the finish. Erstwhile, leaders Lon/Meg, the Huntleys & the Demlers had been so far back at the weather mark as to finish 10, 11, 12 which allowed the Sponars to edge Lon/Meg for regatta 2nd.
Fleet 83 did a great job in hosting their first regatta including the welcoming party, Saturday dinner and lots of "goodies" for each entrant. As one might say, the "average" wind strength was really perfect! We certainly look forward to this venue as the site of the 2017 Nationals. |
