Mount Dora Sailing Regatta at MDYC, Mt. Dora, FlaApril 5 - 6
Story
Dave Ellis Wins Mount Dora

Although some last-minute conflicts kept the fleet down to four boats and there was a shortage of wind, there was plenty of fun and fine sailing at the Mount Dora regatta April 4-5. Dave Ellis and Dan Fontaine both had crews from the Lake Wales Pram School (James Campus and Carter Ullman respectively) who were able to experience Windmill racing. Hopefully this will support the great efforts Dan has put into the Lake Wales program and interest the school in acquiring some Windmills, returning to Clark Mills' original concept of the Windmill for those who outgrew the Pram! Allen Chauvenet sailed with Christina, just back on spring break from her graduate studies in London, while Colin Browning sailing with his daughter, pram graduate Janell.

Satuday brought virtually no wind and the boats drifted around one lap of the only race sailed. Dave Ellis led at all marks, although Allen Chauvenet somehow drifted up close to him on the leg to the last mark.
Ellis then re-opened his lead by the mark and when Chauvenet followed around he held on port "tack"...unable to generate enough speed to tack to starboard and eventually noticing (on a Lake!!) that the small bubbles on the surface of the water were passing him (shades of Randy Rice and the dead fish from >30 years ago), This allowed Dan Fontaine to threaten for the runner-up position but somehow when Fontaine was "blanketed" by Lasers coming to the mark, Chauvenet found the faintest trace of wind, altered course 90 degrees (now heading for the finish) without tacking and held 2nd, followed by Fontaine and Browning.

Sunday morning brought light but at least detectable airs, three two lap W/L races, and two great battles between Fontaine and Ellis. In the first race Chauvenet was contesting with them but went the wrong way on the long beat and fell to fourth. Ellis held on to some small downwind gains and was able to stay ahead on the final beat. Chauvenet split jibes downwind, picked up Browning and closed (but not enough to
matter) some on the two leaders and thus wound up third.

In the second race of the day, Ellis and Fontaine were never far apart. On the beats, Fontaine pointed a little higher and Ellis footed a little faster with overall equality while on the runs the boats stuck closely together. Each had turns at the lead. On the beat to the finish, Fontaine timed his final tack perfectly while Ellis slightly overstood the favored end of the line. Since Fontaine had a small lead, this enabled him to clinch the win with an outstanding overall race. Ellis followed and Browning beat Chauvenet who had wound up on the wrong side of a shift at the start.

The last race of the regatta saw Chauvenet just trying to stay near the leaders on the first beat and check his boatspeed. On the final approach to the mark, Fontaine tacked starboard when Chauvenet could tack right on top of him and this forced Fontaine to make two extra tacks in the light air. Ellis led with Chauvenet chasing and when Browning and Fontaine split away on the first leeward leg they both lost ground, resulting in two different two-boat races over the final lap plus. Ellis could never get too far ahead of Chauvenet, but Chauvenet could never catch Ellis so Dave won followed by Allen. Colin sailed exceptionally well and managed to edge Dan for third.

Thus. although there were only four boats, everyone did some good sailing. Dave was superb as always and deservedly won the regatta. Dan sailed very well in the 2nd and 3rd races, splitting those with Dave and taking second overall. Allen overcame some confusion to demonstrate good boatspeed and a fine result in the final race while Colin showed he is learning the Windmill, beating Allen in the 3rd race and Dan in the final race.

Dan will continue to improve as he gets more time in his Anosov boat (and he was 6th in the 2007 Nationals) while Allen should get his boat going a little better by the 2009 Nationals. Colin and Janell will get better and better as they get more time in Windmill racing and upgrade their boat and sails...Windmill racing is really fun when the boats are so closely matched that anyone can beat anyone else in a given race!

We look forward to a return to Mount Dora with twice as many boats next year!
Result
PosBoatNameTotalRace 1Race 2Race 3Race 4
14620Dave Ellis & James Campus51(1)1(2)2(4)1 (5)
25528Dan Fontaine & Carter Ullman103(3)2(5)1(6)4 (10)
35586Allen Chauvenet & Christina Chauvenet112(2)3(5)4(9)2 (11)
44481Colin Browning & Janell Browning144(4)4(8)3(11)3 (14)
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