Nestled in the Sierra Nevada Mountains is a lovely like finger of a lake, surrounded by pine, fir and clear skies. For 28 years the local sailing club has been putting on their annual summer regatta, and this year the Windmill's returned again. Our own WCA webmaster Alan Taylor used to call this lake / club home, so he has the ability to drag us to events if we want to keep getting the Jouster. It doesn't take much arm twisting however.
The challenging conditions of the Scott's Flat Lake are renown in the region, as the canyon setting, and location between warm valleys and cool peaks keeps the air circulating. Never in the same direction for more than 5 minutes, but hey, that is lake sailing. So, with that warning, each boat approaches each race with both dread and excitement - This may be the time you are gifted, lifted, and look like a hero.... Or, this will be the race with all headers, dead spots everywhere, and competitors within feet of you sailing merrily by at three times the speed. Roll the dice, and keep looking out over the water for some signs.
Our races were conducted in a chilly and overcast Saturday, and a sunny and glorious Sunday. Two races on each day as the RC struggled to find wind and competitors aligned at the right moments. Some races had been posted as long ones, when in fact, a short one would have been better. But who knew... The Windmill's, thanks to Tony Mindling offering up a registration with little chance to break away from family obligations, gave us our own start. This year the Western WCA members offered up four woodies for the locals to view, starting with Dave's 758 (1963) Darrell's 831 (196?), Alan's 2851 (1967), and Scott's 3481. A good looking fleet of vintage dinghies well preserved by owner skill and affection for the boats. Some of our boats were "footers" and Dave's was a "pointer".... Age of the jibs were probably the factors there...
As this was a warm up regatta for the Nationals, we used it well, as the four of us practiced running each other into the committee boat and being tough on the starts. Since Alan Taylor is coming to Nationals this year, Dave wanted to make sure Alan had no thoughts that since the WCA is so friendly, that room would be given to officers and hard workers at the committee boat. Some of us have learned that the hard way in past Nationals! Alan and his crew Erin, and Sarah and Dave fought up and down the courses, pulling ahead, falling back, and repeating the cycles throughout the two days. Since Scott is more of a teacher, sportsman, and mentor, he and Jessica dropped back in one race to just shadow Darrell Sorensen around the course giving advice when he wasn't racing hard with the other two boats. It really helped, as in the last race Darrell and Tana (running on a wooden mast) was up with the fleet and looking very good. Alan and Dave each had one race where they had the finish sewed up by a reasonable and safe lead, but in the other two races, after long courses they finished in photo finish fashion. It was fun to have those types of finishes and helped us to appreciate that just a little luck here or there really made the difference. We all did a little "tuning" mid regatta, and found that we were running the rigs al la Dave Ellis, "straight up and down" on the mast rake. Not enough experimentation time to say much, but it was fun for us to be tinkering to see if there were any adjustments that mattered more than others.
We were able to squeeze in a district dinner as well in the old mining town of Nevada City. A great Italian restaurant opened it's doors for us, and we had a great meal and lingered over conversations until the evening was spent. A great event all in all. We missed Tony, and look forward to others joining in Gold Country next year! |
