By Jarl Wathne
Commodore, Maryland MYC
The 2007 Columbia EC12 Regatta was hosted by the Maryland
Model Yacht Club on 13-14 October and we had gorgeous weather in
the 70s, but the wind was from the west.
For those of you who have been to our lake you know that
this means it comes over and around the restaurants and hotel
and office buildings.
That makes for bidirectional winds, downdrafts, and
swirls but at least we had wind that was sometimes light but
often 8-12 mph. Not
a moments rest on the course from constantly adjusting for new
wind direction, new tack or gybe and major planning was almost
pointless. It was
react, react, react.
But what a great group of guys to have around for this
much fun! The
Co-RDs were Norman Watkins and Doug Hutchinson with helpers Mary
Anne Arnett, Doug Frantz, and Steve Andre (all club members who
sail ODOMs and Vics, so no EC12 skippers were harmed in the
making of this regatta as supervised
by the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to RC
Sailors). We had 14
skippers with 8 from Maryland MYC, 1 from Florida, 1 from NC, 1 from CT, and 3 from NJ.
We raced a total of 23 heats, 14 Saturday
and 9 Sunday, with Danny Thomas missing the 6 morning races so
he could go to his son’s football game.
When we broke for lunch I had a 9 pt lead over John
Ebell who won 2 of those races.
6 pts further back was Bruce Walton with a 2 pt lead over
Baron Bremer, Harry Mote, and Bob Szczepanski tied for 4th.
We had a great lunch at Tomato Palace
overlooking the lake then jumped back into the fray.
We raced until 3:30 with 8 more heats before packing it in.
My lake was often kind to me so I was still in the lead,
now followed by Walton with a 2 pt lead over Mote, and Bremer
trailing another 3 back.
Ebell was in 5th leading Al Sellers by 6 pts.
When we arrived Sunday morning the water
was covered by a swirling layer of mist that gradually
relinquished it’s hold on the lake to the continued westerly
winds. Knowing that
there were 1st-5th trophies and 1st-3rd
red chevrons the group was hot to get back to the water.
Unfortunately Ebell and Mike Denest didn’t tell their
boats about how much fun racing is, so they both had to get the
pit crew busy replacing a servo and a switch solder joint.
Each missed 2 races, but then got the boats wet again
with Ebell getting the prize for the EC12 high altitude launch
as he put his in from the dock closest to the starting line just
before the 1 minute signal.
Bremer had an excellent morning and moved from 4th
to 3rd overall in the 6th race, and then
into 2nd overall in the next race.
Walton had his best and worse races Sunday morning
holding on for 3rd.
Mote won the last race of the regatta to close the gap,
but stayed 4th, while Szczepanski took advantage of
Ebell’s boat problems to jump to 6th and then passed
Sellers in the 2nd to last race to take the final
trophy home to North Carolina.
Plans are being made for a new site next year as we are
told that this lake will be dredged in June 2008.
Our likely site is a few miles away without buildings
around it, so make plans to attend and break-in the new
location.
1.
Jarl Wathne………..56
2.
Baron Bremer……...86
3.
Bruce Walton……....99
4.
Harry Mote………..102
5.
Bob Szczepanski….120
6.
Al Sellers………….124
7.
Danny Thomas…….138
8.
John Ebell………….144
9.
Doug Wotring……...156
10.
Joe Cole…………….175
11.
Scott Todd………….192
12.
Mike Denest………...207
13.
Chris Kuhn………….210
14.
Pete Schilder………..254
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