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