by Fred Maurer » Wed May 03, 2017 9:12 pm
The Allegheny Mountain Regatta Report:
The Allegheny Mountain Regatta was held April 29th and 30th with ten skippers on the start line. They all put a premium on the Corinthian spirit of sport sailing. That collective attitude made for a really good time on the water. When boats were fouled penalty turns were done without request demonstrating the highest degree of sportsmanship. It made the title of Race Director easy to wear and the racing a pleasure to watch.
The wind was invited, but was late to the race. The skippers battled as best they could in very light winds on day one. After lunch, and with the warning of a freight train coming out of a tunnel, the boats went in an instant from being nearly becalmed to uncontrolled broaching and knock downs. The momentary squall was real excitement by any measure. That squall brought the average wind speed for the whole day to a perfect nine knots. The squall reliably preceded the rain. The dampened spirits were lifted by the option of going to Meyer’s Dairy for ice cream and milkshakes. Day one done, option accepted.
Day two experienced better winds but was still a test of the skipper’s patients from time to time. The skippers best able to harvest the most energy from the light wind found themselves at the top of the fleet. The Fleet standings at the end of the regatta were:
1.) Dave Ramos
2.) Dave Brawner
3.) Jamey Betz
4.) Jim Flach
5.) Don Ouimette
6.) Dave Branning
7.) Roger Baldwin
8.) Scott Graf
9.) Jim Hermann
10.) Ray Szulczewski
Should you see any of these names on a regatta you are going to you will know you will be sailing with a gentleman. For those that couldn’t make it to this regatta, we missed you and hope to see you here next year. Last but not least, my thanks to Bud Wolf for his steady score keeping, Harley Fisher who helped with the score keeping and most importantly, transported the food to the venue, and Jim Hermann who behind the scenes helped with all of the planning and heavy lifting. A good time was had by all and every name you see here made that possible.