Oh thank you Mother Nature for the glorious weekend of sailing at Laurel Acres!! Bright sunshine, temps in the 60's and breeze coming right down the lake all weekend long. Damn, life is good!
We dodged a couple bullets. One was the start of fishing season and the other was the township somehow found money to landscape the entire shoreline of the lake. Seriously, mulch, shrubs and plants around the whole lake. Thanks to the wind direction, we fit perfectly into the non-fishing side of the lake and landscaping ended up not only not bothering us, but looks pretty good...for now.
For two straight days the course was set once and never touched again. We started deep in the cove with the weather marks up by the parking lot. The leeward end was a gate that actually set a little above the starting line. The breeze was mostly "A" rig but wondered into "B" on day two, which is when attrition came into play.
The CESS pool was used to allow each skipper to sail in 18 of the 27 long long long 2 1/2 lap races. On the second day, the top seven were taken out of the random pool in a fairly colorful manner and required to sail together in each of their heats. To avoid a lengthy explanation, just assume I was screwing with them.
You'll see down below that the usual suspects are found at the top of the leader board. The top five contained four national champions that have won eight between them. Yes, our regatta was also decided by one point. There was so much really good sailing this weekend that is all just a blur at this point. Perhaps later, I will remember more. One highlight was Dave Branning breaking his EC12 regatta maiden with a bullet on day one. In an ironic twist, he lost a tie breaker with Phil Tonks, who had two.
Nick Mortgu and Mark Rinehart did all the leg work setting up the event. I merely picked up a clipboard when I got back in the country and pressed the start button. Sir Joseph of Williamstown, the skipper formerly known as Joe Cole, assisted Nick all weekend long with everything going on at the windward end of the course. Ivor Walton lent a big hand on day one. We also had our official photographer, Jim Flach on hand both days. His pics can be found at
https://picasaweb.google.com/108473518809726585434/2013EC12LibertyBellRegatta.
After racing, a handful of us started a new Liberty Bell tradition with a venture over to the indoor electric go-cart race track. All I can say is that if you think it's scary being in front of Jarl, Mark and the Ramos boys on the lake, you should try it on the go-cart track where there isn't an RRS to save your butt.
As always, thanks for coming. I had a blast.
DB da RD
1 D. Thomas 37 (1 National)
2 J Wathne 38 (2 Nationals)
3 D Ramos 40 (1 National)
4 J. Betz 46
5 M. Rinehart 50.2 (4 Nationals)
6 H. Mote 52
7 A. Ramos 89.2
8 T. Stone 94.6
9 D. Barker 99
10 B. Shluger 100
11 P. Tonks 100
12 D. Branning 100
13 B. Ewing 106
14 C. Bock 144
15 S. Graf 167 sailed Saturday only
16 V. Oberg 170
17 D. Littleton 173
18 R. Baldwin 178
19 J. Kircher
20 Skip Hall 207