Storm-tossed Conclusion to Great Lakes Regatta
(Chicago, IL- August 14-16)- The word of the day is "carnage". Thankfully, all competitors and race committee were accounted for after a wet and wild Sunday on the lake this past weekend--- complete with blown spinnakers, broaches, man-overboards, and even a capsized race committee boat.
Testing the boat handling skills of the crews, the morning winds were the strongest of the regatta, blowing about 15-20 knots. Mains were reefed, and some boats were on the run without spinnakers. But it was the afternoon storm cell that really shook up the regatta, as puffs up to 30 knots inshore forced a number of boats to retire, Circle C to abandon their second race of the day (since it was blowing near 55 knots!), and drew the Coast Guard out to aid in the rescue of an injured crew member aboard SOCIABLE and the Marine Police to aid three crew on board the capsized race committee whaler.
Racing for the J/109 North American Championship was a very strong one-design fleet of 14 boats that had traveled from just about all points of the continental USA- Connecticut, California andTexas to race with the large Chicago J/109 fleet hosts. STORM, skippered by Rick Lyall of Wilton, Connecticut, sailed a great regatta, winning the section and the championship with a score of 20 points, a 10 point lead ahead of second place finisher Albrecht Goethe's SURPRISE/ TEAM HAMBURG of Seabrook, Texas. Another thirteen points back in third overall was Robert & Cornelia Zerban's ZEITGEIST from Kenosha, Wisconsin. “It was an intense day of racing,” said Ryan, crew of Storm. “Overall the Verve was a great event. The race committee did a great job. They treated us out of town boats really well, and it was a solid weekend of racing.
Among the extremely competitive J/105 One-Design class section, Tom Petkus's VYTIS was able to pull out the win above John Weglarz’s THE ASYLUM by just four point. VYTIS was one a few boats awarded redress for their aid in to SOCIABLE, who had a crew member injured and taken to the hospital for treatment. Lying third on the podium was David Wagner's GIGI just five more points back-- the last race proved to be a cliff-hanger for this group, not just because of the storm but the final race standings essentially determined the ultimate outcome of the regatta.
In PHRF 5, Ed Bayer's J/35 FALCON from Grosse Pointe, Michigan won overall by thirteen points. over another J/35 AFTERSHOCK sailed well by William Newman of Muskegon, Michigan. Just off the pace were Bruce Metcalf's BOZO'S CIRCUS from Burr Ridge, Illinois in fourth and Geary Finn's IRISH ROVER from Prospect Heights, Illinois in fifth.
In PHRF 6, Dan Pesch's J/100 REMEDY from Chicago, Illinois sailed a strong regatta to gain second overall and a fellow J/100 BRAVO ZULU sailed by Lee Edwards of Hinsdale, Illinois finished fifth.
And finally, congratulations to Bill and Vivianne Smith on their J/30 AWESOME from Downers Grove, Illinois, who took first in PHRF 7. A fellow J owner, Dan Arntzen raced his J/27 TRUE NORTH to fourth overall.