1999 NA Masters Regattas 

                                                 1    2    3    4    5    
                                                                          H'cap   H'cap
Pos     Sail Skipper                                                      Total  -Worst Rnk

   1  156552 SAM HOPKINS                         1    1    1    2    1    33.00   17.00 A1

   2  165168 PETER BRANNING                      3    3    4    1    3    34.00   19.00 M1

   3  162540 HANK KLEESPIES                      2    2    2    3    2    37.00   21.00 A2

   4  164311 FRED SCHROTH                       11    4    3    4    7    41.00   26.00 M2

   5      78 RUSSELL BROWN                       5    5    5    5    4    42.00   27.00 M3

   6  162451 CLAUDE WELLES                       7    8    6    8    5    50.00   35.00 M4

   7  116237 DAVID SLY                           9    9    8    7    8    50.00   36.00 G1

   8   84824 DON ACKER                          10   11   11   10    6    51.00   38.00 O1

   9  138715 WOODY NORWOOD                       8   10    9    9    9    55.00   41.00 G2

  10  148822 BILL RACKLEY                        6    7    7   13S  13S   58.00   44.00 G3

  11  160964 PAT BROWN                           4    6   13F   6   13F   61.00   46.00 M5

  12  164279 SID MCCRACKIN                      12   12   10   11   10    71.00   55.00 A3

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Saturday - Races 1 and 2

Light and variable north-easterlies greeted the sailors for the fist day in English Bay.  In the first race a slight adverse current made for some strategic decisions.  Inshore, up the middle on shifts, or out into the bay to hopefully move out of the current eddy and catch the main flow?   Inshore seemed to work except towards the end when those who went partly left came back with a veering breeze.  Dennis Woodward and Jay Winberg lead the fleet at the end of the first triangle with John D-E third.  Dennis and Jay, however, repeated their first beat strategy of going inshore, and did not cover the rest of the fleet.  John D-E went up the middle again on the shifts and maintained a loose cover on the rest of the fleet.  Closing into the finish line the wind veered with John D-E and Barry Tee crossing ahead of Dennis and Jay.  The wind veered again at the top mark pulling Dennis back up into contention.  John tacked across to cover and just got the win.  Barry got third but Jay slipped to seventh with Peter Graham, Friederich Buxbaum and John Haley squeaking through ahead.   Score one for the big guys with Dennis at 200lbs and John at 194 lbs.

The second race was in less wind, hardly making the three knot minimum.  This time the course was two windward leeward legs starting from a heavily biased line that could hardly be crossed on starboard.  Your reporter was out of the top ten for the this one which was won by Marc Jacobi  from Rick Hewitt and Jay Winberg.  The race turned into a light air boat speed competition with the wind veering again making the beat almost a long fetch.  The only thing your reporter remembers about this one was a fatal tack onto starboard before the lay line on the second beat while the boats that sailed to the lay line got better pressure and sailed around him.

At the end of the first day, Jay Winberg held the lead from Peter Graham and Friederich Buxbaum.

Sunday - Races 3, 4 and 5.

Races 3 and 4 were again very light air races.   Mike France got away in race three and was never headed.  Zig Burzicki, in a brand new Y2K boat (it says it was made in 2000 according to boat number on the stern - what's Vanguard up to? Do we have model years now?)  got  second with Marc Jacobi third.  The wind dropped totally in Race 4 as the it swung from NE to SE.   It was won by Jacek Suski with Zig second again Mike France claiming third.  The wind gods split up the fleet on run with neither rhyme nor reason as to who got the few zephyrs that they deigned to blow from time to time.

Race 5 started with the wind now from the south-east.  The current was pushed the fleet over the line bringing out the Z flag. The first beat was sailed in a little more wind, but not full hiking by any means.  First to the first mark in the shifty stuff was John D-E but the wind dropped on the run and fleet pulled him back.  Also in the leading pack at the leeward mark were the usual suspects of Marc Jacobi, Jay Winberg, Mike France and Jacek Suski.  The final beat proved the undoing for those who went left, with a stronger freeing breeze coming in from the right.  Marc Jacobi got his second win followed by Jay Winberg and Tim Murphy with Jacek and Lainie Pardie reaching in on starboard ahead of John D-E in sixth with Mike France losing out to tenth.

Monday - Races 6, 7, and 8

The wind gods finally exhaled and provided a glorious heavy wind day in the sun on Monday.  Winds gusting in the 20 to 25 knot range from the south west greeted the fleet and promised to blow out those cobwebs from the previous two days.   The three races were very much an upwind drag  race.  The first two were triangles plus a beat with the final race being a full Olympic course (thank you Andy!).  The results became somewhat predictable.  Marc Jacobi had the edge on boat speed from Mike France, John D-E, and Jay Winberg.  These four dominated the last three races.  John and Mike had a tussle on two of the races but after a while Mike established his superiority.  Jay laughed himself to third place in the last race when he and John were racing neck and neck up the last beat.   John was 1 1/2 to 2  boat lengths to leeward and threatening to pull through.  A 25-30 ft old cruising sailboat was headed right toward them on a parallel course.  John waved the boat to leeward but then the "skipper" suddenly aimed his boat at Jay and then decided to sail between the two lasers just about dumping John into windward and leaving Jay with the third place. 

All in all a regatta with a bit of everything, with everyone having moments of glory and despair on the first two days. Riding the waves on the reaches on the third day made it worth the journey for all.

Handicapped Results

And the kind sponsors of the event were:

Adventure Fitness; Cat Paw Boats Inc.; Dinghy Shop; Helley-Hansen; Kitsilano Marine; Lifesaving Society; Macken Sails; R & B Brewery; Rekord Marine; Specialties West.  Thank you to all!

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Results from the regatta held at Deltaville, Virginia this past weekend follow this brief report. We were blessed with some 5-8 knots on Saturday courtesy of a front which passed through too early Saturday morning bringing 15 knots well before dawn. This was a welcome change from the three prior days which were airless and humid to boot. Sunday's air was lighter and later so only one race was sailed that day, but it did allow a discard.

At the end one point seperated each of the first four finishers, and Joe Van Rossem the 1997 winner sailing in a borrowed boat in the interests of fuel efficiency in his drive from Ontario, ended up as overall winner. Another Ontario visitor, Heinz Gebauer World's Great Grand Master Champion in 1997, arrived with two "neighbors" pulling a three boat trailer, and perhaps predictably was first Great Grand Master. First Apprentice was Mike Schmidt, our District 11 Secretary and last years winner who told me at the end of the awards ceremony that it took three firsts and a sixth place finish to get him that high. This years Masters winner, one more point behind, was Alden Shattuck an all too-infrequent participant in this regatta. Hopefully we'll get him back next year and if Mike Scmidt can work on his consistency he could help keep the Canadians out of first place.

The 48 entries was a record for this event and could easily have reached the 50 level if two ladies who are ILCA members hadn't been so taxed helping with clubhouse activities that they chose to day sail close to the clubhouse. Regardless we had some welcome additions to our entry list including Charles Williamson from upper New York State, Russell Brown from the Florida Panhandle as well as repeat attenders from Florida and Texas all of whom felt the drive was worth the effort. We look forward to having all the attendees back for our regatta next year regardless of whether it is called the Atlantic Coast Masters or the Chesapeake Bay Masters.

Finally please note that the URL for the Fishing Bay Laser Fleet is listed below in case you want to know more about our site.  

Laser Masters Atlantic Coast Championships        Handicap Results -
Discard Worst

Fishing Bay Yacht Club September 11-12 1999       99/09/12
http://members.tripod.com/FBYCLaserfleet/
                                                        1    2    3    4    5 
                                                   Sep  Sep  Sep  Sep  Sep H'cap  H'cap
Pos Sail   Skipper            Home Town             11   11   11   11   12  Total -Worst Rnk Wom

 1  168302 Joe VanRossem      Ajax, Ontario         2    5    3    5    7    27     19    G1
 2  156985 Heinz Gebauer      Mississauga, Ontario  9   14    1    6    4    34     20    O1
 3  166063 Mike Schmidt       Columbia, MD          1    6   11    1    1    35     21    A1
 4  164077 Alden Shattuck     Annapolis, MD        13    7    2    3    2    37     22    M1
 5  116243 Mark Saunders      Seaford, VA          10    1    8    2   15    41     25    G2
 6  165690 Charley Williamson Ithaca, NY            6    9   13    8    3    54     38    A2
 7  157889 Chris Legg         Baltimore, MD         8    8    9    9    6    50     39    M2
 8  145189 Chris Kakavas      Burlington, NC       17    2   10   12   10    61     42    M3
 9  155493 Mike Ironmonger    St. Mary's City, MD   3   12   15    4   49F   93     42    M4
10  163980 Rob Overton        Hampton, VA          12   11    6   10   16    60     43    G3
11  151850 Bob Tan            Perryville, MD        4   10    7   11   14    61     44    A3
12  166847 John Fragakis      Winston Salem, NC     7   13    5   13   49F   97     46    M5
13   38788 Manfred Henninger  Sudbury, Ontario     25    3   17   22    5    77     51    G4
14  131526 Ken Robertson      Ajax, Ontario        11   21   20   15   12    79     58    O2
15  112853 Ken Hopkins        Statesville, NC      18   26   14   16   18    92     66    O3
16  148869 Brad Squires       Williamsburg, VA     24   27    4    7   22    99     69    A4
17  162451 Claude Welles      Austin, TX           20   24   19   17    9    99     73    M6
18  157812 Derek Stow         Mountain Lakes, NJ   22    4   29   30   13   108     76    M7
19  152912 Chuck Lee          Araphoe, NC          15   18   25   18   17   103     76    M8
20  155331 Ken King           Oriental, NC         27   29   18   20   11   110     80    G5
21  165988 Greg Stevens       Arlington, VA        31   15   16   21   20   118     84    A5
22  144114 Andy Schoettle     Washington, D.C.     26   17   12   33   49F  137     88    O4
23      78 Russell Brown      Niceville, FL         5   28   22   32   49F  146     95    M9
24  155272 John Quay          College Park, MD     14   35   23   26   24   132     95    M10
25  148609 George Sechrist    Oriental, NC         21   16   24   43   32   141     97    G6
26  168276 Jere Dennison      Richmond, VA         33   34   21   24   19   136    101    G7
27  165195 Bruce Rawlings     Palmyra, NJ          16   22   30   34   30   142    106    M11
28  142610 Thomas Jagodits    Poolesville, MD      32   25   27   14   28   141    106    A6
29  162330 Alain Vincey       Richmond, VA         19   40   43   23   23   158    113    M12
30  151860 Rich Parolski      Ocean City, MD       30   39   33   27   21   155    115    G8
31  153091 Carl Berninger     Bethesda, MD         41   20   42   29   29   161    119    O5
32      50 Keith Rawlings     Greer, SC            35   30   28   19   49F  171    120    M13
33  161936 Karen Long         Edgewater, MD        23   36   34   40   25   173    130    A7  F1
34    9357 Baxter Gordon      Lynchburg, VA        34   23   26   36   36   170    131    A8
35  154112 Faye Flam          Philadelphia, PA     38   32   31   25   31   172    131    A9  F2
36   84824 Don Acker          Palm Coast, FL       40   42   38   28   26   174    132    O6
37     515 Lewis Toms         Springfield, VA      29   19   40   37   49F  189    137    A10
38  135088 Bill Bruner        Charlotte, NC        37   31   37   42   33   180    138    O7
39   64350 Bob Damon          Midlothian, VA       36   37   32   35   34   184    145    M14
40  144079 Eddie Williams     Hampton, VA          44   33   39   31   49F  196    147    O8
41  154183 Bob Wardwell       Richmond, VA         49F  49F  49F  49F   8   214    163    M15
42  140533 Joseph Lawrence    College Park, MD     46   43   44   45   27   215    167    M16
43  149157 John Kupersmith    Alexandria, VA       45   45   41   38   35   214    167    M17
44  150077 David Hazlehurst   Richmond, VA         43   44   46   44   37   214    168    O9
45    4381 Mike Karn          Richmond, VA         39   41   36   41   49F  221    169    A11
46  112248 Floyd Dunstan      Midlothian, VA       47   46   45   39   38   220    172    G9
47  144385 Jefrey Hull        Midlothian, VA       42   38   35   49F  49F  228    176    A12
48  162050 Dave Porter        Richmond, VA         28   49F  49F  49F  49F  234    183    M18
           
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by Jim Richmond & Jim Brainard, Photos by Patti Duni

The 2nd annual Heron Lake Regatta was held on September 11-12, 1999 at Heron Lake State Park, near Chama, New Mexico. This year's Heron Lake Regatta also was the Laser Midwest Masters Championships. Heron Lake is a beautiful high-desert lake at about 7000 ft elevation, featuring crystal clear water, and no wakes from powerboats or jet skis!

Brazos Cliffs

The event was hosted by the New Mexico Sailing Club. Red River J-24 sailor, Bob Perry, took on the responsibilities of Race Committee Chairman, and was assisted by Laser sailor, Brad Duni, and the regatta artist, Patti Duni, of Los Alamos. Ralph Partridge generously provided his Catalina 27 as RC boat, and Jay and Steve Maze provided the rescue boat. Bob and his crew did a tremendous job given the strong winds and challenging, ever-changing conditions, and at least one sailor was especially grateful for some in-the-water assistance from Jay and Steve after one too many deathrolls during one leeward leg. We are fortunate to have such great volunteers.

There were 17 enthusiastic Laser sailors this year, five of which were in the under age 35 category. The youngsters started and sailed with the Masters in a single fleet, but were scored separately and two sets of trophies were awarded. The trophies and commemorative regatta T-shirts were reproductions of a pastel created by Los Alamos, New Mexico artist, Patti Walls-Duni.

This year's Heron Lake Regatta experience was definitely enhanced by newly completed and heated bathrooms, complete with flush toilets and warm water showers! This rounded off nearly perfect daytime weather in the mid-70's, even if the nights were a bit nippy. Clear southwestern skies produced fantastic sunsets and great star gazing.

Ed Kimball

The regatta opened on Saturday with a light air race in about 3 to 5 knots of wind. Park City, Utah's Apprentice Master Doug DuBois won the race, followed closely by Denver, CO Apprentice Master & Snipe sailor, Bob Bischoff. We hope to see more of Bob at future Laser regattas. Long Beach, CA Master Ed Kimball took third.

The second race began on a blast of a fresh breeze that lasted the rest of the day. The wind was a steady 15 knots, with microburst gusts up to about 25. It really gave everyone a workout. The course was a triangle, and the reaches were wet & wild rides. The jibe mark became a graveyard of capsized Lasers.

Unfortunately, this race was a classic case of lemming behavior among sailors as every sailor except one rounded the incorrect jibe mark. The single sailor that sailed the correct course was 19-year-old Ryan Perry, who having raced his family's J24 on the lake, knew better than to follow the old guys. Why didn't anyone *READ* the mark number as they rounded? Well, most of us were trying like hell not to capsize or run into a capsized boat. So this race became almost everyone's throwout in the end.

Ed Henkel

The third race was a repeat of Race 2, except that Ed Henkel led everyone around the correct marks this time. Long Beach, CA Master Ed Kimball took 2nd, and Redding, CA Grand Master Mike Eichwald took 3rd.

The RC conspired to test the endurance of the fleet by setting the fourth and final race of the day as a WLW, twice around. This provided, a long 1-mile beat in stiff, challenging winds. Dallas, TX Master Ed Henkel once again showed everyone who's in charge when it blows, winning the race. Los Alamos, NM Master and regatta co-host Jim Brainard, used his lanky, 6'1" body to good hiking use and took 2nd. Long Beach, CA Master Ed Kimball took 3rd.

Regatta Host, Jim Brainard

After the 4th race, the fleet had a 1-mile beam reach into shore in steady 20-25 mph winds and 2-ft waves that had built up over the course of the day---it was an unbelievably wild plane. The boats were practically airborne, with only the rear 25% of the hull in the water most of the time! It is amazing how a spectacular reach can rejuvenate those muscles that were turning to jelly on the last tack to the finish. The tired and hungry Laser sailors feasted on a catered New Mexico style meal, complete with a tasty keg of brown beer home-brewed by Jim Brainard. Those that had enough energy to stay up and enjoy the campfire and star gazing were treated to many ribald stories and the opportunity to tell the RC what they thought of the 1 mile beat in the last race.

Grand Master, Mike Eichwald

Sunday's racing began early with a light air race. Most of the fleet fought off cramps in muscles sore from the previous day's races as they crouched in front of the cockpit attempting to keep wetted surface down and sails full with very little breeze. Thankfully, for most of the sailors in the front of the pack, but to the dismay of those of us taking up the rear, the RC shortened the course about halfway through, allowing us to stretch those cramping legs. Mike Eichwald placed 1st. Ed Henkel placed 2nd, proving that he can sail fast in light air too. Jim Brainard was 3rd.

Sunday's second race was started in a slowly building breeze, and again, there was confusion about the course marks. Ed Kimball and Jim Brainard followed Mike Eichwald to the wrong windward mark. About three or four of us followed Eureka, CA's Grand Master, Jim Christopher, who had the sailing instructions taped to his deck, to the correct windward mark. Those following Dr. Eichwald soon realized what was happening, and belatedly reached over to the correct windward mark, but were hopelessly behind at that point, especially as the breeze filled in to marginal planing conditions.

Jim Christopher looked like he was going to win it. However, the finish line had shifted slightly during the race, and Jim Christopher crossed the finish line in the wrong direction. D23 secretary and regatta co-host Jim Richmond, not hearing a horn when Jim Christopher crossed the finish line, crossed the finish line in the proper direction, taking 1st. Jim Christopher then recrossed in the correct direction, placing 2nd, and Breckenridge, CO's Apprentice Master Tim Seeling, placed 3rd.

Grand Master, Jim Christopher (left), and Jim Richmond (right)

For the final race of the series, an Olympic triangle, the wind built to 10-14 knots, with gusts to 18. The long beat proved elusive for the leaders who all covered each other out to the left side of the course into the 8 knot "doldrums". The rest of the fleet, led by Jim Richmond, saw whitecaps on the right side of the course, and took the opportunity to close some distance.

Ed Henkel

When Jim Richmond hailed starboard tack to Ed Henkel near the end of the long beat, Ed was so startled and unprepared with a tangled mainsheet, he almost was unable to bear off to dip Richmond. However, Henkel had superior boatspeed and by the finish, showed who was the master in these hiking and surfing conditions, placing 1st. Jim Richmond and Jim Christopher hiked their butts off on the final weather leg, in gusty conditions, placing 2nd and 3rd respectively.

Awards were given to the top five Masters on handicaps, and to the top three in the Under Age 35 category. We were honored to have 1980 World Master Champion Sam Small, of Katy, Texas, sailing with us at age 76 and Sam won a special Great, Great Grand Master trophy. Other awards included Top Woman to Kristen Maines, and farthest travelled to Grand Master, Jim Christopher, of Eureka, California.

Great Great Grand Master, Sam Small

The Heron Lake Regatta will be held again in 2000, dates to be announced. If you haven't yet experienced sailing in scenic Heron Lake State Park, you really owe it to yourself next year. It's well worth the trip... ask anyone who has been there.

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