1998 Hoover Regatta

Eleven boats sailed the 1998 Hoover regatta. As always, there was lots of quality gearhead talk and help with boat rigging/tuning. The theme this year was "old folks with new boats". Phil Terman and Jim Tuten were sailing their recently-acquired Waterats and were downright intoxicated with new-boat-ness. Dave Stetson, with a predatory gleam in his eye, was prowling around in his rad Euro-style Rondar. It's amazing what a new boat can do for the disposition of these old codgers.

The emphasis was on having lots of short races on a variety of courses. The race committee only occasionally gave us the usual triangle-windward-leeward-windward. They also ran windward-leeward triangle, and two triangles with finish to windward. The courses were sometimes run with marks to starboard as well as the usual rounding to port. Close attention had to be paid to the placards on the committee boat to avoid embarrassing wrong-way mark roundings. A big thanks goes to the Windmill fleet for smoothly managing such a diversity of course configurations. They kept us on our toes!

Against all odds, the sun came out on Saturday. Two races were sailed in the morning in around 10 knots of breeze. The usual suspects (Kaiser/Badtke and Alexander/Koenig) were at the front, trailed closely by Stetson/Agrell and Tuten/Brown. After lunch, the wind became lighter and shifting gears became the name of the game. Those who could keep clearair, get to the puffs first, and accelerate out of roll tacks made out big. Newcomer Mike Kohn and I managed to sneak around Stetson and Tuten a couple of times to nail third place. After three races in the light stuff, the wind picked up to around seven knots for the remaining two races. Several teams had by now shaken off the winter rust and were getting faster, resulting in more competitive starts and tighter packs at the marks. Tereska and Adam Gesing started to move consistently towards the front, while Renka Gesing/Bob Alexander and Geoff Cashman/Perry Barclay see-sawed from back to front (and sometimes back again). At the end of the day, it was Alexander/Koenig and Kaiser/Badtke in a tight battle for the series lead.

That evening, Kate and Brian Annis put on a huge Italian dinner for the fleet. We settled back to watch videos of the day's action. The highlight was a near capsize by Dave and Mike -- they hit a perverse little header that instantly dropped Mike into the water. The crowd howled while Dave hung like wet laundry over the almost vertical rail of his boat. Why are the cameras always around when these things happen?

Sunday dawned with more sun and some real breeze. Three races were sailed as the wind built from 5-10 to around 15 with gusts in the 20-knot range. As the racing progressed, Cashman/Barclay improved dramatically. Barret Rhodes (at age 14)/ Andrew Gassman (age 26 but acts 14) also did well in the big air, and they were sailing a boat (Parker 4379) that was decades older than the rest of the fleet. I don't want to see the video from Sunday -- Mike and I wasted some quality racing time while inspecting the centerboard and appreciating the graceful lines of our (upside-down) hull.

Graham Alexander/Mark Koenig pulled off the series win, but close runner-up Ki Kaiser will have his new Rondar by the next regatta. Will Graham have trouble sleeping over the next few weeks? The next event for the Midwest 505s will be the St. Clair training regatta on June 6-7, at the South Port Sailing Club in Ontario, Canada. The weekend will feature tuning, drills, rigging tips, driver/crew swapping, and lots of short races with feedback from a Southport sailing instructor. For more information, contact Renka Gesing at 519-254-5015 (email: renka@windsor.igs.net).
 

1998 Hoover regatta scoring with two throw-outs: