DIAMOND LAKE – 2004 MICHIGAN CHAMPIONSHIP (7/31-8/1) – 23 Boats

Race 1: W/L 2 ½, Average Wind 11 mph, Lumpy seas compared to Cowan Lake. Do to a central island and lakeshore shape; I would describe this racecourse as taking place in a big peanut. At the gun, I started near the pin, three-fourths of a boat length and behind the line and in the blanket and backwind of MC 2258. MC 2258 went on to get a good start and finished 3rd. I sailed on starboard as far as I could go and tacked to port at the boat docks on the island. I picked up seaweed on my rudder at these docks by sailing too close and I also had trouble adjusting to the lumpy sea. My boat speed seemed to be off compared to other skippers. At the top right side of the peanut course, I noticed a steady offshore lift. I sailed to that area and tacked to starboard into the finish, which was a few hundred yards away and passed a few boats that headed to the other side of the course. Finished 9th. 60-minute race.

Race 2: W/L 2 ½ similar course to R1, Average Wind 11 mph, Lumpy seas. I got a decent start at the pin end and was able to backwind a few boats. That gave me the option to tack at will and to get into phase with the wind. I used what I figured out in the first race and headed to the top right section of peanut on each upwind leg. I rounded the first windward leg in around 3rd place. Finished 5th.

Race 3: W/L 2 ½, Winds 12-16 mph, rough seas compared to Cowan Lake. As I was testing the winds in the vicinity of the windward mark, the RC correctly decided to move the course to the other side of the lake/island. I was the last boat to get back to the new starting line and somehow I messed up on hearing the sequence and watching the starting flags. My watch was 60 seconds off at the gun and I got a horrible start. I had the traveler down a few car lengths, the vang and Cunningham on hard, and I still had trouble keeping the boat under control and powering through the waves. Finished 12th.

Race 4: W/L 2 ½, Winds 4-10 mph with very lumpy seas from motorboats. I noticed that port tack at the pin was becoming slightly favored, but the start was a general recall with a bunching of boats on the RC half of the line. I quickly rechecked the line and discovered that the pin-end/port tack was even more favored than it was a few minutes earlier. I started right at the pin-end on starboard tack and back winded and pulled away from the other starboard sailing boats, tacked to port and cleared the fleet. The rest of the fleet flopped to port also and I found myself on the inside and on the same rung of ladder with about three other boats. After several positional changes, I finished 3rd. The 2nd, 3rd, and 4th place boats finished inline and slightly overlapped as we forced each other to the far left layline to the finish.

Race 5: W/L 1 ½ similar course to R4, Winds 4 – 11 mph with very lumpy seas do to the growing number of motorboats on the lake. At the start, the RC boat appeared slightly favored with most of the fleet clumped on that half of the line. I approached the clump on a base port leg and tacked to starboard before and about 1 1/2 boat lengths below the line/clump. I maintained speed while most boats were luffing and jumped into a nice hole on the line at the gun near the pin-end sailing on starboard. I had clear air while the rest of the fleet was jostling with each other and I might have been one of the first boats on the left side of the course to receive a better wind, which propelled me into a large lead over the fleet. I held on to first for the entire race until the last half of the last leg when I stayed more to the right side of the lake to cover about three boats while one boat worked more to the left side. After a series of tacks, the boat that had worked to the left crossed me right at the finish line, pin-end, sailing on starboard. A lift that lasted for a few seconds failed to hold and I had to dip his stern while trying to cross the line on port and then tired to go head-to-wind across the finish line. Finished 2nd.

For complete Results See http://www.mcscow.org/fleet28/2004/