All The Latest News From the Racine Catamaran Champs
Here are photos of our RCC champions that Geoff Sobering took at the awards ceremony on Friday -
Mischa Heemskerk and Carrie Howe, 2010 F18 North American Champions
Trey Brown and Bryan Paine, 2010 N20 North American Champions
Daniel and Jill Feldman, 2010 F16 Great Lakes Champions
Wally Schuette, 2010 F17 North American Champion
Here are some great photos from the Lighthouse Regatta that preceded the RCC, courtesy of Erica Dorantes. The top five boats from the event were as follows -
The Race Committee called the boats off the beach around 10am on Friday in the hope that we would be able to get further races in before the end of the week. The forecast was much better than Thursday when there was insufficient wind for racing. However, it was not to be. The fog continued to hang over the lake and the breeze that got us off the beach unfortunately died once we got to the start area. The light puffs that did come through were inconsistent in direction, making it impossible to set a course. The race committee abandoned racing around 1pm.
Congratulations to all the winners – the 2010 F18 North American champions are Mischa Heemskerk and Carrie Howe. The N20 North American champions are Trey Brown and Bryan Paine, and the F17 North American champion is Wally Schuette. In the F16 class the Great Lakes champions are Daniel and Jill Feldman.
Awesome day yesterday. Good breeze built to about 15 under sunny skies. Five races on Course A and four on Course B. Results from both courses are now online. Mischa Heemskerk and Carrie Howe continue to lead the F18 class, with Andrew Macpherson and Ferdinand Van West moving into second.
On Course A in the F16 class, Daniel and Jill Feldman lead with five wins from six races over Karl Brogger and Ela Sliwerska. Also on Course A, Trey Brown and Bryan Paine lead the N20 fleet with four wins from six races over Guy Selsmeyer and Dustin Deflice in second. And Wally Schuette continues to dominate the F17 class 
.
We’re not doing a whole lot of sailing, but we are getting some press coverage. Here is an article on Monday’s racing that appeared in the local paper yesterday. It includes a link to an image gallery.
The hospitality keeps on flowing from the members and staff of the Racine YC, with everyone on a first-name basis with the bar staff and the Anarchy crew treated like family. While today was gorgeous – white sand beaches, warm temps and bikinis making it look like an episode of Baywatch – we had no wind at all, and PRO Matt Bounds called it a day before 4 PM, long after the beer started flowing. We’re really starting to understand why the Italians only race in about 8 venues – because they’re smart enough to sail with the wind blows every day!
I like to check out the local scene in different areas when I go to regattas, and Racine has not disappointed. Started in the late 20s, Wells Brother’s Pizza and our hottie waitress hooked us up. This place is classic, it’s in the hard part of town, but the pizza is great, and the legends of getting capped proved wrong (for us at least).
To show the hospitality of this place, our OTWA boat owner and driver Jeanné took us for a short powerboat drive to the wreck of an old wooden sailboat. There are no known records of the boat, but she’s 100 feet long and was only recently uncovered, and lying just 8 feet below the surface in crystal clear Lake Michigan water, she’s quite the sight.
On the sailing side of things, the day started out foggy and we never really saw any wind to speak of. The fleet had a skipper’s meeting on the Beach under the Nacra Tent to discuss the day, and spent the rest of the day doing whatever they wanted. Some watched movies, some took advantage of the ‘bottomless beer mugs’, some played Wii in the bar, and some gave back to the sport. Specifically, former SCOTW Carrie Howe spent an hour talking to a huge crowd of young students (future sailor chicks) about pro sailing, the Olympics, the best gear to get, and a ton of other subjects. Her better half Mischa Heemskerk did the same during the evening, with a standing-room-only, 2 and a half hour talk about tuning, rigging, starting, sailing technique, and every other go-fast solution he could come up with. It’s just the kind of thing that makes people excited to be part of a class, and it’s a good example of why the F-18 Class looks so good right now to so many people.
Many of the sailors tried their luck at unlimited kinetic sailing in no wind on a half dozen Open Bics, on a short course set up just off the beach in 4 feet of water. Everyone had fun, but there isn’t a soul here that is looking forward to more sitting around. Fingers crossed for breeze, and don’t forget to check out the event site here, the full thread (with hundreds of pics and dozens of videos) here, and tomorrow’s live action video channel right here. Links are my photos, the attached one is the lovely and talented Meredith Block’s.
Jeremy Leonard, Surf City Sailing
Reprinted with permission of Sailing Anarchy.
All the F18 team & boats weights can be found here. Also accessible via the Registered Competitors link on the right.
Hi folks – from the clubhouse, under postponement on Tuesday afternoon. My skipper, Dennis Key, and I are very grateful to be enjoying the hospitality of the Racine Yacht Club and CRAW.
Monday’s conditions were an interesting combination of lake-like breeze with Gulf Coast waves and the West Coast’s water temperature and fog. This mix made the F18 course a challenge for even seasoned sailors. The RC set a generous start line which allowed ample room, but a right shift during the sequence drew most of the fleet into a fight for the boat end. The shift did not persist, however, and the light air exacerbated the crowded conditions. We found a delightfully clear start about 2/3rds down toward the pin end, and we were able to keep our lane and extend to the left. Throughout the first half of the beat, we struggled to find the a-pin – the fog line persisted, however, and we only tacked because a lane to the right opened for us. It appeared that the earlier breeze line inside the fog bank had petered out, so as the boats from the left reached it, they became significantly headed. In a stroke of luck for us, the fog lifted as we approached, the breeze backed, and we rode a nice lift to the magically-appearing first a-pin.
In the first run, I made a fatal tactical error in calling for the gybe to the gate far too late, which allowed Mischa to gybe first and control us on the approach, dropping us from second to third place. We tacked to clear our air as Mischa and Cruz sailed back into the fog – the RC had signaled a change course in response to the backed breeze, so we took the first cross from Mischa, watched Cruz continue to the right, and began again seeking the new a-pin in the light fog. Mischa reached the newer breeze sooner and tacked back to the right, enjoying a lovely lift. From our perspective, however, he appeared to be significantly overstood, so we continued to the left despite a deepening header. When we tacked, we saw the fleet had made some headway on the right and our trip to the left had diminished our lead. We tacked on the lay and rounded the last a-pin with a nice gap, but the footsteps were getting louder.
The last run was an exercise in frustration; the top two boats took the breeze with them, the waves were still present but less-surfable without the breeze, and the fleet was bringing new wind down the course. We worked each opportunity as hard as we could and managed to keep the third position. After a prudent delay by the RC to wait for breeze, we were sent ashore to enjoy the AHPC-sponsored dinner and a summer afternoon in the sand.
More later after we hit the beach…
Yes it’s true. We have GPS units on all the top F18s as well as a selection of other boats and we are uploading tracking data daily to kattack.com . Go and register on their website and you’ll be able to watch replays of all the races. Cool!
Here‘s a great article on the RCC in Saturday’s Racine Journal Times .
