IFDCAUS ~ Region I
District Page - News and Updates
edited by Anna Gorbold
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IFDCAUS ~ Region I |
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News |
Regional Champion Results |
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For the 2002 Saratoga Lake Sailing Club Indian Summer regatta seven Flying Dutchman teams participated. This was a multi-class regatta with a total of 25 boats in it. On Saturday 3 races were held in wind that ranged from 17 to 23 mph with gusts much higher. The wind enabled us to do some really fast sailing. There was the normal competition between the FD’s, but also the challenge to keep the boat right side up. Five of the seven teams dumped at least once. Fortunately, with all the wind, the air and water temperature were on the warm side for this time of year so the spray didn’t seem too cold. During the last race of the day Matt and Chris Reichart lost the mast on their boat (two masts were lost amongst the other boats in the regatta). But, Matt was not ready to quit. He went straight home after the race, got an old mast he had been using as a flag pole in his front yard, brought it back to the club and, with the help of other FD sailors, spent the evening fixing it up. Next morning he was ready to sail again Note to sailors: Check shroud attachments for wear before sailing in heavy wind. Sunday morning dawned clear, cool and with a beautiful mist rising from the lake. By 10:00 AM a light breeze started blowing out of the northeast and this allowed us to get one more race in before calling it quits for lunch. Winners were Jonathan and Anne Gorbold in first, Michael Freitag and Jonathan Clapp in second and Bill and Doug Hamilton in third. |
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When my husband Steve proposed at the beginning of the summer that we should buy a boat, I instantly had thoughts of cruising around on warm summer days, the wind in our hair, with maybe a picnic lunch on board. I thought this sounded fantastic and was all for this new purchase. Then he told me he was thinking about some boat called a “Flying Dutchman” that was meant for racing. Having thoroughly hated my previous racing experience in graduate school, this thought wasn’t nearly as pleasing to me as my cruiser had been. However, I agreed to go check out this boat with him. The boat was being sold by Anna and Jonathon Gorbold, and they were very patient in explaining everything about the boat to us when we went to take a look at it. Of course, they may as well have been speaking Greek for the amount I actually understood (Raking a mast? What in the world is that and why would I ever want to touch the mast?) Just looking at all the lines and pulleys and cleats was so overwhelming, I thought there was no way we’d ever learn this boat. However, after much debate, Steve convinced me to give it a shot. Our first two times out on our new boat were not the most successful. After all the detailed descriptions everyone had given us about our new boat, no one told me that as crew, before going out on the trapeze, you must make sure your harness is on the wire and not caught on the bungee cord connecting the two sides of the trapeze. Needless to say, I took a dunking over that one, and we had our first repair for our new boat. Pretty soon after Steve picked me up, we managed to capsize. We quickly found out that turning an FD upright can take quite a bit of effort and produce numerous upper-arm bruises if not done properly! In all the effort it took to right the boat. I never thought about the important fact of actually holding on to the boat as it pops up, and off went Steve with our FD, and I was left treading water until he could get in the boat and come pick me up. On our second trip, we again capsized, this time managing to encase the top of the mast in the mud at the bottom of Canandaigua Lake. Luckily the crash boat (who, from our first foray in our FD, had become my most valuable new friends) came to our rescue and helped us right the boat. Right after all this highly successful sailing came the CYC Cannonball Regatta and FD Nationals. We had been planning a trip over July 4th week, but when Steve found out the FD Nationals would be at CYC this year during that week, he said we should cancel our trip to go to Nationals. I said OK but I didn’t think watching Nationals would be so much fun that we should cancel our trip. That’s when he told me he wanted us to sail in Nationals! Considering we hadn’t yet finished a single race we’d entered, much less come back to shore dry, I thought he was joking. But yet again Steve convinced me. So there we were at our first set of regattas, and I had no idea what to expect. I quickly found out the best thing about sailing an FD—the people in the FD class are wonderful. The CYC FD sailors have all been fantastic, helping us out every chance they get, explaining how to sail the boat, how to rig and unrig the boat, how to crew, and everything else they can think of that will help us become good sailors. This same spirit of teaching and helping out applied to everyone we met at the regattas. People were so friendly and helpful and encouraging that I had more fun at these regattas then I ever imagined possible. We learned so much and got so much sailing and racing experience during the 5 days of the Cannonball and Nationals that I actually started to feel comfortable in the boat and started to think about winning a race (or at least not losing the race!) rather than just surviving the race. The amount of encouragement and support we got was truly appreciated and made us feel a part of this fantastic community. Over the course of the summer, I have learned to love sailing the FD. Other boats now seem lacking (what do you mean you can’t rake the mast?), and I look forward to many more seasons of FD racing. Thanks to everyone, especially Anna and Jonathon Gorbold, Chuck Linn, Kevin Roland, and Dick and Sue Raymond. |
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Congratulations - Peter
and Barbara! |
Peter and Barbara Well are the North East Champions for the year 2002. Peter and Barbara are regular sailors in the north-east circuit and rarely do they miss any of the scheduled regattas. The Regional Championship originated for the purpose of encouraging sailors to travel around to races, the scoring for this trophy reflects that purpose. The results are tabulated for each north east sailor that is eligible taking into account the results from each regatta, each boat is allowed one throw out per regattas sailed in the north east. This year the Cannonball was combined with the Nationals, therefore the regional results were calculated on corrected cannonball places factoring out the non- north east sailors. The results were close with the Wells beating out the Hamiltons on a tie breaker! Once more congratulations to Peter and Barbara, their success shows that water is a great equalizer and there is no substitute for experience! |
