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The 2011 MOWIND Race Series opened with epic conditions at the Lake Winnebago Super Crossing September 24th. The plan was to sail from the Windpower shop in Taycheedah near the south end of the lake up to High Cliff State Park on the north end of the lake – about 25 miles. The wind was forecast for 30+ mph out of the west, and we got more Southwesterly wind than that. The tailing SW wind stacked up the swell and made for a very broad angle in order to sail directly there. With winds gusting over 40-mph I bailed out shortly after Deadwood Point (1-2 miles) knowing that it would be rough to survive the full journey. Andy Gratton and a few others pushed on towards Calumet (about 1/3 of the way), where Andy’s ride ended in a nasty wipeout where he broke his mast when his head slammed into it. Fortunately he was okay and was able to get to shore. Kevin Gratton managed to pick up several people that had retired along the way in order to get them back to the launch, and I think everyone was much happier free sailing in the fantastic conditions than they were trying to sail on one deep downwind run.

The kiters took another approach. They sailed as a group out across the lake to the midwestern shore near Oshkosh, and then jibed back across the lake to SUCCESSFULLY reach High Cliff. Congratulations to Eddie, Jeff, Matt, and Don. “Groni” sent along a couple of pictures of their trip via email, and I posted them to the MOWIND picasa site. These guys should all be proud of making the trip in such challenging conditions. Also, thanks again to Jeff Knutson for organizing this crazy fiasco!

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The action continued over the weekend with the Windpower Championships sponsored by Windpower Windsurfing. We had a fantastic turnout with 54 racers (27 A Fleet, 18 Sport, 9 Workshop). We raced 3 heats of figure-8 slalom right off the beach on Saturday in diminishing 15-25 mph winds, and then took a break as the wind tried to stabilize. We were able to complete one course race in light winds before breaking for the day and heading to the Season Awards Banquet at Sunset Supper Club right next to the race site.

Sunday opened with light wind in the first course race, but then conditions ramped up to the 15-20 mpg range and made for some great battles on the race course. Four more race were completed in the higher winds to give us 9 races overall. In the end Mark Boersma’s consistent speed helped him to a first place overall finish, followed by Andy and Kevin Gratton. Kevin continued his strong return from shoulder surgery and even won a slalom heat on Saturday. Welcome back! Keeping it in the family, Kevin’s nephews Rob and Blaise (Andy’s son) finished in 4th and 6th places, respectively. Jeff Degayner from Michigan finished in 5th place and had 3 bullets! We’re glad to see the talent coming from across the pond.

Kevin Gratton was tops n the 8.5 Limited Division, followed by Magnus Zaunmueller and Tim Cleary (tied), with Magnus winning the tie on the strength of his 4th place finish in the last race.

In the Sport fleet, “Low Boom” Larry Reed showed his stuff to come in first place. He was followed by Mark Schmitz and Jim Magnuson. The Johnson family made a good showing with son Kylan finishing 4th and mom Kelly finishing 5th (dad Steve also races in the A Fleet).

Over in Workshop Fleet another Gratton, Andrea (Andy’s daughter), set the pace. Pat O’Connor and Jennifer Wettstein finished in 2nd and 3rd place.

Follow the link for the blog entry from Windpower Windsurfing: LINK

RESULTS

2010 Windpower Championships A Fleet Results

2010 Windpower Championships Sport Fleet Results

2010 Windpower Championships Workshop Fleet Results

We had another fantastic race season in 2010, culminating in an awards ceremony last Saturday night after racing at the Windpower Championships. Racers and guests dined at the Sunset Supper Club and continued the festivities at a bonfire across the street at Windpower. Winners were presented with MOWIND jackets.

Participation was up this year with 174 registered racers in the series. Congratulations to everyone!

Here is a summary of the Series Leaders, and complete results are posted on the Scores page.

Heads up that the wind will be blowing for the Winnebago Super Crossing this Friday, September 24.  Windpower to High Cliff – 26 miles one way on a screamin’ reach! This race is FREE, and is followed on Sat & Sun by the Windpower Championships. More info: http://www.windpowerwindsurfing.com/mail/content/2010-4/2010_wind_power_championships_supercrossing_flyer.pdf

NOAA Forecast:

Friday: A 30 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms before 1pm. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 66. Windy, with a west wind 15 to 20 mph increasing to between 25 and 30 mph. Winds could gust as high as 40 mph.
Link to Wind Graph

Additional Info from Jeff Knutson (Race Director)

Itinerary for Supercrosssing 26 mile race each race,  52 miles total race if you choose to race both races. Rides will be available, no chase boat.
 
9 am registration begins, make sure you register so you can receive MOWIND points for the race.
KITERS make sure I have your name and phone number.
9:45 sharp Skippers meeting.
10 am first race start.
Finish first race High Cliff state park by touching dry land.
Brat fry and water and Corona for lunch.
1 pm second race begins.
Finish by touching stairs at Roosevelt park. (stairs on lake Winnebago in front of Wind Power)
 
Itinerary may change due.
 
This is a very serious race we do not have a chase boat, so you have to get to land and call 920-841-9004 to get picked up if you or your equipment breaks down.
 
Jeffrey Knutson
President
A-A Exteriors
(920) 841-9004 (cell)
jkknutson@centurytel.net
www.a-aexteriors.com

See You There!

Arden, EL-11

Greetings MOWIND sailors,

The University of Iowa Sailing club will be hosting a fall regatta over Columbus Day Weekend, October 9^th and 10^th. We will be racing several classes of dinghies and I have convinced them to include windsurfing in the program of events. We will be having a Kona One class, as well as open class racing. Beg, borrow, or steal a Kona to get tuned up for racing in the Kona Class Worlds in Miami this November. A limited number of Kona boards could be available for charter, so make your plans early. The regatta plans are just being formed now, but I wanted to get this notice out early enough for everyone to make plans. We will be racing on Lake MacBride, a small lake near Solon which is between Iowa City and Cedar Rapids. Our initial plan is to have course racing Saturday in several classes including Kona and open class windsurfing, then a long distance race on Sunday. As the interest of people committing to the event dictates, we might change the Sunday schedule.

Camping is available in the area and we have a group site right next to the sailing club. Lake MacBride is a small lake with shifty, challenging conditions, but the fall and spring winds can be good. If you are like me, I want to extend my racing season as long as I can, so here is a chance. I hope you will consider finding a Kona board to try One Design sailing, or bring what you have to race open class. Please let me know if you are interested and I will keep you updated as the time nears.

Fair winds and following seas,

Steve Callaway

Coach07 at gmail dot com

The 25th Annual “Crib Run,” took place on Sunday, Sept. 12th with a 1:30 start. There were 4 participants, and a standby. Mike Reed, Colin Knight, Alexander Peryshkin, and me, Jackie Butzen.

The standby racer was Dave Venerus, a past winner, who didn’t want to try it without a centerboard. I don’t blame him. It was a beautiful day with 80 degree temps, and 5-10 knots with very occassional gusts to 17 or 18, and WNW…off-shore. A down wind run to the Crib with lots of power boat traffic.

Colin Knight won with a gust near the end that got him to the beach first. Mike Reed, who had been leading was a very close second; Alex took a little longer finishing, and I abandon the race because I couldn’t stay on the board, being looped by power boats, while in a no wind downwind run at the Crib. I fell way behind and figured I give the safety boat a break by heading back, as the leaders rounded the Crib. 

The whole race took an hour and a half with the winner finishing in an hour- ten minutes. A good time was had by all!