Entries Tagged 'Wisconsin' ↓

The door county breeze begins today, and the weather is beautiful. It appears that racing will be in light 5-10 mph winds today, but that is not keeping everybody from enjoying the clear cool waters of Lake Michigan.

Never been to Fond Du Lac and windsurfed Lake Winnebago?  Here is your excuse to do a bit of traveling!

Please see this notice of race flyer  . pdf file with registration form for all the details.   Friday Sept 23rd a long distance event is planned,  along with the racing some Saturday evening activities with awards for  2011 MOWIND Series are planned.

Kevin is looking for Race Directors to run  the 2012 event.  So if you are interested in putting event managment on your resume now is the time to step up.    Give him  a call at his  Windpower Windsurfing shop.   It probably would be good to tag along after him during this 2011 event and take some notes and drain his brain a bit.

The weekend begins on Friday with the Lake Winnebago Supercrossing. Typically we leave from Roosevelt County Park (Wind Power) and we sail north to a destination determined at the skipper’s meeting based on conditions & forecast. With ideal conditions (west wind), it is possible to sail full length of Lake Winnebago (28 miles). This has occurred once in history of the Supercrossing. Kiters are welcome to follow but they will not be part of the race. Please contact Jeff or Kevin for more details if you are new to the Supercrossing.

Saturday & Sunday are the Wind Power Championships. This is the first race of the 2011 MoWind Racing schedule. Course, Slalom and Long Distance will be run, conditions permitting. Saturday evening racers will be treated to a dinner at the Sunset Supper Club next door to the race site. Friends and spouces are welcome to join. At the dinner 2010 MoWind year end awards will be presented. After dinner and MoWind awards the annual Wind Power Bonfire sacrifice to the Wind Gods will take place. The fire usually last longer than the partiers. Don’t forget to bring your tent or trailer as there is Free camping in Wind Power’s back yard. (crawling distance from the bonfire) Sunday’s skipper’s meeting will be at 9:30 followed by racing at 10:00. Last possible start will be 2pm. Lunch, prizes and awards will be at 3 pm.

We highly encourage pre-registration. If you need charter equipment (long board for non-planning conditions) please call ahead to reserve it. We will have it setup and ready for race day. We want to avoid the time needed to setup charters on race day.

SEE YOU THERE!!

Questions and Pre-Registration can be directed to
Kevin Gratton at 920-251-1002 or keving@windpowerwindsurfing.com
Jeff Knutson at 920-841-9004 or jkknutson@centurytel.net

For more information on sailing, windsurfing, and directions to the shop
check out our website: WindPowerWindsurfing.com

Road Construction in Fond du Lac, so you will need to take the Hwy. 151 bypass.

Directions:

• From US Hwy 41. Exit at Hwy 151 North (Exit No. 95). Pay close attention when coming from the North Exit # 95 is easy to miss because it is right after you go under an overpass
• After exiting (Exit No. 95), take Hwy 151 North around east Fond du Lac. The speed limit on hwy 151 is 55mph, be careful and don’t speed
• Follow Hwy 151 (6 miles) and Turn Left at County Hwy. K (right after 4 lane hwy. turns into a 2 lane), follow Hwy K 1 mile north to Winnebago Drive
• Turn Left on Winnebago Drive and Wind Power is the second driveway located on left side across from Roosevelt Park

Here is a map below. For more info, see our web site map page. See you there!!

Wow .. a lot of racing action is scheduled in September.  Be sure to check the MOWIND calendar.   It’s good to contact organizers a few days out to check things are on schedule.

The  notice of race flyer for the Sept 25-26 Fall Wind Power Championships windsurf regatta in Fond du Lac is now available in  PDF format.    Hope to see you there.   This is the 1st race in the 2011 MOWIND point series of races.    Results of the 2010 MOWIND points series will be presented during the Saturday evening dinner at the Sunset Club in Fond du Lac.      On Friday Sept 24 the free Winnebago Supercrossing long distance race takes place so check the flyer out for details on that.   

Also coming up Sept 11-12 is the Higgins Lake Regatta in Roscommon MI.   That event is held at Higgins Lake South State park campground.   General public and non-racers are welcome,  show up and reserve a campspot by the beach for the day, rig and sail.   Join the group for a fun dinner excursion on Sat evening.   Race headquarters  will be located  towards the west end of the campground around lot 350.     As usual the GLWT (Great Lakes Windsurfing Tour) people plan to be there with demo gear and deals on demo equipment.   So if you are a non-windsurfer ..  this is a great opportunity to find out more about windsurfing and make some new friends.

Sept 18 is the date for the 5th race  in the Canadian Ontario Sailing Race Series.   This one day race is held at the Toronto Windsurfing Club facilites.    The following day on Sept 19 the  17km TWC Mammoth Marathon long distance race around the Toronto islands is scheduled.   Several Mowinders  from the Ohio and Michigan have attended these races in recent years.    Toronto is about a 245 mile drive from the Detroit,  295 from Cleveland.

The 2010 Walleye Wagatta took place this weekend, May 15-16, 2010 at the Windpower Windsurfing Center on the shores of Lake Winnebago. There was strong attendance for a spring regatta with 27 competitors from Ohio, Michigan, Illinois, Missouri, and of course Wisconsin.  We were also blessed with the appearance of Tara and Ted Schweitzer, the children of Hoyle Schweitzer (co-inventor of windsurfing). Ted was ripping the course up on a vintage Original Windsurfer. Check out his cool website for some really nice pictures and stories about the birth and growth of our great sport.

Three course races were held in ~5 mph winds on Saturday morning, followed by a break. Winds diminshed to nothing during the break but came back enough in the late afternoon to run three more races on a short 2-lap figure8 course. Lots of tight racing during those roundings!

Three “live” updates were posted from the committee boat during the Saturday races:

https://mowind.org/wp/?p=834

https://mowind.org/wp/?p=838

https://mowind.org/wp/?p=845

Kevin and the gang had a raging bonfire to excite the winds on Saturday night, and we were lucky to have 10-15 mph winds for the races on Sunday – a substantial improvement over the forecast of “calm to light and variable.” Four course races were run in one session Sunday morning. The first two were the outer loop course, and the last two were a modified box course in which the downwind leg included a jibe around the pin of the Start line.

We only managed one “live” update during the Sunday racing ( https://mowind.org/wp/?p=852 ), but did get lots of pictures and even some video. Here are links to some videos from Sunday that I posted on youtube:

Start of Race 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TUkSij5w1JI

Start of Race 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8GKy8BiQNg

Ted Schweitzer in action: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bISFZUfGSus

Start of Race 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvXu-cmpTfM

More Race 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Lp4gKaQAvo

Even more Race 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KEET8WH94cQ

I’ll try to post more videos as well as pictures as I have time. And here we go…my first try at posting a Picasa web album. CLICK HERE to view pictures from the event.

I would like to thank all of the racers for coming out making this a fun and competitive event. It was great seeing so many people on the water early in the season. I would also like to thank the RC mates (Jim, Leah, my Dad Wayne, and brother Adam), Mary and Andy at Windpower for their help, and especially Kevin for supporting the event with his equipment, venue, and sage advice. I swear that every time I asked him what to do about the course or the conditions he always replied, “I would run another race…”

Kevin has a nice writeup ready for his website as well. A link will appear in this space once it is posted.

RESULTS:

2010 Walleye Wagatta A Fleet Results

2010 Walleye Wagatta Sport Fleet Results

RAFFLE:

The raffle raised $61 for MOWIND that will go directly into our funds. Craig Bergh is doing a great job as our MOWIND treasurer and provides absolute transparancey about the account. The raffle is a year-long fund raiser where each event draws a ticket that is then entered into the final drawing at the end of the year to determine the prize winners. The winner of the 2010 Walleye Wagatta raffle was Tom Stokes. He is the first finalist for the year end drawing.

– Arden Anderson, EL-11