Five hearty sailors showed up to race in the 3rd annual Tour da Croix, a long distance challenge from Point Douglas in Prescott, WI sailing approximately 5 miles upriver/upwind to the Kinnickinnic and then another 5 miles back. Total distance covered by the sailors due to tacking upwind was about 14 miles.
Arnie Cleveland presented the course and then had us off to start at 11:00 am on the button. Wind conditions were about 5 mph out of the north and temperature was in the mid 80’s.
The course was basically a race up to the Kinnickinnic and back, but there were two mark rounding that we needed to complete early in the race ; one on the Minnesota side of the river and one on the Wisconsin side of the river. Adam Anderson jumped out to an early lead and led to the first mark on the Minnesota side, followed closely by the rest of the fleet. The sailors spread out some as they worked there way upwind back and forth across the river. Sailing in the lead, Adam Anderson needed to spot the Wisconsin mark and had a hard time finding it on such a big body of water. Meanwhile Arden Anderson made a tactical decision to tack up the Wisconsin shore in order to spot the mark, and was able to quickly find it and make a clean rounding to continue upwind while Adam and Peter had each overstood the mark. Arden hailed the other sailors to tell them where the mark was and Peter quickly changed course to get back to the mark, but Adam was far enough ahead that he didn’t hear the hail. Adam sailed on for another 10 or more minutes before turning back to go find the correct mark. More on that later…(Update after reviewing gps tracks: Adam took a 35 minute detour – 15 minutes to get back down to the mark once he realized his mistake, and another 20 minutes to get upwind to where he had been).
Peter was still able to round right with Wayne Anderson, with Tom Stokes in hot pursuit, and the race was on the rest of the way to the Kinney. The next several miles saw Arden and Peter dueling it out on the imco’s with the distance between them varying as they played the shifts. Eventually Peter was able to get into striking distance and make a pass as the river necked down and winds got lighter and shiftier. He worked through the narrow and over to the Minnesota side and opened up a 300-400 yard lead as Arden made slower progress up the Wisconsin side.
Peter maintained his lead up to the turnaround point. Here are the rounding times (remember we started at 11:00 am so a 1:00 pm rounding took 2 hours of elapsed time):
- Peter Hartwhich PJ1 – 1:09 pm
- Arden Anderson EL11 – 1:13 pm
- Adam Anderson EL111 – 1:17 pm
- Wayne Anderson EL – 1:21 pm
- Tom Stokes USA099 – 1:32 pm
The times show Adam Anderson working his way back towards the leaders after his detour early in the race. He showed a lot of determination sticking with the race after the big setback early. Realizing it was a long race though he stuck with it to grind his way back into site of the leaders.
On the way downwind Arden was able to close the gap on Peter and Adam continued to whittle away at the leaders After working through the narrow part of the river Peter, Arden, and Adam were virtually tied. As they reached the wider part of the river and could see the finish a few miles ahead, Arden and Adam pulled away from Peter as they stayed towards the Wisconsin side of the river. The rest of the way to the finish Adam was able to finally put some distance on Arden and complete his comeback, winning the 3 1/2 challenge.
Final Finish Times (start at 11:00 am)
- Adam Anderson EL111 – 2:28:28 pm
- Arden Anderson EL11 – 2:29:56 pm
- Peter Hartwhich PJ1 – 2:33:33 pm
- Wayne Anderson EL – 2:50:44 pm
- Tom Stokes USA099 – 3:40:44 pm
An interesting note is that this race featured all three of the official Olympic Windsurfing boards. Adam Anderson sailed on the Div2 Lechner board featured in ’88 and ’92, Arden and Peter each sailed the IMCO board and sail that were used in the ’96, ’00, and ’04 games, and Tom Stokes sailed the Neil Pryde RSX that was used in the ’08 games. Wayne Anderson was the only sailor on a non-Olympic board, but he was on the unofficial MOWIND one design board, the Equipe II.
Tom Stokes won the Sport Fleet and is congratulated for completing the distance race on his first attempt. He also won the “Long Distance Traveler” award for driving about 500 miles from Indiana. He said that he will be driving back to Indiana Sunday and will return to Minnesota again next weekend for the Waconia Wind and Wave event. Hats off to Tom for his dedication.
The racing was followed by All-You-Can-Eat PRIME RIB at The Point in Hastings, MN. A great way to recharge after a long race. Many thanks the The Point for their hospitality and especially to Arnie Cleveland for all of his Race Committee efforts.
We will post pictures when we get back to a computer.Â
As promised, pictures have been loaded to a Picasa Album.
– Arden & Adam via smart phone at The Point