Walleye Waggata Wrap up

Wrap up by: Alex Monroe (Sail # US292)

This racing year started with a bang at the Walleye Wagatta last weekend.  Despite the forecast for little to no wind, Saturday started with good winds.  In all the 6 races were run on Saturday.  Arden Anderson, the race director, always likes to get as many races in as possible.  The 3 races in the morning were the classic M course with a windward-leeward second lap for the A-Fleet.  The moderate winds kept the racing fun.  I was consistently mid fleet in the morning races with one 4th and two 5ths.

By the afternoon the wind had died to roughly 5 mph.  Fortunately it was fairly consistent.  This made it easy to navigate the course.  However, it favored those who like to pump.  I tend to do well in lighter winds and this gave me an easy opportunity to test out my new start timing watch.  Overall the watch served me well as I tried to hit the start at speed.  By the second race of the afternoon, I was dialed and got a fantastic start.  This kept me in front, and despite Adam’s best efforts I was able to hold onto the lead and finish with a bullet.

At the start of the final race on Saturday it was clear the wind was shifting left.  This meant the port start was favored.  Don and I decided to go to the pin end and try to port tack the fleet.  In fact this start was caught on camera.

My trusty watch said it was time to go, so I took off.  The only problem was that I was off on my timing, and I ended up being over early.  Way early.  I was able to duck back under the line at the boat end and give chase to the race leaders.  Since I needed to make up ground I pumped like there was no tomorrow.  In the end I was able to work back up to a second place for that race. I ended up in the 3rd position on the day.

Sunday was a much nicer day, but there was much less wind.  However, again it was better than was forecast with a gentle and steady breeze.  This made for fun windsurfing because we could glide around on glassy smooth water.  After the race course was set for a windward leeward the wind shifted to the right.  The made the course a tight reach to the windward end and a deep reach to the leeward pin.  Although the course was not perfect everyone had fun with the new course layout.  Magnus borrowed a Severne 9.5 from Arden and showed us all how light wind racing is done.  He finished the day taking first in 3 of the four races.

The light conditions were also great for new sailors.  As some of you know my wife has been trying to learn to windsurf.  She got a great session practicing different points of sail in the light winds.  MOWIND races are a great place to practice and improve your windsurfing skills.  When there are a lot of newer windsurfers we always run a workshop fleet.  The workshop fleet is intended for newer sailors to hone their skills and have fun learning to sail in every direction.  Of course if you are nervous to get out racing, even in a workshop environment, you can always just come and sail.  We are always excited to meet new windsurfers.

As always the racing was a blast.  Everyone had a good time getting out and sailing and  racing.

Now it is time to look forward the the Dam Jam this weekend.  This has become a legendary event in the MOWIND series.  Every year the wind has filled.  In fact every year this race has had slalom racing which is rare here in the midwest.  Longterm forecasts indicate this year will be no different with a good warm breeze out of the south.  The water is down this year, so we should have one of the best launches ever for this event.  There is plenty of room for everyone so come on down and enjoy a warm and windy weekend in Iowa.