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:
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=852Â ), 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