Reporting that there is MoFun in MoWind!

A streak of sunny warm weather kept the waters warm for some 19 competitors at the 9th Annual Higgins Lake windsurfing regatta held Sept 12-13, 2009.   Sometimes upper central Michigan waters can be a bit cool by mid-September but this year just plain bathing trunks is all you still needed.   A hand full of regatta goers arrived Thursday to take advantage of sunny dry conditions and get some light air sailing in.   You might think the picture below is from the Caribbean but no .. that’s Higgins Lake!   The beach at Higgins Lake State Park South has lots of sandy bottom close to the shore just perfect for raw beginners and kids.

 

 

Saturday 4 races were ran in light wind conditions.   The lead and top spots changed frequently in each race due to shifting wind puffs.  Sunday we awoke to a nice north onshore breeze of about 5 knots.  Another 4 races were ran in light winds.   We will publish the official results here as soon as we get them.   It’s great to see a campground littered with windsurf gear.

 

After 9 years Nat and Carol have the routine down managing to keep the regatta operations rolling along smoothly.    They pretty much work non-stop for 48 hours so many thanks to them for their organizer work.   The Great Lakes Windsurfing Demo crew also was there all weekend giving free lessons and making some great deals on demo and used equipment.    Congrats to Steve Grody who won a new Ezzy sail in the raffle.   Dakine, Ezzy, HPL and Chinook donated some nice prizes.   We hope to see more new faces next time in 2010, plan on that first weekend after Labor Day.   Advance reservations are not need that time of year and there are many lots open near the water.

2009 Higgins Lake NOR  .pdf  file

Well it’s hard to believe the 2009 summer season is nearly over.  The good news is that means it is time to get out the tent or ready the camper if you have one.    Higgins Lake South State campground in Michigan is a beautiful spot to do some late summer racing and windsurfing at.  If you are not into the camping thing there are hotels, cottages, B and B’s in the area and of course brand name hotels along I/75 and US 127.  Below windsurfers gather for a community camp pancake breakfast on Sunday morning during  2008’s event. 

 

Please note the last few years there has been a couple dozen non-racers and locals attending the event and Saturday evening party.  As noted in the Notice Of Race file there also is a single day event registration fee option available.   So if you have a place on or close by Higgins Lake there is no “I could only make it one day excuse”.     Usually there is some demo equipment to be tried and even a few used boards for sale.  So even if you don’t come to race we’d love to see you there!   

 For more details with notes on where to reserve a camp spot see this 2008 MOWIND post at

https://mowind.org/wp/?p=149

There is always a good showing of the Ohio/Michigan Mistral Prodigy One Design racing group at this event.  So if you are interested in finding out more about the Mistral Prodigy  get yourself to Higgins Lake to check them out.  There will be at least one demo Prodigy board there.

The 2009 Menominee Water Front Festival Regatta took place this past weekend, August 7th through the 9th.  There was a total of 30 registered racers along with their families at the event.

Sprinkling and light showers made appearances throughout the day on Friday, but they didn’t stop the Russian folksong-campfire from happening Friday night.  Heavier rains showed up during the night, causing Andy Gratton & co. to set up another tent inside of their first tent which had an inch of water in it.

Racers milled in to the Yacht Club Saturday morning for registration, speculating about the wind for the day.  Conditions were decent in the morning but declined around noon to almost no wind.  After watching some patches of wind approaching, a race was called around 3 pm.  The wind held up for the beginning of the race; Tim Cleary, Peter Hartwich and Blaise Gratton were dueling to keep ahead of Roman Kaplan and Andy Gratton on the tandem Wayler longboard.  Blaise Gratton crossed the finish line first, planing in the last puff of wind, after which the wind promptly shut off for the rest of the day.

Saturday evening brought the festivities typical of the Menominee Regatta: food at the Yacht Club, followed by fireworks, and then another Russian campfire.  Rains were predicted, but nobody ended up floating away in their tents. Sunday brought stronger winds and overall yielded three races.  Tim Cleary and Kevin Gratton showed up on another tandem board, continually harassing each other to “take it up!”  With a windward mark close to shore, the upwind legs were very shifty, followed by downwind drag racing through the gybe marks.

All in all, fun was had by everyone. There were some youth sailors in the new O’pen Bic boats, and Gary Loivine even dragged along a Hobie catamaran. There was plenty of windsurfing done by non-racers, and several people tried windsurfing for the first time this weekend.

Many thanks to Bill Caley and the Marinette-Menominee Yacht Club for running another successful regatta for MOWIND.

The next event on theMOWIND Race Series is the Tour da Croix on August 22.

Blaise Gratton reporting

The 2009 Door County Breeze Regatta was held July 3-5 in Ephraim, WI. A record 37 sailors participated in the event.

Racing over the weekend was blessed with sunny skies and moderate winds. A fun sail was held on Friday with several people touring out to the Horeshoe Island visible from shore in Ephraim. They were accompanied by the committee pontoon boat. Winds were light for most of the fun sail, but built into the teens near the end of the sail.

Saturday morning the winds were 5-10 mph out of the northwest with the forecast for things to swing around out of the south later in the day. With that info in mind, Steve set a simple windward/leeward gate course and got in two good races before breaking for lunch. During lunch the workshop fleet got in some nice racing near shore with plenty of spectators.

After lunch, the wind had shifted to the south as forecast so Steve simply  switched the direction of the Start/Finish line and continued racing the windward/leeward gate course shown below (the green marks were now the windward marks though they had been the leeward marks in the morning). Two races were completed on this course before calling it a day. The gps tracks show that I always chose to round the windward gate at the mark nearer to shore as it was a bit lower, while I chose each of the leeward buoys about equally based on which side of the course had more wind as I approached the rounding.

Saturday afternoon course

After racing was complete we were treated to a fantastic dinner right by the water at the Ephraim Visitor’s Center. Thanks to the Vande Corput family and everyone that made it happen! One of the best things about the Door County regatta is the amount of things to do after racing is complete. There are lots of shops, fireworks displays, restaurants (even after the great dinner it is hard to resist some ice cream at Wilson’s), and windsurfing camraderie. A lot of the gang headed over to the campground at Aqualand for a camp fire and some of the Russian folk singing that is becoming a tradition. As for me, we headed to a double feature at the local drive-in (where do you see those anymore?) and the kids enjoyed an animated film (Up) and then fell asleep on queue as the second show started.

Sunday morning we got to the race site and saw absolute glass on the water, but as we ate breakfast within eye shot of the bay the wind was building. At one point prior to the race start there was 10-15 mph from the south. However, at the time of the skipper’s meeting the wind had swung back to the northwest at only around 5 mph. A modified “M” course (shown below) was sent with the first lap consisting of running upwind to mark A, then downwind through a series of jibes (yellow) on the way to the leeward mark E. The 2nd lap was a windward/leeward from the E to A, back to E, and then back up to the Finish line. Two races were run with the wind both puffing and shifting. The gps track shows a trace that cuts from the windward green mark to just inside mark “B” and then turning abruptly straight to mark “E”…Well, that was me thinking during the first race that both laps required going through the jibes, but my brother Adam showed some good sportsmanship by hollering over that I just needed to go straight to the leeward mark. Adam and Josh were right on my tail as I got to the leeward mark after sailing the extra distance, but I managed to hold them off.

Sunday morning course

After two races in the increasingly unstable winds, Steve decided to have us break for lunch to see if the wind would settle in. During lunch the workshop fleet got in even more racing, and Kevin Gratton from Windpower Windsurfing did a great job showing off the new O’pen Bic sail boat that is coming on strong as a modern fleet for getting youths on the water. It should also be noted that Kevin’s brother, Andy, was sailing a 20+ year old tandem board with Mike Reed throughout the day, and making impressive time on the race course, esepecially upwind with twin 11.0 sails powering it. I was also impressed with the maneuverability of the board through the jibes in the morning races until Andy reminded me that the board actually has a rudder with foot-operated tiller for enhanced steering. Still, the sail handling required made the turns impressive.

After lunch, the wind had built some, but still had not steadied. Steve decided to make the course a bit less sensitive to changes in wind direction, so he pulled mark C, and realined marks B & D to make a box course with an outside loop. So, the mark order is now Start-A-B-D-A-D-E-Finish as shown below. We got in three races in ~10mph winds with aggressive shifts. To showcase this point, notice that there are two traces of me making the beat on the outside loop from D heading towards the middle of the course on port before tacking over to starboard to round B the 2nd time. Those two traces show me taking the same lay line to B on starboard, though they do differ by around 20-deg on the heading I am able to take on port, with several wavers from shifts along the way. So where’s the trace for the third race? Well, look at the line that runs from just to the right of D to just to the right of B….that was me laying the windward leg on one tack due to a significant shift.

Sunday afternoon course

Competition was stiff in these final three races as Josh was consistently pushing me on the windward legs, and Adam was showing great speed and some saavy on the downwind runs. Adam won the last race by leading it start to finish as I nipped at him all the way around and still couldn’t make a pass. Steve Johnson and Woody were also coming into their own as the breeze picked up, and Peter Hartwhich and Timmy Cleary were in the mix as always. Plus, the tandem board with 22 meters of sail was always right to make things interesting. Woody and Adam even had one race where they had a big lead but then took each other out rounding the leeward mark as a large wind shift got the best of their large sails and close proximity. As Josh and I sailed by though, we saw a big bloated carp floating in the water and we wondered if they were just going for some Great Lakes sushi.

The regatta came to a conclusion with an impressive 9 races completed. I managed to win the Unlimited class followed by Adam and Woody, while Josh Woodworth won the limited fleet (and 3rd overall) with Tim Cleary in second (4th overall) and Alex Monroe (newly married…congrats!) in third (9th overall).

The Sport fleet was very competitive with FIVE different sailors winning a race. Dan Thorton came away with the win, followed closely by Kelly Johnson, and Mark Schmitz.

The Workshop fleet featured five sailors, and Kylan Johnson from Minnesota got the top score. He was followed by Niels Zaunmueller from Beaver Dam, WI, and Marc Dascenzo.

Thanks again to the Vande Corput family and everyone who made this event possible. They did a great job. Thanks also to the sponsors; it is safe to say this regatta has some of the best community support of any of the events we have.

Up next is the Menominee Festival Regatta August 8-9. Be sure to check the MOWIND calendar for other events this year, as well as the updated MOWIND Series Scores.

– Arden Anderson reporting

Results:

2009 A Fleet Scores

2009 Sport Fleet Scores

2009 Workshop Scores

Photos by Jan Vande Corput (click on thumbnails for higher-resolution picture):

The 2009 Worthington Windsurfing Regatta and Unvarnished Music Festival was held June 13-14 on Lake Okabena in Worthington, MN. This event was put on by Worthington Windsurfing as part of the MOWIND Race Series and the US Windsurfing National Race Tour.

Aproximately 40 sailors registered, in spite of the rain and light wind that was forecast. Light winds were almost a relief after last years’ 30-35 mph winds (along with a tornado) battered the sailors. The community showed up in force and gate tabulators registered crowds in the thousands.

Races were held both Saturday and Sunday under the competent direction of Jeff Hegwer along with Jason Swanson, Andy Gratton, Craig Bergh and others.

The windsurfers and public enjoyed the Unvarnished Music Festival, an event of Uncommon Merit.

Photo credits to festival photographer Dan Norman. He captured the essence of the event at www.danorm.com along with the Daily Globe, providing the public with invaluable daily updates on their website www.dglobe.com.

To all of these folks…….we are beholden.

Worthington Windsurfers thank US Windsurfing for their continued support. We appreciate the role that they play in providing sailors an organization that is responsive to sailor needs.

 Thanks Again,
Worthington Windsurfers
bk (Bill Keitel)