- Local News for Southern Sailors - May 2002 Next Story
Dogwood Regatta opens racing season at Lake Lanier
By Pamela A. Keene
| The winds couldn't have been flukier on opening day of the Atlanta Inland Sailing Club's Dogwood Regatta on Lake Lanier, clocking 270 degrees over the seven hours the racers were on the water. But racers had three good races under their belts by the end of the weekend. |
Don Wigston photo |
Traditionally held on the first weekend in April, the Dogwood Regatta is the lake's largest competition for trimarans with 12 Corsair F-boats. The Dogwood is also one of the biggest regattas of the season with many out-of-area sailors traveling to challenge Lake Lanier. A total of nearly 60 boats raced in eight fleets over two days April 6-7. Shore events took place at Lake Lanier Islands.
The wind varied from near calms to gusts in the high teens Saturday as the race committee postponed for the first starts to move the line for a last-minute 90-degree wind shift.
"Saturday's wind was the weirdest and flukiest I've ever seen on this lake in all my years of sailing," said Edith Collins, US Sailing judge for the event.
Sunday's conditions, with lows in the mid-40s at the start of the day, saw sailors bundled up but ready to sail. Eight fleets in four different starts sailed four different courses on Sunday, providing a steady stream of boats during the 45 minutes of finishes.
Doug Harkrider's F-31R Rocket Science led the multihull fleet with a first in the first race, followed closely by Don Wigston's F-28R L'il. The two battled race for race all weekend, with Harkrider taking two of three firsts. Larry Shaw, sailing his F-24 MkII Riaka, took third overall.
In the sport boat fleet, Scott Gregory's Melges 24 Satisfaction flip-flopped leads with Dean Holcomb's Elliott 770. Gregory took two firsts and a third with Holcomb posting two seconds and a first. Gregory won the tie-breaker with Holcomb in second and Paul Swanson's Elliott 770 Northern Exposure finishing third.
Multihulls at the Dogwood
Some years ago when I first tried to enter the Dogwood Regatta with my F-27 trimaran, my entry was accepted and my check deposited. But the night before the regatta I was told I couldn't race even though I had a valid Lake Lanier rating certificate and had been racing on the lake for over a year. To add insult to injury, when the results were published, there I was in last place!
Instead of getting mad, I decided to get even, so I lobbied for a trimaran fleet in the regatta the next year. To cut a long story short, the trimaran class has been the largest class at the Dogwood Regatta now for three years, and other sailing clubs on the lake regularly call to ask if the Corsair trimarans might like to enter their regatta. We now get the first start, too, which is fine with us.
The Corsair fleet was about the same size as last year with strong participation from out of town. Bob and Tom Reese came from Ohio, Jep Peacock from Rhode Island, Ron Roth from Virginia Beach, Larry Shaw from Auburn, AL, Willie Blevins from Orlando, and Dave and Trish Calvert came from Islmorada, FL, to crew on one of the boats. Local Corsair owners Doug and Debra Harkrider accommodated the fleet of 12 trimarans at their private dock and invited all the skippers and crews to eat and sleep in their house or camp on their property. The Harkriders also graciously stored several boats between Key West Race week and the Dogwood and kept the boats in their driveway until the owners returned for the Corsair Nationals in Ft. Walton Beach at the end of April. Now that's southern hospitality for you.
Seasoned regatta participant Dave Calvert remarked that this was perhaps the most fun regatta he had ever attended, and a lot of people agreed. After all, where else do you get to spend the weekend in the same house as all your competitors? It was a wonderful opportunity to mix with the skippers and crews on the other boats and to sit down and chat, without distractions. And having all the boats rafted up together at one dock at the bottom of the yard was absolutely fantastic. And last but not least, Doug's rock band played for us on Saturday night in their living room. Totally awesome.
This year's event had some of the best wind in years. Not the strongest but perhaps the most consistent. After a shaky start Saturday morning where we were in postponement for about an hour before the breeze filled in, things just got better and better. Two races were held on Saturday, both distance races using fixed Army Corps of Engineers marks around the lake. The first race covered all points of sail and windspeeds from close to zero to over 12 knots. Race two was shorter, but the wind was more steady. Sunday's race three was breezy-10-18 knots. We didn't have a knotmeter or GPS on our boat, but Doug Harkrider reported boat speeds over 20 knots at times. There were some friendly drawn-out battles between one of the F-28Rs and the 31Rs, some close finishes between several of the 28Rs, and some very tight racing between the F-24s. In the end, everyone was smiling no matter where they placed.
Doug Harkrider showed his knowledge of the lake and ability to make his boat go fast by being first across the line in all three races and taking the overall win on corrected time. Larry Shaw's Corsair F-24 Mk I battled it out boat for boat with the faster-rated 24 Mk IIs and ended up in third place on corrected time.
Don Wigston's borrowed 28R took advantage of good crew and local knowledge to challenge the faster 31s, being beaten across the line only by Doug Harkrider's 31R in any of the three races and coming within three seconds of winning overall.
Robert Libbey (Farrier Eagle) showed that you don't have to have the latest and greatest R model trimaran to have fun, and that you can do it with your children on board. The Libbeys brought their diminutive Farrier Eagle up from Gainesville, rigged and launched it late on Friday night, and on race day valiantly attempted to locate the obscure marks on a strange lake long after the rest of the fleet had been and gone while his kids slept in the cuddy cabin.- Don Wigston Super sailing at the Dogwood... or who put the kryptonite in my sails I arrived about noon after tracking down a trailer tire to replace the one that was impaled through the sidewall by a freshly sharpened center punch. At the ramp the question of stepping the mast on the water was addressed as I launched the boat with the stick down. I think the comment was, "Oh, you are one of those guys." Yes, thank you, I am...now that I know what it feels like to fall off the boat into the water-an unknown feeling prior to the St. Pete NOOD. I have decided that cold and wet is preferable to dry, hard, and probably broken, were I to exhibit my less than ballerina-like agility in the parking lot. |
After motoring around to the Harkrider dock, I began to assemble the beast. It was near dark when the parade began to AISC for late registration and the skipper's meeting. It was late by the time we returned to the launching area, and I was exhausted.
Saturday morning was active with last minute adjustments, and I was anxious to try out the newly installed roller furling system for the jib. Changing things is never as easy as it ought to be, so after a couple of trips up the mast and numerous re-runnings of this and that, the installation was completed and the jib was furled. It's good to note that when buying used sails, compare rig styles. Notice how the carbon fiber rig has two sets of spreaders and the aluminum rig has only one?
On the way to the course we discussed our strategy. My crew was unfamiliar with multihulls except for our tactician Terry. All we really knew was that we were going to need to go fast. The rest of the crew consisted of Joe Waters, Yevgeniy Burmatnov, and Sasha Getun. I felt fortunate to have this crew in spite of their inexperience on F-boats. Yevgeniy was on the Russian Olympic team in Savanna, when they finished one point away from Bronze. Sasha and Yevgeniy are currently pursuing a slot in the Olympics to be held in Greece. My credentials include a lot of wanting to win and limited success.
We had a good start in the first race and were doing well until we rounded the first mark and had to go uphill. Just couldn't get the tacks to work and stalled repeatedly. Finally, we got the Loose Cannon moving forward and as the breeze built, we began to put on some speed. Harkrider's This is Rocket Science and Wigston's L'il were clearly faster, but we did squeak out a third place and had made progress up the vertical learning curve.
The second race started before many of the other classes had finished, and we are deeply grateful to the race committee for com municating that fact to us with just enough time to get to the line. A downwind start found several boats at a position of disadvantage including the committee boat. I don't think anyone was hurt, and the damage to the committee boat was almost minor. Our position was excellent, but we suspect the boat in front of us may have been over early. The race committee was too busy fending off multiple multihulls to raise the individual recall flag. In fact, I am not sure the race ever really started at all.
Heading down the course, the noise of many hulls slicing through the water behind me encouraged continued racing and additional velocity. Riding the puffs down under the chute put us in a vacuum on the wrong side of the lake. The rest of the fleet was lifted by new wind while we watched with dismay. At this point I learned a valuable lesson. Had I been the tactician and not just the helmsman, I would have tacked back and gone to the other side of the lake and fallen in line behind every other trimaran in the fleet and half the monohulls, too.
Joe's wisdom shone when he said, "If you go back now, you have sealed your loss and you won't be able to recover. Ride this out and go for the mark from here."
At the time, we would have had to sail right through the center of a huge clog of leaners waiting behind the start line for their gun. I was skeptical but obedient. Sure enough, the new wind came across the lake and lifted us above all but one of the waiting monohulls straight toward the mark and the transom of Jep Peacock's F-28R Rut Row.
We had just enough speed to climb to windward of them as we both sailed into the lee of a small island a short distance from the mark. Yevgeniy anticipated the potential need to head up and unfurled the jib, protecting from a quick luff as both boats coasted toward the mark. Accelerating around the mark, Yevgeniy deployed the screacher, furled the jib and quickly we rounded the next mark. On the next upwind we got backed, and the jib hung on the spreader. Remember the earlier note? I should have had spreader patches for the single spreader rig.
Within three boat lengths the jib split leech to luff. We headed upwind with the screacher, and I offered a round of Ibuprofen since we had no beer. High speed sailing and inspiring crew work minimized the pain of trashing the new sail. We examined our options later at the dock and decided to make a temporary repair for the next day.
Sunday was breezy and cool. With the jib repaired and lessons learned Saturday, we anticipated more success in the third race. We were late for the start but windward with clear air. Only This is Rocket Science crossed ahead at the first tack. The wind was up, and a couple of tacks in phase paid off. I misjudged the first mark and overstood, but we closed fast and when the kite went up, the GPS showed 19 knots. At speed the lake gets small so we gybed and gybed again, making good time if not closing on the leader.
Then the spinnaker parted...entirely. The speed dropped so fast the first thought was "what'd we hit?" Most of the chute was in the water. The head was flapping like a flag on a freeway, and the leech line wrapped in red wound itself around the screacher, making any chance of recovery unrealistic. After screaming for a few minutes, it seemed the wise choice to withdraw and proceed toward the trailer.
It is going to be okay. Loose Cannon was fast, and it will be fast again. I'm sure the other crews were sailing fast and having a good time, too, especially those that finished or even won. I don't know how anybody could have enjoyed the Dogwood Regatta any more than we did. - Willie Blevins RESULTS Dogwood Regatta - Lake Lanier, GA Atlanta Inland Sailing Club April 6 - 7 (Top Four - after three races) Trimaran (12 boats) 1. Doug Harkrider/F-31R Rocket Science 4; 2. Don Wigston/F-28R L'il 5; 3. Larry Shaw/F-24 Mk I Riaka 13; 4. Ron Roch/F-28R 8-UPWID-IT 15 Sport Boats (5 boats) 1. Scott Gregory/Melges 24 Satisfaction 5; 2. Dean Holcomb/Elliott 770 5; 3. Paul Swanson/Elliott770 Northern Exposure 10; 4. Greg Bell/Elliott 770 10 Low Spinnaker (7 boats) 1. Tim Jackett/C&C 99 Rabbit 4; 2. Trey Sunderland/ Kiwi 35 Mufassa 5; 3. John McCarthy/S2 9.1 Iniki 10; 4. Tom Roberts/Express 27 Wind Wizard 11 Mid Spinnaker (8 boats) 1. Scott Tylor/Wavelength 24 Endorphin 5; 2. Ray Phillips/Wavelength 24 Dangerous Curves 8; 3. Steve Suddath/J-24 Dixie Chick 9; 4. Scott Loesel/Ultimate 20 K9 12 High Spinnaker (5 boats) 1. Chris Webster/S2 6.7 Sundance 5; 2. Mike McLeod/Norlin 26 Radar Love 6; 3. Kevin Mistele/Crescent 24 Pocahontas 8; 4. Frank Atkinson/Santana 20 11 Low Non-spinnaker (8 boats) 1. Joey Duran/Cal 9.2 Irish Flyer 4; 2. Jeff Freeman/Beneteau 38 Sparkler V 7; 3. Bill Gilsdorf, Beneteau 345 On Y Va 9; 4. D Edmiston/Pearson 31 Impetuous 14 Mid Non-spinnaker (6 boats) 1. Mike Iuvone/Hunter 30 Strega 6; 2. Ray Davis/Hunter 28.5 Raylin 6; 3. Kurt Schurenberg/Catalina 27 Beau Gust 8; 4. Robin Terrell/Capri 22 Marmutta 12 High Non-spinnaker (4 boats) 1. Kirk Jockell/Pearson 26 Mental Floss 5; 2. Frank Vandall/McGreggor 25 6; 3. Al Burger/Catalina 25 Knot Working 7; 4. Damian Autorino/Ranger 22 The Duck 12 For complete results, see www.lakelaniersailing.com. |