Bayfield Race Week 2008

http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=7CAC38752BE58100

Another Bayfield Race Week is behind us, and what great week of sailing. The flat-water good wind sailing Mecca of the upper Midwest lived up to its reputation.

The Sat. informal inside the islands race had us out in 20+ knots with some great flat water up on plane conditions.

Sunday night was the traditional Goombay Smash party at the local sail loft. Only a few of the U20 crew members fell victim to the Goombays, but many of the unknowing other classes crew did look hurt the next morning.

Monday started with light and building breeze, with tight racing on the course. We ran the first race out past Grants Pt. and the second one finished with a long run back to Bayfield.

By Tuesday the wind was up and would hold for two days. By the end of the first two races on day 2, four different boats had earned a bullet, so you can see the racing was tight. With only six boats on the course you could get into gibing duels on a regular basis without loosing the rest of the pack, the duels happened regularly and it was fun. On the water action was back and forth on just about every leg.

Wednesday the wind came up again. We raced two W/L’s. The event organizers supplied us with sealed GPS units and downloaded the data after each day so that they could show on screen race tracking. True to U20 form the units show the regular 10-12 knots of downwind performance.

On Thursday the Race Committee accommodated our request to race up around Basswood Island, which resulted in a great sail.

Friday we finished a three leg W/L, got on the trailers and packed up ready to roll by 3PM. Some of the participants commented that this is one of the most relaxing U20 regattas out there, with starts at 11 AM, beautiful weather, docks a few hundred yards from the hotel rooms, prearranged socials by the organizers, an accommodating Race Committee and just a fun group of people. This was one great vacation.

Thanks to Steve Rose, George Brandt, Gregg Henning, Tim Delany and Nate Selsted for making this event a memorable one.

Mark Zipper #121

Results below:

1st – #121 Zipper 2 3 1 3 3 2 1 2 2 , 16 points
2nd - #149 Goombay Smash, 1 2 2 4 2 DNF DNS,1 1 , 19 points
3rd - #35 Semper Gumby 4 1 4 2 1 1 3 4 5 , 20 points
4th - #172 Alize 5 6 3 1 4 5 2 3 3 , 26 points
5th - #160 Lighten Up 3 5 6 DNF DNS 3 4 5 4 , 35 points
6th - #50 Runing w/ Scissors 6 4 5 5 5 4 5 6 6 , 40 points