Spud Cup

[Jay Harland]

With NA's behind the class, I am trying to rustle up some solid one design to end the summer!

Team Madison is planning on a road trip to race the Spud Cup Regatta in Sandpoint, Idaho on Labor Day weekend.  The Notice of Race, SI's and registration forms are posted on the Sandpoint Sailing Association website:

http://web.sandpointsailing.com/

Chris has apparently heard that one of the Seattle boats is committed (not sure who?)

That makes four boats (Madison, the Seattle boat, and 2 the two resident Sandpoint Boats).  Chris says we can get a One-Design start with 4 boats, but 4 is kind of bare bones OD and it would be great if we could get two or three more to make some quality OD.  If we can pull a 12-hour drive surely some of the closer boats can get motivated to make the haul!

Dave and Maren (#157) from Flathead were thinking about it when I sent the last motivational e-mail?  It would still be awesome to get Dave Kennedy from Boise & Dan Bizek from Calgary as those boats are like us having to drive long distances to get One Design and yet this race will be relatively close for them.  Maybe even some of the Salt Lake boats might be interested?

If you are thinking about it respond to the group to expand the interest.

Jay

Madison #73

[Jay Harland]

This turned out to be pretty intense Regatta.  It was windy!  At times it was really windy (like ~30 knots at the end of race 4 on day 1).  Elysia and I were double handing (at about 280Lbs) so we were at more than a small disadvantage against the fully crewed boats.  No sooner did the wind finally let up on sunday and our spinnaker halyard exit broke and we could not do the last race when the weight differential wouldn't have mattered.  Bummer...  These conditions combined with our crew weight made it survival sailing for us, but that can be fun too (once we got to 20 knockdowns I stopped counting).

The venue is gorgeous.  Great hotel right on the water that also has excellent food.  Part of our reason for going was to visit our families who came from Montana.  My parents took us to dinner Saturday night at an american avant garde cuisine bistro and Elysia's parents took us to an Italian place the next night that are both an easy walk from the hotel.  Sandpoint might have the best restaurants for a town that size anywhere in the country.

Chris Chambers won our class and was awarded the Spud Cup trophy, which was awesome! This is an awesome venue.  The committee boat work and regatta organization was pretty good.  This is a venue that should be considered for major U20 events in the future...

Jay    

[Gregg Henning]

Jay,

Sounds like fun and a great venue to push for next year... Start organizing early!

Thanks for the update!

Gregg