Since we briefly mentioned Park City as a centrally located venue for the west coast boats, I thought a few more notes might be helpful to those who would consider this as a potential destination.
From our quick raise of hands, Oregon had the boat who travelled the furthest at 14 hours. It was 12 for me and I think it would be about the same for the Seattle boats, and only about 10 hours for Brian Tyrrell (the brains on our boat). Colorado was about 8 hrs and it looks like San Fran and San Diego are about 12 hrs also. So, leaving after work on Thursday and arriving back home around mid-day Monday is pretty do-able for me and likely most others. Finally for us, it also helps that my crew, Brians brother Larry Tyrrell, lives only about 10 minutes from the lake.
Jordanelle Reservoir is a great state park - Lots of space for vehicles, camping and two ramp launches - the north ramp was very wide. We ended up at the south launch where the small boats launch and it worked just fine for us, but could get crowded with the lasers, cats and Optis that all use this ramp. Once in, there is plenty of dock space. The park entrance fee was covered in the registration but you had to arrange/pay for the slips separately, (which probably should have been included in the registration too to make it simple for the traveling boats). We had a well attended dinner on Friday night and a really fun Commodore's Ball in town on Saturday night - good food/live music/drinks ect.
Day 1. We had wind from the east - what little there was. There is an arm of the reservoir extending east that has enough fetch for some good thermal potential. However, when we woke up on Saturday am and saw the hot air balloons taking off over Park City - it was not a good sign. Racing started at 11 after a quick skippers meeting. There was a cat fleet, Elliots, Optis and Lasers out with us. Optis had their own course. Jay on the committee boat did a great job, using whistles for the 3 minute starting sequence and a white board for the course - no flags except the over early (which we did not have any). For the first race, the wind shifted to the left during the starting sequence, being very light air, it was all about the start, we port tacked the fleet, and keeping the weight low and forward in the boat, keeping the boat moving in the lulls was critical. Jay Harland on Madison was super fast and had a great race, he was on our tail the whole race - seeming to always be in the right spot at the right time. After race on the wind gave out completely and we had a darn nice afternoon with the chase boat handing out plenty of Mark Allen's Uinta beer, but the wind never filled in until 5ish when we were onshore and deep into the coolers.
Day 2. Forecast called for showers and east breeze. At 930-10 there was a light south breeze over the dam with the line of showers - so the 1030 start was on. In the first race Marty May smoked off a nice bullet, followed by Mark Allen and Travis Gregory, but was a DFL for us....(Don’t ask me I was driving!) We got that over with and the wind settled in over the dam. The next 3 hours produced steady rain and steady rain with breeze (about 7-9) and we were able to get in 4 more races. The starts were a bit tricky since we had only minutes between races, a line intentionally skewed to favor the pin and that whole whistle/3 min start sequence. The rain made it harder to sail in for the driver - the light wind and constant rain kept your telltales stuck to your sails. So unless you had some type of shroud telltales - it was tough. The pressure was pretty consistent across the course, with a little righty up near the weather mark and not too gusty - so it seemed like the best play was to watch the compass and stay in phase. The wind backed on the last race some, so the right was not so favored towards the end of the day. The boys on Junita brought their A game as usual and were fast - and both Phil Kanegsberg and Brady Lofthouse were often within a half a boat length at the finish. Good tight racing for sure!!
I think we should consider keeping this venue as a top spot for our fall regatta. Fewer motor boats, lots of lodging and camping and reliable wind. Thanks again to everyone for the good time!
