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Melges 17 Inland 07/27/09 08:47pm
The MYC is hosting the Melges 17 Inland on July 25-26.
Summary by Hans Dickel
The regatta is now underway and current race results have been posted. Day 1 had breeze betwen 12-22mph in the morning and afternoon. This is the second regatta in a row that had fantastic wind at the MYC (last week was the ILYA C Invitational). And in July?! In the end, some M17s had demasted, many had flipped, and a couple became submarines. There was one known case of stitches (18!). But those that prevailed (especially the youth) had fantastic rides downwind. They gave some E boats a run for the money they were so fast! On the first beat, boats were relatively tight. But those that could make the transition quickly downwind and stayed in the gusts made "cash". Windward takedowns were the most popular and those that succesfully took down cleanly early prevailed over those that waited longer and overshot the leeward mark/gate. Blake Middleton (PRO) and his team ran quality races and avoided interaction problems, despite racing with other fleets for race 1 (W-2, racing with C, MC, J/22, Open fleets) and race 3 (W-2, racing with E, Yngling fleets). Race 2 was a W 2-1/2 and followed immediately after race 1. After lunch, race 3 was started and race 4 followed immedialy after with a W 2-1/2. Tomorrow, the M17 will have their own start for race 5 (warning is at 9:30am, prior to the 10am club racing), with race 6 to follow. The fleet voted strongly for 2 races tomorrow.
Day 1 photos by Dallas Johnson and Nancy Middleton
Day 2: The breeze was much lower than the day before. On the starting line, boats were vocally quieter than normally expected and perhaps relieved to struggle less to keep the pointy end up. Race five saw reasonable breeze pockets with periods of the fans completely shutdown and big shifts. The last downwind saw a course change to the left and many boats congregated at the finish line as they ran out of wind and had to patiently wait to cross the finish line. After completing the W-2 course, the race committee moved the course left on the main lake. They patiently got their wind readings and setup the course. After a big wind shift, Blake Middleton put up a brief postponement flag while under sequence. After race 6 started (W 1-1/2 course), the left side got a left shift and the right side got a right shift, with the right side prevailing overall. The race committee carefully monitored the progress for course adjustments throughout the race. The breeze was variable on its velocity with periods of very light (both on the low side) and hiking out. Motor boat chop increased significantly during the beautiful late morning sun and temperatures. After the race, sailors came together at the Deephaven City Hall for lunch and the awards presentation. Derek Packard (USA-2), from Minnetonka, won the 2009 Melges 17 Inland champs. Second place went to Erik Bowers from Minnetonka who was behind by one point. His crew gracefully represented their boat as Erik had to catch a 3pm flight. And to make sure the youth sailors didn't take all of the hardware, Vince Porter (USA-0) from Lake Geneva took third place, just one point behind Erik.
Stephanie Dow's recount of the regatta, posted on the Melges 17 website.
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