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Saturday dawned overcast and cool as the sailors
gathered around the starting area for the long
distance race. The original course is a very
ambitions tour of Harlan County Lake, with seven
legs totally over 30 miles. Seven boats crossed
the starting line on a quick beat towards the
south shoreline below High Point shelter. Jay
Sawyer and Joel Mellman quickly established
themselves as the boats to beat as they rounded
the first mark and set spinnakers for a down wind
run across the lake towards the Hunter Cove
Campgrounds.
Leg two was a study in the various strategies
employed for downwind sailing. While Jay Sawyer
stayed low on the rhumbline, Mellman sailed back
and forth sailing higher angles. Both methods
seemed to work fairly well as both boats managed
to increase their lead over the rest of the
fleet.
Leg
three turned out to be a glimpse at what was to
come, as the wind became shifty and at times
fluky. This had the effect of splitting the fleet
up and shaking positions up as well. Some boats
were able to sail steadily lifting courses while
a boat just a couple hundred yards away would be
headed badly and be forced to tack towards the
shoreline. One boat that made a big move on leg
three was the S2 7.9 "We Bkrazy owned by
Greg Fettin. Fettin rode a beautify lift into
Bone cove to round in third place ahead of Todd
Nichol’s MacGreger 25 "Bad
Medicine". As Mellman and Sawyer continued
their battle for the lead, Fettin and Nichol
would spend the remainder of the race fighting
over 3rd.
The
fourth leg was a reach from bone cove to a mark
set just outside of North Cove, near the
Northshore Cabin Area. While most of the fleet
were struggling against the shifty winds to round
the 3rd mark, Sawyer’s San Jaun
24 "The Thrill" was stretching out
ahead of the Mellman’s "Felicity".
That is until he reached the north side of the
lake where a line of calm air had settled around
the 4th mark. This windless "line
of death" was so pronounce that the sailors
could see it from midway across the lake. Seeing
Sawyer, and then Mellman sail into and then be
stuck in this massive hole gave the rest of the
sailors new hope of catching them. Unfortunately,
once the boats began to arrive around the mark it
became clear that the only way to round the mark
was to traverse a hundred yards of dead calm.
Slowly the wind did begin to fill back in and the
boats began to move again with Sawyer and Mellman
now in a dead heat, sailing close hauled for the
5th mark.
After
struggling through two legs plagued with shifty
fluky wind, the fleet was informed that the
course had been shortened, eliminating the long
legs into Prerrie Dog and west to Alma.
Shortening the course did have the positive
effect of bringing back the wind!
Leg
five turned out to be a long tight reach and was
a drag race, with few boats changing positions.
Leg 6 began as a beam reach but the wind backed
and freshened and by the time the boats returned
to the mark at North Cove, they were on a tight
starboard reach.
The
final upwind leg to the finish proved to be an
exciting and challenging beat. With the winding
phasing back and forth through 15 degrees, this
allowed boats to play the shifts and gain some
ground on the leaders.
After
4 hours of racing, the boats crossed the finish
line in twos! First Sawyer and Mellman raced each
other across the line, with Sawyer taking line
honors. Next, Fettin came from way back in the
final half mile of the leg to cross the finish
line within 24 seconds of Nichol. The only boat
to have the luxury of crossing alone was John
Stuchlik's MacGreger 25. It was then Gary &
Cindy Robinson, sailing their San Jaun 23
"Miss B Haven" turn to race across the
line just behind Joy Dughman’s Hunter 23.5
"Serenity".
As
much fun as the racing was, the best was yet to
come. Gathering at High Point Shelter, the
sailors are treated a video of the days action,
complete with a musical sound track and some
humorous play by play. After an hour of
socializing it was time to eat and eat and eat.
Tom and Jayne sure know how to put out a spread.
Combining dishes brought by the Robinson’s,
Stuchlik’s and Bozung’s, the Day’s
bar-b-q pork and many salads, there was just so
much good stuff to eat, that if anyone
didn’t get too much to eat, they just
weren’t trying.
Sunday
morning was chilly and gray, with some residual
raindrops from the early morning storms. On tap
for day two of the Hog Roast Regatta were two
short course races. Race one consisted of one
quick lap around a triangular course. As they had
Saturday, Mellman and Sawyer would again battle
in close formation around the course, with Nichol
and Fettin giving chase.
As the
fleet prepared to start the second race the wind
began to fill in somewhat, giving promise of a
good race. Optimistically, the race course was
extended into a unbalanced trapezoid. Crossing
the starting line the fleet sailed a short beat,
then rounding the windward mark to starboard,
spinnakers were set for a short reaching leg
south towards High Point. Rounding the gybe mark,
the sailors then enjoyed a long reach towards the
third mark located west of Bone Cove. By the time
the boats were reaching towards Bone Cove, the
fleet was spread out with Sawyer showing good
speed out front, followed by Mellman, Nichol,
Fettin, and Gary Robinson.
Leg 4
was a long beat towards the windward mark located
west of the spillway. By this time the wind was
becoming light and gains were made by playing the
shifts. Sawyer was first to round the top mark
and head for the Finnish line with a huge lead
over Mellman. Tacking on every tiny header was
paying dividends for Nichol as "Bad
Medicine" had managed to gain considerable
distance on "Felicity". At one point
Mellman’s lead had been cut to only a
hundred yards or so. But, an exciting hull to
hull race to the end was not to be, as the crew
on Felicity proved just too good at utilizing
what wind was left.
The
final run to the finish became very frustrating
for the boats that found themselves in the back
half of the fleet. With the wind steadily dying
away, they were forced to watch as the leaders
crossed the finish line riding the last of the
breeze.
Gathering at Patterson Harbor for the
presentation of the trophies for Sundays races,
the group decided that Tom and Jayne Day would be
unanimously nominated to continue as chairpersons
for the Hog Roast. Great Job guys!
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