SCUTTLEBUTT WEBSITE	FORUM INDEX	SEARCH POSTS	WHO'S ONLINE	LOG IN

Forum Index: DISCUSSION: Event Reports: 2010 I-LYA Bayweek Regatta

The Publisher ***** Aug 20, 2010, 7:52 AM Post #1 of 3 (2254 views) Shortcut 2010 I-LYA Bayweek Regatta Log-In to Post/Reply 2010 I-LYA Bayweek Regatta Inter-Lake Yachting Association Put-In-Bay, OH, USA August 6-8, 2010 Event details: http://www.yachtscoring.com/emenu.cfm?eID=321 August 11, 2010 I-LYA Senior Bay Week at Put-in-Bay, Ohio, by Don Finkle: This report is going to stretch over several issues as there is a lot to write about. This week we'll focus on the venue itself. There are 6 YRAs covering Great Lakes sailing, one for each of the GL's plus Detroit Regional. Inter-Lake YA essentially covers the Lake Erie region and nearby waters. Just as we have annual LYRA Regattas each year (almost always on Lake Ontario, except this year in Buffalo), I-LYA hosts theirs annually at Put-in-Bay on South Bass Island, located three miles off the north shore of Ohio on western Lake Erie. While the LYRA senior regatta moves around to a different club each year, I-LYA's Bay Week is always at PIB. There are actually 3 regattas, Junior Bay Week, a Powerboat event, and Senior Bay. The Junior regatta is huge and takes place before the others. This report is about Senior Bay Week, which was a three-day event held August 6-8. I-LYA has been around for about 117 years, just shy of LYRA's 126 years, so there is a lot of history here. Having heard of "Bay Week" for about as long as we can recall, it was on the list of things to do if the opportunity ever presented itself. Unfortunately, the two big "must do" events on our personal calendar each year are the Youngstown Level and the LYRA, and Bay Week never fit our schedule before. Bay Week had suffered declining attendance in recent years, as have many regattas, and the organizers polled their constituants for suggestions. The response they received was to move the event from mid-week to a Friday-Sunday schedule. As a result the attendance this year was way up, from about 70 boats to approximately 150. That total includes all types of boats, from Hobie Cats to a white-sail cruising class to larger PHRF and offshore one design yachts. Before getting into the event itself one must talk about the venue. Being on an island is always cool. I had seen the charts of the area many times, and roughly understood the layout of this series of islands just west of Sandusky Bay in the western basin of Lake Erie. I had, however, never been there before. You must experience it to understand and appreciate the place. The first reaction I had was of how close the islands were to shore (South Bass Island is only 3 miles from the mainland) and to each other. Most of the islands are in the US, but a few smaller ones, plus Pelee Island, the largest, are in Ontario waters. Our delivery crew were reminded of this as they sailed into the stretch of water between Pelee and one of the US islands on the way in and were hassled a bit by a US Border Patrol vessel. Put-in-Bay is a village on South Bass Island with a large protected harbor, offering moorings, docking and an anchorage. I have not seen anything like PIB elsewhere on the Great Lakes, certainly not on Lake Ontario. It is a serious resort party town. Wall to wall bars and restaurants, plus of course shops of all types. It did not take long to realize that the legal climate in Ohio is not the same as it is here in NY. Nobody wears helmets on motorcycles, scooters, bicycles or other vehicles. There is no such thing as cutting someone off at the bar because they have been "over served". The traffic on the roads borders on crazy. There must be 10,000 golf carts on the island, we rented two of course, plus all manner of other scooters, bicycles and such. While all these folks are crowding the roads, only half paying attention to where they are going, the locals weave their cars and trucks, taxis and buses way too fast through the melee. Why there is not an accident every hour is beyond me. While killing some time on Saturday, when racing was cancelled due to lack of wind, I decided to climb the lighthouse on the island. It is now owned by Ohio State University and is open to the public. When I got to the top I found that you could go out on the observation platform which had only one waist-high railing. It would be very easy to fall through. But of course this sort of freedom, which we don't see around here, is part of the fun of being on vacation in a new place. Getting to the island is easy and inexpensive. There are ferrys that run every half-hour that carry vehicles and passengers. I thought that $56 total round-trip for the two of us plus our truck was very reasonable. You can of course also come by boat or plane. Some of our crew slept aboard the boat, the rest of us who had brought our non-racing wives along, stayed at a B&B which happened to be across the street from the island airport. Because the weather was good the parade of private planes in and out was a great source of entertainment by itself. While much of what goes on in PIB seems to be very loose and relaxed, they do not mess around when it comes to fining you for things they do not allow. Over the years things managed to get out of hand at times, so the local constabulary imposes stiff fines for certain types of offenses. These include an open container in public, which is cause for an immediate trip to the local jail. They can get so drunk you can't stand up in the bar, but don't take your drink off premises. Our crew saw a girl in a tiny black Bikini jump into the fountain in the park, and within seconds she was put in handcuffs and taken away by the police. Parking fines for golf carts are $250! The price of fines for most offenses is very steep, including docking more than 4 boats deep, which we were told was $250. On Saturday we were rafted about 6 boats out when we heard commotion on the docks and saw two policemen ticketing boats for this offense. We untied and bolted, since we were in the section of docks reserved for the racers and could not believe what was going on. As it turned out the Mayor and other officials got involved and the tickets were torn up, and the harbormaster stopped by the awards ceremony and said that would not happen again next year. I should emphasize that the sailors are not the reason things get crazy in this town, it is full of young people and they are the ones who have to be reined in. Next week we'll continue the story plus talk about the racing. I'm still looking for results, which we should have by then. -- http://psndealer.com/dealersite/images/rcryachts/racersnews081110.pdf

The Publisher ***** Aug 20, 2010, 7:54 AM Post #2 of 3 (2253 views) Shortcut Re: [The Publisher] 2010 I-LYA Bayweek Regatta [In reply to] Log-In to Post/Reply 2010 I-LYA Bayweek Regatta Inter-Lake Yachting Association Put-In-Bay, OH, USA August 6-8, 2010 Event details: http://www.yachtscoring.com/emenu.cfm?eID=321 August 18, 2010 I-LYA Senior Bay Week at Put-in-Bay, Ohio, Part 2, by Don Finkle: I am going to turn this into a 3 part report, because this issue has grown so large. So today's part will be shorter than planned, and we'll finish up next week. Last week we said we would talk about the racing, so here we go. The type of racing at Bay Week varies by course, because they have dinghies, multihulls, cruising class, PHRF fleets and offshore one designs. On the Friday we noted that the PHRF boats raced around the islands, while on our race area, the offshore one designs, we had W-L's. I was very happy about that, because we got in more races (4) that day than anyone else did. Also, being unfamiliar with the local waters, we were happy not to try and navigate our way around the islands with the rocky bottoms in the area while trying to win a race at the same time. Our PRO was Jim Titjmeyer, and has been the case every time I've sailed on his course he and his team did a great job. There is no mystery when you are on Jim's course, he tells you what he is thinking, what he plans to do and why. He got us racing when the wind filled in enough to do so, and he cycled races one after another to maximize the time we were out there. At PIB they have first warning at 0925 on Friday and Saturday, and believe it or not, 0825 on Sunday! They do this I am told to allow everyone to enjoy the shore scene. I'm not exactly sure how you can fully enjoy the shore scene when you have to be on the course that early the next morning, but at our age we weren't going to be closing any bars anyway. As it turned out Sunday morning had the best wind of the regatta, and we got going right on time with 16-18 knots of breeze. We had two quick races and were back at the dock by 1100. I'm getting ahead of myself here a bit. I mentioned Friday, when we had four races in light and very shifty air, and Sunday, two races in a great breeze, but what about Saturday? The forecast that day was for very light air, and we were all worried that we might not be able to sail. The RC did a good job of sounding a shore postponement early instead of sending everyone out to float around. We decided that we would motor out anyway and see the area, since it was new to us. We motored around the islands for a couple of hours, still no wind, and eventually the RC came on the VHF and announced that all races that day were abandoned. The breeze did fill in much later, but too late for any racing with their allowed schedule anyway. Our crew on "Seaweed" enjoyed the tour around the islands, there is certainly no shortage of prime waterfront property in the area. Our course was to the east of PIB, the other courses were on the west side, so we never saw any other boats except from a distance when the raced around the islands. The race area for us was clear on Friday, little other traffic. On Saturday, when we were not racing, the lake was flat and there were a gazillion powerboats in the area where we would be sailing, mostly fishing. I am glad we were not trying to race that day in drifting conditions with so many powerboat wakes. By the way, forget any thought of the powerboats slowing down to avoid throwing a wake at a nearby sailboat. In fact, many of the larger powerboats we saw were always going by at high speed, I guess the fuel prices are not their main concern. On Sunday we got out early enough so that powerboats were not an issue, and with the breeze and chop we had that may have discouraged some of them also. Well that is all for this week, next week we'll talk about the racing in our fleet. By the way, results for Bay Week keel boats are below in this issue. -- http://www.rcryachts.com/custompage.asp?pg=racingnews

The Publisher ***** Aug 26, 2010, 7:07 AM Post #3 of 3 (2083 views) Shortcut Re: [The Publisher] 2010 I-LYA Bayweek Regatta [In reply to] Log-In to Post/Reply 2010 I-LYA Bayweek Regatta Inter-Lake Yachting Association Put-In-Bay, OH, USA August 6-8, 2010 Event details: http://www.yachtscoring.com/emenu.cfm?eID=321 August 25, 2010 I-LYA Senior Bay Week at Put-in-Bay, Ohio, Part 3, by Don Finkle: "This will be the final part of our report on this regatta. Everybody has a type of racing that they enjoy most, and for me it is one design course racing at a regatta where there are boats we don't get to race against every week. This requires travel, and I am extremely fortunate that my crew is so willing to do deliveries. They like this type of racing as much as I do, both the competition as well as sailing in different places. So when we found out that there would be a one design fleet for the Beneteau 36.7s in a place we had always wanted to try, Put-in-Bay I-LYA Race Week, everyone signed on right away. There is another reason I like the regatta format, and that is the fine race committee work we can typically expect. It is always more enjoyable to sail in a well-run race, and we were very fortunate to have Jim Titgemeyer as our PRO for this event. We expected and got great racing on Jim's course. The course we were on was for one design fleets exclusively: Beneteau 36.7s, Level 72 (J/35, Thomas 35 and Schock 35), J/105, J/29, and we were the first start. The way Jim ran our circle minimized any interference between fleets, so most of the time we were sailing in our own water. Our fleet was small compared to those at Level and LYRA, only 7 boats, but this was as many as or more than the other fleets on our course. This was the third OD regatta for us in a three week period, right after YYC Level and LYRA in Buffalo. As such the crew was operating with efficiency as far as mechanics went, which was to be one of our strengths during the series. Even we managed to go the wrong way our boat handling and crew work bailed us out. On the first day the breeze took a while to settle in, and Jim rightly waited until we had decent sailing conditions. The wind was shifty in terms of direction and velocity over the course all day, but it was not unfair at all. You just had to figure out what was going on, and nobody got it right all the time. There was a lot of position-changing in every race. We made the decision to go with a light crew of only 7, as compared to our usual 8-9 it takes to get up to class max crew weight. We did this mainly to give everyone on the boat more to do, but it meant we were 450 pounds under the weight limit with the light people we had. This fact no doubt helped contribute to the excellent downwind speed we had, but didn't help us upwind when the breeze came up. In any case we started the event with a second after a good battle with Taz, which was to foretell what would take place in every race from then on, as the two of us duked it out on every leg of the entire regatta. The courses were all one mile leg W-L's, so the fleet never spread out. While the fleet was small, having another boat that was so closely matched to us in a seesaw battle made it a lot more fun. They were a bit better than us uphill, and we a bit better downwind. Certainly part of our downwind advantage was our crew work, our boat had the best sets, jibes and douses. We took turns finding more wind or a more favorable shift, and so we changed places, but neither ever managed to get the upper hand. So at the end of the first day after 4 good races we stood with the same point total of 7, but with our team holding the tie-breaker of the better finish in the last race. Day two ended up being a wash-out with no racing, the shore-side postponement turned into an abandonment of all races that day as the wind never filled in. This is one reason I prefer 3 day events where possible when travel is involved, because it is too easy to lose a day of racing during the summer when the wind is unreliable. So the stage was set for a showdown on Sunday with Taz. I don't want to take anything away from the other boats in the series, but by this time the points total would make it very hard for anybody to catch the two of us. The first gun was scheduled for 8:25 AM (yes, you read that correctly), with no warnings being permitted after 1000. So we all knew that we might have only one race, with a max of two by that time limit. Fortunately there was a breeze in the upper teens with #3 blade conditions, which is when these boats are the most fun to sail. We came out of the blocks in great shape, led wire to wire to cross first, giving us a one point lead. After we won the race I told the crew it didn't really matter, because it would all come down to the final race when the tie-breaker would be who finished ahead. I don't really remember much of the first leg of the final race until we got to the first weather mark, when we rounded right on the stern of Taz. This would normally put us in a controlling position, especially since there was no leeward gate and being inside at the leeward mark was key and we could jibe inside them and work the left to gain the advantage at the bottom rounding. But then we blew the race and the series. We made three mistakes. We got tied up with maneuvers coming into the top mark, fell asleep and let them jibe quickly at the start of the leg and were not ready to jibe with them. We also failed to recognize that when the wind went right on the first beat the downwind leg would be skewed, and a jibe set would have been called for anyway. We were so infatuated with our downwind speed up to that point that we had not worried about people jibing away, as when we got by ourselves we were able to go faster, and we could jibe on the shifts more easily because of our crew work. That does not work when the leg is no longer square due to a windshift, and you can lay the bottom mark without jibing, or with only a short leg. So we let them get away from us and take the inside position at the leeward mark. Now our light crew weight hurt as we could not get to them upwind and ended up following them around the last lap to finish second. We tied on points but Taz took the series on the basis of winning the last race, and deservedly so. They sailed smart and clean and it was a pleasure to have such a good go with them. It doesn't matter how much you know, but how much you remember and put into regular use. Making mistakes when you know better is frustrating, but that in itself is a lesson…never let your guard down and keep your head out in front of the boat. All in all a fun regatta, good racing, and we'll be back!" -- http://www.rcryachts.com/custompage.asp?pg=racingnews

Viewing the Forums: boatpete and 752 guests   DISCUSSION     Dock Talk     Event Reports MARINE INDUSTRY NEWS     Products and Services     Businesses and Personnel     Boats     Clothing and Accessories CLASSIFIED ADS - FREE     For sale: Products and Services     Wanted: Boats/Gear/Jobs     Available Jobs         Coaching/Instruction         Sailmaking         Other     Boats for sale         Sail: 25-feet and over         Sail: under 25-feet         Power

Search this forum this category all forums for All words Any words Whole Phrase (options)

Contact Forum

Forum FAQS

Markup Tags

Forum Rules