CARLYLE SAILING ASSOCIATION
Lightning Fleet 266
2007
Mid Continent
5 Races in series. 0 Races needed to qualify. 5 Races scored.
17 Boats participated in series
Sail Skipper 4/ 4/ 4/ 4/ 4/ Place Score
# Crew, Crew /28 /28 /28 /29 /29
15234 Todd Wake 1 4 3 3 2 1 13.00
Kristine Wake, Jim Walker ^ ^ ^ ^ ^
15620 Bill Faude 3 2 1 5 3 2 14.00
Jared Drake, Tony Orlebeke ^ ^ ^ ^ ^
14940 Craig Cobburn 6 1 4 2 7 3 20.00
Randy Shore, Barret Rhoads ^ ^ ^ ^ ^
14636 Tobi Moriarty 10 3 8 4 1 4 26.00
Dan Moriarty, Stacey Zerban ^ ^ ^ ^ ^
14834 Matt Burridge 2 12 2 1 10 5 27.00
Jen Algets, Jeff Coppens ^ ^ ^ ^ ^
15158 Peter Orlebeke 4 9 5 6 5 6 29.00
Kim Orlebeke, David Bronson ^ ^ ^ ^ ^
14614 Scott Zerban 8 5 6 8 13 7 40.00
Bart Snyder, Carson Menges ^ ^ ^ ^ ^
14901 Ian Schillebeeckx 12 8 7 10 4 8 41.00
Maxim Schillebeeckx, John Songin ^ ^ ^ ^ ^
14766 Terry Burke 7 7 9 13 9 9 45.00
Caleb Leonard, Steve Smith ^ ^ ^ ^ ^
13726 Bill Buckles 5 10 10 9 14 10 48.00
Greg Florian, Nick Florian ^ ^ ^ ^ ^
14009 Paul Hanson 14 DNF 12 7 6 11 57.00
Kelle Hanson, Andrea Sepanski ^ ^ ^ ^ ^
14798 Denny Heisler 9 11 11 15 12 12 58.00
Kay Ward, Bob Ohlson ^ ^ ^ ^ ^
14938 David Stix DNF 6 DNF 11 8 13 61.00
Amy Simonson, Mark Wessel ^ ^ ^ ^ ^
13836 Michael Reed 11 16 14 12 11 14 64.00
Keith Vidal, Eric Waldschmidt ^ ^ ^ ^ ^
13278 Pete McGinty 13 13 15 16 15 15 72.00
Ken McGinty, Tyler McGinty ^ ^ ^ ^ ^
13657 Michael Franceschini 16 14 13 14 16 16 73.00
Mike Naughton, Frank Wilder ^ ^ ^ ^ ^
14260 John Folwell 15 15 DNF DNF DNF 17 84.00
Glenn Grummon, Jessica Snyder ^ ^ ^ ^ ^
Number of boats
in each race 17 17 17 17 17
Explaination: DNF - Did Not Finish DNC - Did Not Start DSQ - Disqualified
^ - Race counted
Mid-Continent 2007
Todd and Kristine Wake
The last weekend in April and the Mid-Continent Regatta at the Carlyle
Sailing Association mark the official start of the year for Lightning sailing in
the
Saturday morning we awoke to temps in the upper fifties and a moderate
west wind. During the day both the temperature and the wind rose. Seventeen
boats were registered. The champ Matt Burridge was co-skippering with Jeff
Coppens (fresh off his California Circuit win) and crew Jen Algets. Bill Faude
came down from
The wind in the first race was shifty and a little spotty. It became evident that you needed to sail to the puffs and get to the right. On the last beat we were able to get to the right of Matt Burridge and build a good lead at the mark allowing us to cruise to the finish on the final run followed by Matt and Bill. The racing in the main pack was close and with many position changes during the race.
Before the second race Ian Schillebeeckx showed he knew what the wind was going to do and changed to his heavy air top batten. As the wind came up the right was still favored and Bill’s and Craig’s “big boy teams” started to assert their power. Craig won the third race. The wind really start to gust in race three. After sputtering a bit on the first four legs Bill Faude dropped the hammer on the last leg. As the gusts hit 25 Bill showed us how it’s done. As the rest of us skittered sideways across the water his team powered its way to the finish. There were a few capsizes and after race 3 the RC decided to send us in as the wind was continuing to build. Bill’s team ended the day in first with a two point lead over us.
Bill Buckles started happy hour a little early when he broke out his industrial strength blender and supplied margaritas for the whole fleet. No one deserved a drink more than Dave Stix. He had a main halyard malfunction in the first race. In the third he had a broken internal jib wire purchase, continued the race, and later capsized. He has used up his bad luck for the year. We all enjoyed the good weather for a couple hours before heading into the clubhouse for dinner.
Tobi and her mother Reggie did a great job with the food. The set up for lunches let you choose your own ingredients. For dinner they had a delicious chili buffet complete with ice cream and brownies for desert. Everybody had a hearty meal while sampling there favorite beverage and enjoying good conversation. The Lightning sailors from Carlyle are as friendly a group as you will ever come across and they are famous for knowing how to have a good time. Terry Burke or Gerry Paoli is always good for an entertaining story. The party broke up at a reasonable hour allowing everybody to get a good night’s rest before the morning’s races.
Sunday morning was glorious with a gentle breeze and temperatures starting their climb into the 80’s. In the first race Jeff Coppens did a horizon job on the fleet. I can’t tell you how it happened because we were too far behind him to see. We managed to put a boat between us and Bill Faude resulting in a tie going into the fifth race. The wind was starting to fade as the race began. We had a great start, crossed the fleet, and went right. Bill took off for the left side, caught his own personal puff and was the only one who came out of the left alive. As we neared the mark on the Starboard layline Bill could not cross us and attempted a lee bow. He executed a good tack but couldn’t quite make the leebow stick. We squirted away and he had to do two tacks to get around the mark. We rounded the mark in first well ahead of Tobi’s team with Bill further back in third. Then Tobi, Dan and Stacey proceeded to put on light air downwind sailing clinic. They sailed lower and faster gaining at least a dozen boatlengths on the half mile leg. Our team watched helplessly as they passed us. With the breeze continuing to fade the RC shortened course. Tobi held us off on a short beat to the finish and took the bullet. We were second and Bill’s team was third giving us a one point lead. With the prospects for more wind not looking good the RC towed us all in. The RC soon decided to end the regatta making our three-peat at the Mid-Continent official.
The sailors from the Carlyle Sailing Association really know how to put
on a great event. They always put fun first. Their boat park has room for an
almost unlimited number of boats and the nearby hotel rooms are cheap. So next
year come and join the great competition and camaraderie at
Article from Quantum Sails
website:
Skipper Craig Cobbum and I were looking for a good regatta to get a little more Lightning practice in. For me, this “good regatta” needed the following four things – fun, good competition, a good team, and it had to be easy for the team to get to. The solution to this formula was the 4th Mid-Continent Regatta at Lake Carlyle in Missouri.
As far as accessibility goes, Lake Carlyle is a cinch. Southwest Airlines takes me to St. Louis and the lake is an hour drive away. Craig, who lives in Indianapolis, was able to make a detour with the boat as he drove North from the Southern Circuit (yea, it did take him a while to start the journey home). He said Barret Rhoads, his typical first choice for crew, was signed up to sail. Great, that’s two out of four down!
Now to the good competition and fun factors of the equation. Word was, Fleet 266 is the home of recent two-time North American Champ Matt Burridge and he was co-skippering with one of the fleet’s top West Coast sailors, Jeff Coppen. The lineup also included, but was not limited to the always fun Bill Faude and his team from Chicago, the standings climbing team of Todd and Christine Wake, who won this regatta the previous two years, and great local sailors like Tobi and Dan Moriarty who where moving from their normal “super-crew” status to sailing their own boat. Rumors were Matt Fisher may also so up, but alas we didn’t get a chance to see him work his magic.
Saturday morning welcomed the fleet with a fresh breeze of 18 knots, but the fresh water of Lake Carlyle was still relatively flat. We got off the line well in the first race, and having the ability to sail free, liked the look of the fresh breeze on the left side of the course. We were rather surprised to see Tobi tack away from the “obviously favored” left side, and head to the right. When a local does something with conviction, you need to ask yourself, “why?” It became obvious when she and the rest of those working out of the right crossed us by a substantial amount. The second race, when she again tacked away from “breeze left” to head right, we followed, put on the afterburners to the right side and ended up first.
The wind increased as the day went on, and our third and final race of the day ended with breeze up around 25 knots. I heard someone mention 33 knots, but I’m not sure we saw puff that big. Although it did get windy enough for Dave Stix to do one of those slow-motion-upwind-capsizes about two boatlengths to leeward of us.
After day one the team of Bill Faude, Jared Drake, and Tony Orlebeke (showing of a new set of Quantum sails) was on top with great finishes of 3 – 2 – 1. They were followed closely by the Wakes, sailing with Jim Walker. Our team was in third, with Peter and Kim Orlebeke, sailing with David Bronson just behind us. The Moriarity’s, sailing with Stacey Zerban, rounded out the top five. And just because the team of Jeff Coppen, Matt Burridge and Jen Algets had a shaky middle race we knew we couldn’t count them out!
You may recall I did not yet mention one element of my “good regatta” that I had to leave to chance – FUN. Apart from offering up a great day of sailing, the Lightning members of the Lake Carlyle Sailing Association know how to show it visiting sailors a good time! Soon after boats were pulled, lawn chairs and bottled beers where passed around. Several in the fleet (including us) had some boatwork to do as well. Fortunately, Bill Buckles brought the perfect partner for boatwork – a really big blender! Toolboxes were open, and margaritas were flowing. Our cocktail and boatwork hour was followed up by a great buffet prepared by Tobi Moriarity and her mom Reggie, which included a dish new to me, but not to those in the Midwest – ChiliMac. Dinner was accompanied with a seemingly endless supply of more bottled beer and a nice selection of rums, which the sailors were told must be consumed prior to their departure.
After a great night of socializing, we were on the water for some light air sailing Sunday morning. We completed two races before the breeze totally died out. First place came down to the last race between Todd Wake’s team and Bill Faude’s team. In that race, it was Wake in 2nd, and Faude in 3rd. The Wake team took the overall by one point. Our team held our third place position from the previous day, the Moriarity’s jumped up one spot to 4th overall, and 5th place went to Burridge, Coppen, and Algets (who where hoping for that sixth race to get the throw out). Like I said before, this fleet was competitive!
By the time awards rolled around, I was disappointed because it meant the fun
weekend was drawing to a close, but the Mid-Continental Regatta is definitely an
event I will pencil into the calendar for next year. If you have the chance to
attend this one, or any other regatta on Lake Carlyle, do not pass it up!