The MC guys and gal had a great weekend. I watched a little and then scanned the score sheet today.

So hear is some of the stuff I "imagined" about it.

Zack Clayton of Wisconsin and Quantum sails was first with 11 points in 5 races. Jamie Kimball of Melges boat works was second with 14 points. The first LE sailor was Dave Moring. He was in third place with 32 points– some big jump. Actually, I guess he was in first place. Wisconsin is hardly the Southeast or in the Southeast district. We are always glad to have the professionals show up to find out how they do it, to see them sail, to bring the equipment and new boats that we have ordered. (Bob Dewitt got his new C and is it glorious.)

Now how do they do it? Sucks, I don’t know, but I’ll tell you anyway. 1) The sails are pretty new and the operator can take a look at them and bend them quickly to what he wants with the controls and not loose much of a step sailing with his head out of the boat. 2) the boat is light and clean and smooth. The blades are great and maybe he has been polishing the mast like Buddy recommends. That all adds up to being a few "inches faster" off the line. That puts him out in clearer air where he can work the shifts without a lot of starboard tackers in his way. All that time he is going a little faster, so when you get your shift and lane, finally, you still can’t catch him. 3) Up North he goes to as many regattas he can get in his schedule and that is not just two or three a year. The traffic problems, if you fall a little behind in a 30 to 100 boat fleet, are a lot different that the 10 to 20 boat races the MCs have here. It just takes lots of experience to work through the other boats and find lanes and get out of trouble. Maybe everyone should look at that bad race they had. What happened? Is that the place I lost all the points?

I went down the list of our friends. Zack’s score was 11 with highest finish 1 and worst 4. Jamie was 14-2-4, Dave Moring (our hero) 32-3-11, next LESC was Jon Pomerleau 57-8-15, Dave Moorhouse 82-6-24, Scott Tellima 83-9-32 (the worse scores sort of level off here), Dave Johnson 96-11-30, Geoff Moehl 99-6-28 (a light weight- good thing I don’t have everyone’s weight or we would be here all night), Dick Tillman 105-9-32 the middle of the fleet (20) and the best a Laser sailor can do, Jim Hoffman 110-16-29 (this is the LE only MM, over 70), Richard Kinnie 118-22-25 (Most consistent. Not sure at all what that means– working the middle but can’t get out of the bad air?), John Houck 135-17-37 Maybe registering interferes with getting out on the water. This is where the 37s start to show up, Lesperence142-13 and DNSx2 Les didn’t come on Sunday. Maybe church– the 13 is good. Needs to keep pilling up the experience. Don’t skip the races unless you have to. Art Ahrens 155-25-36 (these last guys and gal were like me in the MC. By the second lap I was counting the boats behind me and hoping that there was at least one.) Bob Newland 162-25-34 Flying Scot sailor and other pointed end boats in Puerto Rica -Bob, keep it heeled 18 degrees up wind and down wind, only one board down and the groove upwind and downwind is wider., Cliff Trent164-27-38, Candi Robb 184-30-40 plus DNS in the last race. Candi usually is better than 30-40. Not sure what happened. Maybe a little of everything-not sailing a lot recently, regatta number down (crewing for your brother is fun but probably doesn’t help a lot), tennis shoulder and gals maybe less interested in cleaning and tinkering with the boat. (Broken lines got her out of last race.) BUT THE WOMEN’S CHAMPION! June Howell’s mother was sick and she took five DNS’s. We hope mother is better and she and Mary Ann Ward can join us again soon.

While we are talking about the spread in finishes – I think the biggest was Jack Kern. He had a 5 in the last race and a 31 for his worst. I will ask him about that when he comes back in a month or two. The 5 in the last race could have been a 3 if he had just got a little left shift when the sun sucked all the wind out of the finish area just as the hot shots were finishing. I was out there watching ( and maybe sucking up some of the wind). The next biggest split was Scott and Dick Tillman. They both had a 9-32 for 23. What is the cause of the big splits? Maybe shooting a corner for the big win and then not working hard enough to dig out of a hole. If you are down in the fleet you should be saying– "Oh boy, here is the challenge and then start working your way out one boat at a time"??

Last guy that sailed all the races– Justin Annis, Atlanta. In the old days that was the guy that got the "pickle dish". I hope he got some kind of trophy.

The five first places were split with three sailors. Zack got three. Fredman one and Harken one.

The split on ages so the old guys get some trophies. U50 (under 50) 16 boats, M (50 to 60) 11, GM (60 to 70) 11, MM (70+) 4. So the M is the middle group– maybe average age around 55 years.

First MM was Jack Kern. He was also the First Texan. (And only)

At the picnic table we had some talk about the new boats, so I added up the places of the seven smallest sail numbers and the seven largest sail numbers. (No guarantee they match the hull number.) The low numbers (old boats) 142 and the new boats 130. So you can make what you want out of that.

1943 won the regatta. 1838 was sixth. 2407 was second. 2444 was 8th. 2400 was 38th.

Maybe if you have a good light boat and you take care of it, it will take care of you. Looks like that the middle sailors move to newer boats, maybe in the hope it will solve their problems.

Two boats didn’t sail on Sunday. Four didn’t sail the last race and two didn’t finish the last race. Maybe get out and packed early?

That was my look at the score sheet– don’t just pass it by.