MC SCOW MASTERS CHAMPIONSHIP

Congratulations Vince Driessen, powered by North ZMax

This week we held one of our class sanctioned major MC Championships of the year at one of our newest fleets. Fleet 103 Indianapolis Sailing Club was our host for the four day event. This club has a rich history of One-Design sailing with large fleets of Y-Flyers, Flying Scots, Highlanders, Snipes, Thistles, Lasers , Lightning’s and many more classes. They also have a great junior program and also own their beautiful 14 acre property on Geist Reservoir. Their history is rich and their future is bright. If you have never been make sure you get with some of the new MC advocates there like Andy McDonald to check it all out.

The Regatta

Scheduled for six races but a huge high pressure system dominated the whole state of Indiana this week. Day 1 and Day 3 no racing. Our practice day was great and day two we got in three very fair but very light air races.

The Sailors

Thirty six teams were here for this year’s Master Championship. Lighter than expected but when the Weather Channel gives you a predicted scorcher with light winds these things can happen. Some great sailors were here though. Past national champions from both MC and C Scow classes were present along with some great sailors from other classes just getting into the MC Class. So the sailing was with a tough group but also a fun group. Not the big dance but the warmup to the big dance if you will.

The Results

Wow, this was really cool to watch. Vince Driessen of Gull Lake with his new Melges MC 2701 won two of three races and probably would have won three of three but in one race had to do a 720 in light air after some contact with another boat in front of the judges on race 2. Vince did not even hesitate and did his 720 with his typical great attitude. However, Ted Keller tied Vince up with his own great sailing performance and just placed second on the tie-breaker . Mike Considine of Pewaukee sailed a very good regatta and survived an unusual judges protest and hearing on kinetics. Eric Hood finished fourth and was top Grand Master. Katie Arvensen really sailed well and was our top Woman for the Masters Championship this year. Commodore Richard Blake was fifth overall and second Grand Master.

Lessons Learned

Velocity rules over direction (most of the time). This was all about sailing in the dark water for these three light air races. Even though we had tall tree lines what was showing on the water was what was happening. Sometimes in really hot conditions and high tree lines on a narrow lake the wind will not show on the water. So that was the case. You could see the breeze on the course all the time. That was critical because you had to make a choice. Direction or velocity. I think in the case of Ted and Vince they were the only ones who were able to mix both very well. Others of us had moments but those two really put it together. Second was not being out of place on the starting lines. They were very long and in light air this poses a huge risk. Most of the top ten sailors all three races could be found closer to the middle during these starts.

Other Regatta News

A great group of volunteers including some MC sailors not yet qualified for the Masters helped with this event. Regatta Chairman Dale Katzfey had a great crew for the whole event and were all honored at the awards ceremonies. Also, Andy McDonald thank you for the vision to bring the regatta to Indy and make it all happen.

Bill Crawford gave every sailor some incredible framed pictures. Bill’s skills are incredible. Check it out at bill@harborpictures.com . You will Melges.com , MC Scow.org and others posting many of his pictures. In fact he has his own Facebook page and you can see some there now.

In closing, great job to all at the Indianapolis Sailing Club. Thank you from all of us who participated this week. It was fun and very well done !!!

Lots of great club racing going on now, some more great regional regattas to get you ready for the MC Nationals at Pewaukee August 23-26. You don’t want to miss it . The famous and annual PYC Rib Night is happening during the Nationals as well. It is one of those LifeList regattas you do not want to miss.