2002 Grand Traverse Ice Yacht Club Fun RegattaWe stood around all day Saturday in high pressure waiting for enough wind to go in the softening ice. Then the 12th annual Traverse City Fun Regatta was sailed on South Lake Leelanau, Michigan on Sunday, March 17th. Thirty seven boats of all kinds signed up for the event. In addition to the usual crowd of DNs, there were several Renegades, a Skeeter, and a home brew one of a kind that made great sound effects in the big wind mark roundings for the TV crew during the warm up sailing Friday afternoon. The media exposure and word of mouth also turned out a lot of people from the community and from out of town to see what ice boating is all about. One visitor from Washington D.C. spent the whole weekend seeing how we “Think Ice.” Again, the best wind of the weekend blew Friday. Eight early arrivals got to sail in the classic, “Wait 15 minutes and the weather will change” Michigan conditions. The white out snow flurry and wind squall were just the start of the fun, and the happiest boys in the state sailed until dark. Saturday morning, you could see the high pressure coming and the wind on the way out. Just as most people were rolling in, the wind was petering out for the day. The Fun Regatta party had ideal conditions for lunching on chili and brats and reveling in the camaraderie. Those who forgot the sun block paid with owl eyes, and those who stayed got a prize to take home. Those who were patient and didn’t pack up were rewarded with one of the biggest sailing days of the season. The twenty degree overnight low temperature turned that sun baked lake into a lightning fast plate of ice the next morning. We raced a biggest possible .65 mile course that was convenient to the launch ramp because the east wind blew across the short axis of the lake. Thanks to an overcast sky and an early start under a beautiful building breeze, the boys got in six races before the sun peeked through about two in the afternoon and turned it all to mush. Some guys set speed sails. The racers who planed ahead either started with runners that would be OK on the fast early ice, and ideal for slower ice, or brought along a set of soft ice runners to make the change at the first sign of the ice starting to go. Big puffs at warp speed in the fourth race took out a couple of fast guy masts, with Fun Regatta carnage the likes of which has not been seen since 1995 in Montreal. John Harper won the first three races and had a three point lead on Jan Gougeon after five races. Going into the sixth and final race, Jan changed to his soft ice runners, won the race, and the regatta. Bob Struble and Bruce Williams were hot on their tails. Eric Lind won the volunteer Grand Prize dinner for two at a fine restaurant. Eric is a US Sailing certified Principal Race Officer, and took care of the on ice duties of calling the shots, calling us to the starting line, starting us off, and keeping score. The Grand Traverse Ice Yacht Club made diligent preparations to make sure that a wire starting line and the other race management equipment was available together with sufficient help to run a smooth event. A new policy unveiled this year is to bring the race management up to the same standard as the party. Many thanks once again to Dick Wollam and Julie Richards for preparing the feast. Dan Nevadal, Randall Kline, and George Hanks handled scouting the ice and administration. Many others helped too. Vice Commodore John Russell and Commodore Don Willman pulled it all together, and made it look like running an ice yacht regatta at the last minute is easy, even though it’s not. The following are the final standings with total points for the first 15 of 26 boats that sailed one or more of the six races. There was one throw out. Complete race by race results to be posted later. Randy Rogoski
"The Masters of Fun" fleet
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Pos Sail# Name Race> 1 2 3 4 5 6 Points
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1 US 1183 Gougeon, Jan 2 3 2 1 ( 8) 1 9.00
2 US 4379 Harper, John 1 1 1 2 ( 6) 6 11.00
3 US 4055 Struble, Bob 3 5 4 ( 5) 2 2 16.00
4 US 3283 Williams, Bruce (DNS) 2 5 3 1 5 16.00
5 US 882 Gougeon, Meade 4 4 3 ( 4) 4 3 18.00
6 US 4974 Jones, Stan 5 6 ( 9) 6 3 4 24.00
7 US 4962 Labozzetta, Vince 8 12 ( 15) 7 5 7 39.00
8 US 5053 Reis, George 7 9 8 8 ( 13) 9 41.00
9 US 4328 Kline, Randall 17 10 12 9 7 (DNS) 55.00
10 US 1854 Thiessen, Bob 11 13 11 11 10 (DNF) 56.00
11 US 4192 Rogoski, Randy 9 8 6 (DNF) DNS 8 58.00
12 US 4794 Blacklock, Peter 12 15 ( 17) 12 11 10 60.00
13 US 610 Jones, Don 10 11 7 (DNF) 9 DNF 64.00
14 US 1202 Harvey, Doug 6 7 10 (DNF) DNS DNS 77.00
15 US 4882 Wollam, Richard 20 21 14 10 12 (DNF) 77.00
16 US 1985 Teal, Chris 13 17 16 (DNF) DNS DNS 100.00
17 US 5132 Nevadal, Dan 14 19 13 (DNF) DNS DNS 100.00
18 US 4266 Buchbinder, Bill 18 14 18 (DNF) DNS DNS 104.00
19 US 4996 Weise, Denny (DNS) 26 21 14 DNF DNS 115.00
20 US 4711 Willman, Don 16 20 DNF (DNS) DNS DNS 117.00
21 US 4 VanderBerg, Evert DNS 18 19 (DNF) DNS DNS 118.00
22 US 4643 Zulke, Jr, Markus 15 22 DNF (DNS) DNS DNS 118.00
23 US 4868 Richards, Julie DNS 24 (DNF) 13 DNS DNS 118.00
24 US 2780 Nichols, Mel DNS 23 20 (DNF) DNS DNS 124.00
25 US 4411 Munsell, Robert DNS 16 (DNS) DNS DNS DNS 124.00
26 US 2947 Schiller, Adam 19 25 DNF (DNS) DNS DNS 125.00
Updated April 19, 2002
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