2002 North American Championship RegattaThe 2002 North American Championship was held at Mille Lacs, Minnesota on January 26th and 27th. Ninety sailors came from from as far away as Marthas Vineyard, North Carolina, and New Mexico to attend the Regatta. Mille Lacs is a large lake, and the ice was thick enough (20+ inches) to allow the sailors to drive trailers onto the ice. Not only were we able to drive trailers onto the ice, we were able to drive to the starting line to set our boats up! This was a first for all the sailors I talked to, and it was really enjoyable to be able to sit in the car and warm up between races. The ice was mostly smooth and 85% clear, but was dotted with sticky snow drifts up to a couple inches deep. This resulted in racers looking for the best lanes through the snow patches when the wind was light, just like the Western Regional Championship. The ninety boats were divided into two fleets (50 Gold and 40 Silver). Racing got under way on Saturday with very light winds. The first mini-qualifier was a bust after the lead boat failed to make the time limit. After waiting for the wind to build a little, the Silver mini-qualifier was successfully completed. The wind did not cooperate for the rest of the day, and only the one race was completed on Saturday. On Sunday, the racers were greeted with good wind in the morning, and everyone was tuning their boats for the increasing wind. This was a fleeting bit of excitement however, since the wind lightened up by the time a course was set. The first Gold Fleet race was pretty tough going for a lot of sailors, with wind shifts and lulls making it a bit of a crap shoot. However, John Dennis seemed to be able to sniff out the zephyrs and showed us that he still knows how to sail by finishing in time to park his boat and watch the second place boat finish! John was followed by Ron Sherry, Greg Smith, and Matt Struble, setting the stage for the battle at the top of Gold Fleet. The wind lightened further, and it was a depressing sight for most of the day as boats were parked facing all directions and not a single telltale was flying. Late in the afternoon. the wind suddenly filled in from the opposite direction, and the Race Committee hustled to set a new course and get the sailors on the starting line. In order to insure a successful regatta, the Race Committee decided to start another Gold Fleet race. This race was held in freshening winds, and there were a lot of smiling faces once again. Ron Sherry sailed an excellent race to finish first, followed by Matt Struble. Greg Smith passed Paul Goodwin just before the finish line, and Bernd Zieger, John Harper, and Bruce Williams followed in close succession. Meade Gougeon put on a show for the spectators when he did a full spin right before the leeward mark, demonstrating the awareness and control that iceboaters have since everyone was able to steer clear and not a single splinter was left behind. As the second Silver fleet race started a very light sprinkle of rain developed, and the racers looked more like snowmen than sailors as they crossed the finish line. A few sailors chose to stop racing due to icing on their goggles and sail windows, but there were no collisions on the course. Rick Lemberg Sr. sailed a great race, and finished with a respectable lead. Rick Kaiser came in second, followed by Ken Mitchell. When I talked to Rick Kaiser later, he said he couldn't see the marks, so he just followed the boat in front of him. The good news was -- that boat was the leader!. The Race Committee waited to see what was going to happen with the rain, and used the time to reset the course. Bart Reedijk had an excellent idea, and sent one of the Silver Fleet sailors up to the weather mark in his car. The headlights helped the sailors locate the weather mark, and it was soon decided that it would be prudent to try to get a third Gold Fleet race in to insure that the regatta would be complete. The wind was good, but there was still a slight mist which made visiblility somewhat poor. The good news is, all the sailors stayed on their toes and left plenty of room, so there were no collisions. Ron Sherry sailed another nice race to finish in the lead, followed by Greg Smith and Bryan Breiden. Next in line were a couple Swamp Rats, Matt Struble and Jan Gougeon. It must be good training to dodge cattails and reeds during practice, since the Gougeons and Strubles are always in the hunt at the big regattas. Overnight the temperatures dropped to below zero (Fahrenheit), and it looked like an arctic air mass coming down from Canada would prevent the temperatures from getting into the double digits. The low temperatures coupled with some stealthy cracks in the ice lead the Race Committee to decide to throw in the towel and let the sailors start the long drive home. Once again the Race Committee did a fine job. Dan Heaney, Debbie Goodwin, and Jane Sherry were the Race Committee, and with the aid of a lone volunteer managed to make the whole process look easy. The scoring was handled quickly and efficiently, which is more of an accomplishment than most racers realize. With the introduction of the "Bart Rule", results are much more fair for the sailors, but it creates a great challenge for the scorers. Bob Pegel was on hand to act as the Chief Judge and handle any protests, but luckily there were none. This was a fun regatta to attend, even though there were only a few races. It was gratifying to see so many sailors make the committment to get out to Minnesota for the regatta, and all agreed that it was better than postponing in the hopes of finding a different venue.
Paul Goodwin - US 46 Gold fleet
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Pos Sail# Name Race> 1 2 3 Points
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1 US 44 SHERRY, RON 2 1 1 4.00
2 US 3662 SMITH, GREG (S) 3 3 2 8.00
3 US 183 STRUBLE, MATT 4 2 4 10.00
4 US 4691 DENNIS, JOHN 1 8 10 19.00
5 US 3283 WILLIAMS, J.BRUCE (S) 10 7 6 23.00
6 US 1183 GOUGEON, JAN (S) 7 13 5 25.00
7 US 30 LEBEAU, LEON 8 15 7 30.00
8 US 4379 HARPER, JOHN 13 6 11 30.00
9 US 4175 BRIEDEN, II, BRYAN 11 17 3 31.00
10 US 4638 LOVEJOY, GUY 16 9 8 33.00
11 G 107 ZEIGER, BERND 17 5 13 35.00
12 US 46 GOODWIN, PAUL 24 4 9 37.00
13 US 610 JONES, DONALD (M) 14 12 18 44.00
14 US 4975 EVANS, ROBERT 25 10 15 50.00
15 US 4824 CHRISTENSEN, MARK 23 16 12 51.00
16 G 551 SEEGERS, CHRISTIAN (S) 6 35 16 57.00
17 US 4961 DAVENPORT, JOHN 12 22 24 58.00
18 US 3 GROGAN, JIM 21 28 14 63.00
19 US 882 GOUGEON, MEADE (M) 5 11 49 65.00
20 US 406 WOODRUFF, PETER 32 21 19 72.00
21 KC 4190 WOLFF, MARK 36 20 17 73.00
22 US 4926 ORLEBEKE, STEVE 19 30 26 75.00
23 US 5014 ISABELL, MARK 18 25 34 77.00
24 US 5144 REHE, MICHAEL (J) 29 24 25 78.00
25 US 45 SHERRY, WENDELL (M) 9 32 37 78.00
26 US 2360 JOHNS, PETE (M) 34 27 20 81.00
27 US 4755 LEMBERG, JR, RICK 26 39 23 88.00
28 US 4602 KICKHAFER, DAVID 38 19 32 89.00
29 US 4974 JONES, STAN (M) 31 38 21 90.00
30 US 294 LOENNEKE, LOUIS (S) 15 40 35 90.00
31 US 3535 KENT, JEFFREY 28 37 27 92.00
32 US 3271 JANKOWSKI, MIKE 42 23 28 93.00
33 G 737 BOHN, JORG 43 14 36 93.00
34 US 4192 ROGOSKI, RANDY 48 18 29 95.00
35 US 2 MOTE, HARRY (M) 20 34 43 97.00
36 US 1873 CROASDALE, RAY (M) 27 41 31 99.00
37 US 445 CAVE, BOB 33 45 22 100.00
38 US 4738 PARKER, DICK 37 33 33 103.00
39 US 4915 COOK, ROBERT (S) 30 36 38 104.00
40 US 3406 HADLEY, JAMES 50 26 30 106.00
41 US 4962 LABOZZETTA, VINCE 44 29 42 115.00
42 US 1854 THIESSEN, BOB (M) 22 49 48 119.00
43 US 5084 STEFANSKI, AL 35 46 40 121.00
44 US 738 ROOT, SCOTT 49 31 41 121.00
45 US 5116 CLAPP, DAVE 45 43 39 127.00
46 US 1006 VITALE, NICK (S) 39 44 45 128.00
47 US 4137 SMITH, JR., KEN 40 42 46 128.00
48 US 4695 KIEFER, MARK 47 47 44 138.00
49 US 88 BABCOCK, C BUTCH (S) 46 48 47 141.00
50 US 4950 RATLIFF, MATT 41 DNS DNS 143.00
Silver
fleet
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Pos Sail# Name Race> 1 2 Points
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1 KC 5118 MITCHELL, KEN 1 3 4.00
2 US 4249 KAISER, RICHARD (S) 4 2 6.00
3 US 4155 LEMBERG, RICHARD (S) 8 1 9.00
4 US 2301 BIERMAN, DANIEL 3 6 9.00
5 US 4730 LEONARD, DAVE 2 11 13.00
6 H 148 REEDIJK, BART (M) 5 10 15.00
7 US 3937 VOUGHT, DANIEL 15 8 23.00
8 US 3433 CUMMINS, ROBERT (S) 20 5 25.00
9 US 5172 BETZOLDT, GLENN (S) 6 20 26.00
10 US 1196 MANCINI, ANTHONY 17 12 29.00
11 US 1277 BOWMAN, HAL (M) 13 17 30.00
12 US 4889 AUSTIN, TOM 16 16 32.00
13 US 216 POTCOVA, RICHARD 28 7 35.00
14 US 3705 HOLMAN, ROBERT 14 22 36.00
15 US 4065 HAMILL, THOMAS (S) 11 28 39.00
16 US 5022 BUXTON, LUKE 36 4 40.00
17 US 492 MCDONAGH, JIM 26 14 40.00
18 US 4148 DIXON, TIM 21 19 40.00
19 US 5053 REIS, GEORGE (S) 30 13 43.00
20 US 4066 HAMILL, ROSEMARY 25 18 43.00
21 US 472 COBERLY, J. WILLIAM (S) 29 15 44.00
22 US 1059 ULBRICH, MICHAEL 24 21 45.00
23 US 1313 RAST, ROBERT (S) 22 23 45.00
24 US 4911 ZOLL, DAVID (S) 19 26 45.00
25 US 4826 CROASDALE, CHRIS 37 9 46.00
26 US 1202 HARVEY, DOUG (M) 9 37 46.00
27 US 805 PEGEL, JANE (M) 7 39 46.00
28 US 2138 LONG, GEORGE (M) 12 36 48.00
29 US 4387 BLAIR, CHARLIE (S) 23 27 50.00
30 US 4140 HOEPER, PETER (S) 18 32 50.00
31 US 5169 LIZEE, ALAN 10 DNS 51.00
32 US 4203 FITZGERALD, PATRICK (S) 27 25 52.00
33 US 824 KENNEDY, STEVE 31 30 61.00
34 US 4315 MCDOWELL, SCOTT 33 29 62.00
35 US 1985 TEAL, CHRIS 39 24 63.00
36 US 4775 WHITCOMB III, EBEN 35 31 66.00
37 US 3865 BOWEN, TED (S) 32 34 66.00
38 US 2221 OLSEN, JAMES (M) 38 33 71.00
39 US 2237 DAKIN, HERB (M) 34 38 72.00
40 US 3181 BURDA, CHARLES (M) DNS 35 76.00
Updated February 4, 2002
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