The 59th Annual High Sierra Regatta at Huntington Lake. By Gary Schaffel of Fleet 2 The 2012 High Sierra Regatta for Lido Bs had more ups and downs for me than a Magic Mountain roller coaster. We arrived Thursday night and planned to do a practice sail around the marks on Friday with Chris Kitchens my crew. When we launched around 1 PM, the wind was around 20 knots, which is not my idea of a relaxing cruise around the lake. We had the main all the way out and still could not keep the boat reasonably level. I had visions of something breaking down and sure enough, about a mile up the lake, the port jib fairlead shattered. Chris, who was holding onto the port jib sheet for dear life at the time, immediately did an Olympic class backward somersault out of the boat. This ended the days sail, and we limped back to the dock. MEMO TO ALL LIDO SAILORS: Periodically check your jib fairleads. They wear out from the underside, an area not readily noticed. With much appreciated help from Steve McJones, Grant Williams, and the Gill vendor we were able to make a new jib fairlead out of some old Laser parts, and we were ready for Saturday racing. The race committee was preparing contingency plans in case the wind was as strong as Friday, but Saturday's wind forecast was for the normal Huntington Lake 10 to 15 knots, perfect sailing weather. The wind was shifty, with drastic shifts that lasted forever up the center of the lake. Grant Williams ruled the waves with two bullets, but the real drama was for the next several places, since we all but conceded first to Grant. Charles and Joanna Smith had two thirds for 6 points. Simon Wiher (sailing with his son) and I were tied for third, each with a second and a fifth. It was now apparent that the order that Charles, Simon, and myself finished in Sunday's race would determine our overall positions in the regatta, turning Sunday into a three way match race. Things took a temporary turn for the worst on Saturday evening when Chris, who had done a great job as crew, told me he had to leave early on Sunday morning, and i would have to find another crew. Fortunately, Paul Makielski and his son John were in our dinner group, and John volunteered to crew for me. I was initially apprehensive since we would weigh in at 350 pounds, and the winds were running on the light side. However, John's ability as a crew more than made up for the weight penalty we enjoyed. Sunday‘s winds were about the same as Saturday. The race committee gave us course 6, sending the fleet up and down the lake two times. We had a decent start, but never seemed to catch any shifts to the weather mark on the first leg. We rounded the mark slightly ahead of Charles, but way behind Simon. Our weight disadvantage immediately became apparent on the run. Charles caught us going downwind, but then got into a luffing match with several other boats and got so far off course that we were able to round the leeward mark slightly ahead of him. On the second weather leg, we caught some great shifts, passing Simon at the weather mark with Charles still right behind us. Grant was several boats behind us all, but had clear air and was gaining ground rapidly. On the second run to the leeward mark, our weight problem surfaced again. Charles, Simon, and I were never more than 100 feet apart running down the lake and changing the lead every several minutes. About 100 feet
from the leeward mark, Simon got an inside overlap over us, with Charles about 20 feet behind. Simon rounded ahead of us, but had trouble tacking over to a starboard tack, and stalled out. We decided to cover him, at least assuring ourselves of a third place, and maybe a second if Charles, now uncovered, didn't pass us going up to the finish line. We lucked out, as Charles decided to stay on the usually favored port tack to the south side of the lake, which did not pay out this time, as the wind shifted to the right and the starboard tack lift took us almost right up the lake to the finish line. We managed to hang on and finish first, barely beating Simon, and Charles. Grant appeared to be only several boats back, apparently locking up first place, and we congratulated ourselves on being second overall. At the awards ceremony, results were being announced and as we all expected, Charles, finishing behind Simon and I, captured the 4th place trophy (although there should be a special award for consistency, as he had three thirds), Simon was third. And I told John to get ready to come up with me for the second place trophy, but we stopped in our tracks when they announced second place was awarded to Grant Williams, meaning we had first. Grant and I were both so surprised that we asked the race committee to review the final race results, certain they had made a mistake. It turned out that Grant had finished seventh, for a total of 9 points (losing a three way tie breaker with Simon and Charles) all second to my 8 points. It was a complete surprise, and the end to a memorable weekend of sailing. I am still amazed that a three hour race can end with only seconds elapsing between the first several finishers. This is what makes Lido sailing the fun that it is. Congratulations to Grant, Simon, and Charles for their trophies and for the great competition the entire weekend. Thanks for the write up Gary, Welcome to the A’s. ED A's Fin Sail 1 2506 2 2511 3 2665 4 3883 5 4480 6 4518 7 6277 8 5036 9 4339 10 3734 11 1255 12 5110 13 4139 14 2720 15 2153 16 6276 B fleet 1 3446 2 4300 3 5050 4 6337 5 5058 6 4963 7 872 8 4150 9 4617 10 398 11 2562 12 4048 *= DNC
High Sierra Regatta HelmName Flt Boat Name R1 Mad Max 6 Orin B 1 Stu Robertson 7 Lady Wind 3 Bruce Golison 6 2 Kevin Thomas 2 Short Bus 5 Kent Foster 7 Rumline 4 Erik Bakker 2 9 Paul Makielski 6 6 Kelly Cantley 2 Transitio 8 John Gresham 6 10 Keith Ives 6 7 Daniel Gilboa 6 16 Jim Sterner 80 Fin 12 Jerry Thompson 6 Tar Baby 11 Terry Johnson 6 Nui Pilikia 15 Stephen McJones 6 Cassy 13 Kimberley Adam 6 Psychotic Penguin 14
R2 2 1 4 5 7 10 9 6 3 14 8 12 11 13 15 16
R3 1 5 4 2 8 3 7 10 12 6 9 11 17* 13 14 15
Gary Schaffel 2 Tack Shelter 5 2 1 8 Grant Williams 7 Capt's Fancy 1 1 7 9 Simon Wiher NM 2 5 2 9 Charles Smith 2 LidoMosquito 3 3 3 9 Michael Baumann 6 4 6 5 15 Bruce Wasson 6 Fudd 7 4 8 19 Nathan Dalleska 6 Firefly 6 9 6 21 Butch Michel UN Flip-flop 13 D 7 4 24 Terry Hensley UN Rocket Science 8 8 10 26 Scott Morris NM 9 11 13* 33 Bill Hahesy NM 10 10 13* 33 Michelle Shanks 2 Little Miss Magic 13* 13* 9 35 UN = Unattached member NM= Non Association Member
Photo left: Mark Ryan and Alison Gillum, First in “A Fleet” Page 22
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