2005 Cass Lake InvitationalFebruary 19-20, 2005 After a long hiatus, we finally had conditions on Cass Lake worthy of a regatta. It turned out the ice was the best seen in many years, and the whole lake had very good conditions. The ice was just a little bumpy, with less then 5% thin wispy snow cover, and no seams anywhere to worry about. Conditions on Saturday were superb, with winds averaging 15-20 mph all day, and the ice was very fast. The direction allowed for a long course of at least a mile to be set, and required tacking upwind and down to reach the weather mark. This combined with the always shifty winds Cass Lake is known for made for some epic racing. We had a small turn out, so we all sailed in one fleet. As the day went on, the fleet size dwindled, and I think the conditions may have been a little too exciting for some tastes. This allowed ample time to get in six races with plenty of time to tune, change runners, and change sails between races. Matt Struble ruled the day, with a solid string of bullets. John Harper and yours truly gave chase, but Matt was unstoppable. One of the highlights was at the end of the day, when we held a lake tour race which set a course to the end of the lake, around the island (to port of course) and back to leeward, two times around. What a way to finish a fantastic day of racing. The forecast for Sunday was for a winter storm watch starting at noon. We got an early start, and managed to knock off another six races. The wind was slightly less than on Saturday, averaging around 15mph for the day. There were already small snow drifts when racing started, and I changed to 30" Sarn's bullnose runners before the first race. It snowed continually, and visibility was marginal, but with a small fleet it racing was just doable. The sailing was very fast again, and the excitement level was high. I managed to beat Matt in a couple races, so he didn't quite pull off a perfect string of bullets. Still, he finished the regatta with just 12 points for 12 races, not too shabby... Paul Goodwin - US 46 Gold Fleet ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Updated February 21, 2005 |