by Paul Goodwn - US 4061
The 2000 NA's were postponed 3 times due to poor weather forecasts. The regatta was finally sailed at Lake Miltona, Minnesota. This puts a new pin in the map as the farthest West a national regatta has ever been sailed. The Governing Group worked hard at finding a suitable site, but was frustrated by poor ice and weather conditions, and was forced to postpone for several weeks.
The final decision to hold the race in Minnesota was a difficult one, and many sailors from the Eastern regions were unable to make the long trip. Unfortunately this meant the turnout was small for a National event. Forty-seven boats made the final trip to Lake Miltona.
The ice was a pebbly snow ice, with a large area free of cracks or other hazards. The morning of the first race wind was light and variable, but after a short delay the wind settled down and allowed the regatta to get under way. The weather was not the best, with temperatures close to 60 deg F, and winds of 5-10 MPH.
Jan Gougeon let everyone see his mastery of variable conditions by leading the fleet in all four Gold fleet races on Friday. The ice was hard in the morning, and turned quite soft by the afternoon. John Harper and Bruce Williams were trying hard to catch Jan, but he was unbeatable (with a lead of over 1-1/2 minutes in one race). It was also great to see the area Rear Commodore (John Davenport), break into Gold fleet and finish in the top ten under the trying conditions.
There was some good racing in the Silver fleet, with Butch Babcock and Bob Theissen trading positions during the day, making it impossible to predict a winner until the racing was done. Butch finally took the trophy home, but it was a hard fought win. It's great to see two seasoned sailors (both masters), sailing well and providing a strong lead for the rest of the fleet.
The ice softened and deteriorated rapidly with the unusually warm temperatures. Several sailors went over holes without even realizing it, and unfortunately Jane Pegel found one too big to sail over and destroyed her plank in the last Silver fleet race. The racing was concluded for the day after that, and the overnight temperatures stayed above freezing. Sunday's forecast was for even higher temperatures, and light and variable winds. With the temperature forecast for 65 degF Sunday, the Race Committee wisely concluded the regatta on Saturday morning.
The race committee drove all the way from the Mountain Lakes region, and ran an excellent regatta. I can't say enough about the dedication it takes for a group of volunteers to travel 24 hours, and still get to the ice before 7:30 am to check the conditions and set a course. Their dedication and training really shows in how smoothly the regatta proceeded. Many thanks to Bill VanGee and his crew.
Gold Fleet
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Pos Sail# Name Race> 1 2 3 4 Points
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1 US 1183 GOUGEON(S), JAN 1 1 1 1 4.00
2 US 4379 HARPER, JOHN 2 3 3 2 10.00
3 US 3283 WILLIAMS(S), J. BRUCE 3 2 2 4 11.00
4 US 183 STRUBLE, MATT 4 5 6 3 18.00
5 US 882 GOUGEON(M), MEADE 5 4 14 7 30.00
6 US 4824 CHRISTENSEN, MARK 9 7 4 12 32.00
7 US 4691 DENNIS, JOHN 8 13 9 5 35.00
8 US 4961 DAVENPORT, JOHN 12 8 5 11 36.00
9 KC 4190 WOLFF, MARK 13 12 7 6 38.00
10 US 294 LOENNEKE(S), LOUIS 10 9 11 8 38.00
11 US 4175 BRIEDEN, II, BRYAN 6 10 8 14 38.00
12 US 4974 JONES(M), STAN 21 6 10 9 46.00
13 US 610 JONES(M), DONALD 7 17 16 10 50.00
14 US 4926 Orlebeke, Steve 14 11 12 13 50.00
15 US 4061 GOODWIN, PAUL 11 14 13 22 60.00
16 US 4949 SCHMITT, STEVEN 18 15 17 15 65.00
17 US 4055 STRUBLE(S), BOB 15 16 21 16 68.00
18 US 3271 JANKOWSKI, MIKE 17 20 18 17 72.00
19 US 1610 BROWN(S), BRUCE 19 21 15 19 74.00
20 US 4137 SMITH JR., KEN 16 19 20 21 76.00
21 US 4602 KICKHAFER, DAVID 20 23 23 18 84.00
22 US 445 CAVE, BOB DNF 18 19 23 84.00
23 US 4695 KIEFER, MARK 22 22 22 20 86.00
Silver fleet
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Pos Sail# Name Race> 1 2 3 4 5 Points
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1 US 88 BABCOCK(M), BUTCH 2 1 1 ( 7) 1 5.00
2 US 1854 THEISSEN(M), ROBERT 1 ( 4) 2 3 3 9.00
3 US 4950 Ratliff, Matt 3 6 ( 18) 1 5 15.00
4 US 5123 RYAN, ERIK 4 3 4 5 ( 7) 16.00
5 US 4811 CHATTERTON, MARKHAM 8 7 ( 14) 2 2 19.00
6 US 4249 KAISER(S), RICHARD (DNS) 2 3 6 9 20.00
7 US 1313 Rast(S), Bob 6 5 7 ( 8) 4 22.00
8 US 5014 ISABELL, MARK ( 11) 9 6 10 6 31.00
9 US 4140 HOEPER(S), PETER 9 ( 14) 5 12 10 36.00
10 US 805 PEGEL(M), JANE 10 8 10 9 (DNF) 37.00
11 US 4203 FITZGERALD(S), PATRICK 12 13 ( 16) 4 8 37.00
12 KC 4507 REYNOLDS, BRAD 5 10 11 ( 15) 12 38.00
13 US 472 COBERLY(S), J. WILLIAM 7 12 9 ( 13) 11 39.00
14 US 1196 MANCINI SR, ANTHONY 16 11 12 ( 19) 15 54.00
15 US 4597 BALDWIN, MIKE 13 16 13 ( 18) 16 58.00
16 US 3433 CUMMINS(S), ROBERT 15 ( 18) 17 14 13 59.00
17 US 5053 REIS, GEORGE 17 ( 17) 15 16 14 62.00
18 US 2780 NICHOLS(M), MEL 14 15 20 17 (DNS) 66.00
19 US 4889 Austin, Tom (DNS) DNS 8 11 DNF 69.00
20 US 5555 Kiefer(J), Sam 18 ( 21) 19 20 18 75.00
21 US 1985 Teal, Chris (DNS) 20 21 22 17 80.00
22 US 9801 Volkman, John (DNF) 19 22 21 DNF 87.00
23T US 5096 Kennedy, Steve DNS (DNS) DNS DNS DNS 100.00
24T US 4980 Schiotlin, Fred DNS (DNS) DNS DNS DNS 100.00
Scoring system: IDNIYRA Worlds
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Updated: March 5, 2000
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