Tristate 2007
TRISTATE WON BY LA TEMPETESECOND YEAR IN A ROW FOR TOM WEBER AND CREW40.7'S LABOR TO FINISH IN LIGHT AIR (Monday, September 3, 2007) Where is the wind? Certainly not much on Lake Michigan this year. This year's Tristate Regatta over the Labor Day weekend, as always, consisted of three races, the first of 50.5 nautical miles on Friday night from Chicago to St. Joseph Michigan, the second of 27.8 nm on Sunday from St. Jose For example, this year's winner on the Friday night race, Excalibur, finished at 4:42:11 on Saturday morning. Last year the winner, La Tempete, finished at 3:34:49, over an hour earlier. In 2006 on the Sunday race to Michigan City, the winner, La Tempete finished at 17:54:39. This year the winner, once again La Tempete, finished at 18:11:07. Monday, the slowest day of all, saw race winner Vayu cross the finish line at 18:53:02 as opposed to last year's winning finish time of 15:55:02 for La Tempete, a time difference of almost three hours. When the end finally and mercifully came it was Tom Weber's La Tempete the winner of the regatta for the Beneteau 40.7 section with finish places of 4‑1‑2 and Ron Buzil's Vayu in 2nd place with finishes of 2‑5‑1. Turning Point under skipper Bill Bartz finished in 3rd place with finishes of 3‑2‑4. The race on Friday night began under encouraging conditions, especially considering the forecast of little wind after midnight. With the wind holding at about 7 to 9 knots out of the northeast, after the initial jockeying for position, most of the section headed off on port tack to the southeast. Some went high. Some went low and fast. Excalibur, who arrived late at the starting line, and crossed it about three minutes after the gun, went off to the right of the main part of the section. As they crossed late, Vayu skipper, Ron Buzil, remarked to his crew, "Watch, they're going to win" (this thought was based on another port-to-port race three years ago, when Excalibur started about 10 minutes late and won not only the 40.7 section but for the entire Area III fleet). The wind continued to veer right most of the night, enabling boats to tack to starboard and fetch the finish line. True to Buzil's prediction, Excalibur did win.
It was "Let the Party Begin!!" once the fleet was in St. Joseph. As each boat arrived they rafted on the St. Joseph River wall and the crews, in their various ways, caught up on sleep. By noon most of them had recovered and were wandering around town or across the river to the St. Joseph Yacht Club facilities (pool and bar) or to the beach and the intra-boat volleyball tournament. Tory and Wendy Enerson, and Bryan Hayes of Tsunami brought the remnants of the 40.7 party from last month's Verve Cup Regatta to the beach and set up shop with ice and cups. Other boats made contributions and the beach party was underway. Crews from Tsunami, La Tempete, Vayu, Das Boot, Excalibur, and Turning Point were in attendance while some of the crew of Mojo were spotted at the yacht club by the pool. Meanwhile, once in Michigan, Spanker turned around and returned to Chicago, opting out of further Tristate competition for the weekend. Saturday evening featured the awards ceremony at 7 PM followed by a really good band at the club as hundreds danced to the tunes.
Sunday morning it was on with the race to Michigan City. This is the race that has been notoriously slow for many of past years. Starting on starboard tack, some of the 40.7's, Das Boot and Turning Point among them, tacked to port and went out into the Lake seeking air. Excalibur led the way on starboard tack into the shore, followed by La Temepte, Cancan, Vayu and Mojo. These boats on the left made a few tacks while sorting out the lead. Then La Tempete, on one port tack, kept going out and yet further out leaving the rest to fend for themselves near shore. It seemed as if Excalibur and Cancan had a good lead on the boats to the right, at least until the shore breeze began to die in mid-afternoon. That is about when Vayu decided to test the middle and split from following Excalibur. They found a bit more pressure and on a better angle about three miles out as the wind continued to veer all the way around from southeast to south to west, to north, to northeast. When Vayu next crossed with Excalibur they were ahead. It was there they saw Das Boot who was coming in from the right and about 4 boatlengths ahead. Tsunami was about 10 boatlengths ahead of Das Boot when they approached the finish. There the wind died as the three boats struggled to cross in that order with Tsunami in 3rd place, Das Boot in 4th, Vayu in 5th, and Excalibur in 6th. Earlier, La Tempete and Turning Point had faired well to the right out on the Lake and finished in 1st and 2nd place. La Tempete skipper, Tom Weber, that evening said, "we were heading out into the Lake and we crossed tacks with Eagle's Wings, you know, John Gottwald's boat, and he yelled over to us, ‘I wouldn't go out there if I was you!'". Food, drinks, and a band under the tent were awaiting the fleet as they rafted up on the wall near where the old Michigan City Yacht Club facility had been. But due to scoring delays, an awards ceremony wasn't held and the results weren't posted until Tuesday. The Monday race back to Chicago from Michigan City has typically been characterized as a windy day, usually presaged with the clanking of halyards on masts at about 3 AM. Not so this year. The race started in about 7 knots of south-southwest wind. The 40.7's all either started on port tack or quickly tacked onto that board. The early miles saw Excalibur leading the way to the high side (to south or the left) followed by Cancan and Mojo. Meanwhile, La Tempete, Turning Point, and Das Boot footed off to the north (the right) as Vayu and Tsunami played the middle. Light and fluky wind prevailed into the afternoon as the fleet tried to sort itself out. At least there was enough wind to keep going - until everyone sailed inside of the cribs. Then the wind turned off and boat after boat stacked up with limp sails. Excalibur and Tsunami, who had led the way to the cribs were now stuck as the rest of the section caught up. A final zephyr of wind out of the south got boats moving again, moving slowly, but moving. La Tempete, on starboard, worked their way through the dozens of boats stuck in each other's wind shadows and emerged from the pack only to meet Vay Ben Kramer, aboard Tsunami, gave his observations on the finish of Monday's race: "I'll give you a quick snippet of what was happening from the perspective of Tsunami and Excalibur. Both of us were dueling for first place at the end of Monday's race. Excalibur had the lead, but Tsunami had caught-up and the two boats were fighting it out. Although Tsunami had a chance, Excalibur was in line to finish first. "The rest of the 40.7's were off in the distance. As we got closer to the line the air got lighter and at .2 nautical miles from the mark we both stopped dead. Soon we had drifted backward and were .3 nautical miles from the mark. As Tsunami and Excalibur fought to get their boats moving and pointing in the proper direction, with 0.00 knots of wind, we watched the rest of the fleet (starting with La Tempete) getting closer. "All of a sudden a large chunk of the fleet that had sailed within yards of the mark, only to stop dead, were all piling-up on top of each other in what would technically be called a "cluster-f--k". We saw boats hit each other and the committee boat. Vayu came in on the left and managed to keep-up momentum and stay to the left of the "cluster-f--k". Unfortunately, Tsunami got caught in the mess and finished last in our section. Although the crew of Tsunami knew we sailed well, spending the last hours trying to get .2 miles and ending-up last was disappointing, and I can only imagine the disappointment the crew of Excalibur was feeling when they had first place within reach. "We had a great weekend sailing and hanging with the fleet. I know on the beach the 40.7's hanging together, playing volleyball together, and drinking together, was the envy of many other boats. "Great sailing with and against everyone!" All races of the Tristate Regatta count in the Area III Port-to-Port Boat of the Year series. Now that all races in this event are over, the final standings are: Das Boot in 1st place with 12 points, Turning Point in 2nd place with 15 points, and Vayu in 3rd place with 17 points. (La Tempete did not enter this series or compete in the two races of the Waukegan Race Weekend) Upcoming: Commodore's Cup Regatta, Sunday Sept. 9th: This is the final event for the 40.7 section for the 2007 season. All races count for the LMSRF Best on Lake Michigan series and the Area III Buoy Boat of the Year series. Late October or early November: Fall skippers' meeting followed by the annual 40.7 Fall Fleet Fling to be held at the Chicago Corinthian Yacht Club at Montrose Harbor. All sailors, friends, and anyone interested in crewing on or owning a Beneteau 40.7 are welcome. November 11th: The annual Chicago Yachting Association's Yachting Ball. To be held at Navy Pier. The 40.7 fleet always has a strong showing at this event of skippers, crew, spouses and friends.
Updated standings for the 40.7 Fleet are at: 40.7 Standings Photos of the 40.7 Fleet at this year's Tristate Regatta begin on page XX of the Image Gallery. Please go to: Tristate Photos.
FINAL TRISTATE REGATTA RESULTS (40.7 SECTION)
INDIVIDUAL RACE RESULTS Chicago to St. Joseph:
St. Joseph to Michigan City
Michigan City to Chicago
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ph to Michigan City, Indiana, and the third of 31.3 nm on Monday from Michigan City back to Chicago. Winds were extremely light which resulted in the latest finishing times for the leading boats for these events in years, or at least since 2002 when the 40.7's started racing these events as a one-design section.
u, the southern most boat, moving slowly but in clear air on port tack with Das Boot, also on port, about two boat lengths behind them. Vayu ducked La Tempete as the two skippers shook their heads, acknowledging the miserable conditions. The wind died again, leaving everyone to coast on whatever momentum they had. Since La Tempete had to tack to fetch the finish line, Vayu pulled ahead by one boatlength and the order of the first three finishers was Vayu, La Tempete, and Das Boot.