TOPSY-TURVY WAUKEGAN RACES

DAS BOOT DOES WELL

OTHERS ARE INCONSISTENT

(Sunday, June 24, 2007) On another weekend of racing in mostly light-air, the races to and from Waukegan this weekend saw consistency only from Jay Muller's Das Boot with their 1^st place on Saturday and 2^nd place on Sunday. The rest of the fleet of nine Beneteau 40.7's was stacked up in points totaling within 3 of each other. Other than the Boot, boats that did well on Saturday fared not so well on Sunday. Jim McDonnell's Spanker, which came in last place on Saturday finished 1^st on Sunday. Turning Point under skipper Bill Bartz returned their 2^nd place finish on Saturday with an 8^th place on Sunday and Ron Buzil's Vayu, 8^th on Saturday, finished in the money on Sunday with 3^rd place.

Saturday's race from Chicago to Waukegan and back from Waukegan to Chicago on Sunday was over a course of 26.2 nautical miles.

Typical for this annual event, the winds were light to moderate. Some boats further out on the Lake on Saturday reported some winds of 13 and 14 knots but mostly they were in the 8-12 range out of the southeast. On the inside that day the wind was mostly 7-9.

Saturday's race in the southeast wind saw some boats hit the starting line under spinnaker on starboard tack. The entire section initially went out into the Lake seeking air and position. Vayu gybed first heading inshore and remained the boat most inside for the duration of the race, but never getting closer than half a mile to the beaches. The success of this strategy, or rather the lack of it, is highlighted in Vayu's 8^th place finish that day. Meanwhile, Das Boot which appeared to be the furthest out into the Lake, found better pressure and led 2^nd place Turning Point to the finish line by over three minutes. The next six boats, places 3 through 8 finished within 5 minutes 45 seconds of each other, once again highlighting the close sailing and competitiveness of the Chicago Beneteau 40.7 Fleet.

Due to the east wind, Sunday's start saw the 40.7 section do the always fun and thrilling port tack start.

Sunday's return race saw even lighter winds than on the previous day. The race started in about 6 knots of breeze and saw that begin to fade in the first hour to 2-3 knots as boats in the later starting sections slowed to a crawl and then stopped. In a short time the wind filled in and remained mostly consistent at about 5 to 7 knots out of the east but oscillating from northeast to southeast. Late afternoon, as the section moved south along the Evanston and Chicago coasts, the wind picked up a bit to over 9 knots. Near Gross Point reef off Wilmette Harbor and the B'hai Temple (known in local racing lore as the "Temple of Doom") the wind, as is typical in this area, diminished considerably.

Spinnakers went up and down as the wind died and filled, and backed and veered. This created much fun for the crews especially for those aboard the short-handed boats such as Tsunami and Vayu, each of which had only five crewmembers (Tsunami had only a crew of four on Saturday).

Das Boot did well again on the race back to Chicago, this time going inside and following the shore. Though the wind was light there, the inside boats that never tacked, Spanker, Das Boot and Vayu finished in 1^st through 3^rd place in that order. Boats that tacked to get out further into the Lake, either to clear Gross Point and the reef off of it, or to seek more pressure, found themselves worse off for their efforts.

"The kiss of death", is how Don Hayes put it, describing the final effect on Tsunami of her tack away from the shore.

Ron Buzil described the final few miles of Vayu's race to Chicago: "It was very exciting for the last forty-five minutes or so. We had been inside with Spanker. Though the wind held for us, all of a sudden there was Clem (Clem Boltz, skipper of Cancan Deux) about eight boatlengths behind us and slowly gaining. They had slid down on us from the outside. In a situation like that the last couple of miles are always the longest. About a mile from the finish line Cancan had closed to within maybe two boatlengths but we were holding them off. We beat them over the line by 19 seconds! As they crossed, their tactician, Jack Howard, gave us a friendly wave. It was a lot of fun. Even Saturday, despite our 8^th place finish, was fun."

The new boat in the fleet, Mojo, under skipper Gary Powell, acquitted herself well in her first long-distance race with the 40.7's by beating several fleet veterans in each of the weekend's races.

Nine 40.7's participated in this event. This is tied with last year for the most 40.7's ever to race to Waukegan. The 40.7's had the most participants of any one-design fleet except for the Tartan-10's which had about 15 boats for each race.

A tenth registered boat in the section, Bob Kolar's Broderi, did not participate in the races but was seen near the finish of Sunday's race, out for a cruise and observing and cheering on the 40.7's as they completed the race.

These races, to and from Waukegan, are part of two series: the LMSRF Best 40.7 on Lake Michigan (BOLM) series, and the Area III Long-Distance Boat of the Year (LD BOY) series.

For the BOLM and Area III LD standings to to: 40.7 Series

For photos of the Waukegan races go to p6 of 2007 Fleet images: WaukPhoto

FINAL RESULTS:

Chicago to Waukegan

Navy Cutlass Race

Waukegan to Chicago