Flashlight Recap 2009
May 16-17 Lake Ripley, Cambridge, Wisconsin… Just like “Ripley’s Believe it or Not”, CRAW’s first regatta of 2009 had its share of the strange, unusual, and unpredictable. All the CRAW regulars were there, plus a couple other intrepid souls ready to try their skills on one of CRAW’s trickiest bodies of water. You see, the lake is only 418 acres. And it is surrounded by trees. Combine that with a fleet of spinnaker cats, and you have a recipe for close-in, ragged edge, racing. This year, 12 boats showed up including 5 I-20s, 2 F18s, 3 F16s, a Hobie FX1, and an A-cat.
On Saturday, race organizer Dave Repyak attempted to run races in winds that were steady at 19-23, and gusting to over 30. Density altitude? Aviation term for “lots of punch”. The airmass was very dry, and the static temperature was only 56F. Ripley’s close shoreline ringed by trees guaranteed that the racecourse would be shifty, and very gusty. Double trap, downhaul one second, tea bag the next. After all, CRAW racers are tough, right?
4-5 boats with dry-suited crews left the beach for the start line. The rest stayed on shore and laughed from a distance. The RC boat was dragging both anchors, and the crash/rescue boat had its hands full with 5 capsizes before the sequence even started. Little known fact…all 5 capsizes were on the same I-20! As the anemometer reached 30, Dave postponed the race, mumbling something about lawyers, hospitals, and ambulances. The intellicast forecast indicated that the winds would not subside until dark. Everyone returned to the beach safely, (no small feat given the “survival” mode we were in). Our beloved Commodore Dale returned under tow, with a broken boom on his pristine I-20. His valiant crew Shaina, who normally crews on a Nacra 5.8na, had never crewed on a spinnaker boat. She was understandably exhausted, having spent much of the morning in the water, trying to right their I-20, ummmm… 5 times.
The morning turned to noon, the OJ turned to rum, and the inhibitions disappeared. Around 1pm, I looked at my heavy weather crew Guy Selsmeyer, he looked at me, we both looked at my Infusion, and grinned. Drysuits on, sails up, crowds gathered on shore, and the RC pontoon left the beach to watch these two idiots wreck a perfectly good boat. Several people on the beach screamed “be careful”, while we knew that they secretly wanted carnage, just like NASCAR fans. We hoisted the chute immediately, which gave our bows needed lift, and took off. The boat was making screaming noises that I’ve never heard before. Guy, at 195 pounds, and me at 170 put us WAAY over the F18 minimum, but we needed all this and more. Within a few seconds, both bows drove down hard, plunging underwater nearly to the forward beam. Our slide forward only stopped by the sharp trailing edge of the retracted boards. The Infusion’s legendary forward buoyancy fought hard to return to the surface, and off we went again, like a shot. Up and down the lake, Hoist, takedown, hoist, takedown. On a lake this size and at these speeds, there was hardly anytime to enjoy the ride. Chris Blake stayed at the helm of the RC pontoon alongside this missile, but giving us a wide berth in the shifty conditions. On one downwind stuff with the chute down, both rudders came completely out of the water, and the boat autorotated on its boards, and took off to weather! This was a new one on us. Too bad this wasn’t at the leeward mark. It would have been a great rounding. Finally, to the glee of the spectators, we took the final bow stuff to the beams, and despite hanging in stasis for several long seconds, she went over. Problem was, Guy was still hooked into the chicken line behind me. I dove clear of the mainsail and fragile boom, and Guy dove too…but came to the end of his chicken line, did a somersault, and miraculously unhooked from the line. Shocked onlookers said his head barely missed the sterns and rudders. We righted the boat, sailed back to shore, no blood and no broken parts (either human or Nacra).
Sunday’s racing was entirely more civilized, albeit true to the name Ripley. All the wind blew out overnight, and now the lake was, well… “ripply”. Breeze always less than 7, mostly less than 5, big holes, huge shifts. Dave ran 4 races, and the shifty conditions didn’t seem to phase one of CRAW’s star I-20 skippers. Kurt Korte easily took the regatta with 4 bullets, and was only seriously challenged in a couple of races by Randy Johnson’s Infusion, Chris Blake’s I-20, and JJ Johnson’s Infusion.
This regatta is CRAW’s longest running regatta, and hearkens back 3 decades to when the club was new, dacron ruled the day, beachcat spinnakers didn’t exist in Cheeseland, and most of the boats started with H. Dave Repyak was here then, and so was Chris Blake. Sorry boys, I’m dating you. (not that there’s anything wrong with that)
JJ Johnson
