Recap – Rock Lake 2022

There’s no better way to kick off the sailing season than with a regatta hosted at Rock Lake!
Saturday provided summer-esque sunshine (in May!), but with light wind. As such, there was
little rush as folks got their boats set up, and everyone enjoyed seeing faces that they hadn’t
seen since the year prior.

A course was set, and boats bobbed their way to the start line, but in the first race, the wind shut
off. Boats were parked in the middle of the course. Laughter was heard as everyone joked about
the race of the ages while moving approximately 0.5kts. The race was abandoned and we
floated back to the start line to see if the breeze would give us anything. We managed to get
one race in, but it was a floater. As such, boats that were able to stay in the little bit of breeze
did well, and those that were able to realize that the wind shifted such that the upwind leg wasn’t
always upwind left the rest of the snails in the dust.

And after a 50 minute one-lapper, we called it a day. Boats were put to bed early. Everyone
enjoyed the sunshine and conversation in the sailor compound created by boats and trailers.
Laughter from families and beach goers created a lively summer atmosphere, and legend has it
that a flaming RV made quite the scene!

Sunday boasted better winds, but with a deadline. Races started promptly at 10am (a good
exercise for CRAW sailors), and with the sound of the horn, the start sequence commenced,
while boats were still shoving off from shore. It was a race to the start line with plenty of
excitement for the day ahead!

There was quite a bit of discrepancy between the steady breeze and the gusts. The lulls would
need crew weight forward and sometimes on leeward, while the gusts would need us to double
trap, shift our weight aft, and play the cunningham. And to make it more interesting, the wind
was slowly oscillating from one side of the course to the other. Sometimes it would seem that
the only way to cross the start line was on a port tack (never quite panned out), and if anyone
found themselves out of phase with the wind, they’d find themselves parked on the wrong side
of the course, while boats that were on the other side were cruising steadily ahead.

There were a few close calls for capsizes (usually due to gusts being a bit bigger than
anticipated), but mainly there were epic saves. Most notable was Daniel & Frankie’s recovery as
they kept their boat upright on the other side of a too speedy of a tack at the weather mark in a
big gust. This forced Brian to have to do some slick maneuvers as he steered his boat
underneath Daniel’s mast to avoid a wreck (leading to a conversation about when it is
appropriate to file for redress if this happened in a larger race setting).

We managed to get five races in on Sunday thanks to Debbie & Guy’s fantastic job as race
committee. Seriously, shout out to those two on running things so smoothly!

All in all, it was a beautiful weekend, giving everyone the perfect taste of summer and the
season to come! I look forward to seeing you all at Lake Pepin!

This is AP, signing out!

Arden Patton