Green Lake Recap 2013

Green Lake – destined to be a favorite location on the CRAW regatta circuit for generations.

I do declare the first catamaran regatta held on Green Lake a complete success. A popular central Wisconsin lake, formerly ruled by pleasure boaters and fisherman, is now a popular destination among the Midwest’s cat sailing elite. Seventeen catamaran teams showed a great presence on the east end of Green Lake, a body of water no less than 2 miles across and 10 miles long (that’s what I measure with my thumb on Google maps, actual miles may vary depending on the width of your thumb)

I do like traveling to new regatta sites – it’s an adventure getting there, it’s an adventure getting organized on the beach to set up the boats, it’s an adventure finding a place to sleep, it’s an adventure launching, it’s an adventure for the race committee setting the course, it’s an adventure figuring out the wind patterns on the lake, it’s an adventure getting off the water, it’s an adventure trying new dining and entertainment options, it’s an adventure “drag” racing your boat down a county road, it’s an adventure loading up finding your way home. That sounds like an awful lot of adventure for one weekend, so let me explain.

Green Lake is located in central Wisconsin, 265 miles from the Twin Cities (where all the cool people live) so in the spirit of the share a ride program we loaded up the truck with 2 boats and 4 people. Yes, Jenna may originate from Wisconsin but she’s one of the cool people now. We arrived about an hour before the dinner bell so three of us immediately set to rigging the boats; one of the four of us arrived to a completely rigged boat, rock star style. It is always a logistical problem getting two boats off a trailer in a new place. Do you opt for the parking lot with wide open space or the more congested grass and shaded areas? We opted for the grass, and it worked out fine for all of us. Plenty of space for everyone, but not stretched out across the entire eastern shoreline.

We were about 90% rigged when people began peeling away for dinner. Guess what, Friday night in Wisconsin, it’s deep fried and it’s fish. Good things never get old. After dinner the entire bunch of us headed for the campground. Only Dustin knew where it was, so we all paraded through town to arrive at a great little campsite on a bay of the lake. The unusual bit here is few of us knew where we were, and we all arrived at our campsite after dark and had to stake our claim to a campsite. I don’t ever remember that situation happening at any regatta I have ever been too. It’s an adventure right?

In the morning the majority of us had a hearty breakfast in downtown Green Lake. It was wet and light wind and few were motivated to get set up in a real rush. Once we arrived at the beach the sentiment changed, our new race organizers kept us on track for a 10:30 start. We all know how hard that can be sometimes. The wind was light, then it came up, then it went down and then back up. That was in the first 20 minutes. All in all it was a great day of sailing winds averaging 10 mph I would estimate, few extended periods of light. Except race 3 perhaps, ask JJ about that one. The race committee got in 5 great races; I understand the windward mark was set in 160 feet of water, wow. Image the fun they were having when the call came to move the mark.

Back at the beach we took turns pulling the boats out via the boat ramp – shows how well the CRAW sailors work together and help each other out. Some quickly headed back to the campsite for a warm shower, the rest of us loitered back for cold shower. I love regatta showers! That’s an adventure for sure. Dinner was a minimum of 3 notches upscale of what we are accustomed to in CRAW. White table cloth, metal utensils, a fully attentive bartender. And then the entertainment, Tassi’s rocked us into the night, and to quote one of the band members, “We ain’t no hair band.” Well, ya, that’s obvious. Than on queue came a deluge of rain, and then the phone call. Have you ever heard the phrase “you can’t keep a good boat down?” Well now you have, and if you don’t understand, it’s a Guy thing (ha, you see how I did that!). That’s adventure.

The next morning we all talked about the rain, geared up and set out for a beautiful day of sailing in 10-15 mph wind, gradually building through the day. We sailed three races and called it a wrap. On the way home we took a detour to strategically stage our boat for the next event, no doubt the Minnesota contingent of CRAW is looking forward to the next event as always.

Thank you to Dustin and Tassi for the great work they did to put this new event on the calendar. To all the great CRAW support staff on the RC boat and chase boats, great job. Also a big thank you the Green Lake Sailing Club and Julie Jankowski, knowing the difficulties of organizing a regatta without a local contact and support I am sure without their help Tassi would have had to resort to pulling out Dustin’s hair.

One more thing. Looking at the results, the top 3 teams where mixed crew: 1st place, father/daughter, 2nd place brother/sister, 3rd place, husband/wife. And 4th place was father/son. In fact 9 of 16 teams were family sailing together, and/or mixed crew or CRAW family sailing with other CRAW family. Think about that. Who needs an Olympic class rule to get a little diversity in our sport. So if you reading this and haven’t yet joined the CRAW family come on out. We are the cat sailing elite, at least in Wisconsin!

Latter, I have to go pack for the next regatta! …the next adventure!

Brent Carlson