Petenwell Recap 2011

Big water, great beach, perfect camping, and an attached bar and restaurant with hot showers. What’s not to like? Barnum Bay Yacht Club BBYC has been hosting this perennial favorite race for many years. Because this venue on the CRAW circuit is centrally located in Wisconsin, it often attracts cats from neighboring states as well. Such was the case again this year. As usual, Badgers made up the majority of the fleet, but Gophers, Wolverines, and Illini (whatever that is) made a good showing. 6 F18s, 4 N20s, 4 F16s, 3 Tornados, and 1 F17. The once active Midwest Tornado fleet resurrected itself for a family reunion of sorts.

Fall and spring winds in Wisconsin often bring broken boats and contusions, but summer winds in Wisconsin can be fickle. 71 crews that attended CRAW’s RCC championship in Racine last year will attest to that. Rumors started flying that good breeze at Lake Petenwell would be elusive for the whole regatta. This, of course favors three kinds of crews. Lightweight ones, lucky ones, and the ones that can sniff out the breeze. If you happen to be in all three categories, my money’s on you. CRAW decided to go high tech this year, and subscribed to the Kattack GPS tracking system. Most of the 18 boats had GPS trackers aboard. The RC set up a 2 lap windward/leeward gated course, with the start/finish line below the gates. The winds averaged around 6-7 knots for all 7 races. 

Everyone knows that with light winds and a mixed fleet, you have to win the start. So all the crews were tight on the line on most races, carving out holes below them for that all important acceleration in the first few seconds of the race. The light winds created a necessity to be on the line when the flag went down, so there were a couple general recalls. 34 watches, beeping in sync with the RC flags signaled the start. Blake, Selsmeyer, Malcheski, and Tuckfield driving their N20s and Tornados had the advantage in horsepower, a critical attribute in light winds. The lightweight F16 class had the next best advantage, and Daniel and Morgan Hearn leveraged their previous F18 experience together on their new Viper to accelerate out with the bigger boats. Following close behind was the F18 fleet, taking the gas from the 20s, and tacking off quickly to clear air. CRAW has no slouches, and it’s pretty tough to cross the fleet on port. Starboards were yelled, sterns were ducked, and no gelcoat exploded on the crossings.

Despite the aggressive fleet, and 18 boats, only one mishap resulting in damage occurred. It was the classic case of 1 crew trying to avoid the other, and both crews going the same direction to avoid the collision. 1 spinnaker pole and 1 Tornado hull sacrificed themselves at the altar of cat racing.

The whole weekend was dominated by sailors that saw the breeze, and could actually get into it. For the rest, it proved certainly frustrating, making a good start, and good windward rounding, only to see their hard earned lead go into the toilet as the breeze evaporated on their side of the course. Even worse, if you caught a puff, and managed to ride it well ahead of the fleet, it usually disappeared before the leeward gates. Then, you just sat there, sometimes barely managing steerage, and watched the wind fill in from behind, dragging up the long forgotten fleet to your once invincible position. You knew that the breeze would eventually come…just not soon enough to save your precarious lead. 

The beach chatter was filled with “I was first at the mark”, or “third to the layline”, followed by tales of woe as their lead literally disappeared into thin air. Light winds are the great equalizer in sailing…fortunes are made and lost on luck. But some crews managed to leverage their luck, with some good educated guesses, and skilled boat handling. These are the ones that finished well.

Congrats to trophy winners 1st Daniel and Morgan Hearn F16, 2nd Martin and Ben Malcheski Tornado, 3rd Chris Blake and Cory Roebbeke N20, and honorable mention to Mark Thomson F16.

Finally, thanks to Nick Conner, CRAW Vice Commodore, for organizing this regatta on fairly short notice.

JJ Johnson 
F16 Viper