Green Bay Recap 2011

I hadn’t actually sailed out of Windjammer’s Sailing Club before. For a Minnesotan it is about as far as you can go with in the CRAW sailing venues. Even being an unholy stranger in a strange unholy land, I’m glad I made the trek though. This year’s Green Bay regatta was one of the best CRAW regatta’s I’ve experienced. You should brace yourselves for the experience of reading this though as this is going to be a bit rough for a couple of reasons. For starters, I’m no literary genius, I haven’t had to write this before, and as a single hander you are only allowed glimpses of everything. Your hands and mind are constantly being needed elsewhere, so you tend to develop a bit of A.D.D. on the water. I’m told we had a total of nine races through the course of the event, six on Saturday and another three following on Sunday. Saturday gave us a variety of wind and wave conditions. On the low end we were sailing in about 8 knots of breeze, on the high end I’d say we were sailing in about 14 or 15kts. So some good sporty conditions, without any need to cast tiller extensions, rum, or wayward children into any volcano’s in hopes of stirring up a breeze (which is good because there are none to be had in Wisconsin, volcanoes that is). Ben and Martin were showing us how it’s done with the Tornado, while the mixed/father,daughter team of Brianna and Gary Chu did very well even though it was the first time out on a their brand new Viper. I think it is safe to say that Brianna won’t need much time and she and her father will be a weapon on the water. With a constantly right shifting breeze both days, the battle at the start was almost always at the committee boat. 16 boats all wanting clear air and to be within whispering distance of the PRO, the greed was thick in the air as another general recall flag was flown. I think we had three of those, and a handful of individual recalls for sailors who wished that had maybe not pushed so hard so soon, (me included).

I don’t know how many people in CRAW I have told this to, but sailing has been one of the greatest positive influences I have ever had in my life. While it may sound dumb, it has made me a better person. Sailing has taught me to concentrate, to deal with what I am dealt with on the water and to perceiver over those conditions. It has taught me to problem solve, and to make critical decisions, and to be tactical. But really much of what has been so positive to me, has to do with the people I sail with. So thank you CRAW, for inviting a Minnesotan to make and have such wonderful friends. Okay Dale, you can put away the Kleenex, I’m done now.

Karl Brogger