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District 12 Regatta Report | Fri Jul 14th, 2006 through Sun Jul 16th, 2006 |
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Report by Magnus Liljedahl: Lake Hopatcong Yacht Club hosted the Blue Star event July 14-16. It marked my second visit in as many years to this beautiful lake, located in the Garden State, about one-hour west of Newark airport. Lake Hopatcong is one of those places that I would like to return to for as long as I live. It is a great venue, the yacht club has a long, impressive, history and its members really make you feel welcome. The lake shore is “littered” with beautiful homes and the relatively flat surroundings gives breeze easy access to the water surface. There were concerns that Friday mornings calm conditions would extend throughout the weekend, but as it turned out we had three very nice days of sailing. The lake is odd shaped, which provides for decent weather legs in various wind directions. The southerly breeze provides the most solid condition and that’s what we experienced on Friday afternoon. Hans Fogh and David Caesar dominated the series, winning both races on Friday, adding a couple of thirds on Saturday, winning the regatta without even sailing the final race on Sunday. Runner-ups were Rick and Clark Dhein from Lake George, while third place honors went to Kirk Reynolds and Dan White, from Lake Seneca. Legends and lake sailors atop the scoreboard indeed! John MacCausland gave up the tiller to Kevin Murphy for the event and they ended the series with an impressive 2-1. Another long time crew, Richard Burgess, assumed the helm for the weekend, finishing 8th overall. Nice job! It isn’t often that one is guaranteed a trophy before an event starts, but that was our case for this series. I was invited to sail with Bill Nutzell in hull # 6303 and the “oldest boat” award would eventually be ours. That wasn’t my reason for sailing around in a “barge” for the weekend. My motivation was multi pronged. I find it challenging to sail with various skippers, everyone unique in their own ways and there is always something that can be learned from each and every one. It is not often that Star sailors in new, modern, boats get to improvise and practice seamanship like they do in the famous ocean race. Heading out to start on Friday, the mainsail needed manipulating to stay hoisted and the jib halyard locked in about 12” too high. In the 4th race I was below deck making some repairs, causing us to barely make the start, but we did time it perfect, luckily I may add, and we crossed the line with full speed at the gun. That’s when the outhaul broke, in about 5 knots of breeze, causing the foot to retract all the way to the barney post. As it turned out, it ended up being our best race, finishing fourth. Coming back to shore we had to capsize the boat in order to get the main down. Our modest 12th overall wasn’t because of slow boat speed. I truly never felt disadvantaged. Sailing on small lakes is very different then sailing, let’s say, in San Diego or San Francisco. How about Rick and Clark Dhein? They looked like 470 sailors to me, but their lake experience made crew weight a non-issue. Special thanks to the entire Murphy family, Liz and Bill Nutzell, my host and hostess Kenny and Cindy Heaton and to all of you who contributed at the 50/50 raffle ticket fundraiser, benefiting teamPARADISE, on Saturday night. |
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