2010 StFYC Spring Keel Regatta
By: Brock de Lappe
Posted: 03/10/2010
Woodies Rule Spring Keel Regatta
It was time to shake off the winter mothballs and get back out on the water.
On the weekend of March 6-7, the St. Francis held their annual Spring Keel Regatta.
Saturday started out as typical mid-winter race with not a puff of wind.
The St.FYC announced a postponement at the 10:45 am competitors meeting and wisely waited for a 8-10 knot wind to come up by about 12:30 pm that afternoon.
A total of ten Folkboats registered for the event, including a strong contingent of woodies.
The racing was tight, with four different boats savoring the sweet smell of gun smoke finishes.
Equally impressive was that two of the top three boats in the regatta were woodies, Bill Madison in US-76 took 1st overall and Fred Andersen in US-74 was third.
It just goes to show that a well maintained and skippered wooden Folkboat can compete on equal footing with fiberglass boats in this highly competitive one design fleet.
In race one, Bill Madison was first to the weather mark and never looked back. Richard Keldsen in US-107 grabbed a first place finish in the second race that day by taking advantage of the residual ebb on the right (north) side of the course.
Sunday was a gorgeous day with blue sky, puffy white clouds and a good spring wind. In the first race that day, the excitement began on the approach to the weather mark. A train of starboard tack boats, led by Peter Jeal in US-113, followed closely by Brock de Lappe (US-121), Bill Madison (US-76) and Chris Herrmann (US-108), powered in towards a port rounding.
While at first it appeared that all had overstood due to the well developed ebb on the central bay, in the last few hundred yards it became painfully apparent that we are all moving into an unusually strong early flood tide, with none of these boats making it around without taking extra tacks. One sailor compared it to sailing into quicksand.
Fred Andersen (US-74) and Mark Slichter (US-56) anticipated the ensuing chaos and came in high, passed all the boats flailing to get around the mark, and held on for the rest of the race to take 1st and 2nd.
The final race Sunday afternoon was sailed in 15-20 knots of wind and was dominated by Peter Jeal (US-113) and Bill Madison (US-76) who were quick to get to the right side of the course and avoid the shoreside flood tide, took 1st and 2nd respectively, and finished the regatta tied for points.
This was a great beginning to our sailing season and was a very well run regatta by the St. Francis Yacht Club race committee.
Congratulations to our top finishers; Bill Madison 1st, Peter Jeal 2nd (on tie breaker) and Fred Andersen 3rd.
