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Mutineer National Championship 2013
Reflections
This was an exceptional regatta.
Ernie and Carol did an outstanding job of organizing and hosting. As
much work as they did off the water, it's remarkable they raced with
such focus. The last time I tried to organize and host an MNC I came in
4th place.
The weather was fantastic. A bit cool and wet for some, but the winds
were stellar. So many times we lose an entire day to too little or too
much wind, or spend hours bobbing in the hot sun hoping for a breeze,
and afterward you wonder why you spent the time and money to drive out
of state. Not this year. The sailing was wonderful. I was grooving on
it so much I could have kept sailing for the shear joy of sailing. On
top of that was the great competition. Many boats got better every
race. Good sparring at the start, at the marks, many tight crossings...
all evidence of the Class improving our racing skills. The better any
of us get, the more it challenges the rest of us to keep getting better.
This really is a life-long learning sport.
Thanks to everyone who made the trip. It was great to reconnect with old friends, and great to meet new ones.
Do we have to wait a year to do it again?!
Gib
What a fantastic week of
sailing!
Many thanks to our hosts Ernie and Carol French. They planned
and executed this event while at the same time sailing extremely well.
How many meals did we all enjoy at their home? This was definitely a
well organized event that everyone enjoyed. And how Ernie and Carol got
the weather to cooperate is a mystery. We had mild temperatures and
great wind for the entire week. Only two races were briefly postponed
due to thunder in the area, but it quickly moved on and we sailed on.
Thanks to Bob DeRoeck for measuring boats and offering safety and speed
tips to our competitors. Thanks also to Gib Charles and Mike Ruwitch
for measuring sails. And thanks to all the skippers and crews who came
and enjoyed a week of sailing and socializing.
Texas
lead the way with five teams. Greg and Joan Reed are doing a super job
growing Fleet 2. Chad Harris and Ghost Dog sandbagged everyone by
showing up after stating that he could not make it this year - nice
surprise. Rich Webb, a very accomplished sailor who grew up sailing
with and against Ernie, crewed for Chad. The remaining Texas teams Uwe
and Coleen Hale, Sonny and Kathy Koerber, Randy and Valerie Poison (all
husband and wife teams) all performed exceedingly well. Congratulations
Fleet 2!
Fleet
15, Colorado, had boats 3 boats (one skippered by Bob DeRoeck and
crewed by me) on the course. Gib and Mike had a super regatta as
reflected by their first place performance. Peter Wray and Greg Larson
(thanks for loaning us your truck Greg so that we could haul a boat from
Colorado) impressed everyone with their sailing skills.
Charles and
Garrett Bell hailing from Missouri always show very well on the race
course. We didn't have any protests, but Brad Osborne's crew, his
daughter Jordon, is a lawyer whose services we thankfully didn't
require. We all hope to see Jordon again next year as this was her
first time competing. Sandy Morrison and her patriot crew Dan (who
flied from Rhode Island to California)
drove all the way from California to join the good times. Ricardo
Casanova and his very light crew Ileana, showed innovation in freeing
their mast from the mud. I don't know what led to the capsize, but it
occurred in fairly shallow water resulting in a full turtle with the
mast stuck in the mud. Ricardo realized that if he asked the crash boat
to pull with the mast in the mud it was very likely that the mast would
break. So Ricardo dove under his boat and released the rig tension
just enough (2 feet I believe) so that the crash boat could gently pull
the mast out of the mud without danger of breaking. Finally, a couple
of great Nebraska sailors, Bruce Smith and Gene Hinrichs, filled out the
field of competitors.
Lots
of pictures and a couple of videos where shot. If you have pictures you want
to share on our web site, please send them to me at mcse9557@yahoo.com.
A
few of us had black and blue marks, sore muscles, wind and sun burns,
etc. - but what a small price to pay for great Nebraska hospitality and
the great sailor's fellowship we all enjoyed.
Hope to see you in 2014!
Jerry
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