District 12  Regatta Report

Fri Jul 9th, 2004 through Sun Jul 11th, 2004

Regatta Base

2004 District 12 Championship

 

The Stars were back in Hamilton Ontario racing for 3 days. The weather gods smiled upon us and the weekend was wonderful. A little bit of everything in the wind department made for an interesting weekend on the water with the wind cycling between 5 to 12 knots. Larry Scott did a fine job of organizing the regatta with a tremendous amount of help from his family and club volunteers. Susie Scott, the original lunch lady, was back in fine form baking cookies and muffins for the fleet and the RHYC staff put out some great meals. As usual the RHYC volunteers did a great job on and off the water, running two regattas during the weekend while sharing the harbour with another keelboat regatta. The Blue Star was won by Steve Haarstick for the third time - the last time was 33 years ago. Bill Nutzell from Lake Hopatcong won his Green Star with a little help from his crew Rick Burgess and congratulations to both.

Report by the winner Steve Haarstick
the 12th District Championship is the top event in the Star class for the region that extends from eastern Canada, New York State from Buffalo to Lake George, including the Finger Lakes, and Northern New Jersey. While the number of fleets has diminished over the years, the level of competition has intensified, as Olympic classes always attract the best sailors, especially in an Olympic year.

I have only sailed in one District’s since I competed on a regular basis in the mid seventies. While I won the districts twice before, (1969 - Ithaca, 1971 - Greenwood Lake) those were literally a lifetime ago. Having spent absolutely no time in the boat since this past February, I didn’t have high hopes. If I had to trade off the LYRA course races! in Minute Hand in order to sail in the Star Districts, so be it. I have enjoyed sailing my Star over the past few years, more than any other sailing I have done, as it has renewed my burn for racing against some of the best sailors around, and, just as important, it has renewed old friendships from years past. It is amazing to see how many Star sailors from the seventies and eighties have never left the Star, and are still out there racing today.

As I setup my Star Thursday evening, my regatta expectations began to fade, when I realized that I had put the new jib I made for the Masters in Miami in the wrong bag. In it’s place, was the other “experimental” (slow) jib in the “new sail” bag. This left me with a two year old version of the Master’s jib. At least I managed to bring my still fast four year old Dacron/Pentex Triradial Main! Starting a big regatta with old sails, in a class that regularly puts on brand new sails for big regattas is not a good omen.

It got worse. On Friday, the first day of racing, the wind was out of the northwest, a direction that “never happens here”. How many times have you heard that at regattas? This forced the committee to set a course across the harbor, which helped make the variable wind even more unpredictable, especially near the shore at the weather mark. At the first start, we lost track of the time and found ourselves in the coffin’s corner above the committee boat at the gun, and made contact with Larry and Ted who also had no where to go. As the fleet left the starting area, we were doing our 720 behind the line. After sailing the rest of the race in the cheap seats, we finished 20th out of 26 boats.

The 2nd race of the day started better, as we got a clean start and “lead”, smartly tacking up the middle on the shifts, looking good for ¾’s of the 1st beat! But two minutes later, 15 boats came out of the right side on a big puff near the weather mark and put us back in the cheap seats again! On the final run to the finish, we stayed low, real low of the mob scene of 10 boats clumped to weather, and passed them all to finish just in front of them in 7th. However, those 10 boats in the mob crossed the line at once, with two of them tangled up on the pin, creating a real mess. When we checked the board Saturday morning, we had been bumped back to 10th, with 3 boats ahead of us on redress.

Even with a drop race, a 20th and a 10th doesn’t bode well for a good regatta in a 26 boat fleet. On the plus side, there’s no pressure now! When we went out to the start the wind had changed direction, and was filling in from the east, becoming very steady, in the 8 –10 knot range. This is my best condition!! Clean start, great speed off the line, tacked and crossed the fleet, no problem!! In the lead!! Only we didn’t check the course flag. As we reached off towards the “weather” mark, Brian Cramer suggested that we would do much better if we rounded the weather mark before rounding the reach mark!! What an idiot I was!! This bonehead move put us back in 4th for the remainder of the 3rd race.

Finally, we got off clean for the start of the 4th race, and, having checked the course flag this time, sailed to the correct weather mark, rounded second, and finished 2nd. Not a bad day, but certainly not a threat for an overall finish in the top 4 or 5. There were lot’s of boats ahead of us.

Sunday morning, the wind was east again, and had filled in earlier than yesterday. Pumped up, we left the dock early and sailed to the course area to check out the wind. Today, we were not picking up the shift off the shore, as we did the day before, and the wind seemed stronger in the middle of the course. This pre-race observation paid off, as most of the regatta leaders went to the shore on the first beat, while we sailed up the middle. We rounded the weather mark first with John Finch in close pursuit, while they came in deep. We covered John for the rest of the race, but on the last run to the finish, let a boat slip ahead of us both, and we took another 2nd. Still, it was our best race of the regatta. It felt good to end up on a positive note.

However, it got better! As I was packing up my Star, Rick Burgess came over to congratulate me on our beating him by one point for the championship. Unbelievable!! After 33 years, I actually won my third 12th Star District Championship with a 10, 4, 2, 2 and an 18 low point score in a 26 boat fleet! I can’t think of any other regatta where that has happened. What a rush!! Have to thank my crew Dan for a great job up front, and the club for a terrific regatta.


Star
Place Boat Skipper Crew Sail #: Fleet 1 2 3 4 5 Total
1 7369   Haarstick   White   7369   LS   20 RDG 10 4 2 2 18
2 6303   Nutzel   Burgess   6303   LH   15 3 3 4 9 19
3 7205   Anderson   Folsetter   7205   LOC   2 RDG 6 6 9 6 20
4 Remarc   Cramer   Delicaet   7793   Loc   1 DSQ 2 5 13 21
5 7626   Hains   Scott   7626   LOC   3 RDG 8 10 3 7 21
6 7830   Ivey   Krackower   7830   Sun   6 1 12 DNF 5 24
7 8013   Dhein   Dhein   7630   NLGYC   10 2 5 7 15 24
8 7133   Finch   Jakubowski   7585   LOC   5 RDG 9 9 16 3 26
9 7775   Fogh   Caesar   7775   LOC   4 13 7 18 4 28
10 7793   Nichol   Nichol   8143   LS   13 RDG 7 8 1 DNS 29
11 794   Millner   Cutting   794   LOC   DNC 4 1 DNF 1 31
12 7271   Wescott   Asermily   7271   SL   7 RDG 5 13 14 18 39
13 6756   Hendershot   Vranderick   6756   Q   11 RDG 11 16 8 10 40
14 7719   Beatty   Karahanas   2626   LOC   19 15 14 6 8 43
15 8083   Chiarella   Fletcher   8083   Sun   8 16 15 10 14 47
16 7628   Feeney   Bowers   7628   Sun   9 DSQ 11 15 12 47
17 7950   Mckay   Conway   7950   LOC   17 18 18 11 11 57
18 Special Cookie Monster   Monster   Delicaet   8003   LOC   14 12 21 12 DNF 59
19 7940   Hofer   Macot   7940   Q   16 14 17 13 16 59
20 585   DeLaporte   Bryant   585   Q   12 17 20 17 22 66
21 5824   Bruce   Farmer   5824   Q   18 OCS 19 19 17 73
22 6740   Craddock   Finch   6740   Loc   22 20 24 21 19 82
23 7621   Reuter   Lteki   7621   LOC   21 19 22 22 20 82
24 7009   Miller   Winthrop   7009   LH   23 21 23 20 21 85

ISCYRA Central Office
2812 Canon Street
San Diego, California 92106 USA
Phone: +1 619 222 0252
Fax: +1 619 222 0528
SKYPE: star.class.office
office@starclass.org

Star Class
Home
- ContactWebmaster

Results - Calendar - Classified Ads - History
Districts & Fleets - Rules - About - Online Store

Sign up for eStarlights...
Enter your email address in the box
below and click submit to receive
monthly updates from the Star Class.


(Starlights Newsletter Archives 2003-2010)