Lake Champlain Race Week Recap
Under the leadership of Bretton Gardner from MBBC this past week saw the reincarnation of an old lapsed tradition (MBBC Race Week) into a hopefully new tradition of Lake Champlain Race Week. For a first time event with an unproven concept the outcome exceeded all expectations. At its core this event was really about promoting participation in racing on Lake Champlain and exposing folks to the broad spectrum of racing opportunities that exist between MBBC, LCYC and the Community Sailing Center. There was also a strong focus on getting our Junior Sailors exposed to the different events and types of boats. About 30 sailors participated in the event, with about 1/4 of them sailing in all 6 events and about 50% sailing in at least 4 events. Race Week consisted of 6 events covering pretty much the full spectrum of boat types and race formats on the lake including the MBBC Finch Cup (JAM only Pursuit race), LCYC Monday Night E Series (one design keelboat racing...Etchells and Sportboats), MBBC Tuesday night Laser Series (singlehanded dinghy), LCYC Wednesday Night (One design and PHRF Keelboats), MBBC Thursday Night (PHRF Keelboats and Lightnings) and CSC Friday Night 420 Racing (doublehanded dinghy). As it turned out, over the course of the week, we saw pretty much the full gamut of wind conditions as well from 3 to 20+ knots. While the real focus was on participation, to make it interesting the event was scored (with a throw out) based on each sailor's score in each event on whatever boat they sailed on, in whichever class they sailed. The event wrapped up with an MBBC hosted BBQ and Awards ceremony at the CSC on Friday night after the 420 racing.
Bretton will be looking to take what we learned about the event this year and build on the initial success for next year's event.
If you didn't participate this year, you missed a great time, so try and get out there next year !!
The winners:
1- Mike Zonnenberg - UVM Sailing Team
2- Al Baker - MBBC
3- John Harris - LCYC
Top Junior (and youngest participant):
Parker Downing - MBBC
Top Woman:
Megan Yeigh - UVM Sailing Team
Top Master (55+):
John Harris - LCYC
