2014 Halloween Classic

Mohican Sailing Club, Mansfield OH

October 11-12

Being old and grumpy, I recently have taken to making note of how great the sailing weather is just days before or after whatever regatta I just attended.   Then I am reminded of the Nationals at Lake Norman two years ago, then the question was not if it was going to be hot and humid and no air, but how hot and how little air.  Instead we got four days of beautiful weather, highs in the mid 80's and 8 - 12 knots of air, every day.

So, Ohio in October it is going to be freezing cold, rainy and either zero wind or gusts to 30 knots.  Or.....beautiful blue skies, highs in the low 60's by Sunday afternoon and wind 4-10 knots Saturday AND Sunday morning.   And to that four boats up from North Carolina, one down from New York and four out of town Ohio boats, this is great!

And it really was.  True a couple local boats had to scatch at the last moment.  Mike and Jon Chambers had their plans adjusted to meet family demands, but still squeezed in time to bring down a hot lunch for us all Saturday.  Stewart FitzGibbon got an infection in his knee so severe he could barely walk, never the less down he came to the club and helped register boats and help in the kitchen the rest of the weekend. 

On the race course things had a familiar look.  In race one Bryan and Tiffany Parker, our current National Champions, sailed away to a 200 yard win on a course that was barely 150 yards long.  Class President Chris Hennon with a new aluminum board in #483 liked the effect and sailed to a solid fourth.  Then in race two P.J. Blonski in his #1126 with guest helm Ian Moran driving put up their first win.  Ian sailed in his Halloween costume, he was dressed as a fifteen year old Ted Turner.  The costume wasn’t that great but his sailing gave him away.  Nate Ireland sailing with Ben Stock in Ben’s #698 put up one of their many 3rd’s , Charlie Bark and Megan who are starting to like this pond sailing stuff rolled across in fourth, with Class newcomer Lennie Wells with Ann Roessner crewing looking good in fifth. 

The wind was north going east which put the course somewhat across the lake, which in turn placed the weather mark 100 ft. or so off shore.  Were there some shifts and soft spots around the mark?  With random screams of something like...”what the f&%$#....” some seemed to think so. 

By the end of the day this was pretty much the pattern, along with Tom Grace and Paula puting up a seventh while sailing the Class boat #1159, ( this in effect put Tom in costume also as my eyes never did adjust to him in a new boat).  The main issue was that somehow Ian aka Ted Turner was taking his costume a little too seriously and ended the day tied for first with Bryan and Tiffany.

The conditions really were delightful so we lined up for the crew race, a tradition at the Halloween Classic, always fun and maybe the most interesting race of the day.  To begin with that put Karen Hugon back at the helm of #884, her old Jet,  and it put Rebecca(like Cher she goes by just her first name) at the helm of Bridget’s #1147, notable here because Rebecca had never before been in a sailboat let alone at the helm in a race prior to noon that day.  To say there were frequent lead changes would be like observing that there are quite a few Chinaman.  At the finish Karen Hugon showed she still had a great touch on the tiller with a win, followed by her old crew Ann Ressener, B.J. and Megan McItyre in fourth, great sailing.

Sunday morning was so still the lake had developed something that looked like a slightly green skin.  Nothing even moved.  Once again my step daughter Emma pulled her self out of bed before sun up to drive over and help me cook the He man, Thank you Emma.  And then, everyone launch and drifted out onto the lake.  No kidding the first boat to leave the dock was just 100 feet ahead of the last boat to head out 30 minutes later.  It was pretty and as a rule you don’t want to move too fast after the He man so no one seemed to mind.  We just sat there.  Even the committee just watched from the porch.   Then the wind filled in and we sailed two more good races.  Oh and Thursday before and Monday after were crummy, so there. 

We packed up, cooked hamburgs and wienies on the grill and headed home.  Smiles all around.  So we will try this again next year for real.  We will host the National Championships here the end of July or first of August, stay tuned for the exact dates, and see if we can’t have just a much fun then.  If we do you will want to be there.

Hope to see you all then, Marion Zaugg

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Results Posted 10/14/2014

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