The E-fleet is under QUACK ATTACK. Gordy Bowers (M-11) with brother "Captain" (Mark) on jib and Mark Meldahl doing middle came from 10th at the first mark to win Race One of the ILYA Championship. It was after the final gate of the W 3 ½ that the Minnetonka-guys found their opportunity to move ahead. Leading into the gate was Tom Burton (M-9) followed by Jack Strothman (M-10) both of whom led the race after the first run. They turned to go east. Coming-up, Art Larson (I-26) turned west. Gordy followed directly behind. Shortly into the beat Art took a header while M-11 lifted off the same pattern; within 100 yards it was Bowers two boat-lengths to windward. On the tack back to join Burton and Strothman. Bowers and Larson crossed them. Up the lake it was Bowers covering I-26 and M-9, probably more M-9 on the west side of the course. Into the finish it was Larson going fast to Bowers right and Burton coming-in from the left. Probably confused by the still positioned former top-turn mark and offset (which had just been rounded by a lagging woody) while the actual finish line sat to windward with flags flying, Art tacked early for the turn/offset marks, then realized his error and tacked back to line-up for the flagship-end of the real line. Bowers crossed nicely ahead for the gun. Burton and Art came across together on starboard with Burton just ahead for 2nd. Strothman 4th. Chris Jewett (UM-1) 5th. Paul Kobs (UM-44) 6th (but 1st at the first rounding), then Buddy Melges (I-1), Dan Quiram (V-85), Brian Porter (I-49) and Rob Evans (M-1). Friday racing starts at 9:30am. Probably with back-to-backs.

On the MC course Zack Clayton (2015) beat the 65 boat fleet to the gun. With Geneva’s Kevin Neal (1762) second and Cedar Lake’s BJ Best (1930) third, then Eric Hood, Ross Cardozo, Scott Slocum, Noel Neuman, Terry Mestan, Bill Mueller and Andy Burdick (coming back from somewhere in the thirties). The W 2 1/2 was set in Fontana’s west end. With legs up to a mile, there were few passing lanes to move-up with the early leaders. More it was a matter of being in-phase with shifts and patterns. So it wasn’t just going right (east) or left (west) (shore side); one had to take those directions at the opportune time. Wind was truth. And you had to go with it. Predicting where it should go, like all forecasting, became for some a lesson in eating glass. One had to be flexible and open to change, of what was happening now. A little luck, too, is especially helpful to smooth out the rough edges of such advice. Racing begins tomorrow at 9:00am.

Thursday’s racing didn’t get underway until about 4:30pm as fronts moved in and out of the area. A calm lake encourage some to retrieve their boats from the lake while the postponement flags still flew. Looking to find a faster lane to their parking slots, they found the need to re-launch as wind developed and the fleets headed-out to race. The race managers held their ground in the face of this flip-flop and started good races with a reasonable warning of their intentions. (We know of no one left behind.) Volunteer hoist teams handled the extra traffic with speed and good form. More fun to come…..…..M. Kurzawa