Big Inland 2000/Day Ten/Tuesday/August 22, 2000

I am beginning to understand…..A-boats completed two races Tuesday with one more to go for six completed. John Porter’s boat (I-49) leads; Evans (M-100) next, then Buddy Melges (I-1), Tom Burton (M-1) and Bill Mattison/Lon Schoor (H-714). In watching these races one recognizes that the A is simply not just a bigger version of an E-scow, or a grand-edition of an M16. Nor is the C-scow just a bigger package of an MC. Each design, each fleet, each group of guys and gals has their own sense of things. What is the same is the premium on racing skills required to win. These are all tough fleets in which to compete –whether against a lot of boats or a few. So you gotta be prepared, you gotta cover, you can’t sail to the corners and expect to do well consistently (although you will have your moments), you need great crew, and you need to treat everyone right. (Compared to watching some keelboat classes fight it out, the scow classes are much less contentious about the rules and giving the other boat the space they deserve.) (I’ll take scow racing any day…..although the winter months are a bit slow. Those who travel south to race are brave souls, with year-round tans….for they race not only with the fishes, but some gators and snakes. Thanks, but spiders are about as far as I go.) The A’s are majestic; really, really fast; and their crews are teams which make it all go together. They certainly seem to enjoy it all and each other.

Race Four, Tuesday morning was a W 4 ½ with that southerly kind of wind – spotty, patchy, shifting, but there. Starting in Williams Bay, the top mark was just south of the middle of the lake in front of the club (as one moved toward shore, the wind was higher up, and, much-less-to-calm down at lake level). At the first turn it was the Buddy Melges boat with a handsome lead worked-out mostly to the west (right) side of the course. On the rounding their wind was somewhat less, but the kite did fill once they got some speed. Todd Haines (V-115) came second and set his yellow sail sooner, then Bill Burns (V-25) sooner still, Tom Burton and John Porter. Burton and Porter took the early port gybe with Porter heating-it-up quicker and more aggressively (than anyone the entire regatta) to go inside the course on Buddy, Haines, and Burns reaching-out toward Cedar Point (east). Buddy gybed back and aimed her deep. Haines took it further, coming back with more air and speed to take the west gate ahead, then I-1 west, and Burns (V-25) east simultaneously. I-49 went west and V-57 (Brian Henke) went east. If it wasn’t before, it was now evident that the west gate held more promise. Haines continue their lead at top-mark-2, followed by Porter, Melges, Burton and now Evans (M-100). Approaching the offset, Buddy nosed it inside of Porter with a drifting gybe, but Porter climbed-back inside (to windward) and hot after the turn. Similar kinds of matches splattered the course to enchant the spectators - and define what A-boat racing is very much about. By the third windward-turn it was Buddy working wonderfully ahead and staying there to the finish – where Porter then Burton each trailed no less than a boat length behind.

After lunch, the A-fleet was back out – this time west to the M16/MC course with somewhat longer legs - for a 2pm start which found two recalls, then the black flag to keep ‘em back. Again a W 4 ½, winds more southwest, with puffs to 15mph, but mostly 8-12mph. Geneva’s John Porter lead it at the first go-around, then Evans, Harry and Bob Allen (M-55), Burton, and David Bohl (V-969). Regatta leader Melges came eighth. Up the next windward, with Porter still ahead – and destined to finish there with Evans second, Burton third – fate visited the Melges "Kanza", dropping her top mast with a break just above the lower spreaders. On the tow-in to ready a repair for Wednesday’s race, the fleet raced and planed-by (with some of the best rides of the regatta) somewhat dismayed at the sight, but respectful of the circumstance. By 6pm the Melges boat was up with a replacement mast; the crew resting or getting ready for a grand dinner. Rain continued to fall lightly. Some fog appearing. Hope to clear by race time tomorrow.

…..M. Kurzawa