Date: December 7-9, 2007
Location: Eight Points Lake in central Michigan. Map
Moved to Wamplers Lake in southern Michigan on December 8.
Ice Opti North American Regatta Wrap Up
By Daniel Hearn
"These kids are SO fun," exclaimed Sheridan Friday night WAY after her bedtime. "Yeah, and we should do this EVERY week," replied Frankie even further from his pre-teen bed time. Well, that pretty much sums up the event better than anything else I might say. And why not? All the kids simply had a ball.
I previously reported on the snowy, but very enjoyable "hot laps" session we had with the kids when the wind came up Friday afternoon, our practice day on Eight Points Lake, outside of Clare, Michigan. That evening, however, after our pizza party and chalk talk, we decided to head 3 hrs. south the next morning to Jackson, Michigan to take advantage of great ice located by John Harper and his clan of ice checkers. Turned out to be a great move as the ice was everything it was reported to be and we had a light breeze that would be "friendly" to our first-time ice racers. By late morning we were set up and ready to go, so we started the races immediately fearing that our wind would become too "friendly" even to our most tentative participants.
Once we started racing the kids couldn't seem to get enough. With each "ready on the right/left" warning from the PRO the kids would enthusiastically shout, "YES," and off they'd go with the drop of the flag. They all did quite well on the upwind legs, consistent with the tacking they do with their summer sailing, but on the downwind legs, their "point it at the mark" instincts seemed to take over, in spite of our discussions of the night before about the need to "tack" an iceboat downwind to maintain speed. (I thought driving back home after the regatta that for future practice races it might make sense to set layline marks also, at least until the kids get a better feel for what they need to do to always keep their boats moving fast).
By the end of the day, we had completed 7 races with many lead changes and a variety of top finishes by many different sailors. With nasty freezing rain starting early Sunday morning, we decided to call it a regatta and present the awards to: the top five finishers, the top female finisher (the Jane Pegel perpetual trophy) and the Quantum Awards (to sailors who made "quantum leaps" in their ice sailing learning, but did not yet finish in the hardware). Congratulations go out to all the kids for their enthusiasm, sportsmanship and positive attitudes. They made all of their parents and friends very proud.
We'll look forward to seeing many more kids next year.
From the Detroit Free Press
Sunday, December 9, 2007
Via Geoff Sobering: "With the storm coming in from the south-east, racing was canceled for the day, and the awards for the first ever Ice-Opti NAs were given out this morning. Congratulations to everyone who participated!"
Saturday, December 8, 2007: Day Two
Here's a link to a photo gallery from Geoff Sobering detailing Saturday's activities.
Flash Version
Non-Flash Version for slower connections
Friday, December 7, 2007: Day One
Via Daniel Hearn: Day one of the historic, first Ice Optimist North American Championships
is now one for the record books.
You'd think the kids have known each
other for years. What a time they are having! We were greeted in the
morning by 2-3 inches of powdery snow from the night before, but
headed out to the landing with great anticipation.
The morning
session was quite tame, as the winds were pretty light, making rather
challenging for the kids to get through the snow. Funny, but the kids
hardly seem to care. They learned how to put their boats together,
push them properly, see wind direction on their their telltales and
lots of other valuable stuff that would prove to be very useful later
in the day.
We decided to break for lunch to see if the wind would
come up. By afternoon we had a good stiff breeze and the kids were
tearing around to chorus of yippee's! The on board GPS trackers were
recording speeds in the mid 20's.
We saw some nice hikes and numerous
hot laps from all the young skippers. The evening included a fun
"chalk talk" and pizza party and the presentation of commemorative
hats for every Junior complete with their name and sail number.
To
get better ice, we're moving in the morning to Wampler Lake near
Jackson, MI. Now we just have to yank the kids away from all their
fun and try to get them into bed. More tomorrow.