The season is over for the Wisconsin Stern Steerers Association. Here’s the Stern Steerer kid to help give the season a send-off.
Regrettably the Wisconsin Stern Steering Association regatta has been cancelled for this season. Perhaps there will be some early ice in December that might allow us to race for the 2019 season. In the meantime you have all summer to fix those nagging problems, or for some of us, to finish the new boat so it is ready for early ice. Keep your runners sharp!
Andy Gratton
WSSA Secretary/Treasurer
ROSEMARY, skippered by Andy Gratton at the 2019 Northwest Regatta. Photo: Pat Heppert
The Wisconsin Stern Steering Association regatta has been postponed to March 23 and 24, 2019. The next update will be Sunday, March 17. Check back here at that time.
Andy Gratton
The European stern-steerer class, the Monotype XVs, concluded their European championship in Estonia on Thursday. The championship went to Russian sailors Oleg Vasilev and Ruslan Rudenko. Oleg has had a successful 2019 racing season, having placed 13th in the A fleet at the DN European championship in Poland this year.
All boats and equipment are measured before the regatta. Photo: Jaak Nirgi
While North America’s Stern Steerers wait for regatta conditions, focus your attention to across the pond where the Monotype XV European Championship racing begins tomorrow on Lake Vortsjarv in Estonia. The boats arrived today for registration, equipment inspection, practice racing (no wind though) and the opening ceremony. Stern steerer sailors Mike Peters and Erich Schloemer made the trip over for a Monotype XV regatta several years ago and competed in a borrowed boat. Monotype XVs are the most popular one-design Stern Steerer class in Europe. From the Monotype XV website:
The Monotype-XV ice yacht was designed in 1932 by the legendary Erik von Holst of Estonia. It became popular in a very short time, and more than 200 yachts were built in but a few years. The yacht is a strict monotype construction; in broad outline, it looks the same as in the nineteen thirties. The structural elements are nowadays joined by modern methods and the use of epoxy adhesive. The bronze runners have been replaced by runners in stainless steel. The sail is of course made of Dacron or an equivalent material. The Monotype-XV is the largest monotype class in Europe today, and the only yacht for two for which European as well as international championships are arranged.
Data: Sail area 15 m2, length=7.5 m, width 4.2 m and mast height 7.2 m. Minimum weight 205 Kg. Crew 1-2 persons. Read more.
The Wisconsin Stern Steering Association regatta has been postponed to March 16 and 17, 2019. The next update will be Sunday, March 10. Check back here at that time. Still too much snow on the lakes though I heard Lake St. Claire might be good.
