We had slightly stickier, crunchier snow.  And slightly more breeze meaning tuning adjustments were vital to good racing results.

My first race of the day began with an inexplicably bad start.  Must not have been awake yet!  Found my self behind Skip and in an effort to power up, I headed off below him and stalled out in his bad air.  The entire right side of the fleet was not ahead of me!  Once I gained speed, I was able to pick off a couple of boats.  When you only have 2 lap races, its tough to make up for a bad start!  I finish 16th...  hopefully my throwout race (a throwout is one race in a series of 7 that the score isnt counted... sort of like a "Mulligan" in golf).

Good news is now for the next race I will be lined up out on the end near some slower sailors.  This gives you much more control over how you start.  I loosen my forestay a bit to make the mast a bit mroe bendy and line up way out on the left.  I am able to get off to a great start, and soon I am leading the right side group.  Round the first mark in second place right behind Ron Sherry.  Steve Orlebeke would have beat me there, but got caught understood of the mark in a light spot in the breeze.   It is clear that us guys on the left gained a huge advantage on the breeze, and following Ron around the leeward mark we both choose to tack over soon and try to find some more of that pressure.  Steve Orlebeke is able to catch me on the last upwind leg, and John Dennis catches up to me at the end.  I beat him by a nose at the finish line for a 3rd!

The next race I had an Okay start.  But clearly I was not on the side with the better breeze.  Always good practice sailing up from behind, but clearly not as fun as being in front of the pack.  It felt like I was in around 10th place, but the results show a 13th.   Shows just how hard it is to keep track of the pack!

Again for the final race I am out near the end.  This time the right side.  A good start, and I get launched pretty good.  As usual, I am pointing higher than most of the competition and have to make effort to keep my bow down.  As I approach the layline I gained huge leverage over everybody on my side, except for Ron Sherry.  I pass the first mark in second place,  JD and Orlebeke use their superior skills and overtake me.  Then the "Doctor" Mark Christiansen and I are in a dead heat for the finish line.  I have overstood a bit and he is deeper.  I hope for no big puffs that would send him in front of me while I hold on for dear life, and I luck out.  My angle gives me the advantage and I get him by a boat length.  a 4th place is my  second best showing of the week.

My scores for the day read kind of like a Locker combination.  16-3-13-4 .

Ron Sherry wins the regatta, followed by Harper, Orlebeke, JD, and Christiansen

Skip had some better races and was making some headway in figuring out tuning and technique.  Jody who was upbeat after his success from yesterday was today not doing as well and was clearly disappointed.

Following the days racing all scramble to get their equipment packed up (except Skip and I).  The Detroit group has a long trek home and need to get the Sherry kids to school in the morning and get another van-load of Europeans off to the airport. 

Skip and I go to a nice Bar down the street called "Dobo's" and have a few beers and walleye wraps.  I worry that we will have trouble getting back out on the ice after warming up and filling up on a good meal.  No worries.  Skip is upbeat and we head back to the ice.  We switch sails and rig up a camera to do some sail analysis.  Some good breeze still up, and Rob Evans, of Minnetonka is still sailing and joins us for a few laps around the lake.  The sun sets, and the breeze begins to die.  After taking sails down and runners off, we head to the hotel.  A few beers in the hot tub, we still feel kind of full from the walleye wraps.  We are in bed by 7 PM and asleep by 9! 

We will have another day to sail and try some things out.  Hopefully the transmission shop calls with some good news...

Full results of the regatta are available here for a while anyway...  http://www.iceboating.net/

 We hoped for a van from the U-haul, but only the trucks had hitches.  So we load all our gear and cozy up 3 across in the cab of and F-150 truck.  We are relieived to find our trailer is not only where we left it... but the snow removal people actually moved the trailer and plowed around it, then put it back!  In Ohio they would have  just plowed us in. 

Little over an hour drive to Sturgeon Lake. The whole way up we cannot help but notice that there appears to be every bit as much snow as there was where we came from.  The launch site is small, and not much room for vehicles.  Its a bit of a bottle neck, but I get rigged, and have time to do a few practice laps.  On the lake there is about .5-.75 inches of snow cover.  There are some bumps, but not enough to blurr your vision or knock any fillings out of your teeth.  Wind was about 6-9 knots.  A few dead spots, but there were also some hot spots with lots of power and velocity.

Today I went back to using my carbon (sherry) Rocket spar.  Yesterdays scrub racing showed that I was somehow lacking downwind power, but okay upwind.  Ronnie tells me that there is nothing wrong with that spar and Its something that I am doing wrong...  nonetheless, when a change isnt working you go back to the previous set up.  Good call.  I am noticeably faster downwind, and was able to catch several boats in the second race to salvage getting stuck in some light air after the leeward mark rounding (all DN races were only 2 laps instead of the normal 3).   Upwind, I really have to fight that carbon spar when others seem to be pretty relaxed in their boats.  The upside is all that power usually allows me to out-point, and sometimes out speed much of my competition upwind.

There were about 24 boats in the Gold Fleet.  Similar number in Silver, and 6 Opti (junior) sailors.  Sailors from 6 different countries were in attendance.  My Finishes were 8th, 7th, 5th, and the last race was somewhere between a 6th and a 9th.  I was unable to view the results of the last race to be sure.  John "Hoops" Harper had a good day with 2 or three firsts.  Ron Sherry is in second place.  Jody is really happy with some equipment changes that gave him very significant improvements... enough to get him well within the top half of the fleet.  Skip had a 9th place, but then struggled as he was trying to find the right tuning.  He said he finally felt "powered up" in the last race, and is looking forward to seeing how that works for him on Sunday. 

After putting our gear away,  we head into the tavern across the street and have a few refreshing beverages to decompress and discuss the days events.  The bartender gives us some alternative hotel options... the most intriguing of which is a motel behind a quaint bar called "The Squirrel Cage".   Food there is great, and reasonably priced.  The motel on the other hand was not up to par to say the least.  So we head up to the AmericInn where the rest of the group is staying.  Skip is well passed out by 10:00.  We watch some football, and dont really feel a need to join a group of sailors who went to the local "ballet".