September 30, 2000
Port Clinton Yacht Club
Port Clinton, OH
Having not sailed the Snowflurries in a few years, I decided to team up with my good friend Mark Kelley in the Interlake this year. Mark and I have sailed in the Interlake only one other time; a victory at the Cattail Regatta a few years back. He and I came in with the right attitiude and it seemed to help as the conditions got a little crazy.
The first race was held in 8-10 Knots with puffs a little higher. All morning we noticed that the right side seemed to pay in the puffs. We came off the boat end of the line in good shape and slowly worked up to Mike Suiloff's line, forcing him off to the right and opening up a lane for ourselves. As we went back to the right on this beat, we got a nice port tack angle and we were only a few degrees off the mark. Suiloff looked good to the right of us, but lost a crew overboard and lost some positioning. We rounded 1st and led to the leeward mark. Mark and I got into a nice tactical tacking dual with Scott Savage and thought we'd send him to the left. That turned out to be a bad move as he caught a nice lefty and we followed him around the course for a 2nd.
The second race found us toward the boat on the start. Suiloff had another good start to leeward of us, but he couldn't force us into a tack. We hung with the pack toward the left and finally led them to the right. We rounded in the top 3 behind Tom Crowley and Jeff Clark, who both came in reaching from the left (Left seems to be paying, right?). We rounded the leeward mark right behind Tom and took a clearing tack to the left thinking we were going to beat the crowd to the favored side. A big (30 degree) righty came in and we were left rounding the top mark 6th. We fought back and finished 4th, but Savage ground down Crowley for the win. Scott had two victories.
The last race was ours. We sailed incredibly tough and the last beat was particularly played well by 1333. We were able to get around Suiloff and fend off Clark to win the race and the regatta. Savage had a terrible first beat and was unable to recover and finished 7th. The Snowflurries was a great event this year with very good competiton, fabulous weather and a fantastic turnout (18 boats!).
1) Dieball/Kelley 7points
2) Jeff Clark 8points
3) Savage 9points
Next stop......J22 NAs in Dallas. Look for reports here!