A Good Regatta in Sandusky

My favorite skipper has been telling me for –– oh –– decades about Cedar Point. Located on the western end of Lake Erie near the town of Sandusky, this amusement park is the Roller Coaster Capital of the World (and home of the Demon Drop).  It's also a nice spot for a sailing championship.

He gleefully talks about going to Sandusky for a Hobie Nationals many moons ago (How many moons? Picture acid-washed bluejeans and possibly a Members Only jacket) and when it got really windy at that regatta, he and his crew just betook themselves off the beach and into the amusement park. Where they have the world-famous Demon Drop.

So when we got to the Sandusky Sailing Club, I was not surprised to see the amusement park on the horizon. Our Air BnB sold itself partly on its proximity to the park. 

But frankly, I didn't credit Mr. Linton's suggestion that if it was too windy for our Flying Scot, we'd just park the boat and go ride the rollercoasters. Not to mention the Demon Drop!

​Seriously, we'd been driving for three solid days of rain, listened to five books on CD, and by gum we were in town to sail.

Sailboat racing, for those who don't know, is a sport that seems to skate along a narrow bit of path, weatherwise: too little wind and the boats won't move. Too much and it's actively hazardous. And the various sailing craft have differing performance ranges. Race an Etchells in 20 knots, and it's a lively ride, while on the same day, a Flying Scot  will be a squirrelly handful, at least in my experience.

We skipped the practice day, as the conditions were "fresh to frightening," our sails were fresh-from-the-box spanking new, and we were pretty practiced up thanks to our comrades in the Florida District. High winds actually closed rides at Cedar Point; we betook ourselves to the Merry-Go-Round Museum. 

The museum was fun, but time will march. Or possibly time will drop like a demon.

In any case, the Flying Scot North American Championship qualifying series started on a Monday in some freshy-freshy breeze. The race committee reminded us that it was an hour or so sail out to the racecourse.
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Upwind.

​In the hard waves native to the really Great Lakes we have known.

Photo credit Diane Kampf.

Thanks to some Flying Scot hero friends (Hi Ben! Hi Deb! Congratulate Deb on her book Alexandra the Great. Better yet, buy a copy of it), we sailed the qualifying races with a borrowed older jib.

First time ever we chose to go downwind in a race WITHOUT putting up our spinnaker. Bill Draheim would have been proud! (Long story, college chums, first Scot regatta, Tampa Bay in super-agitate cycle, and Jeff remarking about eschewing a kite: "Are you smoking crack?")

Happily, most of the fleet stayed upright and the race committee took pity on –– I mean sent us to shore after two races.

Photo credit Gayle Kaufholz.

The weather is often the star of the show at these sailing events: Lawsy day, but the wind was swirly! Oooh, the waves were square and capricious! My word, but those zephyrs were nigh-on invisible! ​Green water –– just pouring over the bow!

Hark! The Demon Drop awaits! Photo credit Gayle Kaufholz.

The 2017 Flying Scot NACs were no different: the aprés sail talk was about finding/reading/surviving the wind. And not a little bit of smack-talk between teams: the heavier teams rooting for more breeze, us lightweights hoping for a little less. In Sandusky, the wind progressively grew less strong on Tuesday and Wednesday.

The race committee gave us two races in the more open Sandusky Bay Tuesday, and then two in the more protected East Bay on Wednesday.  

Due to the placement of a wind turbine at the windward end of the East Bay, I ended up calling the wind by whirligig on Wednesday.

That is, I kept an eye on the windmill at the top end of the racecourse. When I saw the blades speed up, I'd tell Jeff that we might expect a puff.

​Depending on which way the whirligig pointed –– the propellors rotate on a pivot –– I could tell Jeff whether I expected a shift in the breeze from left to right or vice versa. 

It was super cool, though by the end of the day, I was perfectly ready for someone to hit the button to stop the whirligig from oscillating. Even though we were in the lead. Even though having a big hint should have made the job easier to figure out downwind tactics. Even still.

On Thursday, another front came tearing in from Canada, bringing an early end to the racing.

Team Linton had a most excellent regatta. We prevailed over a field of tough competitors who also happen to be lovely people. We got to visit with old friends. We spent time talking with new friends. We made plans of when we might get back together.

Not to sound, you know, disingenuous and all, but we had plenty of good luck, and we didn't make too many dreadful mistakes. Indeed, we did make mistakes, and discouraging words were heard from time to time, but Mr. Linton is a Never-Say-Die kind of guy. 

Trophy presentation photos thanks to Jennifer Ikeda.

We left Sandusky happy.

We left Sandusky heavily laden with loot. 

We left Sandusky a day early, because when given a choice between the Demon Drop or an extra day at The Would-Be Farm, the farm won.

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PS. Turns out the the Demon Drop, an "Interim Freefall" ride (be still my heart!), one of the first of its particular kind of thrill-ride, was relocated from Cedar Point to Dorney Farms in 2010...we couldn't have ridden it even if we'd wanted to.

Photo credit Gayle Kaufholz.