Tuesday, July 25, 2006

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Monday, July 24, 2006

2006 Fireweed Regatta - July 29, 2006

Ahoy everyone. I wanted to send out some more information on this weekend's regatta. As a reminder, and winds willing, we will start the "Pirate Race" at 1200 sharp. Skippers meeting at 1130. Dinner is going to be one fantastic pot luck. Grill your own kabobs, wings catered by Steve & Sue, & even some wine for tasting. Bring your favorite dish to share.


Pirate Race

The first race is a scavenger race of sorts. Each Skipper will be provided a rare, and authentic (at least as authentic as pirates on Big Lake), pirate map identifying the location of 3 or 4 marks. The first one to get to all the marks, complete their map and make it back to the dock wins.

Each mark will contain a clue to help you complete your map. Once a boat fetches a mark (obtains the clue), it has to deploy and trail a visible buoy 50 ft behind their boat before proceeding to the next mark (this is where the 1-2 liter bottle painted a nice bright color comes in handy). This is also where the cunning and sculldugery comes into play. Your float is fair game for another boat to capture. Once captured you must provide the clue to the scurvy slime that wants to prosper from all your hard work! It also gives th slower more maneuverable boats a chance to out smart some of the slicker faster craft, aaarrrgg. Again, first one to complete their map and return (safely, cause thar by pirates in them waters...) to the dock wins.


Relay Race

The second race will be a relay race. Each team will have three boats (maybe more, or less, depending on the number of folks that make it). A course will be established and boats positioned at points across the lake. Each boat will run their leg and hand off a baton to the next boat before they can start their leg. The first team across the finish line wins. Just to keep things fair, I thought we would draw teams from a hat Saturday morning (no stacking the deck Chris, Tim & Tom).


Sharks and Minnows

The final race is like the famous pool game "sharks and minnows ". We will have a dual between the two previous race winners (I'm still mulling over the dual ideas, but it will be good!). The winner, or I perhaps the loser, will be the shark. All the other boats will be positioned on the same side of one of the two starting lines. When the gun goes off, the other boats (minnows) must reach the other starting line without getting hit by the shark, or one of its captives. By hit I am referring to water balloons, and yes you must hit the skipper, not just the boat. The winner is the last minnow to cross the line with out getting hit.

I could use some help picking up some biodegradable water balloons and filling them up Saturday before the race. If you have a spare pail you may want to bring it to hold your stash of water balloons.

Fingers crossed, we might have a nice sunny weekend to pull this off. Please don't hesitate to drop me a note with any questions. See yah Saturday!

Posted for Jay by Paul

Earlier Post:

The regatta will consist of three events(races). The scavenger hunt (aka the pirate race, arrrgg!), a relay race, and a sailing interpretation of "sharks and minnows".

For two of the races each boat will need a float (a brightly colored 1or 2 liter bottle) and 50 feet of light line (surveyors cord worked great). For the relay race we will need teams of 3 boats; one big boat and two smaller boats. We can form teams that morning, or start sending some email notes around. It is highly recommended that you bring some sort of squirt gun to defend yourself, things can get pretty wet on the race course! And, did I mention the pirate attire...(always fun but never required).

Charts (for the pirate race, arrrrrgg) and additional race information will be provided the morning of the race. Weather permitting I would like to kick off the first race at 1200. That means that all the scurvy swabs participating in the scavenger hunt race need to be available for the skippers eating at 1130 sharp, or be walking the plank!

We had a lot of fun with this race series last year and hope to have an even better time this year. I look forward to seeing everyone.

Friday, July 07, 2006

Anchorage Daily News - Firecracker Regatta Coverage

SAILING

Brudzinski, Gould win

Published in the Anchorage Daily News (this link may work): July 6, 2006 Last Modified: July 6, 2006 at 03:26 AM

Chugiak's Jay Brudzinski and Anchorage's Tim Gould claimed overall sailing titles over the holiday weekend at the Firecracker Regatta at Big Lake.

Brudzinski won the large boat division and Gould was first among small boats over a span of four races in three days.

Firecracker Regatta

Small Boat Category

1) Tim Gould, Anchorage, 4.25 points; 2) Dave Johnson, Anchorage, 12; 3) Paul Willing, Anchorage, 20.

Large Boat Category

1) Jay Brudzinski, Chugiak, .75 points; 2) Chris Remik, Palmer, 2; 3) Jeromy Reed, Anchorage, 3 points

Monday, July 03, 2006

Tim Gould Wins the 2006 Firecracker Regatta!

Once again Tim showed us how to get a Skipjack quickly around the race course, light wind, no wind, shifting winds; it doesn’t seem to matter. Way to go Tim!

And the crowd goes wild!

Race notes from the score sheets:

Race 1
Very light winds at the starting line and on each leg. Fluky and shifting winds caused each leg to be a beat to windward. New member Bruce showed up and sailed his beautiful International 505. Tim wins by over 3 minutes.

Race 2
After the delicious potluck dinner a slight breeze appears on the lake. The collective decision among the racing skippers is to race! The breeze remained steady throughout the race. The fleet found the windward mark missing and used Barston Island instead. Bruce edges out a win with a 1.07 minute corrected time margin.

Race 3
The breeze seems to be holding. After convincing the race committee chairman we should race again very soon, we do. But by start time it's already diminished and continues to decrease during the race. The last two legs are drifters. Tim wins handily by over 6 minutes on corrected time.

The fleet takes a break

Race 4
We waited all day for wind. Finally at about 8:00 pm there was enough to try a race. We changed start lines on the fly while on the water waiting to start. Tim finishes in first with just under 3 minutes of corrected time margin.

The big boats joined in for this one and made a good showing for the light wins. Jay led the way to the finish and captured the prize for big boats in this regatta.

Firecracker Results:

Tim Gould - First Place
Dave Johnson - Second Place
Paul Willing - Third Place

Big Boats
Jay Brudzinski – First Place
Chris Remick – Second Place
Jeromy Reed – Third Place

Detailed time results available here. Race action photos pending. The potluck dinner was simply incredible. There was record attendance at this one folks. Special thanks to all the great assistance from the race committee chairman Tim Gould and race officials Jody Willing, Hannah Gould, Tom Gould and Roberta Avila

Sailors take a break

Photo credits: Geoff W.

As The Windmill Turns...

6/30/06















Ah, a week at ASC – it just doesn’t get any better than this – with disc golf onsite, squirt gun battles, snorkeling for treasure in the harbor, King of the Launch Pod, 9 holes at Settlers Bay, sailing in some excellent winds on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday and just plain kicking back. We're looking forward to celebrating the Fourth here and the Firecracker Regatta.


Nosing around the sailing club…
















We came across this amazing ASC poster from 1967 that someone dropped off at the club house. How cool is that? Where were you in 1967? Club Historians, what do we know about Chef Leo Gagne and this event? What kind of draft beer did they serve? The menu sounds delicious and the price is a bargain worthy of FoodNetwork.





































Yes, it’s another beautiful Big Lake sunset.