Flathead Lake

How about some sailing at a place called Flathead Lake Montana? Some of our members may be able to comment on this posting.

Catamaran Race Video

Catamaran F18 Race Video. Trois-Rivières, quebec canada. June 2006. Here's the clip of the race without the crashes. See next clip below for all that.

Catamaran Pitchpole Video

Catamaran F18 Race Pitchpole Video, Trois-Rivieres, Queec, Canada. June 2006. Don't let this scare you - They're having a blast!

Laser Sailing and more!

Who says Lasers are a young person’s boat? Well me for one, at least until I happened upon Tillerman’s Proper Course Blog. Note - Troy is not permitted to view this blog, he might learn too many Laser tips!

This blog’s tagline is Cheat the nursing home. Die on your LASER. Tillerman is a 60 year young Laser sailor hosting an extensive blog filled with links to many other sailing blogs. You’ll find tons of good stuff there – there’s even a video link to teach you to Talk Like a Pirate . I haven’t yet fully explored this blog and there’s plenty to see. There’s also a link back to our blog in this More Sailing Blogs posting.

As you explore this posting’s link, pay attention to the posting contents and comments - it may give you some ideas for our blog. If you’re shy about your first blog posting, go to some of Tillerman’s links and check it out. If you like sailing photography check out his recommendation Sailscape. There you'll find a photo of one type of Escape sailboat - plastic, indestructible and fun.

Sailing, Sailing and Flying (across the water)

My notes. - PW

Sail Fast
This one’s like a sailing highlights reel. Worth a watch.
Highlights of some of the regattas this past racing season.

Supermaxi Maximus Breaking Mast
Those darn plastic parts!
Maximus, the New Zealand 98ft Carbon racer in the Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup 05. One of the worlds most advanced racing yachts capable of 35+ kts looses her mast metres from the finishing line.

Trimarans - Lunatic Sailing
Those crazy French sailors! This one is great. If you have to wear ski goggles, you know you’re sailing fast.
Intense sailing.

This is yacht racing
Who says sailors aren’t athletes? More high speed action.

Windrider RAVE Hydrofoil Fast Sailing

Man these things are FAST!

Hydrofoiling

Windrider RAVE links:
http://www.sailnet.com/collections/articles/index.cfm?articleid=ddcksn137
http://www.windrider.com/index.shtml
http://qmarch.com/wr_rave.htm

Annual Meeting

The Alaska Sailing Club's annual meeting at the Snow Goose was a great success. After dining on some delicious fare selected from the Snow Goose menu (the Halibut Soft Tacos were fantastic) we held a very productive meeting, elected new board officers and selected committee chairs. It sure beat standing around the club after a work party!

There were lots of great ideas. These short term and long term projects were slated for evaluation by the committees for scope, proposed budget and recommended priority. Once that’s done the final decisions for the 2007 budget can be made.

Many members were recognized for their significant contributions throughout the year and certificates were awarded to the Summer Race Series skippers.

2007 Board of Directors:

Commodore - Tim Gould
Vice Commodore - Jody Willing
Secretary - Elayne Hunter
Harbormaster - Tom Gould
Treasurer - T.L. Stanbro
Past Commodore - Dave Johnson


2007 Committee Chairs

Racing - Troy Aumann
Safety - Vincent Browne
Fundraising - Dave Johnson
Public Relations - Cheryl Hilmes
Site - Jody Willing
Education - Geoff Wright
Events - Roberta Avila
Membership - Elayne Hunter
Facility - Tom Gould
Clubhouse - Jim Aumann

The membership also voted to implement an ‘Adopt a Boat” program, on a trial basis, for the 2007 season. Two of the small club boats will be adopted and given loving care by their “parents” during 2007. In return, they’ll be given first option to sail those boats on race weekends.

2006 Summer Race Series winner Dave Johnson was awarded the inaugural “Dave Johnson Cup”. This traveling trophy will be engraved with the season’s winner each year just like our storied Governor’s Cup. Congratulations Dave!




A club petition was circulated at the meeting mandating a special award for Tim Gould. This cool racing accessory is designed to be dragged along the lake bottom and is required equipment on Tim’s Skipjack for the 2007 season.

More Sailing Video Clips

Here's some mono hull action.

1977 Laser Worlds
You may need a translator, but the race footage with the agile Laser sailors tacking and rounding marks is classic. You may notice some familiar America’s Cup sailors in the winner postings.

Trebos Laser
Again you may need a translator, but lots of great Laser footage.

ONDECK Sailing
Big monohulls racing.

VOLVO Ocean Race Cape Town
Big boats, big wind.

Big Catamaran, Speed Sailing (Stars & Stripes)
Big Cat going fast.

Uncontrollable Urge- 2006 Coastal Cup Race
Did I see 15 kts on the knotmeter?

505 sailing crash
Bruce - I guess 505s crash pretty good too. The crew gets knocked over by a bow wave and trouble follows.

Learn the Racing Rules Trailer
This video looks worthy. It's available at SeaTV Productions.

Work Party, this Saturday, Sept 16th, 10 to 4, eat when done

We are on this Saturday for our party to put the sailing part of the club to bed for another year, and a great year it was! Our community has grown and our place looks great and its all due to our efforts, though most times its doesn't seem like an effort, rather its just fun to be at the lake.

This gathering should be much less intense than our spring parties cause there are no major projects that need to be done. This is a time of general clean up and getting everything ready so the club can transition to winter time use.

Yes, the club does see a lot of activity throughout the winter, and all club members are welcome to continue enjoying the lake even though the boats are out of the water. A cool crisp sunny October afternoon is quite enjoyable traveling the shore line in a canoe. Hearing the ice build in early December, with all the various sounds is interesting. Warming inside the club house after skiing around the lake in February brings smiles and good feelings to everyone.

Driving the ice road on the lake (with the doors open) to the club in April, seeing some water on the lake and wondering if its time to start driving on the real road is always exciting. Yes, the club is available to everyone year round. Enjoy!

Posted by Paul for Commodore Dave

Hobie 16 Day at Big Lake? On Some Days It Is!

For those with a broadband connection, check out this onboard H-16 video mixed with a little AC DC music. I wonder if he had a waterproof camcorder case?

Enjoy.


More Sailing Video Clips

Hobie Cat Crash
If you liked the first one (even just a little) you’ll really enjoy this one. The camera work is much better. Here a H-16 is reaching downwind at high speed. Notice what happens when the leeward bow submerges for the second time.

Hobie Cat 16 SPI
This one has some excellent music and professional quality chase boat camera work, although the resolution is a little grainy.

Sailing in the Surf
Who needs a surfboard?

Catamaran - inför OS Aten 2004
No drifters here! Must be professionals with all those logos.

Philippine Hobie Challenge
Now here’s a vacation idea!

After viewing this video I just had to learn more about the PHC. The Philippine Hobie Challenge web site is very comprehensive, with race history, detailed accounts and loads of photos. Exploring their site is definitely worth the time.

This annual race is quite the event. 2007 will be their eighth year. While checking out a related link I found that two Alaskans participated in PHC 6 in 2005. You’ll find a reference to them in this BeachCats link. I may try to contact them to learn more about their experience there. Who knows maybe they'd like to join our club?

Rigging a Hobie Cat
Although this one is not done very well, it gave me the idea for use of YouTube to post similar videos for club use. We could produce video clips on rigging Lasers, Skipjacks, RL, etc. and post on YouTube. Then, it’s a simple matter to post links on the blog for club members to view easily. Keep an eye out for a coming video of this year’s 3rd Governor’s Cup Race.

For other videos, go to YouTube. Enter “laser sailing” or “hobie cat sailing” in the search box (sorry Skipjack skippers – no hits for “skipjack sailing”). You’ll get the idea.

http://www.youtube.com/

2006 Governor's Cup Results Available

Check out the 2006 issue of The Sheet for the details of our Labor Day classic and much, much more!

Tim and Ethan Gould Win 2006 Governor’s Cup!

Anchorage Daily News story

Tim and Ethan Gould of Anchorage won the Alaska Sailing Club's 40th Governor's Cup Regatta on Big Lake over the weekend for their second victory in the last three regattas.

The Goulds, who captured the small boat class, also won in 2004. Tim Gould won in 2002 and teamed with Tom Gould to win in 2001.
Cheryl Hilmes of Anchorage won the large boat class.

Small Boat Class –
1) Tim and Ethan Gould, Anchorage, 2.25 points
2) Dave Johnson and Elayne Hunter, Anchorage, 9 points
3) tie, Paul and Taylor Willing, Anchorage, 14 points; Jim Aumann, Anchorage, 14 points

Large Boat Class –
1) Cheryl Hilmes, Anchorage
2) tie, TL Stanbro, Anchorage, and Chris Remick, Palmer.

Detailed fleet results coming soon in The Sheet.

2006 Governor's Cup is Here!

Yes folks, it's time to compete again for the storied Governors Cup!
This regatta is our season-capping event and the club's longest running race. If I only had possession of the cup I could tell you for sure the year of the first race (perhaps Paul can share that with us) [Why yes, I can. Follow this link to a Governor’s Cup history. PDW]

I believe the ASC Governors Cup Regatta is the longest running annual competition in Alaska. Heck, I hear Ben Robar was only 18 years old when he first won it, so that gives you an idea of how long this race has been around. Anyway, that is my story and I'm sticking to it. For those of you that haven't seen it, the Governors Cup is really quite a cool trophy. They don't make them like this one any more! I hope you can make it out to the lake and join in the fun. I'm quite pleased with the participation we have had in the racing this year and I hope we can just keep building it up. There are a few kids out there that I think are ready to grab hold of the helm and join in too.

OK - some details. We will shoot for starting the first race promptly at 1:00 pm on Saturday September 2nd. Please make sure that you have your boat ready to go in time to join the first race. If you simply can't make it, please still come on out and join in the races later in the day. As with our other regattas this series will consist of approximately 3 to 7 races depending on wind conditions. At a minimum we will stage races on Saturday the 2nd and Sunday the 3rd of September.
Racers earn points for each race, so it pays off to race them all. As last year's champion (Paul Willing) can tell you, the more races you win the better. The way the scoring works you get to throw out your worst race, so you can still be competitive even if you miss a race.

Lastly, we will have trophies for the big boat and the small boat classes so we are ready for all comers.

As I'm sure you have seen there via email there will be a fish fry happening on Saturday. I think the Events Committee has a theme for a Sunday potluck as well (stay tuned for more information). We will also have live music on Saturday night. The Commodore splurged and arranged to have the Junior James Band come out to entertain us starting around 6:30 or 7:00.

I hope your plans include joining us this holiday weekend. It's guaranteed to be almost more fun than should be allowed. See you there.

Posted by Paul for VC Tim G.

2006 Governor's Cup Regatta

Labor Day Weekend is just days away. It's time once again for our annual Governor's Cup Regatta. Details and cup history are available at this link.

2005 Race season results, including Governor's Cup, posted on our web site.

Big Lake Weather Link Now Available

What's the weather like at Big Lake right now? Is it raining? Is there any wind? What about tommorow's weather? The answer to these and other weather questions is now a mouse click away, both here in the Links area and on our web site's new Weather page.

Upcoming Alaska Sailing Club Events

Advanced Sailing Class

WHERE: 1st Floor at the Snow Goose Restaurant

WHEN: Thursday, August 31st, start to mingle at 6:30 PM, start talking at 7:00 PM and will end at 9:00 PM (unless we want to stay later)

WORLD CLASS INSTRUCTORS: Tim Gould teaching tactics, Dave Johnson and others teaching sail adjustments.

With the Governor's Cup fast approaching, it's a good time to have an advanced sailing class covering all the sail adjustments available on a boat, such as the main and jib sheets, the downhaul and outhaul, the traveler and the boom vang. Also, we will talk about tell tail movement and what it really indicates. Finally, some basic sail racing tactics will be revealed, such as where on the starting one should be, understanding the Big Lake wind, some right of way rules and how to cover the competition.

This is the first time for such a gathering and hopefully it will be a success. The Snow Goose said they would be happy to have us, and if this works out we can do it again some time during the winter.

Dinner and drinks can be purchased by hungry and thirsty sailors.

We hope to see bunches of sailors and racers there, it would be lonely if Tim and I were the only ones who showed up, but as long as there is food and drink, we will survive.


Governor's Cup Regatta
Labor Day Weekend
Details to follow.


Fall Work Party
Sept 9th or 16th. Date to be determined.


Alaska Sailing Club Annual Meeting
Snow Goose Restaurant and Pub
Saturday, Sept 23rd, starting at 5 PM.

Posted by Paul for Commodore Dave

2006 Fireweed Regatta Race Results

July 29, 2006

Pirate Race

First Place: Paul and Taylor Willing - Hobie 16
Second Place: Paul Button and Corinne Smith - Skipjack
Third Place: Tom Gould, Roberta Avila and Jody Willing - RL 24

Relay Race

First Place: Team Midnight Sun Team - Geoff Wright, Jay Brudzinski and Jeromy Reed
Second Place: Team Moat Monster - Paul Willing, TL Stambro and Vince Browne
Third Place: Team RL - Bruce LaLonde, Tim Gould, Tom Gould, Roberta Avila and Jody Willing
Fourth Place: Team Remick with Chris Remick, Corinne Smith

Note – these race results are fairly accurate, but apparently we had some problems reading the race results from the Pirate Race (seems they got wet and the ink ran). Troy was second into the harbor in the Laser but failed to produce the clue or the map, just a mass of wet paper.

We know many of the boats had additional crew (it's the only way that many water balloons could have been launched...). Post comments to notate any corrections. Also, only waterproof cameras were safe on this Saturday, so if you have any photos post them as well.

Arrrg fellow Pirates! It was a great day of racing. We had 11 boats in the Pirate Race and 12 in the Relay Race. Our first crack at a Relay Race turned out to be a blast. Both races really tested our sailing skills and our ability to duck in the nick of time to try and stay dry!

It was a cutthroat day on the high seas of Big Lake. There's a certain appeal to being able to slow down other boats using a barrage of water balloons, illegal racing maneuvers, etc. I'm estimating about 400 water balloons were launched on Saturday and several dozen gallons of water discharged from various squirt gun devices, hoses with pumps (that crafty TL), and yes even buckets. There was even one report of a crewmember knocked overboard from a blast of water. Coming within firing range of a big boat proved to be hazardous for many a pirate crew.

The Willing family had a great time too, though Taylor and I couldn’t believe my loving wife pulled our buoy out of the water and then even stole it. The 720 certainly slowed us down. Apparently, all is fair in pirate races and alliances are very flexible!

The post race / pillage feast was incredible, as usual. Special thanks to the Steve and Sue team for the wings and fries - The Food Wagon rocks! Pirate Chefs Jay and Chris cooked up some tasty custom kabobs. An assortment of fine wine was available for tasting as well.

Special thanks to our evening’s musicians and everyone who worked to bring off another exceptional event. That's why it’s a great sailing club.

The races were fantastic! Congratulations to everyone!!!! We definitely should have more of these kinds of events.

Thanks to Jay, Cheryl and Jody for their contributions to this posting.

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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.

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

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!



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.



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



Photo credits: Geoff W.