Sand Dunes 2011 Report

[Mike Rohrer]

All,

 

You missed  a Great Sand Dune reagatta if you were one of the unfortunate ones to not make it this year.  Besides some drift wood we think came from a Mexico river, the beach was great....no seaweed.  I took my family down on Friday and we played on the beach and had a relaxing evening.  The waves were great for boogie boards and the water was clear and cool.  Also, there were no jelly fish or mosquitoes to speak of.  I saw some tar, but it was not sticky.  The beach conditions were about as good as it gets.  There was a nice breeze, but moderated from what we have had all year thus far.  It was so nice I stayed out on the beach past sunset each night and just loved it.  It was great to be on the beach again since doing the great Texas.  We got 4 races on Sat and 2 on Sunday with never more than a few minutes of sitting.  The race course was not very long and we had a couple of times 5x around.  So it was great mark rounding and transition practice.  We had 4 F18s, 2 H17's, 1 Mysteer, 1 H18.  I saw a H20, but not sure they were racing.  The gumbo (chicken and sausage) Sat night was really good and very enjoyable to sit around the camp eating good food and recounting the days racing.  It was dissappointing that more folks did not show given such a beautiful weekend.  The winds were forecasted to be much higher, but never got above 15mph and that was usually not until after 4:00 PM.  Nicole (my daughter) raced with me and we had a spectacular time despite her being sea sick on Sat due to the 4-5 seas with short period.  The seas also made it a challenge to get off the beach in the morning while the breeze was light.  However, everyone did get out.  I will let Betty send out the scores but there was some tight racing going on.  The sea state made it difficult to find passing lanes so you really had to wait out your opportunities.  Hats off to Betty and Drew and all the volunteers for putting another great race. 

 

Betty and Drew have been doing this race for many years without the support of a fleet...ouch.  I would like to thank them for doing this and giving us a great and interesting venue for beach cat racing.  It's the only remaing off shore bouy race in our division.  We used to have 3-4 each year.  I hope we can find a way for all the fleets to combine and help support this event in the future.  To that end I propose that all fleet commodores communicate about this and put effort towards making this happen.  Also we need to drum up more boats to attend to make the regatta viable.  This is the only event for July and August on the calendar and should not be difficult to attend.  I try to make this a mini vacation for the family because, it is expensive to drive and stay in a condo.  However, camping is very doable.  The venue near the Packery channel makes it easy to get some boats out there.  Rolf Woods did a great job putting motor boats on the course and he is willing to continue to help. 

 

Thanks,

Mike Rohrer