i550 Cobweb Regatta

[Chad]

My plans are to go camping for the 4-day weekend (my wife has Friday off, daughter done with school also), about an hour SW of Chicago. Then drive into town Sat and Sun to sail with all youz, while perhaps my wife takes my daughter to the kid's museum and such. She might be up for crewing for me for a day, won't count on more than that though. I need to spend this summer recruiting and training crew, starting from scratch here!

If we end up short, we can round-robin the boats, crewing for each other? I could probably go solo if its not too frisky, but would rather not just yet.

[Kevin]

Well, things on my end have gone from busy to crazy busy. I'm not feeling good about getting my boat together and ready to go by the 25th of May. It could happen, but my gut is saying loudly and clearly that it would be best to not try to force it. I have fixing, sanding, painting and rigging to get knocked out before she is ready to go. Oh, and I have to figure out a way to lock the cabin or find a big locker for motor and other valuable gear. Even if I got it ready, I'd have zero shakedown time and no family crew available that weekend. I have family events galore between now and then too.

So, I net out at no boat for me by 5/25. I could crew for others Saturday until 1ish and all day Sunday. 2 things to remember. Not trucks or trailers on Lake Shore drive, so plan your route accordingly. 2nd, the 26th is bike the drive so Lake Shore Drive is closed to traffic until mid-day.

I would expect to have my act together by early June. July is open. August is open except for 8/17. If you all would consider a later weekend in the season that would work better for me. It would also give Erwan and I some time to build some interest and hopefully build up a pool of interested crew. We may also be able to join a local event in a low key way if we play it right. But I haven't even started to try to figure something like that out.

Sorry to throw a wrench into the plan. Kevin.

[ryderp]

I'm OK with pushing it back a couple of weeks. I still have a bunch of small things to finish up on the boat, and a few parts to order. The only weekends in June that I can't make are the 1st/2nd and the 22nd/23rd

[Chad]

That's fine- I can redirect my long weekend plans more fully toward the family. Probably better points scored that way...

Sooo, if we push back into June, can we congregate at a sailing venue with some camping available (i.e. not Chicago)? Seems easiest/pleasantest to leave the boats set up for a night or two and just retire to the campfire each night, rather than deal with marinas and hotels and commutes? My tastes might be different than the rest's, if so that's fine!

Dates: The 8th-9th is tough for me, all others open. Meshing with Phil's dates, that leaves 15-16th or 29-30th open for all?

[Kevin]

June 29-30th is much better for me than 15-16th.

I'm open to any viable venue that's in the less than a days drive ball park. One issue we had at Mendota was the draft out of the launch area. It's very nice to sail out keel down rather than motor out and then hoist on the water. The i550 is not really a motor friendly boat, especially with the 215lb helm sitting on the transom trying to get the motor to work. I can transit on a Friday, sail Sat and Sun and then transit home late Sunday. If it's close, I would even try to sail Friday afternoon too.

Keeping the boats rigged is a bonus. We could do that at Montrose with mastup on the trailer. We probably could arrange for a slip overnight. It's a hoist launch only. No ramp.

Cheers, and thanks for being open to pushing the date back. My crew with the broken foot might be available by the end of June too.

Kevin.

[Chad]

Well, there's Mississinewa, in sorta north central Indiana. 3.25 hours from Evanston, 4.5 from Cleveland, 7.5 from me. The lake seems pretty skinny, with a couple mile long segments.

A bigger lake is Brookville, home of Brookville Lake Sailing Association who happen to be putting on a pair of races on the 29th...
It's 4.5 hours from Evanston, 4.5 from Cleveland, 7.5 from me.

Will wait to hear Phil's thoughts before going too far with planning, though...

[Tim Ford]

That Brookville Lake looks intriguing. Heck, there's a Hobie 33 in the picture! With all that's already scheduled for me this summer, it looks like a bust for 2013, but I'd really be into a place just like this for an East of the Missipp Regatta in 2014. That's exactly what I had in mind awhile ago that is someplace we could all get to in 8 hours.

Hell, I can do 8 hrs easy.

[Chad]

(Google says it's 9+ hours from Baltimore, but let's not tell Tim that!)

-I saw the H33 too. Having raced against one a few times, our boat's belief was that they should all be sunk immediately.

[ryderp]

Brookville would be fine with me. However, that time of the summer, Put-in-Bay would be fun ( http://www.putinbay.com/ ).

[Chad]

P-I-B looks really neat. At 11 hours, it's a little farther than I'd like to go for just a weekend, though. Next year I won't have all of July taken, so there'll be lots more flexibility to plan a big ol road trip through there, Toronto, Champlain, all that.

If we did Brookville, could we get 4 boats, or more?
Phil, Kevin, Erwan, me?

[Kevin]

Count me in for Brookville June 29 & 30. Kevin.

[ryderp]

Is the Cobweb Regatta a go? If so, I need to lock it down on the calendar (and I need to finish up a few things on the boat). I also need to secure some crew.

Phil

[Kevin]

Ditto on needing crew. My wife will be along for the ride, but she is much more of a support person then 'crew'. My daughter will be in CA, she's the other family sailor.

Chad, what say you? Have you made contact with the folks at Brookville?

[Chad]

I'll leave the kid with the in-laws here, and will have wife-crew. She's a decent string puller, definitely not a rockstar. I've been swamped with work/family duties the last two weeks, but should be able to sort my to-do list by the 28th.

I didn't contact BLSA, not knowing what we (as a class) would be bringing. Would anybody be interested in joining their races on the 29th, versus doing our own thing? -it looks like it'll require "joining" their club with a race membership for something like $50. I don't know what their stance will be, maybe they'll be happy to get some more boats out for a weekend and waive all that for some one-time entrants.

[cstay]

If this is definatly happening and people need crew my roomate and myself both good crew most likely be down as long as i can convince him to drive 30 hours for 8 hours of racing. Let me know if its happening and if two crew are needed. Dosent need to be on the same boat.

[cstay]

Also what time would racing be done by on Sunday?

[Chad]

It would be awesome if you guys came out. I imagine I speak for us all in saying you'd be able to sail with everybody, and thereby get some ideas of what does / doesn't work and apply it your boat.

I'd want to get off the water by 3 on Sunday, hitting the road around 4.

[Kevin]

I would certainly welcome everyone who would like to come out.

For Friday, I'm planning on a late afternoon arrival so I can get things rigged and ready to go. I'm hoping we have a place for the boats at the marina, that's to be determined. I'd be up for a little cruise that evening as well if it works out.
For Sunday, that late afternoon timeline would work for me too.

Kevin.

p.s. My paint patching is done, should be back in the water this week.

[Chad]

I just heard from the BLSA folks. They're very happy to have us there, and we'd be welcome to race in their 2 races on Saturday, probably with a separate start. He's working on getting us gate keys to save on launching fees. If you guys are intersted in that, then I'll ask about the logistics of storing the boats with them for the weekend. I don't want to set up and break down for trailering each day. They have a marina, so it may be possible to rent a slip for the weekend, and just stuff all our little boats in. Does that sound alright to y'all?

I planned to camp at one of the on-lake campgrounds, either Quakertown (north end of lake) or Mounds (south end) SRA's. for non-camping accommodation, he mentioned the best bet would be Richmond, a few miles N.

[M&S]

Contact on Friday in the Detroit area. Is Looking for a ride to check a boat out. I'll let him know about this.
T

[Chad]

Contact on Friday in the Detroit area. Is Looking for a ride to check a boat out. I'll let him know about this.
T

Yes, please do.
-and any other midwest folk in your files!

[Kevin]

Yes on leaving the boats in the water in a slip if possible. Mast up on a trailer as the 2nd choice. That will save us a lot of time which equals more sailing time.

I'll be tent camping at which ever campground works out. I know the IN state campgrounds have a on-line reservation system and I think they have a limit on tents per campsite.

[Chad]

Heard back from the BLSA again to my second round of questions...

They have both slips/guest docks and mast-up storage available at their Hanna Creek marina, no charge for either. He pretty much wants us to leave the boats there. I suggest we be very generous with beverages etc. for the club members- I believe they hold an after race bbq on the lawn.

Camping wise, he said the Mounds (S end of lake) campground was a lot nicer than the northern, Quakertown one. I just reserved three adjacent sites, and I'm sure we could fit as many folks as will come on those. Feel free to grab a hotel or make your own arrangements if that suits you better, though.

Sites reserved are E22, E24, and E26, viewable on this map. They have electricity for those with trolling motors/Torqueedos that need to recharge overnight, or who might need to break out the grinders for overnight repairs!

[Kevin]

Excellent news.

Boats: we have 3 confirmed boats with a ? on #4. Erwan and I exchanged emails, he has a possible conflict that weekend but won't now for sure for a little bit. We also need to fix his keel up a little after it took a dive in Montrose harbor.

Crew: we have 2 (cstay) plus 1 possible from Michigan as an interested builder. Anyone else interested. If we could all be 2 up, that would be excellent, 3 up gets a touch boring for the #3 person. Do we need to go shake the trees looking for more?

We can work together on menus if we want to gang up on the cooking/cleaning at camp. Probably best to do that off line and not bore everyone else.

Cheers, Kevin.

[ryderp]

I'm looking forward to it. I'm hoping to get the boat in the water this weekend to make sure that it still floats. I'll probably be interested in one of those campsites

Phil