Organized by Triton Yacht Club (Eugene OR) on Fernridge Reservoir.
June 27 & 28, 2009
Excellent is the only word that can adequately describe this year's Emerald Cup Regatta. Excellent racing, excellent food, excellent raffles and door prizes, excellent music, and excellent beer. Starting with that last point, for a mere $5, racers that arrived on Friday were presented with a very tasty local brew and an excellent (can't use that word too much) live music by Barbara Healy & Deb Cleveland (a local Eugene band), and a bon fire to keep warm in the cool summer night - for those that weren't dancing up a storm to the music.
Saturday was simply a beautiful day. Sunny, warm, decent winds from the North, and good race committee work made for really enjoyable racing. Lots of wind shifts, short chop, and other trickery from Mother Nature made it challenging to go fast, point well, and stay on the favored side and tack, but the Lido 14 fleet adapted quickly and completed four long single lap windward leeward courses.
From the first moments of the first race, the top boats emerged to show their wares. Garrett & Tracy Johns (Fleet 78 ~ Anacortes, WA) had excellent boat speed and lead the race to the weather mark but not far behind were the teams of John Papadopoulos (Fleet 1 ~ Newport Beach, CA) with Bri Bale (Eugene, OR), and Jim and Carolyn Sterner (Fleet 80 ~ Seattle, WA). As would emerge throughout the day, Garrett & Tracy's raw speed thru the challenging chop would often put them in the lead early on but it wasn't enough to stay ahead of John and Bri - who would get by through better tactical sailing. At the end of the day, John & Bri had compiled 3 first place and 1 second place finish to take an early 3 point lead over Garrett & Tracy.
Saturday night is always a really big affair at the Emerald Cup Regatta. There's a large dinner (usually BBQ of some sort), a large (and humorous) raffle for all sorts of great sailing stuff (gear bags, sailing clothing, etc.), and more beer! This year there was also a silent auction for a wonderful oil painting of a sailboat. All in all, a very satisfying day both on and off the water.
Sunday's racing conditions were very similar to Saturday's - with perhaps a bit more wind velocity (occasionally both skipper and crew hiking really hard). This seemed to favor John & Bri a bit as they were more often leading the way to the weather mark - making their speed and tactics hard to beat. They ended the day with three additional first places to finish the regatta with 6 points (after a throw out).
At the awards ceremony, the $500 door prize was given away. They drew one of the registered boats of the regatta from a hat and lo and behold our very own Garret Johns won! Unfortunately, he wasn't present (a long drive back home) so the crowed called for a redraw but there had been a promise to award the cash to the first name. To make matters more fun, the Lido 14 racers organized a telephone call to Garrett and got him to agree to share the proceeds of the door prize if he were to win! Of course, he had no idea that he had already won and to his credit, he did offer to share the rewards. We then all shouted over the phone that he had won and he simply couldn't believe it. After much effort, he finally understood that he had one and he did promise to put the money to good (Lido 14) use. We suspect his idea is to use the money to fly to Tahiti and investigate starting a Lido 14 fleet there!
In addition to the regular trophies, the famous Emerald Cup is awarded to the winner of the most competitive fleet. It is based on a formula that considers points, number of boats, and the like. And it was with a rousing cheer that that Lido 14 fleet learned that it was awarded to the winner of their fleet - John Papadopoulos and Bri Bale. There couldn't have been a better send off for the Lido 14 fleet at this regatta - winning the cash door prize AND the Emerald Cup.
Please visit Triton Yacht Club's website as they hope to publish many photographs of the event.
|
Pos |
Skipper & Crew |
Sail# |
R1 |
R2 |
R3 |
R4 |
R5 |
R6 |
R7 |
T |
|
1st |
John Papadopoulos & Bri Bale |
6300 |
1 |
1 |
2 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
6 |
|
2nd |
Garrett & Tracy Johns |
4870 |
3 |
2 |
1 |
2 |
2 |
4 |
2 |
12 |
|
3rd |
Jim & Carolyn Sterner |
5110 |
2 |
3 |
3 |
3 |
4 |
7 |
5 |
20 |
|
4th |
Ron & Nicole Runyan |
631 |
4 |
4 |
5 |
4 |
3 |
2 |
3 |
20 |
|
5th |
Hank Erbele |
2681 |
6 |
6 |
4 |
5 |
5 |
3 |
4 |
27 |
|
6th |
Allan Stults |
5071 |
7 |
5 |
7 |
6 |
6 |
5 |
6 |
38 |
|
7th |
Chris Lofgren |
2351 |
5 |
7 |
6 |
7 |
7 |
6 |
7 |
38 |
|
8th |
Kenn Meneely |
6261 |
8 |
DNF |
DNF |
DNF |
DNF |
DNF |
DNF |
53 |