2010 High Sierra Regatta

High Sierra Regatta

July 10-11, 2010

Hosted by Fresno Yacht Club on Huntington Lake.

For official results, please visit the Fresno Yacht Club website.

This year's High Sierra Regatta was looking pretty sketchy with no wind 20 minutes before the start of the first race - a very rare, if not unheard of, situation at a lake known for its consistently occuring winds. But the wind did start to fill in just in time for the first race to be sailed on schedule - but the winds were light and a bit fluky.

Huntington Lake is located at high altitude nestled in the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada mountain range that dominates much of the California landscape. It is a man-made reservoir constructed in the early 1900s as part of a massive (for its time) hydroelectric project that now encompasses several lakes, numerous dams, miles of water tunnels bored thru the mountains, and five power generating stations.

The lake is very well know in the sailing community for the annual High Sierra Regatta run by Fresno Yacht Club.

Fresno, located about 60 miles away in the central valley below the lake plays a key role in generating the famous winds of Huntington Lake. Without high temperatures in the Fresno area, the winds don't show up at the lake. When the valley is hot enough (generally over 103 degrees), a thermal wind is generated that rises up the slopes of the Sierras, skips up and over the dams at the western end of the lake, and picks up velocity as it moves down the lake. This wind gives a wide range of sailing conditions ranging from drifting at the dam end to mid teens at the leeward end of the late (where the start and finish of the races are located).

Negotiating the lake is a well discussed and documented topic with lots of emphasis placed on sailing fast and high to the Boy Scout Camp, working up the left shore, and taking a calculated gamble as to when to cross the lake to get to the weather mark.

Increasing, as has been reported in prior years, the consistency of the winds at Huntington Lake have diminished - becoming more unstable and hard to predict. And this year's running of the 57th annual edition of the High Sierra Regatta presented racers with just such a situation.

This year's regatta was looking pretty sketchy with virtually no wind present on the late a half hour before scheduled start of the first race - a very rare situation indeed. But true to form, the wind did arrive just in time for the first race to be sailed on schedule - but the winds were light and a bit irregular.

In Race 1, new Lido 14 class member Steve Klotz, sailing in his first major Lido 14 regatta, sailed conservatively and smartly and was rewarded with "winning" the race to the weather mark. On the long downwind leg that followed, Stu Robertson eventually caught up to and overtook Steve - winning the race.

The second race, also on Saturday, was slightly better with occasional puffs requiring hard hiking and by the time the boats were coming up the final beat to the finish, a 11am first race. Stu, once again, was dominant and finished first - without being challenged much, if at all, by any other racers.

On Sunday, the winds were still somewhat strange with the majority of the puffs coming down the middle of the lake, leaving the left hand side (where boat usually work the shoreline) questionable. The wind never really filled in well but was reasonably "regular"...that is until boats were reaching from mark 2 (top mark of the north side of th e lake) to mark 6 (on the south side of the lake) where the winds started to get swirly. Wind was coming from all directions and was, in fact, just coming straight down and splashing outwards in unpredictable directions - leaving lots of people were hopelessly chasing the the wind. The best solution in these circumstances is to just point your boat in the direction of the next mark and keep your fingers crossed. The strangeness continued on the reach from Mark 1 to Mark 7 where boats ended up sailing close hauled and tacking to make it to Mark 7 - an extremely unusual situation. Amongst all this, a number of boats got lucky and made huge gains, while others (of course) lost.

In the end, however, the irregular winds were not a factor in determining the regatta outcome - Stu Robertson and Mike Anctil sailed extremely fast and handily won the regatta with three first place finishes - each with sizable leads.

In second place, overall, was the brother and sister team of Mark and Sarah Ryan. They have been sailing together for several years now and have been working hard to improve. Sailing in 2506, a boat that had been in their family many years ago, this team showed excellent skill and speed.

Finishing third overall was Steve Klotz. Decades ago, Steve Klotz was a well known world class dinghy sailor. So when he decided to return to the sport after a long absence, his first concern was to find a one design dinghy class that was both competitive, offered large fleets, and was approachable as an older adult. And his answer was the Lido 14. Steve purchased a second hand but very well prepared racing Lido 14 this spring and set out to practice as much as he could but given his very busy family and work schedule, that meant getting out just a handful of times. And each outing he's learning a lot about the boat and how to sail it.

A loud and hearty round of applause to Stu and Mike and all those that raced hard and well against them.

A	Skipper & Crew	SAIL #	R1	R2	R3	T
1^st	Stuart Robertson & Mike Anctil	2511	1	1	1	3
2^nd	Mark & Sarah Ryan	2506	3	2	3	8
3^rd	Stephen Klotz & Hiroko Sakimoto	6300	2	5	2	9
4^th	John Gresham & Terry Johnson	2511X	6	4	5	15
5^th	Kelly Cantley & Kevin Thomas	5036	4	8	4	16
6^th	Kurt Wiese & John Papadopoulos	6240	8	3	7	18
7^th	Eric Heim	4078	9	6	10	25
8^th	Freddie & Fred Stevens	2614	10	12	6	28
9^th	Paul & John Makielski	6277	7	7	14	28
10^th	Daniel Gilboa	1255	5	11	17	33
11^th	Steve & M’Liz McJones	2153	12	10	12	34
12^th	Jim & Carolyn Sterner	5110	14	9	20	43
13^th	Colin Orsini & Lisa Acomb	5029	13	13	18	44
14^th	Don & Kit Lockwood	5050	11	24 DNC	11	46
15^th	Ron & Nicole Runyan	6131	17	14	16	47
16^th	Walter Johnson & Nikki	6288	24 DNF	16	9	49
17^th	Dave & Stephanie Carroll	4682	19	17	13	49
18^th	Stephen & Ginger Orsini	6310	16	19	15	50
19^th	Steven Natvig	3474	15	15	21	51
20^th	Peter Beale	6274	18	18	19	55
21^st	Steve & Kris Potter	6284	24 DNC	24 DNC	8	56
22^nd	Hank Erbele	2953	20	20	22	62
23^rd	Greg Rodgers	4794	24 DNC	24 DNC	24 DNC	72

B	Skipper & Crew	SAIL #	R1	R2	R3	Total
1^st	Jonathan & Stephanie Carroll	4755	8	1	1	10
2^nd	Gary Schaffel	3446	1	2	7	10
3^rd	Joss Giddings	6050	2	10	3	15
4^th	Grant & Barbara Williams	4300	7	6	2	15
5^th	Kathryn Reed & Cindy Heavrin	3747	3	5	9	17
6^th	Ryan & Ross Butcher	4790	5	9	5	19
7^th	Jock & Lili McGraw	5127	4	4	12	20
8^th	Butch Michel & Bruce McDevit	4150	17	3	4	24
9^th	Chris & Christophe Killian	6297	6	14	8	28
10^th	Charles & Joanna Smith	6337	11	11	6	28
11^th	Sarah & Jim Mackey	4284	12	12	11	35
12^th	Steve Gierke	1954	13	13	10	36
13^th	Michelle Shanks	4048	14	7	17	38
14^th	Matthew & Maggie Nolan	4543	16	8	19	43
15^th	Ellen & Lenore Collins	6313	10	18	16	44
16^th	Tracy Conn	4029	15	16	13	44
17^th	Larry Hoskinson	6197	18	15	20	53
18^th	Jim Drury & Bruce Wasson	4963	20	20	14	54
19^th	Kevin Fabino	3008	22	17	15	54
20^th	Mark Dawson	6272	19	19	18	56
21^st	Terry Hensley	4617	9	29 DNC	23	61
22^nd	Pat Sayer-Handley & Luke Sayer	6149	21	21	21	63
23^rd	Bill Hahesy	2562	25	22	25	72
24^th	Jim Clevenberg	3720	24	29 DNF	22	75
25^th	Scott Morris	398	23	29 DNF	24	76
26^th	Susan Dijkman	4023	29 DNC	29 DNC	29 DNC	87
26^th	Holly Davis	4299	29 DNC	29 DNC	29 DNC	87
26^th	Tom Estlow	6195	29 DNC	29 DNC	29 DNC	87