Hi All,

With light and variable winds on Saturday the spirit of competition came alive at the Kerr Lake Kup thanks to everyone that came out for the races.  Thanks to all participants, especially the crews and Richard Reed, who assisted me on committee.

Fleet 1. Tenacious decisively won two consecutive races against Journey to capture the trophy.
Fleet 2. Godspeed won the start and first race for the Hunter 38s, but Chang Mai won the second start and race.  With both boats voluntarily retired, so there was no third race, Chang Mai takes the series. (Boat last to win.)
Fleet 3. Loblolly took the first race in a photo finish at the "H" mark (shortened course) against Seahawk, but Seahawk took the second race and trophy.
Fleet 4. The two Hunter 30s formed the fourth fleet.  Brenda Gail took the first race.  Honeycraft led by two boat lengths as the two boats approached the midpoint of the last last leeward committee boat leg, but Brenda Gail continued to work hard and sail a straight line and got the inside position on a wind shift to overtake Honeycraft, sealing their victory.

Notable notes:

1. In the two competitions with two dissimilarly rated boats, the slower boats won.
2. Hopefully, Eddie will be able to share the photo of the photo-finish of the Loblolly and Seahawk at "H" mark.
3. I will try to get the trophies out as soon as possible.  Have to talk to the club treasurer.

Cheers,
Tim (Vicknair)

Hello Fellow Sailors,

There seems to be some unanswered questions about the Kerr Lake Kup.  So please see the responses below.

Crew:
It is the responsibility of the captain to recruit the crew.

Captain:
The captain must be present on the boat, but he does not have to be the helmsman.  The captain is alone responsible for the safety of his/her crew and boat.

Trophies:
Trophies will be handed out in the following weeks with inscriptions.  I plan to have really nice ones, perhaps as perpetual trophies.

Wind conditions:
A minimum of at least 3 knots and a maximum of no more 20 knots sustained for 15 minutes is required to start the race.  Brief lulls or gusts are not be counted.  If wind conditions are not met by the starting time window, the race will be rescheduled.

Skippers' Meeting:
10:30.  All challenges and acceptances should be made known by the end of the skippers' meeting.  The format is match racing, which I will discuss at the skipper's meeting.

Starting Signal:
Between 12:00 and 2:00 PM depending on the wind.

See ya on the 27th.

Cheers,
Tim Vicknair

Thanks to all club racers that showed up this past Saturday.  The weather was great and the wind started out very promising.  

We paired up boats into 4 teams.

• Seahawk & M&M (Team Pink 2)
  
• God Speed & Rosebud ( Team Green )
  
• Querida & Loblolly (Team Pink 1)
  
• Chang Mia & Brenda Gail (Team Blue)
  

Each team had to race to the Bouy 3, pass a noodle from boat-to-boat and race back to the finish line.  Also during the race, each boat had to pull one of their sails down for 10 minutes.  

The race started with great wind out of the northeast at a 8-10 knots.  The fleet headed up the lake with all boats sailing fast.  From the race committee's view, the boats looked close together.  The wind up the lake was starting to lay down a bit. This brought the fleet together at the turn.  

The wind started to come and go so this spread out the fleet on the return trip.  Half of the boats were flying spinnakers the other we're wing-on-wing. With the fickle winds, it was a show of the haves and the have nots.  The teams were trying to encourage each other as best possible.  

As the wind died, some of the boats decided to call it a day.  To win, both boats on a team had to finish.  As Rose Bud was finishing, God Speed was calling it a day.  Next to finish was Seahawk, followed closely behind was Brenda Gail.  Team Journey (boat is so big it counted a 2 boats) finished next.   By this time we had been racing for over 4 hours and most of the teams had folded.  M&M was steaming toward to finish line at maybe a knot.  Seahawk was cheering for them as the come across the line.  

So to wrap it all up, the winning team was Team Pink 2,  Seahawk/ M&M .  Great racing Pink 2.  

Thanks again for coming out and also it was nice to have the sea scouts sailing with us.  

Ed Walters

We will have a fun race this coming Saturday. 

 The race committee meeting will start a 10:30 and we will start racing around 12:00.  This race will be called, "Guess My Time." This will be group sail to the dam with a twist.  We will start near the goal posts and race to the finish at bouy 3.  

Here's the twist --  you will sail your boat while guessing the finish time of another boat.  This is how it will work.  There will be a envelope for each boat competing.  You will draw an envelope, guess how long you think that boat will take to race the course, write your guess, seal the envelope and put your name on the outside of the envelope. No one will know who is guessing who.  The best guess will win. If there is a tie, we will flip a coin.  Each boat can chose to race with some or all sails up but must be sailing and proceeding towards bouy 3 at all times. No motor sailing is allowed. There will be some boats racing at full tilt and some might just sand bag.  What will you do?  If you have any questions, give me a call at  919-880-0093.

                                       ~ Ed Walters

Saturday was just about perfect as to weather with one little blemish, not very much wind.  Wind for the start of the race was about 6 knots later falling to to a couple to none.  For the 2012 Steele Creek Hot Dog Race we had 7 boats for the start of the race.  After the captain's meeting all boats started the race cleanly with the able handling of the starting sequence by Jeff on Odyssey.

Early leader was Tim  on Rosebud and Dave and crew on Seahawk flying his spinnaker with the rest of the boats in pursuit.  Wind conditions were very light and variable.  After rounding the first mark H, Tim began to stretch his lead which he would never relinquish.  Following in second was Dave and crew on Seahawk.  A good race between Brenda Gail and Honeycraft followed for third with MM, Deadstick and Family Fued drifting in the after guard in the very light air.  The race conditions continued to be very light to non existent throughout the afternoon with boats being becalmed or speeding along at 1to 2 knots.  Due to the conditions the race was called to end at 4:00 pm with boat finishes based on position down the course.  No boat actually was able to finish due to the lack of wind.  First 3 positions were:

Tim on Rosebud in first place

Dave and Crew Barbara, Kyle and Eddie on Seahawk in second place

Ron and Crew Duane on Honeycraft in third place

After the race we had a gathering of 20 or so folks for a good ole hot dog cooking and fixins with presentation of Hot Dog Burgee and trophies by Ron and last years winner Eddie.  Food and socializing was great.  Special thank you goes to Jeff for race committee, Doug for help with setting marks, food cooking set up, Kyle Wilcox and Dave Rock for cooking, Helen for bringing hot dog fixins and everyone who brought food and came by to enjoy the Hot Dog Race.

Hi everyone. 

The Hot Dog Race is set for this Saturday with hot dogs and fixins.  This is our annual club sponsered race so make your plans to attend with your crew for the challenge of winning the Hot Dog Burgee.  Please email me if you are racing with boat name, type and if you will be using a spinnaker.   I have heard from a few of the boat captains but probably not everyone as most everyone was busy with the boat show.  Now that the show is over let's get out and have some good ole Hot Dog Fun.  Also let me know if you and how many will be joining us for the hot dog dinner and if you can bring any desert, fixing etc.   Lastly, still looking for volunteers for setting marks and helping with the hot dog set up for dinner.

A special thank you goes to Jeff who will be our race committee boat.  We will set a mark by Jeff's boat and use government mark G mark as our start and finish line.  For those who have not raced in this fun race you will get a copy of the course layout at the captains meeting to be at 10:30 on Saturday between Honeycraft and Tennacious C 78 and C 76.  The race will consist of one course and one race with port roundings.   Race course format is different than types used for the racing series.  I will cover course layout and basic rules at the captain's meeting.  We hope to start around 11:45 to 12:00 noon pending getting marks set.   The Hot Dog Burgee and first place trophy goes to the winner, with additional trophies for 2nd and 3rd place.

If you need to you can call me at 252-904-0292 with any questions or if you can help.

Ron Honeycutt

Hot Dog Race Chair

HONEYCRAFT

Hello everyone, 
 
In case you have not heard, the Billy Tee Bluenose Race this past weekend was a great success.  This race was 45 miles from Marker H to Marker 19 at Clarksville and back.  The day started off with heavy rain but backed off some by race time however it was still raining and pretty chilly and it stayed this way pretty much most of the way. 
 
Bluenose stats and information are found in 9/29 blog posts.
 
 
Congratulations goes out Rosebud (Tim Vicknair, Captain and crew Gerd Ottehenning) for their first place finish, crossing the finish line at 8:22 for a total time of 10 hours and 40 minutes. And these poor guys had nowhere to go to get out of the rain!
 
Second place was Tenacious (Eddie Walters, Captain, and crew Dave, Keith and Mike) who crossed the line at 8:37, for a total time of 10 hours and 26 minutes.
 
Third place was Querida (Paul Sullivan, Captain, and crew Don Courtney, Pat Terr and John Pelosi) who crossed the line at 1:04AM for a total time of 15 hours and 4 minutes.
 
A very special mention to Odyssey, Captain and Crew Jeff Matthiae, who sailed for close to 14 hours and it was 15 hours by the time he anchored for the night.  He did a fantastic sailing job at keeping Unplugged behind him.  This one man crew did so wonderful that we have to give him special mention.
 
Unplugged almost made it to the end of the race, sailing for 14 hours.  But the winds had completely died and the remaining 2 members who were awake were exhausted and unfortunately had to call it a night.
 
We want to thank every single person who participated in the Bluenose Race for taking the chance to try it.  You made the event a great success and it makes us happy and excited to host the event again next year.  Thanks for helping us honor Steves dad in such a special way since he is the one who started the Bluenose Race so many years ago. We enjoyed watching the boats throughtout the day and listening to the chatter on the radio--although we only heard half of some of the radio transmissions.
 
Thanks again everyone!!
 
Laura and Steve, Parrotise
  And Bill Twyman (Billy Tee)

Winds were 6-8 knots, with overcast skies at the beginning of the race, 9AM.

Honeycraft had some problems first thing in the morning and was unable to start at his 9:36AM start time but did make it out to begin the race at 10:05AM.  He and his crew Duane made a great comeback.

Aquila had some issues in the morning and John needed to be back to the dock by noon to get back home, so Aquila did not participate.

Tumbleweed did not make it up to the lake and did not participate.

Winds were approx. 9.4 knots at 10:20 AM

Seahawk lost their instrument  panel and unfortunately had to withdraw from the race at 10:45AM, although they continued to sail up near marker 3 before turning around.

Rounding Marker 3:

    Rosebud at 11:15AM

   Odyssey at 11:20AM

   Unplugged—unfortunately we could not hear most of Unplugged’s radio transmissions throughout the

                 Day, but we believe they may have rounded marker 3 around the same time as Odyssey

   Tenacious at 11:40AM

   Honeycraft at 11:45AM

   Querida at 11:54AM

   Journey at 12:00PM

   M&M at 12:05PM

  

Windspeed at noon was 6.2 knots

Windspeed at 4PM was 5.2 with rain and 4-6 knots at 4:40PM.

Honeycraft was doing a great job of gaining on Unplugged but unfortunately had to withdraw from the race at 2:12 so his crew could return home.

Rosebud rounded marker 19 at 2:35

M&M at 5:25.

We do not have info from any other boats.  We were unable to hear a lot of the radio transmissions.

At 5:25 Rosebud was at the power lines, with Tenacious about a mile behind.  In third was Odyssey and Unplugged in 4th.  Unplugged and Odyssey played tag for quite a while switching between 3rd and 4th place a few times but in the end Unplugged said Odyssey did some fantastic maneuvering and they were unable to overtake him.

At 6:50PM Rosebud was passing marker 3 and headed back to the finish line.

Tenacious was about a mile from marker 3.  Odyssey was at Goat Island.

M&M and Journey both started up motors around 7PM. Journey continued by motor to the marina and M&M stopped for the night off the Henderson Point Beach Campground.

At 7:20 Tenacious passes marker 3, and Rosebud was approximately 2 miles from the finish line.

At 7:45 Odyssey, Unplugged and Querida  were approximately 1 mile from the power lines on their return trip

Rosebud is declared the winner of the Billy Tee Bluenose Race at 8:22:11 PM.  His total time was 10 hours and 40 minutes.

 

Tenacious is declared second place winner of the Billy Tee Bluenose Race at 8:37:06. His total time was 10 hours and 26 minutes.

At 10:40Pm an exhausted Jeff,  who was sailing alone, felt it was best to call it a night and started up the motor.  He continued on the Henderson Pt Campground and anchored near M&M.  We continued to keep radio contact with him until he was anchored to make sure he was ok and arrived safe and sound. It is close to midnight by the time he anchors.  His total sailing time was 13 hours and 40 minutes

Querida passed marker 3 at 10:54 on their way to the finish line and relayed information to us that Unplugged was near the Rock Wall.

AT 11PM the windspeed is 5.4.

Rains had finally stopped and we were actually seeing some stars and able to the see the bright full moon. Unfortunately the winds died, and the Unplugged crew was tired.  They stopped to anchor at Henderson Point around 12:19AM.  Total time was 14 hours and 52 minutes.

Most of the Parrotise crew was snoozing as Laura kept watch for Querida to come in.

Querida is declared the 3rd place winner of the Billy Tee Bluenose Rose at 1:04:02AM. His total time was 15 hours and 4 minutes.

 

Parrotise pulls anchor, collects the finish line buoy, and heads back towards the marina, finally getting back in at 1:45AM.  Total time, 16 hours and 15 minutes. 

 Pat Terry and his friend John, crew from Querida, hopped in the car and headed back home after such a long day.

Congratulations to every single person, captain and crew, who took the chance and participated in the Bluenose Race, despite the cold, despite the rain, despite even no winds at time. We hope everyone enjoyed themselves!

Just a few more days away until the race.  I hope you are excited or getting excited. 

Just a few last minute items/reviews

Preparty Party starts around 6 pm Friday night.  Bring an appetizer to share and your drink of choice and hopefully some fun smack talk between the boats.  We will bring some chips and dip and Laura is making a cake.

Saturday morning 8 am skippers meeting with the 1st boat starting at 9 am.

Make sure your boat is in shape (running lights are working, enough fuel to get you back if needed etc.) Parrotise will be out on the course during the race in case someone needs any help.  The lake is low so there are some area's that might be a bit shallow or items might be showing above water. 

Trophies will be awarded to the winners once all the boats are back at the dock. 

See you Friday afternoon!!!!!

Steve