2019 WAWASEE REGATTA
Wawasee Yacht Club
June 8-9, 2019
The Wawasee Yacht Club once again hosted its annual E Scow Regatta on beautiful Lake Wawasee in Syracuse, Indiana. 30 participants hit the starting line on Saturday morning against easterly winds blowing in the mid-teens, gusting to over 20. With the robust winds the Race Committee headed by PRO Stu Webster was easily able to initiate 4 races on Saturday. The strong winds did cause a number of halyard, boom and sail issues. The safety boats indicated they had to provide assistance to 12 different boats at some point during the day. At one point 3 scows were seen tipping over almost simultaneously. The fourth and final race of the day saw only 14 of the 30 participants compete.
Despite the on water issues the day made for some fantastic racing. Lon Schoor on H7 from Mendota Lake took the first race. The second and third races were won by Mark Hetzler on D3 from Delavan Lake and in the final race of the day Tom Munroe and his team on WH77 from White Lake grabbed first place. The victories in races 2 and 3 for the Hetzler team were even more impressive given they scrambled all morning to find and replace a shredded forestay just so they could get on the water. Thanks go out to the many teams that looked intently until the right solution was found. The first day ended with the Hetzler team up 2 and 3 points respectively over the Munroe and Schoor teams.
Day two greeted the sailors with more moderate and less gusty winds. Munroe and team jumped on the first race and followed that win with a 2nd place finish in race two, grabbing the Regatta Championship. Schoor had two consistent races to finish 2nd overall with the Hetzler team slipping to 3rd. Rob Terry on CR66 from Crystal Lake won the second race of the day to finish 4th overall and skipper Brett Hatton on SL4 from Spring Lake completed a solid weekend nosing out the Mike Dow team from Crystal Lake for 5th place by 2 points.
The Regatta also scores a Silver Fleet. The Wawasee teams of Sam Russell on WA14 and Michael Herdrich on WA95 were each rewarded for their perseverance in Saturday’s difficult fourth race by being one of the 13 finishers. Those finishes propelled Russel to 1st place and Herdrich to 2nd place, one point ahead of the 3rd place team of George Simpson on WA3.
The Wawasee Yacht Club put on their usual Saturday night dinner for the teams and their families. By all accounts a good time was had by all. Many thanks go out to Tito’s Vodka for their support of the event. In addition to 15 scows from Wawasee there were participants from the Michigan lakes of Crystal, Torch, Spring and White. The state of Wisconsin was represented by the clubs from Geneva, Mendota, Delavan, and Oshkosh.
The members of the Wawasee Yacht Club truly enjoy putting on this event each year and hope that we see everyone back in 2020.
Submitted by Larry Palmer, Race Chairman