MCSA Sloop Championship

The event was hosted by the Detroit Yacht Club on the Detroit River in Flying Scots. Five teams arrived at the site with rain forecast. The wind was from the NW and built from 9 knots to 14 knots during the middle of the day as it rotated to the WSW. The first races were four lap Windward-Leewards because the wind direction was directly across the width of the river. As the day progressed the course was reduced to two laps and the length of the legs was increased to take advantage with greater alignment with the direction of the river. Several showers kept the competitors wet in the mid 70's temperatures.

A double round robin rotation was announced at the beginning of the event. To minimize rotation time both races of each round robin were sailed back-to-back. A total of 6 of the 10 races scheduled were sailed on Saturday. Michigan took a Yellow Flag penalty in Race #6, therefore their total was 7 for the day.

The University of Michigan had a outstanding performance with 5 bullets and one 2nd. Northwestern, Western Michigan 1, and Indiana fought it out for 2nd place with Northwestern having 16 and the other two being tied at 21.

The day was sunny with the wind from the WSW which was aligned with the river. There was a little fog which had formed over night, but it quickly burned off as the sun warmed the air. The Race Committee set a two lap Windward-Leeward course for the four races that needed to be sailed to complete the double round robin. The wind was abut 7 knots at the start of the first race. which was completed without incident. However the wind dropped to about 4 knots just after the start of the second race making it difficult to make leeward headway against the approximate 4.5 knot current. The Race Committee shortened the legs to compensate for the lack of pressure and the race was completed successfully. Fortunately the wind came back up and the last two races were able to be completed.

The University of Michigan continued it's winning ways with four more bullets and won the L. Theisen Trophy and the MCSA Sloop Championship.

Northwestern, Western Michigan 1, and Indiana were tied going into the last race with 28 points each. Northwestern finished second in that race to take 2nd place for the event. Western Michigan 1 finished third in the last race and took 3rd place for the event.

Thank you to the Detroit Yacht Club and its members for putting on such a fine event. Special thanks go to Ed Theisen, Alan Minsterman, Linda Minsterman, George Griswold, Lonnie Pike, Jack VanRyan, Jim Mcguire and others for their time and efforts to make this a special event.

The following chart shows the relative rank of the teams as of the race indicated. Note that the races are ordered by number, then division, which may not represent the order in which the races were actually sailed.

The first place team as of a given race will always be at the top of the chart. The spacing from one team to the next shows relative gains/losses made from one race to the next. You may hover over the data points to display the total score as of that race.