Battle of Lake Erie

When the teams arrived we were still feeling the final stages of the overnight offshore. After the skippers meeting, by the time the boats were rigged, the offshore and the onshore were fighting, so we went into postponement until the onshore could fill in. We finally got on the water around 11:00AM. We got off two W4s and then the wind shutoff again. So we called in all the boats about noon and had a lunch catered by the Erie Yacht Club, generously funded by the Yacht Club Foundation. Then we waited. A light cloud cover had moved in and minimized the thermal onshore. Around 2:00 the wind held at 4-5 kts so we sent the boats back out and started the B rotation. The sailors struggled in the light air, but finally finished a W2. Then the wind shut off again with little hope of restarting at an acceptable level. So, by 3:30 we had completed only 3 races and we sent the sailors back to their hotels for an exciting night of Erie activities. We look forward to another light but more stable day tomorrow.

The second day started out much like yesterday: boats rigged, waiting for the breeze, a basic course set, markset and safety boats busy preparing for the day. It was a beautiful sunny and cool day in Erie, and the onshore did fill in about 11:00 and we picked up with race 2B. The winds remained light for the next few hours -- a bit patchy at times, somewhat shifty, and it seemed that the right side of the course was favored most of the day. Overall, it was a challenge for the racers, but they rose to the occasion. The two top teams, Queens and RIT, swapped first and second places all day with Queens finishing in first place, followed by RIT. The next battle was a tight race for third place between Syracuse and Penn State Behrend. In fact they finished in a tie for third place with the tie finally broken in favor of Penn State Behrend. All the teams were filled with good sailors who made the most of the regatta. They kept their game faces on and grew with each race.

Thank you to the Erie Yacht Club Reyburn Sailing School for providing boats and the beautiful boathouse as our home for the weekend. Thanks to the Penn State Behrend and Mercyhurst University sailors for hosting the regatta. And a big thank you to several members of the Yacht Club who gave up their weekend plans to serve on the committee boat and the markset and safety boats.

We hope to see you all next year!

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.