2021 Snowball Regatta

WOW! What a great day of racing on Buckeye Lake

The morning of the 2021 Snowball Regatta – the 81st Annual – started out with rain, light wind and some real trepidation among both sailors and race committee alike on what conditions the day would bring.  As seems typical for central Ohio this year, the forecast wasn’t lining up with reality.  Over 15 boats entered, the race committee got on the water and got things set up as the winds began to build and settle in.  4 GREAT races in building winds and sea state throughout the afternoon.  A good time was had by all.

Thank you to all of the regatta volunteers!

Registration
Governor Rickie Sue Grunden
Nancy Snow
Governor Stephanie Dolan

Race Committee Signal Boat
P/C Steve Harris, PRO
P/C Dave Lawrence
George O’Donnell
Robert Badgeley

Mark/Safety Boats
Chuck Gleich
Tom Campbell
Governor Vic Schroeder
Tami Schroder

RESULTS

CLICK HERE
for one-design results

CLICK HERE
for PHRF results

No Racing this Sunday

REMINDER

There will be no Sail on Sunday racing this weekend due to the Annual BLYC Elections.

Please come out to BLYC on Sunday between 9:00 and 1:00 for the Candidates’ Porch Picnic and to cast your vote for the 2021 Board of Governors.  Stay for the Annual Meeting at 2:00 at which, we will award the George Fisher Sportsmanship Trophy in addition to other Club recognitions for 2021.

Labor Day Long Distance Race

Commodore Dwight R. Haggard
Long Distance Race
Labor Day – September 6, 2021

Winds: W 8-12 with 15+ Gusts
Temperature: 81 degrees F.
Course: S-1-2-F (Long Distance – Windward/Leeward)

The Race: At the skippers meeting, our (VRO) Volunteer Race Officer announced a change to NOR’s that all boats are required to go through the Start/Finish on the downward leg, this is to be able to shorten the course if necessary. With today’s winds we knew this would not be a problem. Pink tetrahedrons course markers were set at Sellers Point and at no wake boundary by the Cranberry bog. With 10 boats entered, RC gave us a great start/finish line and the race was started right on time.

Post-Race Commentary:  All of the teams were celebrating on the YC porch. The word is spreading about our Sail-On-Sunday and Long-Distance races and we feel great that more new skippers & crew have joined in on the sailing and racing FUN this year.

Congratulations: Go to Barb Hein on her Laser with winning the Commodore Dwight R. Haggard Labor Day Long Distance Race and Trophy.

Summer Series Winners

CONGRATULATIONS

SUMMER SERIES WINNERS

First Place
Team Alberg
Bill Reynolds

Second Place
Team Runaway
David Paligo

Third Place
Team Endless Summer
Tom Reynolds

US Sailing Team Update


American sailors experience headwinds at the XXXII Olympiad
 

It’s fair to say that this is a strange Olympic cycle. For starters, the Games were delayed by a year, then there’s been the lack of cheering fans in the stands, the social-distancing efforts, and, sadly, circulating fears of Covid transmission. Simply put, the XXXII Olympiad seems different than other recent Games. Unfortunately for fans of American Olympic sailing, however, one theme — at least so far — seems consistent from the London 2012 Olympics, namely a lack of need to play the Stars and Stripes.

The U.S. sent a total of 13 sailors to the Tokyo 2021 Olympics to compete in nine classes [N.B., the USA didn’t earn a country berth for the Men’s 49er class]. As of this writing, the outcomes of eight of these events had been determined.

Pedro Pascual (Miami, Fla.) - Tokyo 2020 Olympics, Day 5 - photo © Sailing Energy / US Sailing
Pedro Pascual (Miami, Fla.) – Tokyo 2020 Olympics, Day 5

photo © Sailing Energy / US Sailing

Pedro Pascual, sailing aboard a Men’s RS:X earned a ninth-place finish, while Farrah Hall ended up in 15th place in the Women’s RS:X class.

Luke Muller ended up in 13th place in the Finn class and Charlie Buckingham also ended his Olympic regatta in 13th place in the ILCA 7 class (nèe Men’s Lasers), while Olympic veteran Paige Railey finished in 37th place in the ILCA 6 class (nèe Laser Radials).

Paige Railey (USA) on Tokyo 2020 Olympic Sailing Competition Day 3 - photo © Sailing Energy / World Sailing

Stephanie Roble and Maggie Shea, sailing in the Women’s 49erFX class, ended up in 11th place after experiencing their first two yellow-flag penalties during their Olympic campaign for using their bodyweight to create forward motion in Race 10. In the next race, they accidentally tagged a turning mark; they were in seventh place at the time of the contact infraction.

“After hitting it, we were working to get around the mark as the whole fleet was right there [behind us],” said Shea in an official team communication. “We didn’t want to get tangled up on the mark and cause a pileup. We wanted to get out of the way. We got around the mark, and immediately started spinning [a penalty turn]. In the process of spinning, the umpires flagged us again for what we thought was hitting the mark. We were already spinning for hitting the mark, and kept sailing once we finished, thinking we were clear.”

Stephanie Roble and Maggie Shea (USA) on day 7 of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Sailing Competition - photo © Sailing Energy / World Sailing

Roble and Shea crossed Race 11’s finishing line in eighth place, but upon crossing the line they were informed by the umpires that they had in fact earned a second yellow-flag penalty. As a result, they were officially scored DNE for the race.

“These are the first two yellow flags that we have had in five years of campaigning for the Olympics,” said Roble in an official team press release.

The team rallied to a fifth-place finish in Race 12, but this sadly wasn’t enough to save them from their non-discardable DNE in Race 11.

Stephanie Roble and Maggie Shea (USA) on Tokyo 2020 Olympic Sailing Competition Day 3 - photo © Sailing Energy / World Sailing
Stephanie Roble and Maggie Shea (USA) on Tokyo 2020 Olympic Sailing Competition Day 3
photo © Sailing Energy / World Sailing

“We’ve done an incredible job growing as team over the last five years to get to the point that we’re at,” continued Roble. “Our coach Giulia [Conti] was a huge leader for us. This result doesn’t represent all that we’ve learned and accomplished. We were sailing well throughout the event, and today we were sailing to win. We left it all out there.”

This means that there are now three American-flagged teams left for possible medal contention.

Stu McNay and Dave Hughes, sailing in the Men’s 470 class, have made it through to the Medal Race in 10th place, while Nikki Barnes and Lara Dallman-Weiss, sailing in the Women’s 470 class, missed out finishing in 12th place overall with a poor final day of fleet racing.

Nikki Barnes (St. Thomas, USVI) and Lara Dallman-Weiss (Shoreview, Minn.) at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Sailing Competition - photo © Sailing Energy / US Sailing
Nikki Barnes (St. Thomas, USVI) and Lara Dallman-Weiss (Shoreview, Minn.) at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Sailing Competition
photo © Sailing Energy / US Sailing

Riley Gibbs and Anna Weis, sailing aboard their Nacra 17, finished 3rd in an exciting Medal Race on Tuesday to finish in 9th place overall.

While the 2020/2021 quad was always considered a building cycle for the U.S.-flagged team, this clearly isn’t the result that any fan of Francis Scott Key’s most famous piece of songwriting had been hoping for, but such is the story of this Olympic cycle, at least for the U.S.-flagged sailors.

The troubling part, of course, is the fact that the U.S. flagged team left the London 2012 Olympics
empty-handed, and the team departed the Rio 2016 Olympics with a single bronze medal.

Riley Gibbs and Anna Weis (USA) on Day 3 at 2021 West Marine US Open Sailing – Miami - photo © Allison Chenard
Riley Gibbs and Anna Weis (USA) on Day 3 at 2021 West Marine US Open Sailing – Miami
photo © Allison Chenard

Sail-World’s North American office sends our best wishes to our Men’s team as they compete in their medal race. Moreover, we hope that the recent leadership changes at US Sailing will translate to some podium time for our sailors at the Paris 2024 Olympic medal ceremonies.

May the four winds blow you safely home.

David Schmidt
Sail-World.com North American Editor

Spring Series Winners

CONGRATULATIONS

SPRING SERIES WINNERS

First Place
Team Runaway

Second Place
Team Framboise

Third Place
Team Endless Summer