US Nationals – Final

Green Lake, WI, August 26, 2018

Report by Art Rousmaniere

Augie Diaz and Julia Melton topped a small but very competitive fleet at the 2018 edition of the US Nationals held on pristine Green Lake Wisconsin on August 23-26. The classic adage “snooze, you lose” was in play all week as all of the races were hotly contested to the end with no team winning more than one race and multiple finishes having 4-5 of the front-runners finishing overlapped or within seconds of each other.
Day one brought 80 degrees, cloudless skies and moderate building conditions of 6-10 knots. Being a weekday and late in the vacation season meant the we had all the lake to ourselves. Doug Hart with Diego Escobar eeked out a 4-way overlap to take race 1. Art Rousmaniere with Lily Lichtenstein crossed the finish less a mere few boat lengths ahead of Diaz/Melton then Jim Bowers / Julia Rabin to claim race 2. Diaz / Melton finished the day by winning the 3rd race of the day, once again in a close finish.

…

Friday brought more blustery conditions with a 15-18 knot breeze and gusts close to 25. The Race Committee wisely called for a double-triangle course for the second race which made for fun rides for all. Peter and Connie Commette commanded the day with third and first with Arthur Blodget and Terra Berlinski not far behind, courtesy of an impressive win in the first race. Doug Hart was able to inspect the leech of the Rousmaniere/ Lichtenstein main as the latter capsized on top of him at the first leeward mark of the first race of yet another rounding with 5 boats within a few lengths of each other. But the highlight of the day was formally presented at the evening’s festivities to Lee Griffith and crew Nikki Bruno for Lee’s hike/ falling out of his boat just a few boat lengths shy of the reaching finish in the second race – all within a hair’s breadth of passing a pack of boats to windward. Watch for a posting from any of the smart phone videographers of the fire-side sing-along of

Arthur Blodget’s inspiring musical ballad to commemorate Lee’s backwards full gainer.

Unfortunately, and despite valiant efforts by PRO Grant Frautschi and his team, no more races were to be had for the regatta due to an unusual weather pattern that tempted the fleet to bob around the lake on Saturday with nary a start due to unfulfilled breezes, and then two races on Saturday that started in promising winds but had to eventually be abandoned due to excessive consistent shifts in dying winds.

From a distance, the low turn-out could be a cause for concern to those who equate number of competitors to the quality of a regatta, especially when considering the fact that the previous Green Lake Nationals (1975) drew over 120 Snipes. Instead, the local fleet were the benefactors of the swarm of locusts (the travelling Snipe sailors) who were constantly seen lending advice to all the competitors on the water and off. As local fleet champion, master wooden boat builder and this year’s Master Endurance winner Joe Norton put it, “seeing Lee (Griffith) and others chatting with one of our younger sailors and new Snipe owner was great. Hosting the Nationals has definitely added energy and greater turnout to the fleet this year.” Adding to that was Emma Zeratsky, a 17-year-old hard-core iceboat sailor and fourth generation Snipe sailor (her aunt skippered another Snipe and her great uncle manned a support boat): “This is really cool. I learned a lot about crewing techniques from watching the crews on the leading boats”. The Green Lake Snipe fleet is alive and well, though confessing to not having traveled to any regattas in recent years. One has only to look at a map of how spread out the fleets are in the heartland of the US are to understand how rebuilding fleets can benefit from getting exposed to sailors from all over: their appreciation, enthusiasm and eagerness to soak up whatever tips and tricks from the front-of-the-fleeters was palatable.

Kudos to regatta chair John and Mimi Hayashi for orchestrating an outstanding event. With outstanding social events and hyper-close quarters racing, they nailed both the “serious fun” and “serious sailing” aspects of the class moto.

Position

	Sail Number	Sailor(s)	Boat Name/Club	Points	R1	R2	R3	R4	R5
1	USA 30288	Augie Diaz Julia Melton	Danilu Coral Reef Yacht Club/Biscayne Bay Yacht Club	12	2	2	1	5	2
2	USA 31297	Doug Hart Diego Escobar	Mission Bay Yacht Club	14	1	4	2	4	3
3	USA 29442	Peter Commette Connie Commette	Lauderdale Yacht Club	18	3	5	6	3	1
4	USA 31171	James Bowers, Jr. Julia Marsh Rabin	Winchester Boat Club	19	4	3	5	2	5
5	USA 30473	Arthur Blodgett	Snigitysnipe Lauderdale YC Junior Sailing	20	5	6	4	1	4
6	USA 31304	Lee Griffith Nikki Bruno	Menage a Trois Surf City Yacht Club	34	6	7	7	6	8
7	USA 29499/31280	Art Rousmaniere Lily Lichtenstein	Fozie Winchester Boat Club	36	8	1	3	DNF-18	6
8	USA 30777	Gene Soltero Laura Dahl O’Leary	Princess Soggy Bottom VIII Corinthian Sailing Club (Dallas)	38	7	9	8	7	7
9	USA 30390	Howard Miller Steve Fader	CLSA	45	9	8	9	10	9
10	USA 28470	Stephan Irgens Monica Irgens	Green Boat CCSA	51	12	11	10	8	10
11	USA 28463	Michael Hawkes Emma Moore	Green Lake Yacht Club	60	13	13	14	9	11
12	USA 29628	Francis Pollock Virginia Pollock	Charge It II Green Lake Yacht Club	64	14	14	12	11	13
13	USA 28182	Joe Norton Emma Zeratsky	Green Lake Yacht Club	67	10	10	11	DNS-18	DNS-18
14	USA 25432	Gretchen Feeney Amber Grim	Green Lake Yacht Club	76	15	DSQ-18	13	DNF-18	12
15	USA 31204	Ray Schmit Margaret Lawrence	cpyc	77	11	12	DNS-18	DNS-18	DNS-18
16	USA 21047	Ami Gerstein	Truly Scrumptious Green Lake Yacht Club	82	16	15	15	DNS-18	DNS-18
17	USA 24690	Tim Bice	Tim Bice green lake yacht club	89	17	DNF-18	DNS-18	DNF-18	DNF-18