by Tom C.

Although it was a bit windy, there was good racing on July 4th. It was not as bad as the Wrangle, but challenging just the same. There were 3 Lasers, 2 Sunfish and 9 Butterflys on the line. Not only did we have 9 Butterflys, we had 2 brand new Butterflys. Dave has a new white boat that moved quite well in all the wind. Amber has a new orange hull with white top. It is really pretty, and she was very excited when she got it, and when she raced in it.

Sandy won 2 races and Burton won one.

Jackie and Frank were on duty and gave us some great courses. Laurie was also on the committee boat for the 3rd race.

Although it was hot, the wind made it less so.

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By Pam

Butterfly Fleet News

Wrangle Regatta

The Butterfly fleet held its annual Wrangle Regatta on June 6-7, 2009. We had a successful turnout with 46 boats registered consisting of 17 Butterflys, 16 Sunfish and 13 Lasers. The winds proved to be too much for some, a challenge to most and an absolute blast for a few. The Flying Scot fleet, with Tom Miller and Ted Perna as PROs, provided race committee and did an excellent job of getting in 6 races over two days with each fleet getting their own start and only a limited amount of mixing of the fleets during the racing.

This year the Sunfish gave White Rock Lake and the Wrangle a try as a stop in their racing circuit. We received compliments on the event and an indication that they would like to return again next year.

As a testament to the success of the event, several of the winners were new faces and not White Rock Lake usuals:

Butterfly winners were Stephen Nelson (a very talented 15 year old from Chandler’s Landing), Gary Eppink (WRBC) and Burton Shepherd (CSC).

Sunfish winners were Tony Collins (CSC), Ed Hill (Austin), and David McCary (Shreveport).

Laser winners were Mark Eldred (Houston), Doug Peckover (WRBC), and Mark Babb (CSC).

Butterfly Nationals

This year the Butterfly Nationals were held in Missouri at Lake Lotawana and the racers were challenged with one day of a little wind, a little drifting and a little rain followed by a full day of howling winds with 15 to 25 mph gusts. Three sailors from Texas made the trip, Stephen Nelson (Chandler’s Landing), Doug Peckover (WRBC) and Pam Newton (WRBC).

At the awards ceremony, Doug took first, Stephen took third and Pam took first among the women and Texas was looking quite impressive. However, a scoring error stripped Pam of the top female and bumped Stephen to 4th but it was pretty easy to calculate Doug’s 5 firsts with a throw out of 2. No doubt about it, Doug Peckover, who has sailed a Butterfly only a handful of times, is the 2009 Butterfly National Champion winning an impressive 5 races (a few by a minute or more).

Doug was competing against some extremely talented sailors that he was certain had better boat speed and boat handling. He had been experimenting with a different method of tactical race management and was able to figure out a couple of things in the first race that apparently gave him quite an advantage despite being out-sailed by his competition.

Round Table Club

The Butterfly Fleet has been dabbling with the beginnings of a group they’ve dubbed the Round Table Club open to anyone that wants to learn what they can and teach what they know. It’s slowly taking shape and is presently moving from venue to venue with discussions on various sailing topics in an effort to learn various tips, tricks and techniques from other clubs, lakes and fleets. Arlington Yacht Club is hosting the next round table on July 11, 2009 and Doug Peckover will be running sailing drills during the day and then kicking off the round table discussion. Topics and contributors are determined by the attendees and their questions. Perhaps Doug will kick off the discussions by sharing whatever it is that he was experimenting with at Lake Lotawana that won him the nationals.

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Windy, windy, windy! Three races today with winds from 15 to 25. My boat might argue 30 as she started popping and cracking with the port stay pulling out a fraction in the second race. There were two dismastings early in the day and many capsizes. What a diehard group!

Whether you were in the front of the fleet, the middle or the back, the racing was friendly and competitive and the wind shots were quite challenging. I managed to stay upright all day and nursed the boat around the course after she started objecting heavily. Doug swears he took it easy on Bruce's boat and didn't touch the outhaul, downhaul or vang all weekend and never really pulled the main in too hard. He did almost sink the boat though when he found himself sailing without a drain plug during the third race on Sunday. A few hours later, after it was Doug's turn to fill up, we found ourselves driving down the road with the gas tank open and the gas cap dangling. Boggles the mind.

Okay, maybe the drain plug thing was my fault. We both decided the drain plug wasn't snug enough and that duct tape would work better. Maybe I bought girly duct tape and it didn't stick too well. But after flagging down a motor boat between race two and three, getting some duct tape and pulling the boat on the dock and half undressing trying to find something to dry the hull off, Doug still wasn't able to get the duct tape to stick so with two minutes to go in the starting sequence and about three inches of water still inside the hull, he dropped the boat in the water and decided to sail on starboard tack most of the time and tack to port in the puffs so he could go faster and take on less water and then he was practically sitting at the mast trying to get the stern out of the water going downwind. Did I mention it was blowing up to 25 and I was doing chicken jibes while he's a minute ahead of the fleet trying not to sink. Boggles the mind!

So, after six races, Doug had won the first, second, third, fifth and sixth race and his throw out was a second in the fourth. That would make Doug the 2009 Butterfly National Champion. Then, to top things off, for a brief 10 minutes I was awarded the top female champion, which was very cool. In very short order though they realized their scoring mistake and it was too late to take the trophy and run. I was actually the third female and Lauren Hatt, the two time defending female champion, retained her title. She and her brother and father all sailed quite well.

What a great event. Great club, great people, great racing, great food!

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Shifty, shifty, shifty. Makes White Rock look quite stable. We've had everything from decent wind to no wind to rain. We raced two races in the morning and stopped for lunch and went back out for the third race in mostly rain. I'm bouncing around visiting different parts of the fleet, front, middle, back. At lunch I was solid mid fleet and had a horrible third race but caught a few personal puffs on the last leg and finished decently. I'm probably still mid-fleetish or slightly better.

Doug had two firsts before lunch and then went to the car to get something and came back all banged up and bleeding and asking for some first aid. I thought for a minute that someone took him out back and beat the snot out of him. Nope! Evil little curb took him down. So he sailed the third race not feeling so great and trying to figure out if it was possible to tack one-handed. It's not. After falling behind and looking like he was in danger of breaking his winning streak, he got an inside lift on the last leg and finished the day with another first.

Forecast says more wind tomorrow so we'll see how it goes.

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We're here! Single-handed Nationals at Lake Lotawana. The boats are unloaded and ready to go.

We arrived shortly after the Friday practice race so it won't be until the first race tomorrow that we learn first hand about the shiftiness of the lake that we've been hearing so much about.

The drive up was relatively uneventful despite much promise. Sitting in the passenger seat at midnight reminded me of driving with my mother when she began to lose her night vision and a left hand turn across traffic landed us on top of a median like a stranded turtle. Yeah, it was sort of like that. There was alot of construction during Doug's shift and alot of the highway is actually one lane on what used to be the shoulder. Thankfully, we arrived safely in Tulsa for a brief overnight and a mix up put us in a hotel room big enough to house the entire Butterfly fleet. Now we're being put up in Missouri by a former Texan.

We're off to a good start!

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(c) 2009 Doug Peckover

Photo published with permission
At the Wrangle this weekend, I left the course before the 6th race to get a jump on wrapping things up and making sure we got the competitors out of the club early. At the end of racing, the race committee came in with the scores and the photographer came in telling me he didn't see it but something happened to Doug and he was in last place and a good distance behind the the fleet at the first mark and then he did the most amazing thing and worked his way through the Laser fleet and into second place. I asked Doug what happened and it appears that he took the name of the regatta seriously and tried lasso the lead competitor at the start by wrapping his mainsheet around Mark's neck (among other things). This was too good not to share. Here is Doug's version. Nice to know that those at the top sometimes sail like me...Pam

A lot of Laser sailors have trouble holding their position on the starting line and I wanted to start at the committee boat, so I used my favorite White Rock Lake approach. This is putting my bow near the committee boat motor with 30 seconds to go and then letting the boats below me drift out of the way for – bang – another perfect start. But my plan had one flaw – one sailor was really good and, yup, he decided to start right below me. Mark Eldred is a former North American Laser champion and knows how to ruin a perfect White Rock Lake approach by simply starting below me and holding his position without drifting out of my way. Damn!

I tried to put on the brakes by pushing my boom out, but this did not work because the main sheet wrapped around him, his centerboard, and tiller. It was a real mess. With ten seconds to go, I think he said “protest” but I’m not sure because my mainsheet may have cut off some of his air. Anyhow, as a seasoned escape artist, he broke free and got my perfect start from my perfect position.

I decided to do something that is very rare for a White Rock Laser sailor – my circles. The plan was to tack onto port, clear the committee boat, and then jibe to immediately start my 720. But there were two problems – there were a bunch of Sunfish in the way getting ready for the next start, and it was blowing about 20 making it harder to bear off because the rudder stalls. When everything was sorted out, I was about a minute behind all of the Lasers that had continued on starboard. They made an almost perfect white picket fence 150 yards in the distance. Not my best start.

The normal way to close this kind of gap is by going to the opposite right side of the course to get separation and hope for a Hail Mary right wind shift. But I noticed something surprising – the entire Laser fleet on starboard was pointing ten degrees lower than me. Tacking would have ruined this advantage (see my blog article on Sailing Angles) so I continued on starboard. This is why a compass will sometimes lie to you – the fleet was on a lift, but I was on a bigger lift which they would have seen if just one person had looked back at me.

So I continued in good pressure closing the gap. After about a minute, I was headed and tacked to stay in phase for the rest of the windward leg. By the first mark, I had almost caught Bo who had sailed the entire leg completely out of phase. With the Olympic course, the next leg was a reach and I caught Bo by bearing off in the puffs to pass him at the jibe mark. But I didn’t jibe because there were six Lasers right in front of me and I needed to try something different to catch them on this technically unchallenging lower reach. So I sailed by the lee for most of the leg. It was tricky because it was blowing about 25. This did not really gain me anything, but it was worth a try.

Approaching the leeward mark was also tricky as we sailed through the Butterflys that were just starting. On the second windward leg, the Lasers split up going both left and right, so the only option was to work the boat hard and stay in phase relative to other Lasers – not the compass reading or position of the next mark (Sailing Angles). By the end of the beat, I had passed all but two with Mark Eldred leading comfortably. The run was uneventful except I was able to close the gap a little by playing the waves that were big by White Rock standards.

At the bottom of the course Mark stopped. I thought he was confused about the course because the previous one was Gold with a downwind finish and there was no committee boat. I yelled “Olympic” but he was waiting for me so we could play on the final beat. We did and split a few tacks, with him winning the race with a nice inside lift as we approached the line on port tack. Really fun race.

One more thing – during the race, I repeated to myself “never give up” at least a hundred times.

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By Pam

Photo published with permission
What a weekend! 46 boats registered, 3 fleets, 6 races, lots of wind, lots of capsizes and rescues, and an absolutely awesome Flying Scot race committee.

When I wasn't on the race course hanging all of my 120 pounds off the side doing a poor job of holding the boat down, I was running from one end of the dock to the other checking on this and that, and I simply couldn't tell you much about what happend on the race course. The weekend is a blur of wind, horns saying 'go', orange balls saying 'go here' and white bottoms sticking up saying 'don't go there.' It was a fun event. The highlight of the weekend was the race committee and all the competitors. It just doesn't get any better!

Huge thank yous to:

Windward Boatworks (www.windwardboatworks.com) for providing drawing prizes that enabled us to get almost 100 percent Butterfly registration the week before.

La Vida Starships (www.lavidastarships.com) for providing an exceptional drawing prize that enabled us to get almost 100 percent Sunfish registration the week before. Let's not forget the Laser stickers they sent just in case the Lasers showed up. Next time Doug sees his Sunfish, it will be sporting a Laser sticker (what do you bet it'll make him faster).

West Marine (www.westmarine.com) for providing all competitors with a check-in gift.

Sandwich Shoppe in Plano for the great lunch and dinner. Excellent job, Heather!

Central Plasticworks (www.sailingtrophies.com) for the very NICE trophies. They promise to fit any budget.

White Rock Boat Club (www.whiterockboatclub.com) and Corinthian Sailing Club (www.cscsailing.org) for working together and accomodating all the competitors and making them feel welcome on their docks. Fantastic teamwork!

Flying Scot Fleet for providing a most excellent race committee. Tom Miller and Ted Perna, you and your crew did an awesome job getting off 6 races with three fleets, while moving marks, getting everyone upright, getting the photographer in place for some great shots, and getting us off the water by 11:30 on Sunday.

Texas Sunfish Racing Circuit (www.sunfishracing.org) for selecting this event as a part of your racing circuit.

Butterfly Fleet 20 and all the members who pitched in to help make this a very fun event and, most especially, Shaun Hoffman for setting up our online registration and his sister for the great t-shirt design.

John Noeding (www.jnoeding.com) for generously donating his time and being our photographer. I'm certain his supremely professional photos are sure to be a highlight of the weekend.

Last, and most important, thank you to all the competitors, especially our off lake visitors for making this a very successful and fun event.

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