CSC MAINSHEET (JULY 2009) POSTING

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.