Championship of Champions

by Pam

Beautiful Pewaukee, Wisconsin

As the results clearly show, Doug and Eddie didn't have the type of regatta they had hoped for.  In many ways, it turned out even better.  Not only did the guys have a good road trip and lots of fun at the event but Eddie really impressed the heck out of Doug.  He was the perfect crew.

Doug, in a moment of feeling rather uncompetitive, asked Liz Walker of U.S. Sailing when the event would be held in Lasers.  Her answer was a very emphatic, NEVER.  However, she indicated that they would LOVE to hold the event in Butterflys because they want classes where women can compete.  How awesome would that be?  The challenge is finding a host club that is willing to put forth the effort to host such an event which means coming up with 20 like new and fairly identical boats.  It is no small undertaking but the event has never been held in Butterflys and it may well be the one class that can truly determine the champion of champions because, not only can women compete equally, but skippers can be competitive in a Butterfly even if they have never sailed one (unlike what Doug and Eddie experienced with the C Scows).

Despite everything, Doug came home pretty jazzed.  He loved the experience.  He was wearing a hat cam and we sat down to watch some of the footage.  They'd get a good start and he'd think they were doing well and then they'd just get rolled and spit out the back.  Every race they tried something different and every race was a carbon copy of the one before.  I told him he should string the starts together, speed up the film and add some Roadrunner cartoon sound effects.  At one leeward mark rounding there was a guy right behind them who was getting frustrated with how slow they were going and he finally went to leeward of them and sailed through their wind shadow as if they weren't there.  Meep, Meep, yeeaaooww.

They didn't have boat speed and never did figure out how to make that boat go.  Doug, being the competitor that he is, actually kept thinking the next race was going to be the turnaround.  He went from a goal of winning, to a goal of top 3 ... 5 ... 10 ...15 and finally, please, please, please don't let us be last.  When they called it quits on Sunday, he was disappointed because he was just sure he was about to put all the pieces together.

Next year the event is in Lightnings.  Somehow, I think Doug is going to be doing some Lightning sailing this year.  Give him a ring if you're looking for crew.