THE NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP REGATTA
The Trek To Brookville Lake    By Dave Fagen


Are we any different from other one design classes? I think not, except that we FD sailors manage to spend an inordinate amount of time replacing halyards, sheets, tweakers, the whatchamacallit lines and, of course, miles of bungee.

Like most sailors, the weekend prior to departure was spent checking all systems, and in my case replacing those miles of bun gee. Also, removing bungees. I found one 1/4" deadended at the transom that went forward to a block near the shrouds, back to a block at the transom and deadended beneath the traveler. I haven't a clue what it was for; subsequently it was properly dispatched to the County incinerator plant along with the other 1/4 mile or so of replaced bungee.

Hint on bungee replacement: sew and tape new to the end of the old and pull through carefully. However, if the runs of bungee under the deck have become a macrame, it may be better to hand trace the old and realign the new to eliminate some of the weave which just adds friction. Did I eliminate the macrame weave? Well, some of it!

I also installed the pole launcher setup that uses the launching line as a mast puller between the Spiro fitting and a block located just aft of the furler. This allowed removal of the old mast puller.

Sunday afternoon, the boat was filled with sails and other gear and covered ready to travel. The mast was lashed to the top of the van. Monday afternoon we departed from St. Petersburg, arriving in Brookville Lake just before 1100 Tuesday. Our departure time is intentionally omitted to prevent calculation of average highway speed.

Crew Jim Kolb and I were the first out of towners to arrive at Brookville Lake, a damn valley stopped up by a dam in 1975 as a flood control project to create a damn dam lake. As an open-water sailor I am not elated with the prospects of sailing on a pond. However, here we are. A short walk from the launching area past the vulture roost, er, powerline tower, gave us a view of the lake. The view was beautiful. From the bluff we could see way down the lake. We could also see no wind. Uh oh! Well, maybe the wind will come in the afternoon. We proceeded to rig the boat with plans to maybe sail in the afternoon. Oops, wrong plan. There was a little bit of wind, very light and spotty. We did not launch. At this point we were rather disheartened, to say the least.

With not enough air to sail we decided to drive around the lake to see if we could determine areas where the surrounding terrain may funnel wind to the racecourse. Are we nuts? After driving for an unrevealed number of hours on the trip North, we go on a drive around the lake. But the lake is small so it shouldn't take long. Wrong! There are limited accesses to the lake and no close perimeter road. It took just over 70 miles to circumnavigate that little lake. By the time we returned to the launching area, the rest of the Florida group had arrived.

There was still no wind.

There was some unrest in the group as we had not met anyone with any knowledge of the regatta and no one knew anything was going on, much less a National Championships.

Wednesday things began shaping up. There was some, not much, wind so we did get in some practice. Good thing too. While sailing, there was a sudden loud "BOING" then "CLANK" sound. The "BOING' was a bungee. The "CLANK" was a block slamming against the boat. One of the racks at the transom that holds about a dozen small blocks and 5 miles of bungee had let go. The screw had pulled out. Screws? Really now, Mr. Loeb. Not anymore; now through bolted.

The earlier unrest and initial first impression disappointment quickly waned. It was soon apparent that the Hempker's had things organized and under control. They had everything planned out, including meals. A lot of work went into organizing this event at the eleventh hour with no host facility such as a yacht club with a staff to help. Breakfast every morning. And what a spread it was: assorted cereals, juices, sweet rolls, fruits, melons, milk, yogurt, coffee and even decaf, all set up by 0700. Sandwiches and drinks provided on the water, and two great dinners in the park. We missed the final awards dinner as time was pressing to prepare for a meeting at home.

Racing can best be described as frustrating. At moments we looked great, then horrible, then so-so, then great again, then horrible and finally so-so. Unfortunately for us we never looked great at the finish. It was hot, even for us Floridians. Swimming between races was essential. Hats were a definite requirement, not for keeping off the sun, but for scooping water to pour over one's head. "Go soak your head" now has a new meaning.

We wish to extend an invitation to the Hempker's to come sail the Mid-Winters in January. We promise temperatures will not be in the mid 90's, there will be plenty of current, various sized waves, fewer power boats running through the course and plenty of wind.

Paul Hemker won the regatta followed by Lin Robson/Bob Tausinger and the Stan/Bill Hyatt team. It is clear that Paul understood the shifts, where the winds would be, and FD sail trim. He proved the old adage about consistency winning regattas.

Unfortunately, I can only tell you about the on-the-water action from the stories relayed to me by the leaders since I usually needed binoculars to even watch their transoms. Rather than try to tell you about every race I will try to reduce each vignette presented to me as a educational point about how to sail better and win.

1 )The Wrenns relate how they were able to collect a bullet the first day after being led much of the race by the Hyatts. They were able to pass the Hyatts on the downwind leg after the Hyatts failed to cover them on the right side. The Hyatts apparently opting instead to go for what might have appeared to be more wind in the center.
Principle: Always cover the boat directly behind you unless you have a really good reason to sail your own race.

2)The fourth race was a demonstration of my rationalization that having boats ahead of you in light and shifty wind isn't always bad. Len Robson and Bob Tausinger were winning this race but sailed into dead calm only 15 feet from the finish(that's what Bob says). Paul Hemker noted their plight from well behind, so he headed for the other end of the line and found 1-2 kts wind and beat them by a full 10 minutes.
Principle: Watch boats ahead for indications about wind direction and strength.

3) Bob Tausinger tells about being on the starboard layline to the finish in the 5th race in 2-3 kts with the Hyatts 100 yards back and to leeward on the trapeze on the port layline. Bob reports the Hyatts blasted by like he was standing still to easily win the race.
Principle: Never sail on lakes

4)During the 6th race of the regatta, which was shortened to one triangle, the Wrenns earned the envy of everyone by starting on port from the pin end with great wind, while virtually everyone else was at the committee boat end with no wind. The Wrenns easily reached the weather mark first, but Len Robson and Bob Tausinger passed at the jibe mark and went on to win. It then became a duel between the Wrenns and Mike Braun/Dave Nault for 2nd place. They were 2 and 3, respectively, at the leeward mark, with Braun/Nault having better upwind boat speed, but the Wrenns having the best pointing. The Wrenns were unable to cross Braun each time on port, but found leebowing worked just fine in forcing Mike to tack away. The Wrenns were able to edge out Mike by 5 feet at the finish.
Principle: Finding the right combination of pointing and boatspeed is one of the major tradeoffs of sail trim. Assuming you can start a tacking duel, it certainly sounds to me that leebowing a faster but poorly pointing boat could keep you in the match with them.

There was one humorous moment I shall remember from this regatta: During the first race, my skipper (a great keel boat sailor) and I were discussing the pros(me) and cons(him) of trying to work on roll tacks. I thought it would be a good idea to start doing them, since we were already flirting with last place on the first upwind leg. Just as I started to make my point, I heard two tremendous cracks from genoas being sheeted in during what had to be great roll tacks. I proceeded to point out the sight of Lin Robson(2) and Mike Braun(1) blasting out of their tacks heading for the windward mark as a prime example of proper roll tacking. No sooner did I open my mouth than we proceeded to watch the slow motion scene of Mike dropping his tiller followed promptly by a capsize. Needless to say, it was difficult to convince my skipper of trying to roll tack after that.

The following light air points were reinforced for me during this regatta: You gotta rolltack the boat in light air or you'll lose ground on every tack. The skipper has to sit in front of the traveler unless a real feather-weight. Always keep the boat moving even if it means not pointing or sailing the long-way-around just to find the breeze.

While the series was a disappointment from the weather aspect, the camaraderie was just as good as always and I'm just sorry that 90% of the class missed it. Next year will bring us closer to the geographic center of gravity of the class and hopefully a 20+ boat regatta. Hope to see all of you there.

    SAIL#    HELM/CREW   RACE 1   2    3    4    5    6    TOTAL
1    175    Hemker/Breeden   1    1    3    2    1   (4)    7.25
2    185    Robson/Tausinger 2    3   (4)   3    2    1    10.75
3    219    Hyatt/Hyatt     (5)   2    2    1    4    5    13.75
4    301    Wrenn/Wrenn      3    5    1   (7)   7    2    17.75
5     85    Braun/Nault     (6)   4    5    6    3    3    21
6    181    Fagan/Kolb      (7)   6    6    4    5    7    28
7   1435    Wells/Emmi      (9)   8    7    5    6    8    34
8      1    Gajewski/Cobb    8    7    9    8  (12)   6    38
9    188    Helse/Anderson   4    9    8    9   12  DNS    42
10   530    Evans/Evans      10   10  10   10  (12)   9    49
11   143    McLarney/Burns   11   11 (12)  12   12   10    56
12 KC301    Cook/Sullivan   DNS   12  11   11   12   11    57



1995 FLYING DUTCHMAN NATIONALS: a literary metaphor?
 By Dennis Anderson

As I lounged on a sofa in air-conditioned comfort in the middle of the parking lot amid thunder-storms generated by a killer heat wave, munching on a delicious BLT sandwich, it occurred to me that this FD Nationals could indeed be a metaphor referring to Dante, Kubla Khan and the Paul Bunyan tales. And what might Paul Bunyan's exploits, Dante's Inferno and Kubla Khan's Pleasure Dome have to do with the recently held FD Nationals? Read on.

It was thanks to the Bunyanesque efforts of Paul Hemker, Heidi Hemker and Paul's 80+ year old mother, a successful Nationals was carried out on July 13,14,15 at Brookville Lake, Indiana. While there were, unfortunately, no sailing club facilities at this lake operated by the State of Indiana, there was a separate launch site for sail boats, which protected us from the hoards of motorboats. Using a collection of picnic tables as home base, the Hemkers did a prodigious job of providing food every morning, including eggs, pastries, cereals and juices in quantities greatly exceeding the small appetites of the sailors. Did any one else eat the home baked pineapple right side up cake? You missed a good one if you didn't. Their lunch time sandwiches were just as good! What Nationals has ever had BLT sandwiches provided for lunch? Two very nice sit-down evening meals were also given at two different restaurants for the Class Meeting and the Awards banquet.

This was the first Nationals in my 7 year stretch of participation which involved any sort of measurement. This was also organized by Paul and went very smoothly. Several boats weighed in light generating a little "animated conversation" followed by discussions of the best ways to securely attach rocks inside an FD hull.

The weather for this regatta could be easily called an Inferno, in that we cleverly planned Nationals for the heat wave of the year. Temperatures as hot as 102 degrees and sky high humidity made sailing downright miserable and even dangerous when the wind died. There were occasions where the wind threatened to provide full out trapezing and to fill in over the entire lake, but always was just a tease. Ultimately, the wind was very patchy, and shifty even by lake standards. The winds eventually died in the 5th race preventing 5 boats from finishing and also in the 6th requiring shortening of the race course. The ultimate frustration was to watch boats only a few boat lengths away sailing the same direction on opposite tacks, or another boat in full trapeze (briefly) while you were sitting still (not as briefly).

And what about the famous poetic line "And Kubla Khan a pleasure dome did decree "? If you had come to Nationals you would know that we have a new Class President, Bob Tausinger, who could be considered our "Kubla Khan". Bob's Pleasure Dome is a 45 foot RV with all the comforts of home. It served as a wonderful oasis from the heat in the parking lot for many of us during the regatta.

And what about the racing? Three days of sailing were planned with 5 races constituting a valid series. Only if we had less that 5 races completed were any scheduled for Sunday. Since we had 6 races completed by the end of Friday, initial lack of wind on Saturday followed by a long line of thunderstorms brought the regatta to an end.