Western Challange: This year was...EPIC!

Battle Lake, Minnesota. Site of the 2018 Great Western Challenge. Who could have predicted that this year’s Challenge would be…wait for it…epic!

For the first time in years, Saturday beat out Friday as the best day. Don’t get me wrong, Friday was still awesome. It was the perfect day to get back on the ice and dust off the cob webs. The 58 sailors that made the trek to northern Minnesota enjoyed medium air, a huge sheet of mostly smooth ice and more scrub races than their necks could handle.

But, ask anybody what made this year’s Challenge so special and they will all say Saturday. Without a doubt, Saturday was the day everyone will be talking about for years to come.

On Saturday, the two fleets each sailed 5 adrenalin filled races. They raced very long courses on a huge sheet of very fast ice and in big, big winds. How big? Most of the day the wind blew about 18 mph. This was a day for the MS1. Those that had them were smiling. And for good reason: Word on the ice was that in race 4 the gold fleet raced in sustained winds of 20 mph with gusts to 26!

Upwind and downwind the boats were just flying. Necks were snapped back at the weather mark and runner sharpness was measured at the leeward mark. Across the course, boat handling skills were tested. Surprisingly, for all the wind, there was very little carnage. At the end of Saturday, Ron Sherry held a slight lead over Hungary’s Peter Hamrak and Minnetonka’s John Dennis. JR Francis of Florida and Chris Berger from Chicago round out the top 5. Other Minnetonka notables saw Rob Evans in 6th and Mike Bloom in 8th.

In the Silver Fleet, former Western Region Commodore Mike Miller was at the top of the score sheet followed by Chris Gordon and then Richard Gordon

On Sunday, the breeze was even bigger than Saturday and was forecasted to build. Understandably, most of the sailors chose to enjoy the shelter of the pits. Less than a dozen boats even dared to venture out to the course. It was so windy that Mike Bloom made it out to the course without raising a sail. He loaded all his gear in his boat and reached out to the course under a dead stick simply by standing on his plank. Once at the course, he was not surprised to see it was mostly Tonka sailors out on the ice. Notably, J.D. was already out sailing a few hot laps. Pat Heppert was there with his beautiful C Skeeter. Scott Brown and Jim McDonagh were also out there ready to sail. But, after a short delay, the powers to be decided there would be no races and declared the regatta complete.

A special Thanks is owed to Mercedes Auger, Deb Whitehorse and Pat Heppert for setting the marks, running the races and scoring. They are the greatest. And thanks to all the sailors who traveled near and far for making this yearly event such a success.

Results

How about the new scoring program used by Deb!
Here are the final results.
http://jpvm.org/results/2018/IDNIYRA/Great%20Western%20Challenge.html

Special thanks to the ice scouts: Local iceboaters Dirk Siems of Ottertail who took photos and measured this ice for a week. He sailed it on Wed. Battle Lake Super DN sailor John Everts who sailed and scouted the entire West End starting on Monday. Huge thanks to Mike Risbrudt of Ashby who checked other venues of Christina and Pelican Lake and arranged for the TV coverage out of Fargo on WDAY. I hope to get the link of his story today to share.
Lastly, photographer, JH Peterson of Minneapolis. He shot over a thousand photos and has posted 8 of his best on Facebook Minnesota Iceboaters. He expects to add more. I mentioned this event to him last September!

Mike Miller
US5369

2018 Great Western

2018 Great Western Challenge

Minnesota

Results are final as of 10:52 on December 2, 2018

Gold Fleet

Sailed: 5, Discards: 1, To count: 4, Entries: 26, Scoring system: DN Race System

Rank
SailNo
HelmName
Nat
R1
R2
R3
R4
R5
Total
Nett
1st US44 RON SHERRY 1 1 1 1 (12) 16.0 4.0
2nd M53 PETER HAMRAK 2 2 (3) 2 3 12.0 9.0
3rd US4691 JOHN DENNIS (13) 3 2 5 2 25.0 12.0
4th US807 ROBERT FRANCIS 3 5 (7) 3 4 22.0 15.0
5th US5166 CHRIS BERGER 6 (7) 4 6 1 24.0 17.0
6th US4975 ROBBIE EVANS (11) 10 5 4 6 36.0 25.0
7th S713 RICHARD GUSTRING 5 6 (8) 8 8 35.0 27.0
8th US5432 MIKE BLOOM 8 8 6 7 (10) 39.0 29.0
9th US2500 ERIC SMITH 4 4 (DNS) 17 7 59.0 32.0
10th US4487 CHAD ATKINS 7 9 (13) 9 11 49.0 36.0
11th US5219 KENT BAKER (19) 13 10 12 5 59.0 40.0
12th G107 BERND ZEIGER (14) 11 14 10 13 62.0 48.0
13th KC5514 JOHN CURTIS 9 14 12 (16) 14 65.0 49.0
14th Z102 ARNAUD L'HUILLER 10 16 9 (18) 16 69.0 51.0
15th US216 RICHARD POTCOVA 18 15 11 11 (DNS) 82.0 55.0
16th US5508 TIM SUGAR 12 12 (18) 15 18 75.0 57.0
17th US4923 JEFFREY SOLUM 17 17 (19) 14 15 82.0 63.0
18th US637 JOSEPH MEADE 15 (20) 15 19 17 86.0 66.0
19th US5298 SCOTT BROWN (DNS) 18 16 13 19 93.0 66.0
20th KC2766 PETER VAN ROSSEM (22) 22 17 20 9 90.0 68.0
21st US5602 TOM MEYER (23) 21 22 21 22 109.0 86.0
22nd US5510 HUGH SUGAR (24) 23 21 22 21 111.0 87.0
23rd US4868 JULIE RICHARDS 21 24 20 (DNS) DNS 119.0 92.0
24th US5214 JOHN MCONOUGH (DNS) 19 DNS DNS 20 120.0 93.0
25th US4482 RICHARD WOLLMAN 16 (DNS) DNS DNS DNS 124.0 97.0
26th US1610 BRUCE BROWN 20 (DNS) DNS DNS DNS 128.0 101.0

Silver Fleet

Sailed: 5, Discards: 1, To count: 4, Entries: 30, Scoring system: DN Race System

Rank
SailNo
HelmName
Nat
R1
R2
R3
R4
R5
Total
Nett
1st US5369 MIKE MILLER 1 4 (DNS) 3 1 40.0 9.0
2nd US582 CHRIS GORDON 3 3 2 (5) 3 16.0 11.0
3rd US5498 RICHARD GORDON (11) 2 6 7 2 28.0 17.0
4th US111 MATTHEW KOCH 6 (11) 3 4 9 33.0 22.0
5th US4203 PAT FITZGERALD 4 (20) 4 10 4 42.0 22.0
6th US4490 MIKE MADGE 5 (8) 5 6 8 32.0 24.0
7th US5420 MICHAEL DEYE 7 7 8 8 (11) 41.0 30.0
8th US5486 DAVE ELSMO 2 1 (DNS) 1 DNS 66.0 35.0
9th US1277 HAL BOWMAN 8 (16) 15 9 5 53.0 37.0
10th US5526 DAVE GLUEK 12 9 12 (14) 6 53.0 39.0
11th US5608 NICK HOVLAND (DNS) 15 7 11 7 71.0 40.0
12th US5517 JASON THOMPSON 13 5 10 17 (DNS) 76.0 45.0
13th US4137 KEN MOYER 16 (17) 14 15 10 72.0 55.0
14th US1576 BRIAN JONES (18) 18 13 13 13 75.0 57.0
15th US5158 JOHN BUSHEY 9 6 (DNS) 16 DNS 93.0 62.0
16th US5050 TIM OELSCHLAGER (21) 14 16 20 15 86.0 65.0
17th US4249 DAVE GLICK (DNS) DNS 1 2 DNS 96.0 65.0
18th US1313 BOB RAST 15 10 11 (DNS) DNS 98.0 67.0
19th KC5493 ROBIN WYNNE-EDWARDS (22) 19 17 18 14 90.0 68.0
20th US445 BOB CAVE 10 12 (DNS) DNS DNS 115.0 84.0
21st US3433 ROBERT CUMMINS 14 (DNS) 9 DNS DNS 116.0 85.0
22nd US5603 BENJAMIN WITMAN (DNS) DNS DNS 19 12 124.0 93.0
23rd US2360 PETE JOHNS 19 13 (DNS) DNS DNS 125.0 94.0
24th US5627 JONATHAN THICKENS 23 (DNS) DNS 12 DNS 128.0 97.0
25th US4987 DOUG KOLNER 17 (DNS) DNF DNS DNS 141.0 110.0
26th US294 LOU LOENNEKE 20 (DNS) DNS DNS DNS 144.0 113.0
27th US3535 JEFF KENT (DNS) DNS DNS DNS DNS 155.0 124.0
27th US3576 BRUCE JONES (DNS) DNS DNS DNS DNS 155.0 124.0
27th KC5457 COLIN DUNCAN (DNS) DNS DNS DNS DNS 155.0 124.0
27th P71 LESZEK ZIOLKOWSKI (DNS) DNS DNS DNS DNS 155.0 124.0


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