We still have some TCYS T-shirts available for $15. They can be picked up at LMSS directly or we can get them to your club. Please contact Sherry Maxwell or email sherry.maxwell (at-sign) mchsi.com to order a shirt.

Final Season results for Optimist RWB are now on-line along with about 1/2 of the Finale results.

Minnesota Opti Sailors Challenged by shifty conditions at Lake Beulah

Twelve Minnetonka, 4 White Bear Lake and 2 Lake Calhoun sailors attended the Opti Inlands August 3-5. Beulah provided fickle winds all day on day one: a morning of hope and then evaporation of wind followed by a shiftiness only the best sailors survived. One hundred and four sailors tackled the wind and on-land fun. Day two resulted in less wind, and no sailing opportunities. Sand volleyball, egg toss and fun with friends were the order of the day seeing old friends and making new ones a great raffle ended with outstanding support of all the sailors and invitations to the RWB Chip for the top 9.

The Minnesota stars were Johnny Ferguson, with a 4th, 1st and 7th taking 1st in the Blue Fleet(11 and 12 year olds)and 2nd Overall - just two points behind the winner, Griffin Rolander, Lake Geneva. Johnny's tenacity, talent and skill paid off, as he both defended from the lead and attacked (in one race) from behind. A young Calhoun sailor, John Hartfiel, was 1st in the White Fleet (10 years and under), and 8th overall! Minnetonka sailor Declan Armour finished 4th in the Red Fleet (13 years and older). Other worthy competitors included Sam Sigel, Max Peterson, Max Bernstein, Corbin Burdick, Jack Bitney, Luis Narvaez, Annika Ekholm, Valerie McGoldrick, David Dotterweich and Sydney Maxwell for Minnetonka - Kate Cox, Conner Lee, Molly and Susie Voltz for White Bear Lake - and Aidan Boylan from Lake Calhoun. See http://www.ilya.org for complete results.

River Run and Lake Harriet results are on-line.

River Run and Another Day in the Bay Regatta NOR's are on-line.

Wonderful wind at Lake Harriet means great racing. The strongest winds of the TCYS season showed up at Lake Harriet and it was cold - a new low high record was set by 3 degrees (61) and it felt like spring weather. A good half dozen sailors got dunked and came in early to dry off. Strange situation when the water is warmer than the air temp in July!

The stereotypical Calhoun wind showed up for Aquatennial. It was suppose to be 8-12 from the NW instead while the clouds above drifted from the NW the sailors down below got SW winds with the occasional 45 degree shift! You had to sailing protecting yourself against those shifts. After lunch the winds shifted further west and lessoned that particular challenge. We got five races in in all fleets with only a couple of capsizes as the wind was everything asked for.

Lake Minnetonka Sailing School hosted another fine Deephaven regatta on Friday, July 3rd. The wind was light again - what is this July? - and the fleets got a couple of races in before lunch but that was it.The motor boat chop came up after lunch, the wind died a bit and it was definately not raceable so there was no afternoon conflicts with the Independence Day motorboat crowd. Turnout was the same as White Bear's event so no holiday effect. Hopefully we can get some improved weather for the rest of the year!

Tommy Garber won the Optimist fleet and Nick Price / Ryan Luterbach won the Club 420 fleet. They'll have their names engraved on the Deephaven wall plaques. This was the second week in a row that we've had some very tight finishes - Tommy Garber had the same number of points as Jack Bitney and the finish in race 3 was the tie breaker.

Friday we traveled to White Bear Lake and the Ramsey beach for Manitou days where the water level was lacking (to say the least!) and the wind was dodgy. Normally the rock reef is something you damage your rudder on when you aren't paying attention and sail over it. This year you could picnic on it. The county has done a good job with the geese - no goose poop!

With the light wind, sitting still in your boat was the order of the day. Depending on the fleet, we were able to get one or two races in before lunch and that was all. In at least one fleet the last 8-10 boats were given their place as no one was moving and the tacos were going fast. White Bear had another gigantic raffle this year and gave away a ton of nice stuff. Thanks White Bear Sailing School!

Results for the Mike Plant regatta are online. The Mike Plant regatta was a nice start to the season - warm, winds in the 6-9mph range most of the day and the iffy part of the forecast failed to materialize. A big push for the 4.7 Laser rig meant a smaller Optimist fleet as most of the red fleeters moved up but a huge 4.7 turn out! Thanks to the people at WCSC for putting on the first event of the year in such a nice fashion. We'll see you again in a few weeks for Another Day on the Bay.