2005 Flying Scot Midwest District Championship

We only got one to cruise one day as setting up the boat took longer than we expected. The shore off Ephraim (Door County, Wisconsin) is very beautiful for sailing and the Horseshoe and Strawberry Islands make it especially interesting. Horseshoe Island is part of the Peninsula State Park and has a nice sheltered bay for anchoring, a pit toilet, and a hiking trail around the island. The strawberry islands are privately owned. The smaller ones are covered by birds. It's pretty to sail around these islands but be aware that there are some shallow areas (check the map beforehand). Farther out is Chambers Island, which features a lake with an island. However we didn't go to it.

The regatta was quite impressive with 55 boats. Two divisions were introduced and everybody could pick what divisions they would like to be in. We picked the 2nd (challenger) division since it's only our second regatta. Interestingly, we did catch up at least once to the 1st division as Melissa noticed, even though they had a 5 minute head start. Overall we got place 11 of 24 boats and again the best race was the third race on the first day when the wind got strong and aggressive and sailors got tired. Overall we improved extremely compared to our first regatta. We got much better starts and got a better handle on the rules in order to judge when we needed to give way and when we can stay on course. Our biggest loss was on the second day when we where trying to round the leeward mark. We positioned ourselves badly so that we need to give way and thus pass the mark on the wrong side. The recovery of that error cost us extremely but we still managed to get place 10 on that race.

Harry Carpenter was again at the regatta and gave good tips about sailing the Flying Scot. It's also quite nice to meet fellow Flying Scot sailors and exchange tips, experiences and have fun together. The only thing is that the schedule was quite tight and hectic, but I guess with having five races in a weekend we just have to get used to that. This was also the last regatta that our boat was sailing under the name The Conn.

2006 Flying Scot Midwest District Championship

The regatta was great and fellow FS sailors were nice as always. This regatta was also my first real opportunity to single hand our boat. I must say I didn't do too bad. Of course some of the single handed sailors are amazing as they even fly the spinnaker.

You probably noticed that we did not finish one race of the regatta. A series of mistakes that shouldn't have happened caused us to capsize. We were on the last run (down wind leg) of the race, flying the spinnaker. I was trying to gain speed by going on a broad reach. The wind started to overpower the boat and since it came now more from the side our boat started to heel. Being aware of this I adjusted our path but instead of turning downwind I turned up wind: mistake 1. When sailing toward the wind this would have been the right maneuver, but with the spinnaker up it made the situation worse. Having a black out of how to recover from the situation, I decided to jump into the water to hold the mast and prevent the boat from turtling, which would have made it difficult to right the boat. Mistake 2 was the fact that I didn't lower the center board. To gain the optimal speed on a run the centerboard is raised. However, not having the centerboard down in the water made it impossible for us to right the boat by ourself in the middle of the lake. After a while of floating in the lake we got help with righting the boat. I certainly learned a lot from this capsize experience and that's what sailing is all about.

All in all we were not good during this regatta. But the competition was mostly serious club racers and with our little time out on the lake and no chance to race we did not have much practice this year.

2008 Flying Scot Wife & Husband Championship Regatta

We did have fun and enjoyed the hospitality of the Oklahoma City Boat Club. The club had a bagpiper to open the regatta and a great band Saturday evening. Unfortunately due to the 7am skipper meeting we weren't able to party long into the night as we wanted to be fit in the morning should there be a race. During the off times we did get to see the memorial of the federal building and attend the Read Earth Festival which I would describe as the state fair for native americans. Lake Hefner looks like a very nice lake and I hope we get the opportunity to sail it sometime.

2008 Medicine Lake Sailing Club Wood Duck Regatta

2009 Flying Scot Midwest District Championship Regatta

2009 Flying Scot North American Championship Regatta