Pymatuning Spring Classic Draws Record Turnout

Skip Dieball

2001 Spring Classic

Pymatuning Yacht Club May 12-13

While at the Southern Circuit stop in St. Pete, the rumor of the 2001 Pymatuning Spring Classic being a "practice" weekend for the Worlds teams headed to Italy was wide spread. Our team of Larry, Jody and myself had already planned on attending, and it was an added bonus for us to hear of so many people planning to travel to the event.

One of our team's pre-regatta rituals is to guess the number of boats. The hype must have gotten to me because I guessed 6 1, Larry had 56 and Jody had 49.....with the "Price-is-right" rules, Jody won that contest.....an incredible 51 boats showed for the event!

I overheard one of my Pymatuning friends talk about some of the things you can count on at the Spring Classic. One is the mountain of free beer. This year's sponsor was Labatt Brewing Co & Tri County Wholesale Distributors of Youngstown. They furnished enough Blue & Blue Light to make any Canadian Hockey Team proud! The fleet attempted to drink them out of beer, but more cases arrived. Another thing you can count on is the friendly hospitality by the locals at Pymatuning. They will literally go out of their way to make sure everyone is comfortable and happy.....usually that only takes topping off your cocktails.... Finally, with it being the "Spring" Classic, the weather is usually unpredictable. On Friday night, there was a terrific storm that blew through and with it came colder temperatures. In years past, everyone would huddle around the fire, but this year the PYC team made sure that everyone would be warm as they brought in portable heaters for the enclosed porch!

Friday's front had some leftover rain for Saturday morning. More storms were lingering to the north and the Race Committee prudently postponed until after lunch. The delay didn't affect a couple eager teams from getting in some practice. Although the wind was up and it was raining, it proved to be a good time to shake out the sails/rig and limber up the muscles. Our team and Bill Faude's team had some great tuning in the morning and it certainly contributed to both of our success for the weekend.

After Saturday's lunch, the fleet headed out for some great sailing. Of those having good scores was '91 North American Champ Jody Lutz, Jed Dodge, Bill Faude, David Starck, Tom Starck, Jack Elfman, George Fisher.....truly top-shelf competition.

Saturday night brought on more Labatt's, a fabulous catered dinner, war stories and renewed friendships. I particularly enjoy going to Pymatuning because not only are the people so nice, but there really isn’t anywhere to go, so the competitors are forced to party with one another, which is really a good thing!

Sunday’s weather was better than expected.  All the rain had moved out, but the breeze was still up.  With the scores tight, the two races were very intense.  I have trouble recalling many specific things about racing (but not the parties!), but one this I remember was a large pack gathered at the leeward end of Race 4’s start.  About 10 boats were pushing the line close, and they were all caught for being over.  We were one of the boats and we had a tough time getting caught up to the leaders.  Fortunately we had a strong 2^nd beat and we were able to get close to the top 10.  David Starck maximized his position on the fleet overall and had a good shot of winning the event going into the last race.

We knew the scores were close between David’s team and our team, so our strategy was to finish in front of David in the last race, hopefully getting a few boats in between.  Larry pulled off a spectacular start in the last race and we were in the top three for most of the race.  Jack Elfman, Tom Starck and George Sipel all made a run at winning this race, but fortunately for us, we took advantage of the oscillating wind and surprised that group with gains to the left (after a 35 degree shift to the right on the second beat).  Super Dave Starck rebounded from a tough 2^nd beat and held off a charge by Jody Lutz and Bill Faude to finishing 2^nd for the regatta, with Jody 3^rd, Bill 4^th and Jed Dodge 5^th.

 

The number of boats that came to this event was mind numbing considering the time of year.  However, it goes to show that when you consistently put together a great regatta, the word will spread and more people will come year after year.  I have a feeling that 64 boats will be a next year’s event….so Jody & Larry, get your estimates in now!  And Jody, you can’t guess one boat just because you know that Larry and I always over guess, just to win the contest.