Nite News 1/19/06

2006 Nite Nationals, Lake Winnebago, Wisconsin, January 14-15, 2006

Top finishers in the 2006 International Nite Ice Yacht Association National Championship Regatta are shown here just after the trophy presentation and just before 2006 Champion Grant Frautschi bought us all a round of beer at Wendt’s Lakeside Tavern on the shore of Lake Winnebago on January 15, 2006. From L-R: Grant Frautschi-4LIYC-Madison; Tom and Rick Wilfert, Craig Adams, Mark Wilfert, Mark Prange and Tom Sweitzer; -PIYC, Pewaukee.

Frautschi took first place overall followed by Rick Wilfert and Terry Irwin. This marks only the second time in the twenty-five year history of the Nite Championship regatta that a 4LIYC skipper has brought the Nite Championship Trophy to Lake Mendota from its customary off-season home in places like Pewaukee, Lake Geneva or Lake Minnetonka.

Nite Commodore Mark Wilfert reported that this 35-boat fleet, including many first-timers, was largest for a Nite National championship regatta in many years. We couldn’t have asked for better conditions. From our launch site we sailed out to what I can only describe as the biggest sheet of ice I’ve ever seen. “An expansive desert of ice,” was one poetic description of Lake Winnebago that I heard Saturday night after we’d had a couple of drinks at the bar. Actually the ice went just about as far as you could see. PRO Andy Gratton reportedly sailed his stern steerer for 13 miles, yes thirteen miles, on one tack the previous weekend. We had plenty of ice and mild (high 20’s) temperatures both days. Saturday’s racing was marginal at best with only one race completed. A second race was started but it was apparent after about 5 minutes that it would be abandoned. On Saturday afternoon, the race committee decided to bump the starting time for the first race on Sunday up to 9 am in hopes of getting all our races in for the regatta and maybe enough for a throw out. Many skippers, including this reporter, who didn’t finish that first race hoped to erase what had been a real disaster for some of us on Saturday. Sunday’s first race began in a moderate, 12 mph breeze, which by 10 am had filled in to a steady 18 then built to 23 by the time the final race of the day’s 5 race series was completed around 1:30 p.m.

Grant sailed a fantastic regatta in a variety of conditions beginning with a 3rd place finish on Saturday in what some skippers called a drifter and others described as “too much pushing.” Most of the fleet logged a DNF for that race. On Sunday Grant showed us that he knew how to make his boat go when the wind piped up too. In Sunday’s races, Grant logged two, 2nd place and two, 1st place finishes. Even in his throw out race, the one where he tipped over at the top mark, he recovered and finished 15th.

I felt that during all five races on Sunday, it seemed that two big puffs were parked near the weather mark. The first was about1/4 mile down the lay line, the second hovered around the weather mark. Rounding that mark was always a rush. In the third race, I’d just rounded the mark in a huge hike going about 60, no it was at least 80, pushing the pedal for all that it was worth to get the boat back on the ice, when I looked up and saw Grant walking around his boat. I was ready to stop and help, but since Grant was walking around I knew that he must either have been OK or not stunned enough to impair his motor functions. Nothing, including Grant, appeared to be broken so I made the snap decision to keep going and see if I could pass another boat or two on that leg, which managed to do. Positions changed in each race though the leaders seemed to be able to shift their boats into a high gear that I could never achieve.

Though we had a couple of breakdowns, no accidents were reported or observed in the 35-boat fleet during the 2-day, 6-race series skillfully managed by PRO Andy Gratton of the Oshkosh Ice Yacht Club. Saturday night we enjoyed a great dinner, arranged by Commodore Mark Wilfert at the hotel followed by our annual business meeting. We had several spirited discussions focusing on ways to promote the class by sharing the body of institutional knowledge with skippers who are just getting started.

This was a great regatta for both veterans and first-timers with plenty of close competition during Sunday’s races. If you came, thanks for being part of it. If you weren’t able to make it, well, I hope to see you on the ice soon.

Don Sanford
INCA Vice Commodore
Nite #384

Nite Nationals 2006: It's About Speed

If iceboating is about speed, the 2006 Nite Nationals will be remembered as a regatta where speed ruled.

Never mind that Day #1 was as frustrating as it gets. We sailed only one race in winds so light only 12 boats managed to finish. This regatta was about Day #2.

Wow! What a difference a day makes. Day #2 saw five back-to-back adrenaline induced races.

Picture this: A racing surface so big you could barely see the far shoreline. Perfectly smooth ice. 34 boats on the starting line. Wind like we rarely see at a big regatta.

How windy was day #2? The wind was clocked in the low to mid 20’s with gust approaching 30 mph. Each of one of the five races sailed was windier than the previous race. The weather mark blew away. Starting blocks slide down the ice. Sailors couldn’t hold their boats at the start. If you took a glove off to work on your boat it would blow away faster than you could chase it. It took three people to help Sweitzer change a sail and boom between races. Boats tipped over. Masts blew up. Ask anyone who was there, it was blowing big.

Now with big wind comes speed…and, boy, the leaders were fast. Never mind that most of us were sailing faster than we had ever sailed before. The guys up front, and there was a group of about 8 of them, somehow managed to go faster. They were fast off the starting line. They were fast up wind. They were fast down wind. They were fast at the corners. The leaders found speed the likes of which most of us have never seen before. They definitely have taken Nite iceboat racing to a new level. If you couldn’t keep up, you were quickly relegated towards the back.

Congratulations to Grant Frautschi who was the fastest of them all. With an amazing display of speed and consistency Grant clearly deserves the title of 2006 Nite National Champion. Grant simply out paced all of the big names of Nite sailing including Rick Wilfert, Terry Irwin, Rick Kotovic and Lou Loenneke, who finished second through fifth, respectively. Tom Sweitzer, Mark Prange, Tom Wilfert, Mark Wilfert and Craig Adams rounded out the top ten.

Thanks to everyone who contributed their time to make the 2006 Nite Nationals a memorable event. A special thanks is owed to PRO Andy Gratton of the Oshkosh Ice Yacht Club and Nite Commodore Mark Wilfert.

Mike Bloom
Nite #535