Nite News 2/20/02

Nite Sailing - Pewaukee
By Fred Miller #371

Three races were sailed on Saturday morning (2/16) before the soft ice and building breezes made racing a bit unsafe.  The sticky ice and shifty Northwest breezes made for interesting racing.  Eleven sailors made the trip to Pewaukee and found some good, but brief competition on the ice.

Race 1 began with winds out of the North around 12mph but extremely variable with big puffs and wide holes.  The ice was still stiff at this point.  The left was favored at bit on the first leg and Rick Wilfert (#305) jumped out to a lead that he extended through most of the race.  Mostly, that is, until the last downwind leg.  He found one of those big holes on the right side of the course and it took him almost 10 minutes to finish.  Tom Wilfert (#503), took advantage of his son's misfortune to finish jus ahead of Tom Sweitzer (#272).

Race 2 saw even larger puffs (exceeding 20-mph) and the same pockets of dead air.  Both sides were nearly even so the fleet arrived bunched up at the first mark.  Rick Kotovic (#414) and Fred Miller (#371) jibed early and got some big air down the middle, rounding first and third with Mark Prange (#550) squeezing in-between.  The lead group stayed the same until the last downwind leg (sound familiar?) when Norb Baldus (#65 - alias "The Brown Streak") and Mark Wilfert (#350) again found good air in the middle of the course and cruised across the finish line 1 & 2.

The winds continued to build for Race 3 so many sailors changed battens and loaded up on lead.  For these guys, that was a mistake.  The winds moderated somewhat during the race and this gave those who stayed with power in the slushy conditions a clear advantage.  Mark Wilfert (#350) completed his successful day on the ice with a race win.  Tom Sweitzer followed him into the line with a solid second.

2002 Nite Nationals

The 2002 Nite Nationals are postponed until March 2-3.  The long range weather forecast is for dryer conditions and colder temperatures.  Just what the doctor ordered to get the regatta in under the wire.  It looks like the Nationals regatta will be combined with the ISA unless conditions continue to hold.  More on that next week.

Nite Talk

Winning the Mr. USA award is John Stark of Pewaukee with this report: "As a true patriot, I am enjoying the near perfect ice and 14 mph southwesterly breeze on Pewaukee."  This message came on Presidents Day, February 18.

From Larry Pearson, proud new Nite owner: "Greetings, I live in Alexandria, MN (west central MN) and am the proud new owner of a previously owned Nite. I have sailed soft water for many years and currently own a Hobie 18 which up till now offered us the greatest thrills.

With the lack of snow my long time desire to try ice boating finally came true as a good friend decided to sell his Nite. We live on Lake Carlos and I have been able to get many hours of absolutely wild sailing. This winter has been great up till now as we have had very little snow and it usually has melted and refrozen leaving reasonably good ice conditions. 

My only regret is that I didn't get going sooner."

Larry - you're going to have some fun now.  That's for sure.

From Mark Saalmuller: "Could you let me know if there are any of the Nite class ice boats in the CT/MA area? I have recently moved to CT and would like to get into ice boating."

Anyone Nites out east please contact Mark.  Then the webmaster.

Known Ice Conditions

Pewaukee Lake:   Slushy.

Nagawicka Lake:  Partially open.  Not safe.

Lake Geneva:  Open.

Green Lake:  Open.

Lake Mendota:  Open.

Lake Monona:  Unsafe at this time.

Lake Kegonsa:  Slushy.

Lake Minnetonka, MN:  Snow covered.

Cherry Creek, CO:  Frozen.  Fast ice.