Michigan Sailing Club Dan Rice Regatta (May 27th, 2018)

this coming Sunday, May 27th, the Michigan Sailing Club (part of the University of Michigan) is hosting their annual Dan Rice Regatta (NOR).

2017 Dan Rice Regatta (pic via Michigan Sailing Club)

The Regatta is open to all sailors and ALL Classes of sail boats up to 21′ with a US Sailing Portsmouth number. Only Members of the Michigan Sailing Club (MSC) may sail club owned boats.

The regatta will be governed by the Racing Rules of Sailing 2017-2020, the rules of each participating class and the Sailing Instructions.

We will allow co-skippering.

There is no fee for this regatta; it’s free!
We will collect an optional fee ($5/person) at the skippers meeting for lunch.
Feel free to bring your own food and drinks if you prefer.

Club members may reserve a boat in advance on a first-come, first-served basis. There may be a waiting list if all boats are reserved.

The regatta will be held at the club’s property on Baseline Lake, at 8010 Strawberry Lake Road in Dexter, Michigan.

last year’s Dan Rice Regatta summary can be found here.

sounds like a nice event if you’re in the Detroit metro area and haven’t gotten your sailboat out on the water yet this spring!

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windward leg archives

the Sunfish Class has made good progress on building up a nice electronic archive of the Class newsletter – the Windward Leg.

We have recently uploaded to the Class Website most of the Windward Leg issues since they were first published in 1979. The Leg was originally printed by the builder AMF and was also the newsletter for some of the other classes they manufactured during that period such as Force 5, Super Sunfish, Apollo, etc.

As the Sunfish Class became more independent in the late 1980s, the Windward Leg gradually became the exclusive and official Newsletter of ISCA. Some of the original issues are still missing, but we are working actively with class members order to have these added to the library.

when you join the Sunfish Class, you receive the newsletter a few times a year, with race results from around the country (and world), as well as how-to tips for racing, recreational sailing, and common repairs.

you can browse the scanned Windward Leg archives on the Sunfish Class website.

sunfish adventure raid [June 2-3, 2018]

Laser Performance is sponsoring a 2-day sailing event on the lower Connecticut River near Hartford this summer.

Rig your Sunfish or any boat that can be beached (daggerboard/centerboard), pack your sleeping bags, and grab a friend!! After hearing from the sailors, ISCO has revived the Sunfish Adventure Classic and, transformed it into an annual roaming event for the Sunfish fleet to take any shore. To be known as the Sunfish Adventure Raid, ISCO is proud to host its first regatta. Join us for a two-day fun race following the lower Connecticut River from the industrial banks of Hartford, past meadowlands and wetlands, meandering past eighteenth-century seaports, to finish at tree-covered Essex. Up to two people sail per boat, carrying on board the necessary camping gear (tents, sleeping bags), life jackets, clothing and foul-weather gear, lunch and drinks for two days. LaserPerformance provides the food, drink, and staff for the Saturday night cookout and a complete breakfast Sunday, as well as a post race party! Register for two days of family fun and adventure!

sign up/registration information can be found here.  additional details can be found at LP’s Facebook page for the event.

this event has been held annually for the last several years, but had been mainly initiated and organized by just a few Sunfish enthusiasts.  it’s nice to see Laser Performance sponsoring the race this year, and hopefully they will continue that sponsorship for future years.

historically, the Connecticut River race was a huge Sunfish event, with even reference to it in the Sports Illustrated article “Here She is, the True Love Boat“:

Enthusiasts have been known to enjoy offshore cruising in, and overnight camping from, Sunfish, and have used them on river trips. Every May a fleet of about 100 of the little boats participates in a three-day race down the Connecticut River from Hartford to Essex.

I’m not sure that any of the recent events have come close to that many participants, but perhaps with LP acting as a sponsor, it will help create more interest in getting this back as a Sunfish tradition.

 

old school hiking out

sail it flat.

h/t: @tackandcross on Instagram

the life aquatic “10 April 2015”

three years later, and I still just love this miniature painting by South African artist Lorraine Loots (@lorraineloots ) of Bill Murray’s character from the Wes Anderson film “The Life Acquatic”.

Lorraine Loots – Bill Murray as Steve Zissou in Wes Anderson’s “The Life Aquatic”. 29 x 20 mm (2015)

h/t: paintings for ants at art news blog and the tumblr archive

you can purchase art from Lorraine Loots at her website: http://lorraineloots.com/

Easter greetings

it is April 1st, and Easter, and of course there are snow flurries coming down because we live in Michigan. we are spending the weekend with my family – a time for food, fellowship, fun, and then some more food!

hopefully spring gets here quickly, because I’d love to be sailing soon.

image h/t: @CFAScot

greater Detroit 2018 Sunfish race schedule

the Greater Detroit Sunfish Club (GDSC) has released their 2018 Sunfish race schedule (you can find it with additional information posted at their Yahoo Group).  you can also check them out on their Facebook page.

• May 20th – Watkins Lake
• June 3rd – Watkins Lake
• June 9th & 10th – Gull Lake Sunfish Open Regatta (details & NOR TBD)
• June 23rd & 24th – camping weekend at Muskegon Lake (Muskegon State Park)
• July 29th – U.P. Island Race (Les Cheneaux YC… details t.b.d.)
• early August – Sunfish Youth North American Championships & Sunfish North American Championships (Lake Bluff, IL)
• September 1st & 2nd – camping weekend at Higgins Lake (South State Park)
• September 15th & 16th – Devils Lake Regatta (Bruce Goldsmith Memorial – details & NOR TBD)
• September 30th – Watkins Lake

all Sunday races start at 12:30pm [uno], with the camping/racing weekends starting earlier in the day to get extra races in over the weekend.

I said this last year (and the year before… and the year before… and the year before), and didn’t get a chance to sail with this group, but I’m again going to do my best to meet up with them for some sailing races this year.