Hot to Trot Regatta Report and Results
September 18-19 2004
By Michael Ehnis
Photos by Suzy Hawkins
Video by Greg Schymik

This years event was split over two weekends with the first being the Interlake regatta. After a cool summer, the weather cooperated nicely with temperatures in the low 70’s and abundant sunshine. The race committee under the direction of Michael Ehnis and Forest Rogers (and a very good group of assistants from the Flying Scot fleet) pulled off five races with winds coming primarily out of the East-Northeast all weekend (read – lots of shifts and lots of moving marks).

There were many exciting moments on the water. The first race saw one of the favorites Brad Balmert over early and starting last only to make a great comeback and get a second. In that same race, Tom Ehman decided to go right and hit a monster hole leaving him in the unfamiliar position of looking up at the standings. To his credit, Tom rolled up his sleeves and had roared back in #2 and #3 to put himself back in event. Those two races saw some very good tactical maneuvering by both Tom and Clark Chapin.

The most exciting part of the regatta came in race #2 at the first leeward mark. 14 brave souls all rounded the mark in unison. A library setting this was not!! It more or less resembled the wild scene one would encounter on the trading floor of Wall Street. Did I hear someone ask for “room”?? Who dare protest another sailor? Sometimes it just pays to wait for the traffic to settle in such a situation. Sneaky Bill O’Donnel with trusty crew Brian Hawkins slowed up and cut behind the traffic jam in the two-boat circle. This all or nothing move paid huge dividends (how would like these two doing your investments – bring on the anti-acids) as they went from 13th to fourth over-all in that race.

Dinner Saturday night found the sailors congregating in the club for a buffet meal and a picture show from the days races. Everyone was honing in on the tandem of Smyk and Moore (#1006) and O’Donnel and Hawkins (#836) as both were doing quite well. Pictures revealed that the technique of each crew person was critical to the over-all success of each boat (hmmmm….. each are Scot sailors – coincidence maybe). It appeared that these Bi-boatal sailors had some of their fellow Scot sailors worried about a conversion to the other side.

The final race of the day had it’s share of excitement. With the wind constantly shifting, there were plenty of opportunities for gains and losses. The second to last up wind leg saw 6 boats get hung on the mark. Then there was the matter of a Compac 16 joyfully tacking back and fourth near the mark creating an interesting moving obstacle. The last upwind leg had most of the fleet going right (based on this being favored most of the time) to the finish with a few speculators going left. Kudos to those who went left and really made out. This included the clubs own junior sailing diva Kirsten Petro who took a remarkable fifth considering the boat she borrowed was as old as the hills and the sails resembled very good quality bed sheets.

After the boats were put away, the sailors were greeted to a pizza party and trophy presentation. Congratulations to Brad Balmert and John Riddle (Johns first year in an Interlake) for taking the event. May next year bring nice weather and more great racing.

INTERLAKE RESULTS
RANK	SKIPPER	CREW	CLUB	SAIL	POINTS	1	2	3	4	5
1	Brad Balmert	John Riddle	Lorain	1384	7.25	2	3	1	1	1
2	Bill O'Donnel	Brian Hawkins	Portage	836	26.00	9	4	5	6	2
3	Tom Ehman	Barb Johnson	Portage	1318	27.00	14	2	2	5	4
4	Clark Chapin	Bill Chapin	Portage	1317	27.75	8	1	3	7	9
5	Tyler Cathey	Felica Cathey	Portage	1341	28.00	6	9	7	3	3
6	Bob Bradley	Betsy Bradley	Jolly Roger	1332	30.00	3	6	11	4	6
7	Richard Barker	Colleen Hughes	Portage	1380	34.75	1	12	12	2	8
8	Steve Wiseman	Chuck Alday	Portage	1278	48.00	13	5	9	10	11
9	Joe Smyk	Suzanne Moore	Portage	1006	48.00	7	8	8	15	10
10	Jack Coleman	Ann Taylor	Portage	1286	50.00	5	11	4	14	16
11	Brook Smith	Craig Kivi	Portage	1322	52.00	4	10	13	13	12
12	Kirsten Petro	Sebastian Conrady	Portage	826	57.00	15	15	10	12	5
13	Tom Marriott	Nick Colella	Jolly Roger	909	59.00	10	7	6	18c	18c
14	Kevin Bradley	Doug Rombach	Jolly Roger	952	60.00	11	13	15	8	13
15	Ron Gall	Ken O'Dell	Jolly Roger	1325	65.00	12	16	14	9	14
16	Scott Marriott	Tim Marriott	Jolly Roger	1268	67.00	16	17	16	11	7
17	Steve Schewe	Nancy Schewe	Portage	1160	79.00	17	14	17	16	15