"Okay, Charlie - why on earth are you writing about Louie's 12th Last Regatta like 5 months later?" Because I want to, so shut up and read.
If you have followed my blog to any degree, you'll realize that I have a complete lack of consistency when it comes to posting on my blog, so when I'm in the mood to write (like I have been this week), tap-tap-tap goes the keyboard.
Before I begin, you poor saps reading this should know that I am sipping on a home brew stout in order to bring the "Hemingway" out. Okay, maybe not.
What was I writing about again?
Ah yes, Louie's 12th Last Regatta! What an event. I searched back through the blog to see if I had ever written about one of my favorite weekends of the year (and by "search back through the blog" I mean "thought about if I had for 5 seconds and couldn't remember"). If a description of the regatta has graced the wonders of my blog in posts prior, oh well. Here goes again...
Louie's Last Regatta started back in 1999 by a small group of sailors here in Milwaukee looking for one last blast before putting their beloved boats on the hard. The regatta is a charity event benefiting Children's Hospital of Wisconsin that takes place in the Milwaukee Bay on the last weekend in September. The past few years have seen anywhere between 120 and 150 boats and have raised upwards of $150K for the hospital each year. All of the degeneracy aside, it makes the event that much more fun to know you're supporting a worthy cause.
2010 in particular was a special year. It was the first year the regatta had seen a scrappy little boat named
Yep, It's Jep fighting the Lake Michigan seas with the big boys! Now you'll have to forgive me if I cannot recall every little detail about the day since it was, you know, 5 months ago. The day also started with a bloody Mary bar at McKinley. Is there really any other way to get a race day started? No way there is!
We sailed Louie's with a light crew consisting of myself, Drew, and James Young III, henceforth known as JY3. The day started out sunny but rather chilly. If my memory serves me correctly, the temperature was in the 50s with 3 to 5 foot seas and North or North-northwest winds blowing maybe 10 to 15 knots. How did I remember the wind direction you might ask? Simple - I'm full of it. Actually, I remember because we were headed south on our downwind run. It also got cloudy and the temperature definitely did not increase.
We were in the last group to start the race. What's unique about Louie's is that every boat is technically in their own "division" so you're assured to take first! The name of our division was
Here Comes the Judge.
When the race started I can tell you this: the Judge was not coming or going anywhere because the Judge started off in the wrong direction and had no idea where the hell he was going. Luckily we were not the only clueless sailors out there, but it was certainly frustrating. When we finally figured out where the hell the first mark was, it was game on!
Drew and I were the "experienced" sailors on the boat. While JY3 was and is still quite green, he held his own and did as he was told. Even though our start was, to put it lightly, brutal, our tacks were crisp and quick once we were dialed in. We also managed to hit every mark without over or under shooting.
That's what she said! Sorry, I just had a Michael Scott moment. Moving on...
The second to last leg of the "beer can" course was a downwind run. One thing I figured out this summer was when running down wind, pull up your swing keel (if you have one)! It honestly gave us .5 to .8 knots of boat speed!
When we finally heard the toot of the air horn indicating we had finished, it was time for a celebratory beer! Unfortunately as the seas were 3 to 5 feet, both JY3 and I were getting a little queasy after bobbing around for a couple hours. Nevertheless, once we made it inside the break wall our "lumpy" stomachs had subsided enough for a fizzy cold beverage.
We got the boat all buttoned up at the slip and walked over to the Milwaukee Ale House for the post race festivities. We bumped into some friends we met earlier in the summer, had some beers with random sailors and generally enjoyed the atmosphere of the event.
Finally came the awards ceremony. The MC of the event shocked me! Before announcing our 34th place finish (out of 60 or 65), he gave a shout out to my humble little blog! After all was said and done I found him in the hall and asked how on earth he stumbled upon my blog (I also wanted to make sure the poor man had a life since he actually read this drivel). As he told it, they were out sailing one day and sailed by a boat with a very interesting name. He thought with a name like
Yep, It's Jep, there had to be a story. Smart guy!
Surprisingly, when it comes to local sail lofts, the Milwaukee market is quite limited. I had heard of S Lee Sails in Port Washington, but when I attempted to contact them, the listed number had been disconnected. Bad sign. The North Sails loft in downtown Milwaukee is over priced and last time I had some simple work done they took forever. That left me with Nielson Sailmakers in Racine.
UPDATE 3/26/2011: I picked up the sail this weekend. Not only did they reset the bolt rope at no cost, they also added a tell tale window! Chris said that if he were using the sail, he'd want a tell tale window, so he installed one!
