2007 Mutineer National Regatta - Lake Carlyle, Illinois

Left to right: (Front Row) Ernie French, Carol French, Dwain Springer, Page Dinsmore, Vince Bobrosky, Brad Osborne; (Back Row) Jef Alback, Nate Burger, Mike Kerper, Gordon Brookfield, Gib Charles, Jim Davis, David Zale, Sandy Morrison, Rey Garza

This year's National Regatta was held at Lake Carlyle, Illinois from September 13th through the 16th. The fine folks from the Carlyle Sailing Association were our hosts and they did a great job. They have tremendous facilities, and they know how to run an event. We all appreciated the work that they did and we showed our appreciation by making a $250 donation to their youth sailing group. The donation is in tune with our constitution that states one of our purposes as "Encourage and foster the enjoyment of the social, sporting and recreational aspects of sailing", and their youth group does just that.

This year's participants started arriving on Tuesday, and most of us decided to campout this time because the sailing club is right in Eldon Hazlet State Park and they had some great sites. All of the campers were within the same area so we were able to visit whenever we found some time. There was a great camp breakfast on Thursday morning, and the First Annual MCA Campers Pot Luck on Friday evening. The image below is of the southern edge of "Camp Mutineer". Those are Brad, Vince, and Rey's tents on a little area right at the edge of the lake. It was great!!

I was not there, but I understand that a rules clinic was held on Wednesday afternoon. Some of the veteran sailors explained the basic rules of racing and also shared a few tips on how to sail faster. By Wednesday evening most of us had arrived and several of us got together and went into town for a group dinner. It was fun to visit with old and new friends, the food was pretty good too.

On Thursday we spent the morning and early afternoon rigging and working on the boats. This is one of my favorite parts of these events because of all of the sharing that goes on. People share tools, parts, and lots of information. Later in the afternoon we launched the boats and headed out for a couple of practice races to tune the boats a bit. After the races we headed in and held our annual "Cheeseburgers in Pradise" dinner, and once again a good time was had by all that attended.

On Friday it was game-on as we headed out and held our first real races. The winds were up a bit, probably in the 15 mph range, and we were able to get 4 races in. Even with the winds as they were we only had two capsizes, and only one of those was while we were racing. Brad and I went over when I got over confident and deployed the spinnaker on a reach only to get caught by a gust that we could not handle. We did get the boat back up but we were unable to complete that race. Luckily we were able to throw that one out. David and Vince went over while heading in at the end of the day, after the final race. They had relaxed and got caught off guard by a gust and went swimming.

Saturday dawned with much lighter winds. We were only able to get one race in, and that was a bit of a drifter. That evening was the Whale of a Sail dinner and dance, so we all joined in and had a great time.

On Sunday we also had light winds but at least they were a little more steady. This made for some really interesting races, I like to call it puff management, you have to find the puffs and make the best of them.

When all was said and done we had seven races. The final results Follow:

Every year we also give out what are called our "Fun Awards", these are awards that are in most cases for things other than your finsih position in the regatta. In the past they have been supplied by Vince Jones and he and his wife Mary have been very creative with them. This year my wife, Debbie, embroidered some black towels with 2007 Mutineer 15 Championship and the name of the award under that.

Fun Awards:

Flash in the Pan - Gib Charles

Tail Dragger - Jim Davis

Farthest Traveled - Sandy Morrison

Worst Breakdown - Mike "Gramps" Kerper

Best Restoration - Vince Bobrosky

Garza Award - David Zale (with the help of Vince Bobrosky)

Oldest Team - Gordon Brookfield & Tim Roraback

Youngest Team - Nate Burger & Jef Alback

Oldest Sailor - Gordon Brookfield

Youngest Sailor - Nate Burger

Top Junior - Nate Burger

Top Female - Carol French

Aside from all of these awards we also gave out some gifts to our first time participants, just for showing up.

First Timer Awards:

The following recieved copies of the Mutineer Tuning CD by Gib Charles: Sandy Morrison, Jim Davis, Tim Roraback, David Zale, and the Sea Scouts (Gramps Kerper, Nate Burger, & Jef Alback)

Gordon Brookfield and Dwain Springer were also awarded caps in appreciation for their support of the MCA, and just because they are great guys.