[Public-List] Fwd: Thanks to the Alberg Fleet, Tom Price, and PSA... please pass it on

[J Bergquist]

Folks,

I am forwarding this message below from Russ Wesdyk who is one of TC
Williams' regular crew and a friend of mine as well (I know Russ
through dinghy sailing). Anyway, it's a very nice message that he
wanted us to get out to the rest of the Albergers.

We had a great race over to Queenstown, and some of us had a great
race back. The rest of us (which is to say me and Jonathan and our
passengers) bailed out on the race back because it was a very light
event.

I towed a dinghy because I wanted to go ashore and watch the
Auburn-LSU football game on saturday night. Unfortunately (or
fortunately, depending on how you look at it), the raft-up was so much
fun that I could not pull myself away and had to content myself with
watching highlights after I got home.

Suffice to say it was a great event. Saturday was a mix of all
conditions. After a long slog north in a stiff northerly breeze we had
a start in roughly 15 knots of breeze. It was a one-tack beat over to
the first mark. Despite our dinghy handicap and being completely in
the dark about the start timing, not to mention the fact that we were
the only registrant in the 'doublehand' division, we did manage to
work ourselves into 2nd place at one point (due to some very wily
reading of the wind shifts by my crew/tactician/foredeck/spinnaker
trimmer) Seriously folks all I did was hold the stick and take orders.
There were big variations in wind pressure and direction which allowed
for a number of position changes, but the leader of the race never
changed. Tim Williams led from rail to rail and continued his
dominance of the high point scoring. At this point I believe it's
statistically impossible for any of us knuckle-draggers to catch him.

Tim also won the race home by the way, despite being not always on the
right side of the course. As I mentioned, I bailed out on the race
home in favor of getting back to my mooring at a reasonable hour so
that I could hit the books.

Overall it was a great event. The raft was a particular high point,
just as Russ pointed out, there were more kids than adults, and also
more kids than boats. Great food, great friends, great class.

Andrew C and I are going to do a practice session on 10/12 followed by
moving our boats up to PSA in advance of the canadian regatta. If any
of you are interested in joining us, we'd love to have more training
partners. Otherwise, see you at PSA on 10/18!

Ciao,

J Bergquist




---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Russ Wesdyk <wesdykl at hotmail.com>
Date: Mon, Sep 22, 2008 at 4:05 PM
Subject: Thanks to the Alberg Fleet, Tom Price, and PSA... please pass it on
To: jbergqui at gmail.com, tc at williams.name, tprice at usna.edu


Hi.  I'm Russ Wesdyk and I usually crew with TC on Argo.  This year I
"raced" my F27 trimaran to Queenstown with my wife and one of two
young daughters (and  kayak, and full fuel and water tanks, and more
food, ice, and drinks than an army needs to invade).  We just wanted
to say thanks for the welcome of our multihull into the race and onto
one of the Alberg rafts at Queenstown.  Not sure how to get this to
the rest of the Alberg owners but thought you (TC and or Jay) would.

Hopefully the kids of the fleet enjoyed crawling over our boat as much
as we enjoyed rafting with y'all. I know Sarah (our 8 yo) certainly
enjoyed meeting the other kids.

On the race back I was thinking of our discussion about US Sailing,
CBYRA, and Class Associations.  I though it about it so much that I
ignored lifting our outboard out of the water while racing, ignored
the fact that my screacher will not go upwind, ignored a HUGE hole,
and promptly got passed by an Alberg towing a dinghy.   I just barely
saved my dignity by realizing as we approached G3 that the outboard
was down (had switched back to the jib from the screacher after Jay
passed me), pulled the outboard up and just managed to crawl past Tim
before the finish.

Seriously though, let me just say I think the Albergs racers are one
of the few groups in the Bay that have it right… and they never have
it more right than they do at Queenstown.  Great boat that can be
raced and cruised in any weather.  No "frat parties gone bad" that
seem to be the thing to do at the end of most big boat regattas these
days – just a great family friendly environment.  And kids!  A raft
with more kids than adults, more kids than boats!  What a great thing
that so many race with families.  For me… that is what it is about.
My favorite races every year are the SSA Laser frostbite series (Pure
one man OD racing and great people to hang w/ afterwards), the Oxford
OD dinghy regatta which I did in a Snipe with my 11 yo daughter Katie
(another great kid friendly environment and fantastic one on one time
with your kid in a great venue along with log canoes!) and the
Queenstown race (which I always did with TC but dreamed about doing
with my family).  So to be able to sail it with my wife and kid on our
boat (while TC had his family aboard his boat) and to be welcomed at
the raft-up was greatly appreciated.

Anyway, no National, Regional or Class association made this race
great… it was the people and the club that did.  So thanks to y'all on
behalf Russ, Lorraine and Sarah.  Thanks also to PSA and especially to
Tom Price for taking this newbie racer who had only done some OD
racing through the world of PHRF and Cruising classes and finding a
way to help me get the multihull registered to race.

Next year I hope to be back with our F27 with Katie and the dog too!

Oh, and with a real jib WITH battens, and an outboard raised out of
the water.   And maybe, just maybe, I can get TC and Argo to tow my
kayak and ice chest for me as in doing so it would allow him to be
truly OD with Jay!

Regards,

The Wesdyk Family


-- 
J Bergquist
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