BY David Newland
Over the weekend of November 2nd and 3rd, 44 dinghy racers came out to Lake Pleasant to test their skills on AYC’s big lake: Lake Pleasant. There were many familiar AYC members in attendance, along with skippers and crew from ASU and some travelers from California. The festivities started with a BANG as the cannon was fired!!
5 strong fleets made it to the starting line, which included (5) MC Scows, (8) Buccaneer 18’s (ARGH!!!), (13) ILCA’s, (11) Sunfish and (7) Portsmouth. Saturday’s conditions were challenging with a weather system developing. Race Committee was up against no wind, then some wind with a massive oscillation, then some streaky gusts with an eventual right shift of nearly 80 degrees. Fortunately, as the day progressed, Mother Nature cut us a bit of slack so the final races of the day could resemble some W/L racing.
Saturday evening, right as the weather system turned wet, sailors, Race Committee and volunteers were welcomed to the Anchor Drop Building for a nice BBQ dinner and social. Good call on securing the building, Bruce Andress! We all dined on 22 pounds of chicken, 16 pounds of grass-fed organic burgers, 10 pounds of pulled pork and enough potatoes and Cesar Salad to feed half the marina.
Sunday morning brought slightly cooler air with the wind already starting to clock to a southerly. Though light, Race Committee was able to fire off 3 solid races, pushing right up against our time-limit. And, there was enough breeze to get everyone to the dock safely as the skies to the north started to get rather dark with storm clouds.
Once sailors had a chance to de-rig and load their gear, we all ended back at the Anchor Drop Building for some food, drink, stories and awards. DD 24 was designated an ILCA 23 District Championship, a Sunfish 2025 World Qualifier event and a McAlpine-Downey/Gibbs Memorial Event.
Congratulations to the following winners:
ILCA: Winner and District 23 Champion: Dave Leuck, from ILCA District 25 (San Diego)
Sunfish: Winner and 2025 World Qualifier: Les Piehl from California, fresh off of his 2024 Sunfish World event appearance in Texas just a few weeks ago.
Buccaneer 18: Winner and McAlpine-Downey/Gibbs Trophy Winner: Tony Chapman with Chris Moore (ASU) as crew on Saturday and Joe Barnett on Sunday.
MC Scow: Brett Howe
Portsmouth: Elias Ricken (ASU) with Miguel Arteaga as crew on a CFJ
A special thank you to the following AYC members that really went above and beyond by volunteering their time and effort for our event: PRO’s Greg Woodcock and Martin Lorch, along with their team Cedric Lorch, Jonathan and Carman Martin, Bruce and Dianne Andress, Lori Reger and Roger Pawley. Ron and Lynn Simzyk, Ken and Marnie Whitely and Olivia Jackman also volunteered their time to help with launch and retrieval of dinghies in a well-organized manner! This was a tremendous effort and it really helped take the stigma away from using the North Ramp for dinghy events. Well done, crew!
Full results can be found on the AYC Website or by clicking HERE
Event photos can be found HERE