Wind Dancer Team Wins Three - LeFevre Goes 2-3-3

John LeFevre and crew racing yesterday

There was plenty of wind for the Sailors on Sunday and planing conditions downwind with spinnaker flying provided plenty of excitement. The Wind Dancer crew of Pat Dolan, Bob Miller and Gil Chesbro took full advantage and walked away with three wins. John LeFevre, Leif Alton and Don Baron had a solid day of sailing as well, ending up with a second and two third place finishes in "Sail Fevre".

Alanna Harvey and Ann Siegle served as Race Committee for the day and set a course that used the entire lake. Even so, with wind blowing 12 to 15 and gusts higher than that, all three races were completed by three o-clock after a 1:45 pm start. The longest it took to complete a race was just over 20 minutes. Said Ann Siegle later to one of the sailors, "your entire bow to the centerboard was out of the water, and we could only see white spray on the side of the boat!"

George Siegle and Laura Harvey, even though they were sailing &guot;Fins&guot; shorthanded, still flew their spininaker. It was exciting for the crews of "Fins" and "Wind Dancer" to be sailing side by side when a gust hit and put both boats up on a plane. Only a few feet away from each other, the crews were glad that the boats get more stable when they are on a plane. George ended up 3-5-2 on the day, unable to challenge for the lead only in race two after the spinnaker wouldn't come down at the end of a downwind leg they began in first place.

Merrick Hurlbutt, Adrianne Tuttle and Scott Watkins stuggled in race one, finishing fifth - but then turned it on and finished second in the middle stanza and fourth in the last race. Larry Koster sailed shorthanded with Gary Marx - making racing against the full crews very challenging. Still they finished fourth. Bringing Blaine Severin on board for the last two races, they were able to muscle the boat a little more and were competitive - even though finishing 4-4-5.

Detailed results and standings are available through links on the Racing page of the LSC web site at www.lansingsailing.org.

America's Cup Boats Begin Acts II and III in Valencia

The sailing crews of the eight teams racing in the Valencia Louis Vuitton Acts 2 and 3 today underwent their final preparations on the water Sunday - ahead of the first meaningful racing in Valencia, Spain, the Host City of the 32nd America's Cup. Today (Monday) after the skippers hold a press conference, there will be a big opening ceremony with a parade of boats, fireworks, light shows, and more. Tuesday, a full slate of pairings will launch the match racing format of Act 2 which continues through October 12th. Act 3 will be a fleet racing format in Valencia October 14-17. For more detail, visit the Americas Cup website at www.americascup.com.

MSU Sailors Second in Cedarfest Regatta - LSC Helps Out

Mary Vorel and Lindsey Vickers lead Wisconsin

Note: The MSU Sailing Team took second place in its own Cedarfest Regatta over the weekend. Sailing Team Captain Mary Vorel provides this story.

Saturday began with drizzly, gusting winds with the water temperatures at Lake Lansing being warmer than the air which was 50-55 degree all day. The skies cleared up to sunshine as the wind played with the Race Committee and sailors from West to NW at 6-10 mph, with even stronger gusts. In the ever shifting winds, the Race Committee set up triangle and Olympic courses. The A division sailed 10 races, while the B division only sailed 8 races in the MSU Sailing Center’s Flying Juniors.

An icy frost quickly dissipated and the wind filled to 6-8 mph from the S-SW just in time to finish the regatta with 4 more B division races and 2 more in A division, all Olympic courses. The 38-45 degree temperatures were a bit chilly for spectators, but the sailors kept warm in the bright sunlight. Three protests were filed in 11A resulting in a DSQ for Michigan-thanks to George Griswold, Tom Vickers, and Eric Bombery for serving on the protest committee.

Thank you to PRO Pat Dolan and other Lansing Sailing Club members for providing a great race management committee, to the MSU Sailing Center staff and MSU IM Department for the support and help during the event, and to all the Michigan State Sailing Team members for all their hard work. A grand applause and thank you to George Griswold for creating an impressive perpetual Cedarfest “Sparty” trophy from a Red Cedar log, which was awarded to the overall winner-the University of Wisconsin.

• October 10 (Sunday): Terry Kleiman, Ken Knight, Volunteer Desired.

• October 10, Lightning Fleet Racing
• October 16, Docks Out at LSC
• October 17, North Cape Fall Blowout Lightning Regatta

• Swedish Match Tour. Previous events shown continuously on the web at narrowstep.tv.
• Wednesdays: Annapolis Yacht Club Wednesday Night Series. On the web at www.t2p.tv each evening after racing.