The 2007 U-Gotta Regatta was well attended with competitors traveling from Chicago and Green Bay to participate in the Midwest regional championship regatta.

The wind Gods delivered, bringing us great wind for both days of sailing. Temperatures were in the 70-degree range with warm south winds of 20 to 30 mph the first day. The top wind gust clocked in at 42 mph. That gust probably came through during the second race. This is just after nearly everyone switched from their blades to their genoas because there was a significant lull at the end of the first race. Sailing with the 150 up in the 25-knot breeze proved to be challenging and expensive. Many teams chose to switch back to their blade after the first beat, instead of flying the chute on the downwind run.

High Heels, helmed by John Dennis, showed incredible boat handling and speed taking all three bullets in the big breeze. The top boat speed for over 30 seconds recorded on Kattack was 12+ mph. Zoom, appropriately named, won the top boat speed award.

The highly competitive J/24, 007, experienced a brief setback during the first race when their tiller broke. Those ingenious sailors repaired the tiller using a hammer and duct tape. It was just enough to get back to the club where they had already arranged to gain access to a tiller from J/22 Rocket Dog. Here’s a quote Joshua Bones, their crew member for the regatta from Chicago, “Broken tiller: 400 dollars; torn borrowed kite 2,800 dollars, ripped spinnaker halyard cleat from the mast: 35 dollars; learning that you can actually bruise your belly button, priceless!”

After the races on Saturday, everyone piled into the club and shared stories while eating pasta and salad. The out of town crews from Sweet Pea and Dirty White Boat along with the Wayzata Yacht Club members were riveted by the Kattack replays and the video footage taken by Pete Crawford.

The second day had lighter winds 5 to 15 mph out of the South East. John Gjerde on Oz won the first race, with Chad Olness on Zoom won the last two races of the regatta.

First place for this years U-Gotta Regatta and District 15 Championship, went to John Dennis and crew on High Heels followed by Chad Olness on Zoom in 2nd, Jerry Krebsbach on Usual Suspects in 3rd, Dave Anderson on Dirty White Boat 4th and Steve Rickman on Rush in 5th.

Trophies on Sunday displayed exceptional photographs taken by Dallas Johnson. If you want to purchase a photograph of your boat racing during the regatta, visit www.dallasjohnson.net/U-Gotta.htm.

We’d like to thank the following companies for donating merchandise that added to the event: General Mills, Kattack, Hooper’s Yachts, Z Sails, Atlas Boat Pad, Quantum Inland Sails and Mauri Pro Sailing.

Wayzata Yacht Club – Lake Minnetonka, Minnesota, USA • © 2008 Wayzata Yacht Club. All rights reserved. Site Map