This year's EC12 Nationals was one of the more difficult Nationals to do well in. The competition was tough. It consisted of 4 past EC12 Nationals Champions and 3 other class National Champions. In addition, the competition was big - 37 boats representing 15 states! This ties the class record for a National's attendance. And if that is not hard enough, the event was plagued by a HUGE high pressure area over the midwest creating little to no wind the first 2 days of the racing.

Under these conditions, it was extremely difficult to stay consistent as most of the skippers found their scores all over the place. However,consistency was the name of the game, and it soon became evident that Reichard Kahle was the most consistent. At the completion of the event, 10 races were counted and Kahle dominated the fleet with a 12 point lead over second. Interesting enough, Reichard only won 1 race out of 12 sailed, while Danny Thomas (2nd) and Mark Rinehart (3rd) won 3 races each.

When your hot your hot and when your not your not.... this was definitely the case for Reichard as not only did he win the Fleet Racing Nationals, Kahle also defeated; Ottopal, Maurer, Rowland, Kelter, and Brawner to win top honors in the Match Race Nationals. But his winning streak did not end there either, at the awards banquet Kahle was also the winner of a new EC12 hull from IFG in our door prize give away. This week would have been an excellent time for Reichard to play the lotto!

Wednesday Practice Day

After 7 months of planning, 5 club meetings, and over 200 hours of typing, emailing, and web site designing, the EC12 Nationals finally came to the buckeye state. The event kicked off Wednesday at noon with the measuring of sails and tank testing the boats. Most of the competitors had multiple sets of sail, which required us to measure some 70+ sets. Out of all those sails, a few were small 1/4 to 1/2 narrow at the mid-girths, but only one was found to be oversized. The tank testing went smoothly also as all but one boat passes with ease. Upon completing your measurement form, the sailors picked up the sailing instructions and a keepsake 2004 Nationals T-shirt.

Mid afternoon, Don Peacock got the Match Racing Part of the Nationals under way completing most of the first round of sailing. Conditions were tough though, as the wind was so light there was little to no engagement. The event was a single elimination best out of 3 moves on.

At 4 pm, Paul White and Jerry Callahan (Co RD’s) called for all boats in the water 3 back to back practices races. Yes, you read that correctly, all 37 boats at the same time. It was thought this would be a great way to check your equipment and for radio problems. I don’t believe all 37 decided to sail, but I did count 27 in one picture and it seemed like you could pretty much walk across the pond from boat to boat. As the boats crossed the starting line, the wind totally died causing the RD to quit for the day after only one practice. We ended the evening with a Welcome Aboard Party at the club where we polished off 17 Pizzas, 4 orders of bread sticks, and 4 orders of wings.

Thursday Day 1

The competitors were welcomed by the city of Dayton's Park and Recreation director, Dick Zimmer. Following that, the fleet was quickly divided into 2 19 boat fleets, and we had 2 back to back seeding races. At the completion of the seeding races, Peacock got the match racing going while the scorers figured out how the boats should be divided between 3 fleets for the remainder of the regatta. After an hour and a half, the match racing series had now decreased from 31 sailors who started the event on Wednesday to just 8 remaining.

After lunch, the scorer keepers placed the 37 competitors into 3 fleets; Red, Blue, and Gold. Red fleet raced first (heat 1) with 15 on the water. At the end of the race, the top 4 finishers stayed on the water and moved up to race against the blue fleet (heat 2). The rest of the red fleet came out of the water to await the next race. At the end of the blue race, once again the top 4 finishers stayed on the water to compete in gold fleet (heat 3) while the last 4 finishers in blue were given a red clip and moved back to red fleet for the next race. Finally, gold fleet raced and at the finish the last for places would be moved back to blue. At the completion of the gold heat, scores were then given to all 3 fleets, 1-37. The gold fleet finishers received 1-15, blue fleet 16-27, and red fleet 28-37. This would be the format for the racing for the rest of the regatta. At the end of day 1, we had completed 2 seeding races, a round of match racing, and 2 more fleet races. Reichard Kahle was the leader at the close of Day 1.

Friday Day 2

After a very light air day of racing on day one, everyone was hoping for a nice breeze and a lot of racing. However, that did not happen. Instead, the pond turned to glass, totally dead no air. The Rd's postponed for a little while and that gave us time to eat some of the wonderful breakfasts, Jennifer Rowland, Karen Maxson, and Jackie Paugh had prepared.

After a short delay, someone sneezed and the RD decided this was going to be it for the wind... so we crawled through 3 more long, tough, drifter fleet races. It took from 9 am to 4:40 pm, 7 hours to get through 3 fleets racing 3 races - wow! Even under these tiring conditions, everyone seemed to be having fun, and the event really began to start seeing its first signs of the regatta leaders.

Following the fleet racing, were the quarter finals of the match racing. The 8 remaining skippers became 4. The big upset of the day was when David Brawner somehow eliminated Danny Thomas. If you had $5.00 on that one I think the payout was something like 20 to 1.

Saturday Day 3

The forecast was much better with winds estimated to be 5 to 10, yeah! It took the wind a while to find the lake, but it did finally arrive and we had some really good close racing. For the day, we completed 4 more races, the semi-finals, and the finals of the match racing. But all good thinks must come to an end, and with the awards banquet planned that evening, the RD's decided to try to end the racing at 4pm. For the regatta, we ended up sailing 34 races. That was 4 seeding races followed by 30 fleet races. There were nice long races covering much of the pond and tree times over as the shortest race was 16 minutes and the longest, in the gold fleet was 32.

Saturday Night Awards Banquet

The regatta ended with an awards banquet at the Mandalay Banquet Center. As the sailors arrived, they were met by the Mandalay's 30 ft electronic sign, which read "EC12 National Championship Awards Banquet". Inside we had a fabulous buffet followed by New York Style Cheesecake with your choice of Strawberry or Blueberry toppings. Excellent!

This night the MVMYC and the EC12 class began the awards with a very special award. The first award of the night went to Paul Bowen for being the eldest skipper among us at 87 years old. Paul was given a certificate signed by Rick West, EC12 class secretary, and Steve Pratt, MVMYC commodore acknowledging his participation. Jim Tunison, whom was handing out this award and MC the awards Banquet, told a story about Paul and his sailing. He said that one of the races he looked out at the competitors and Paul was leading the race. As Paul passed the score table, about 20 spectators and race officials all let out a hollar and applauded. Paul turned around to see what all the fuss was about and everyone quickly responded keep going watch your boat. Paul then disappeared down the shore and racing continued. 20 minutes later, Tunison was recording the finishes and discovered Paul Bowen was the last place boat in this race he was earlier leading. He went back over to Paul and asked, "You were leading that race, what happened?" Paul turned to him and replied, "Well, yes, I was leading. However, this is not usually the case and by the time I finished posing for pictures and autographs, I had lost the lead!". Jim Tunison then went on to claim that even with our long races Paul Bowen completed every race and he carried his boat back from the water himself after every race. An amazing story and a standing ovation goes out to Paul Bowman. Thank you for coming and sailing with us.

Next the Match racing awards were presented by Don Peacock. Don explained that we had 31 out of the 37 competitors enter the match racing. During the 4 days of racing, his crew conducted 31 match races, many of which went to a 3rd race tie breaker. The top 3 finishers were, Richard Kahle 1st, David Brawner 2nd, and David Ramos 3rd. Super job.

Jerry Callahan and Jim Tunison then presented the fleet racing awards. They started at 37th place and awarded participation plaques to all 37 competitors. The top 8 finishers received very unique and special trophies, monogrammed duffle bags designed and made by Scott Rowland's family business, The Sailors' Tailor Inc. In addition to taking one of the duffel bags home, Reichard Kahle received the EC12 National Champion Perpetual trophies which was passed on from last year's champion, Dr. Gerhard Kelter Jr.. Gerhard told Kahle that the bell on that trophy has been ringing all the way from CA to IL, and IL to OH...

Thanks to all our great manufacturers, we had a ton of great items to give away in our door prize give a way. The first 8 drawings were for all the members of the MVMYC who helped make this the event it was and for all the wives, girlfriends, and other family members who came to support this event. We pulled 8 names and these supporters came up to choose a prize like a gift certificate at Boston Market, Atlanta Bread Company, a phone card, or a Block Buster rental. Then we drew 17 skipper names and they got to come up and choose one of the fantastic door prizes our manufactures gave.

At the close of the night Rick West had some class news, insight on future direction of the class, and some final thoughts. He also informed us that the 2005 Nationals will be in Florida, so put it on the calendar

For me, this concludes my 7 month commitment as your host and 2004 EC12 Nationals Coordinator. I had an excellent time and really enjoyed working with Rick West, Frank Angel, and David Brawner in putting all this together. Thanks to the Miami Valley Model Yacht Club, who you all thought I was crazy when I first asked if they would let me bring the EC12 class here for a Nationals. You were all fantastic! This event would not have been the premier event it was without all of you getting together for multiple meetings, planning, organizing, and putting forth a lot of time and effort to make this happen. I was totally amazed at how many and how much you all contributed. To Jerry Callahan and Paul White, mother nature sure did not give you much to work with, but you somehow got it done. Square starting lines, long windward legs, tacking on those windward legs (always a plus), and really took this event to the highest level as it should being it was the Nationals. Thank you. And finally, to my wife, my 1 yr old, and my 3 yr old.. thank you for all your patience, support, and understanding. I apologize for all the long nights in front of the computer and the late meals. And to my wife, Jennifer, who took care of all the food - excellent job! How you took care of the 2 boys and still picked up, delivered, and set up meals for 60 people each day was just amazing. Looks like this is going to be an expensive Christmas for me this year. Thank you so much for coming! Hope to see ya soon,

 

Scott Rowland
EC12 Sail #15
2004 EC12 Nationals Coordinator