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2006 MUSKEGON REGATTA KICKS OFF THE MIDWEST M24 RACING SEASON WITH STYLE!

30 MAY 2006 • Hosted by Fleet 36, this annual regatta was again a huge success. Thanks to the locals, the weather, the sponsors, and especially the turnout from the Detroit fleet. After nearly a year of e-mails and phone calls, twenty-seven boats came forth to do battle on and off the water.

Starting with the normal Friday night shenanigans with food being provided by Sarah Rooks and the Watermark Lofts development check 'em out at www.watermarklofts.com. She made sure that everyone had the chance to put some base down for the oncoming early season wars or gin, rum, or whatever the poison.

Saturday's start time of 11:00 am is a tried and true opportunity to prep, puke, and lather up with a great bloody before the wind rolls in to do its job. And as usual by gun time we had 15 knots of breeze for some great sailing on this inland lake arena. The southwesterly showed little advantage from one side to the other with the left side of the beats maybe being the safer bet. The leaders early are the most common names in the Midwest with Mike Dow and friends catching the first bullet followed closely by locals Stirred Not Shaken (Ken Gray, Pat Sagan, Josh Wallace, and me), then Chuck Holzman, Bora Gulari, and crew bringing on third. Without going into to a blow by blow description, it's safe to say that in this wind clean starts, clean lanes both up and down played a big part in the scoring recipe. Four races on Saturday set the theme for Sunday. Dow leading Holzman, leading Muskegon's Jim and Becca Beebe, leading Paul Hulsey, leading Stirred Not Shaken to round out the top five.

Saturday Sarah Powers and the My Auto Import Center www.myautoimports.com provided the night's dinner. A great building located on East Sternberg Road in Muskegon. Dinner was a slow southern boil cooked by Scotty Miller and Dave Burlingame.

On to Sunday found a cooler full of Bloodys in the cockpit and 20+ knots of breeze on the lake. After a couple of gens the racing got off with a 6-leg race in some very stiff breeze. Saw lots of boats struggling with keels in the air, kites and people in the water, and some screaming downwind speeds. After this six-leg bludgeoning we decided to get to shore before someone got hurt or a rig came down. Dow took a downwind blow and Bora and Chuck took full advantage to move ahead in the series. Third and fourth was decided by a boat length at the finish.

Special thanks go out the continued support from Torresen Marine for providing the boats, people, and equipment necessary to pull this regatta off. Check them out at www.torresen.com.

Back on shore the early season celebrating continued with burgers and fun on the lawn with the fun turning into blurs. Mr. Clean got lots of attention, as he is a sailing journalist with plenty of cobwebs in his closet. Look for some great sailing in the Midwest with the next stop in Hulsey Country and the Bayview Yacht Club of Detroit. Wanna see some great regatta pictures? Go to www.blinkphotography.photoherald.com and in the upper right hand corner click on the bio/contact/links area. Then click on my pictures. Enter the event: mlges24midwestseries. Then enter the album. Some great shots here.

See you next year at this great season starter.

Best regards,
John Schumacher

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