Lake Murray "Bottoms-Up" Regatta
June 11-12, 2005

REPORT
by Ron Wright

Ten Lightnings rolled into Lake Murray for the "Bottoms Up" Regatta hosted by the Lake Murray Sailing Club.  Mother nature served up near ideal conditions for the two-day regatta.  It was cloudy, the thunderstorms stayed away from the race course, and the breezes stayed in the ten knot range the entire weekend.

Saturday, the race committee set up windward leeward twice arounds.  Team Catawba (aka Ron Wright, Tom Martin, and John Holmes) did their homework before race one and correctly identified that the right side was going to be heavily favored.  After a lousy start, Ron tacked away.  Ten minutes later the shift came in and TC took off.  They led at every mark to win race one with Team Marriott and Team Tyner coming in second and third.  In race two, it looked like Ron was going to run away with things as Team Catawba led at marks one and two.  But alas, reality settled in on the second windward leg with Marriott, Pelosi, and Tyner taking the lead and finishing 1-2-3.   Pete and the Beauchamps duplicated the ace in race three.  Pelosi nailed another deuce and Ron edged out Terry for third.  At the end of the day, Pete was high team with 4 points.  Ron and John were tied with nine and Terry was one point away.

Bring on the party!  And what a great job LMSC did!!  Not one, but two buffets.  Upstairs it was fish, shrimp and chicken.  Downstairs it was bar-b-que and chicken.  If you haven't been to LMSC, you are missing a great regatta site.  There is a "peninsula" which was dotted with tents, the club house is a two-story job that has a ton of space, and the folks there are just first class.  We had a great time eating, drinking, and yakking into the night.

Sunday.  Avis and Henry Bridgers have a new tactician named Mike.  The three of them demonstrated at districts that things are clicking.  They were nipping at everyone's heels Saturday, but Sunday they made their move.  Actually, only a broken tiller kept them from a great finish in race three on Saturday.  On the second downwind leg of race four, they ran low and deep, grabbed a great shift and knocked off the whole fleet to become the third team to win a race over the weekend.  Meanwhile, Terry Tyner edged John Pelosi and jumped into second for the regatta.  Bring on race five. 

John Pelosi, with Harold and Tina pulling the strings, nailed a great start and put it all together to become the fourth team to win a race.  Pete edged Terry for second and the difference gave Team Pelosi second place in the regatta by a point.  Team Marriott won the regatta going away with nine points.

Friends, it was great racing and great fellowship.  Thanks to Terry Tyner and LMSC for getting back on the schedule.  And we gotta give special mention to some other folks.  Carter Utzig with veteran NA crew Meagan sailed a great regatta as did Bob Modzel, Pam Barron, Bill Sloger, and Nathan Ward.    

If anyone wants to add some detail, just e-mail me.

Great regatta.  I enjoyed having the mix up with all the different boats, the last few regattas have been more fun to sail!  - Pete