Speed Clinic by Brett Bingham, Memorial Day 2010

Memorial Day weekend at bear lake turned out to be a little on the chilly side but provided great wind and sailing practice in preparation for the upcoming Utah Summer Games Regattas over the next two weeks.  USA commodore extraordinaire Brett Bingham gave a great speed clinic to prime the pump for the upcoming season of races.  Saturday was a little too cold to get much sailing in but Sunday and Monday offered great sailing conditions.  Saturday was sunny all day with moderate wind from the north at about 10-13 knots.  Sunday was dead until about 1:20 when the Pickleville willie showed up out of the south west at somewhere between 20-25 knots.  New crew Bart Beattie and I hung on for dear life and had some great double trapezing action on the F-18.  We almost lost it on a broad reach where I buried both bows well under the water and nearly pitchpoled until Bart and I scrambled for the rear cross beam and eased the sails to narrowly avoid our liquid death.

We are looking forward to the Utah Summer Games Small Boat Regatta in two weeks at Deer Creek.  We hope for good weather and strong wind (although not as strong as last year, 70 mph was just a little too much).  For anyone who is interested in practicing a bit we will be at Deer Creek this Sat June 5th with some buoys probably close to the north boat ramp (Deer Creek Island Resort) somewhere.  Just look for the catamarans and yellow buoys in the water.  As a reminder, the Keelboat regatta will be held this Saturday June 5th as well at Utah Lake State Park.

See you on the water.