Lake Michigan Sail Racing Federation September 2013 Issue 9 Lake Michigan SuRF Newsletter The Official Newsletter of the Lake Michigan Sail Racing Federation 2013 CHICAGO-MACKINAC RESULTS CHANGED – All The News That Fits ... RECHECK YOUR RESULTS Chicago-Mac Results Changed ........... 1 by Glenn McCarthy Share the Story .......................................... 3 While writing about Pororoca’s 2013 Chicago- Mackinac Race experience on the ChicagoNow Tri-State Volleyball ................................. 3 Blog, trying to reach out to non-sailors, I wanted Hall of Fame Nominations ................... 3 to give the exact elapsed time we were on the race course. I visited the Chicago-Mackinac Race Sail in the Richardson Cup ................... 4 results page and it reported that our elapsed Louie's Last Regatta ................................ 4 time was 45:12:24. Alarm bells started going off in my head; that time wasn’t right! I re-ran the race using the 2013 Sail AdventureSailR .................... 6 YellowBrick tracker, I called our navigator, Walt Wesley, Tradition ... A Lie! ..................................... 7 and asked him what time we finished, added in my mental math after the finish, and we all agreed that Pororoca sailed the race in 46:12:24. Uh-oh. This didn’t Winning Section 1 in Mac Race ......... 7 sound good. The website displays all times listed as CDT. I looked at our Finish Tri-Lakes Challenge ................................ 9 Time; it was correct at 11:42:24 CDT Monday. So, the elapsed time was off one Mackinac Race Publicity .....................10 hour, the corrected time needed recalculating, but the finish time was correct. Curious, isn’t it? Who knows what this meant to the boat's finish place? Honor Your Club's Best .......................11 Treasurer Profile–Michael Hettel....12 Not knowing if this was going to kill Pororoca's first place finish in Section 1, I contacted Chicago Yacht Club and Club Feature-SailAnyWay ..................12 explained what I was seeing. I’m one of those who likes Tall Ships Challenge ..............................13 Paul Elvstrom’s quote, “You haven’t won the race, if in winning the race you have lost the respect of your Club Leadership Changes ...................14 competitors.” I just want everyone to have a fair shake. Grants-In-Aid Reports .........................14 2014 Queen's Cup ..................................15 After a lot of research, re-running results, confirming start times and finish times, Chicago Yacht Club found that 18 boats (out of 28) in the first test in Section 1, Heard on the Rail ...................................16 Turbo, and Multihull Classes were shorted exactly one hour in their elapsed time, Major Championships ..........................17 from which corrected time and positions are calculated. Ten boat's results were calculated correctly. All boat's Finish Times in the entire fleet were accurate. Little Traverse Sailing Director .......17 What a conundrum. Digging further, there were changes in three other Sections Youth America's Cup ............................17 as well, which of course didn’t make the elapsed time accurate, and hence finish places were at stake. Between Elapsed Times, Corrected Times and Finish Places, America's Cup – Watch It! ..................18 it ended up 45 boats needed changes made in the Section results (which probably US Sailing News ......................................19 meant even more affected in the overall results). Letters to the Editor .............................19 When I was 13 years old as PRO for the Jackson Park Star Fleet for my second year in What Happened ......................................20 a row, I was put ashore when the Star Class Great Lakes Championship came to the club. They brought in the “A- Team” to run the races. Lo and behold in the 2nd race, About Lake Michigan SuRF ...............47 somehow, the A-Team mis-scored the finishes, not a little, but the entire fleet of 28 boats. The list of finishers was just out of whack. A hearing was held, each boat was brought in to offer “who was ahead” and “who was behind” which helped clear most of it up, but there were two boats who were adamant that others didn’t have it right. Only if they had left the 13 year old kid in charge, that wouldn’t have happened! Lake Michigan SuRF Newsletter So to be diligent, Chicago Yacht Club took my information, and went to the Race Committee who performs the scoring, to have them review their finish time sheets, starting times, and do a complete review. The deeper they dug, the more anomalies that showed up. Suffice it to say, the errors incurred have been corrected and procedures put in place not to have a repeat in the future. Chicago Yacht Club is terribly sorry this occurred. Years ago, I scored a championship using Microsoft Excel. Just before trophies were to be awarded, someone informed me that I had not included two boats that had entered. GULP. We had to postpone the awards ceremony until everything was rescored. Nobody plans on these things happening; nobody wants these things to happen. It is best to just plow forward, correct the results, inform everyone involved, and let the victors get the recognition they deserve for what they really accomplished. Note - I still feel horrible for Stan Bailey who drove through a ferocious sleet filled snowstorm, and had to tell him to hold off. I apologize again, Stan! Fortunately, all boats in Section 1 in the 2013 Chicago-Mackinac Race needed one hour added to their elapsed time and this did not change the section order of finish. It did drop Pororoca's overall position from 27th to 33rd. I did shoot my own troops after all. This is the finish we earned, that is what we deserve. The J/111 Section needed 20 minutes subtracted from every boat's elapsed time. The Multihull Section also had no change in finish positions within their section, even though the top two boats had one hour added to their time. They were so far ahead it didn’t change their finish places. Section Two saw Pinball Wizard drop from 7th to 8th and Tsunami moved from 8th to 7th. First overall in the Cruising Division had one hour added to their elapsed time but finished so far ahead of everyone else it did not change their position. Good or bad, there were changes in the Turbo Section. Windquest remained first, Equation moved from 3rd to 2nd, il mostro moved from 4th to 3rd, and sadly for my Star boating friends in Racine on Denali, the Nelson/Marek 68, they dropped from 2nd to 4th. Sorry about that, guys. The scoring correction process did not change any 1st-3rd places in the overall results, but it did move boats up and down in the overall results otherwise. As it turns out, the only crew that didn’t get up on the podium at the Awards Ceremony/ Sailor's Celebration that should have was that from il mostro. Congratulations to Peter Thornton, Chris Thornton, Gary Murino, Roc Roney, Deane Tank, Jack Jennings, Matt Cassidy, Greg Fordon, Chris Higgins, Willie Lynch, Justin Palm, Ken Read, Brett Reed, Justin Slattery, John Stanley, Paul Stroup, and Jonathan Swain for your third place finish in the Turbo Class. I figure that 45 boats had either their elapsed and corrected times or finish place changed, which is about 17% of the fleet that finished, and 30% of the Sections in the race had changes. With an average of 7 sailors per boat, that represents 630 eyes that likely looked at the race's results. Vigilance is required in this sport to review you and your competitor's results, as you know there is a process established in the sport for boats to call these matters before race officials to get them corrected. We sailors have to be conscious of this every time we sail and look over the results. For the hundreds of volunteers who work on getting this race run each year, and the countless meetings they have, from sponsorship, logistics, parties, communications, race committee at both ends of the race (boats, tents, race trailer, housing, etc.), protest committee, etc., they did their jobs flawlessly again and it was another phenomenal event. Most boat's score changes didn’t amount to a significant change in the big picture, as for only 2 boats in Section results is the scoring change having an unfortunate impact. We should be pleased and not upset with the 2013 Mackinac experience. Obviously this is not the first race to have a scoring problem and it is not going to be the last. Scoring anomalies have been a part of the sport for a long time and will remain a prospect in racing in the future. Thank you for all you do, Chicago Yacht Club Mackinac Committee. For complete, updated results, see "What Happened" later this issue. September 2013 2 Lake Michigan Sail Racing Federation Lake Michigan SuRF Newsletter FORWARD THIS NEWSLETTER TO EVERYONE WHO SHOULD SEE THIS MACKINAC RACE STORY. ONCE RECEIVED BY YOUR CREW, FRIENDS, FAMILY, CO-WORKERS AND NEIGHBORS, THEY CAN SIGN UP TO GET THIS NEWSLETTER FOR FREE! Was that last article of interest to you? Do you want to stay on the leading edge of the sailing racing news on Lake Michigan? Sign up for this newsletter for free – http://tinyurl.com/LMSuRF. Later you’ll always have the opt-out option, plus we do not provide the email list to anyone. The list is only for use of this newsletter distribution. FUN ALERT! ANNUAL TRI-STATE VOLLEYBALL CHALLENGE IS ON! Many Lake Michigan boats will be participating in the Tri-State Race over Labor Day weekend 2013. Get your team together now to while away Saturday afternoon on the beach. When: Saturday, August 31, 2013, 2:00pm – 5:00pm ET Where: Tiscornia Beach, near the St.