2015 Lake Champlain Viper 640 Regatta & Great Lakes Championship

Jason Hyerstay · September 26, 2015, 11:26:53 PM

Day one complete! Five races sailed in decent wind in Shelburne bay. Dave Nickerson leads the score sheet, followed by Peter Beardsley and Joe Healy.

Results here: http://lcyc.info/racing/viper_640

After racing, we had a nice meal at the club, an educational chalk talk from the top boats, and then a bunch of us went to the local townie bar, the Old Shed, for drinks, stories, and a few exciting games of horseshoes!

Tomorrow we will probably be racing on the broad lake in more wind and 70-degree weather.

Cheers,

Jason

Jason Hyerstay · September 27, 2015, 11:32:17 PM

Day one was light wind in Shelburne Bay, with five races.

Day two was big wind in the broad lake with three foot waves and planing conditions all day long!

We got off another five races with the beautiful backdrop of the Adirondacks to the west and the Green Mountains to the east. We hit 14.3 knots on my boat, but I bet that wasn't the fastest speed for the day!

Dave Nickerson and crew won the event, and the Great Lakes Championship with eleven points after one throw-out, and repeated their 2014 victory at our regatta, with former UVM sailor OJ O'Connell and his father Steve as crew.

Peter Beardsley and crew were second, with Joe Healy in third. Steve Gilbert and crew on Black Sheep showed their big-wind chops and climbed to fourth place, within striking distance of the podium.

The top three boats got cooler bags full of Heady Topper (100 rating on Beer Advocate), and Dave Nickerson took home a beautiful Great Lakes Trophy.

The local Vipers had a blast going against some amazing sailors, and we passed out a huge number of cold Vermont brews to all the visiting teams. We really enjoyed hosting such a great group of racers, and our club is ready to host another great event next year. We got eleven our first year, sixteen our second, and we hope for twenty next year!

Cheers to everyone who attended, volunteered, hosted guest teams, and helped show the local sailors why the Viper 640 is such as great boat to sail and why the class is such an amazing group of dedicated sailors.

Cheers,

Jason Hyerstay

Dave Nickerson · September 28, 2015, 08:30:26 AM

Huge thanks to the Hyerstay family and the whole LCYC team. This is one of those places where you immediately feel at home and would definitely want to be a part of if local. Even better conditions than last time. See you next year!

Steve Gilbert · September 29, 2015, 10:54:05 AM

Absolutely AWESOME time this past weekend, highly recommend attending next year if possible.

LCYC gave us 10 well run races and the level of competition was just right. The membership was so accommodating and nice, the club and grounds are spectacular. Just a great place to visit

Thank you for the mention Jason, we do try to avoid the term 'Chops' around us Sheep sailors as we get a little nervous, if you know what I mean.. :-)

Can't wait to see some of the pictures from Sunday, it was a fantastic day of sailing.

Sadly no video from our boat this year but here are a couple of the pictures I took during the regatta including the chalk talk Saturday.

Steve Gilbert · October 02, 2015, 03:05:49 PM

Here are a few more shots from Gerry Davis on Sunday... I think they are planning on sharing the entire batch soon but don't know for sure. Thank goodness he was out there to capture these images for all of us.

As Peter Beardsley observed on Facebook, yes we over stood the finish line to increase the drama in the picture.. didn't everyone?

Peter Beardsley · October 02, 2015, 04:25:01 PM

We did not, but I wish we had -- didn't know where the photo boat was. Not sure there will be any of us looking as good as The Sheep, but we'll see when Gerry has the final batch. Still thinking that after crushing it on Sunday that The Sheep are in prime form for what could be a breezy Viper NAs...

Jason Hyerstay · October 02, 2015, 04:57:37 PM

Photo boat was white C&C 99. Dale took some awesome finish line pics. I'll get them all Sunday.

Steve Gilbert · October 06, 2015, 03:50:25 PM

Peter - we would absolutely love to sail the heavy air NA's or even HPDO but alas not this year.. With luck we will have The Sheep out here next summer for some regional events, you never know.

Good luck to everyone at NA's I hope it is an absolutely awesome regatta!

Jason Hyerstay · October 06, 2015, 07:42:45 PM

Here are the photos from Gerry Davis on the white C&C 99 Altair:

http://lcyc.info/files/viper_640/2015%20LCYC%20Viper%20640%20Regatta%20-%20Gerry%20Davis.zip

I will also be posting photos that Dale Hyerstay took from the RC boat on day two.

Cheers!

Jason

BTW, thanks to everyone who attended. We really enjoyed hosting this event, and our RC and race management group really enjoyed running it. John Harris, our Regatta Tactician, who ran the races, spoke at the chalk talk, and wrote the local conditions document, won the summer Laser series at MBBC up here, and with co-owner Dave Powlison (Sailing World writer), won our summer Etchells series. We had some major talent running these races!

For the locals, it was amazing that we never had to reset the course on Sunday in full planing conditions, except to shorten the fifth and final race. That was my favorite day of Viper racing ever. I don't think I've ever had five races in a row where every downwind run was planing and surfing on waves.

Cheers and see you next year!

Jason

Jason Hyerstay · October 21, 2015, 02:08:23 PM

If you want prints from Gerry Davis, just email him:

[email protected]

Here's a bunch of photos Dale Hyerstay took, including some awesome finish line pictures from the RC boat. I sent this link out in email to the participants already.

http://lcyc.info/files/viper_640/2015%20LCYC%20Viper%20640%20Regatta%20-%20Dale%20Hyerstay.zip

Cheers