USODA Great Lakes Regional Regatta

The United States Optimist Dinghy Association (USODA) Great Lakes Regional Championship Regatta was held Wednesday and Thursday, June 27-28 in Sheboygan, WI. Forty-three sailors from the Midwest as well as the east and west coasts competed in the Red, White, and Blue fleet in spectacular sailing conditions on Lake Michigan. Eight sailors also participated in the Green fleet.  Fritz Simon sailed with the Green fleet, and Meta Simon sailed in RWB along with 15 other ILYA sailors from area lakes including Pewaukee, Geneva, Nagawicka and North.

It was a great event -- conditions on Wednesday brought crazy swells (8 ft plus) and wind building from about 10 mph at the beginning of the day to 18 mph at the end.  Even the locals were perplexed by the waves for the amount of wind.  The kids thought riding the waves was totally cool.  Thursday there was no wind so the six races from Wednesday provided the final result.  Five ILYA kids qualified for the team trials regatta next spring to be held on Pewaukee (Henry Chapman, JP Friend, Joey Biwer, Mark Davies, and Parker Michael).  All of the ILYA kids did a great job in really different conditions than they are used to.  Meta was excited to finish 5th in white fleet and 2nd overall girl.

Full regatta results available from USODA

More photos on our Picasa page (sadly, they just don't do the waves justice).