Thistle Fleet 21 News

Paul Kreitler

There were six boats on the starting line Sunday for a beautiful afternoon of sailing. On Sunday morning, it looked like we were going to have 8 boats, but Dick Harmon and I lost our crews because of various illnesses and the Hesses couldn’t make it. So, we dropped to 6 boats, which was still respectable.

On the starting line, we had Team Savage with Rick at the helm with his son Mike, Team France with Bob at the helm and John Myers as crew, Team Bartz with Dick and Annette, Team Lido with Steve Moore as skipper, John Lawmon in middle, and Kathy Muenz in front, Team Holzaepfel with Kit at the helm, daughter Laura in front, and Noel Thurber in middle, and Team Kreitler with yours truly at the helm and Dick Harmon learning how cramped the front of a Thistle can be.

The starting line was very skewed toward a pin favor, which left us all reaching back and forth perpendicular to the line at the pin end before the start. Team Savage won the pin handily with Team Holzaepfel close to leeward and the rest of the fleet nipping at their heels. Unfortunately for yours truly, nipping at their heels meant the gas masks had deployed as we gasped for clean air in the second row. The first leg was a fetch from the pin, which meant tacking would also be death, so we just hung in there until we were around the first mark. After the first mark, Team Savage and Team Holzaepfel launched down the lake with the four remaining boats playing leap frog around the course. In the end, Kit nipped out Rick to take the bullet. Team France rounded the last mark in third with Team Bartz in fourth and Team Kreitler in fourth. Team France took the middle road while Team Bartz went right and Team Kreitler went left. Team France taught us that covering your competition is important as both Team Bartz and Team Kreitler sailed around them to finish third and fourth respectively.

After the first race, Teams Holzaepfel and Savage had to unfortunately pack up for the day. The four remaining boats hung around for the second race, which saw wind 180-degrees different than the first race. The RC set up in front of the club with the Committee boat heavily favored. Team Kreitler was over early and had to play catch up. We were able to catch Team Lido on the second leg, but Team Bartz and Team France were out of reach. We would catch up to them during times that they were in a lull, but then we would sit in the lull while watching them sail away. In conclusion, Team Bartz held on for the bullet with a dominant race, followed by Teams France, Kreitler, and Lido.
Dick and Annette Bartz won the day with 3rd and 1st place finishes. Bob France and John Myers were second with 5th and 2nd place finishes. Team Kreitler rounded out the top three with 4th and 3rd place finishes.

The standings for the Thistle Day series qualifiers are as follows:

Holzaepfel: First
Bartz: Second
France: Third
Harmon Fourth
Kreitler Fifth
Rodgers Sixth

Rick Savage and Eric Krause are each one day away from qualifying for the season! There’s one day left this fall. Let’s get everyone out!