| Author | Message | ||
     Scott Corder (Pastcommodore) Rating: N/A |
Kato repeats as NA and Great Lakes Champion. No boat has ever three-peated. 2002 should be in interesting year! With another outstanding string of strong finishes, Don Rychlinski and the crew of Kato repeated as Great Lakes Champions in 2001. On their way to the Season Championship, they won three of the four events, including the North American Championship. In doing so, they roughly equalled their near-perfect record in 2000 and that of the 1999 Season Champion Spectra. That is not to say that racing wasn’t close. Of the twelve boats competing, seven different boats won races during the season. At the five race NA Championship in Chicago, three different boats won races while five of the eight boat fleet tallied top three finishes. Perhaps most noteworthy of this season was the weather in South Haven MI at the start of the year. The boats that managed to get there battled heavy winds and very rough seas on Saturday and eventually voted to cancel racing on Sunday after several boats experienced mechanical or crew failures on Saturday. The 43 degree water was crashing over a 50ft lighthouse on the pier on Sunday! The weather in Chicago was great although the Class had to struggle through a fleet of 48 Tartan 10s on their way up the race course. Milwaukee brought warm blue skies but the unexpected invasion of weeds in the harbor meant repeated bottom cleaning. Milwaukee also resulted in the closest finish with 3 points separating 2nd through 5th places overall! At every event, second and third places were very closely contested. In some cases inches meant the difference between going home with a trophy or without. In the Series, the closest race was for fourth overall. Back on the circuit for the first time in three years and in spite of their absence in Chicago, Scott Corder’s Scooter nearly bettered Eric Oesterle and Mike Greenwald's Slingshot for a seasonal trophy. A three foot margin in Milwaukee’s race 5 cost them a second at that event and a 4th for the Series. As always, the season standings proved that it paid to play, as the top seasonal finishers attended all or most of the events. Some possible changes to the schedule and some fresh or returning faces should result in more exciting racing in 2002! Please visit the Racing Results topic on the bulletin board for detailed races results and scoring. |
