We arrived in Columbus, Ohio on May 18, with Kevin picking up Kendall at the Columbus airport. Kendall flew in from Seattle while Kevin and wife Dorothy drove over pulling Gadzooks from their home in Lafayette, Indiana.

We practiced on both Thursday and Friday. Friday’s winds were much better and we got a few things down, particularly our start sequence (we practiced more than 40 starts).

The regatta was held on Saturday only with 5 races. We led the first race until the final downwind leg. All we need to do was round the leeward mark, sailing up to the finish line when all of a sudden, the tiller broke, we lost complete control, and scored a DNF – 8 points. Below is the video the moment the tiller broke.

After breaking the tiller, the wind pushed us right into the dock where a regatta crash boat met us. We heard over the radio that someone else had an extra tiller. The only question: where is it? After lollygagging around, we left the dock and headed to the start line, only to start 7 minutes late. We won’t do that again. After a triangle-windward-leeward, we passed one boat and scored 6 points.

Prior to race 3, we were attempting to fix something and missed the 5 minute gun. Our start sequence was done and we placed 3rd in the race. The Hoover Sailing Club served lunch on shore after race 3 and so we went in to eat and re-group.

During lunch, Kevin said to Kendall, “you know, for us to even have a chance at winning, we have to get two bullets,” to which Kendall said, “then let’s go get two bullets.” And that is exactly what we did, getting the 5 minute gun down, leading both of the last two races, and getting two bullets. Our final score was DNF-6-3-1-1, finishing 4th.

We can’t wait to return in 2024 as the lake, the club, and especially the people were amazing. We thoroughly enjoyed our time and we thank all our new friends for the hospitality.

Lessons Learned:

• Improve boat handling, particularly the spinnaker hoist, jibe, and douse.
• ALWAYS be racing, before the regatta, between races, and when you have an equipment failure. Race committees won’t wait on you, only you can catch the start sequence, start on time in the right position at full speed, and be racing every second.
• What else did we learn?