2010 Old Goat Thistle Regatta - Lake Lanier, GA

The 48th annual Old Goat Regatta drew 35 boats from all over the Southeast. It continues to be one of the best attended regattas in the country for a good reason - the friendliness and family atmosphere. The camping is great, the meals inexpensive and the beverages are always plentiful and cold. If that's not enough reason, there is also the beef jerky from the Pop Stop just down the road from Lake Lanier Sailing Club. The secret recipe and old gym locker that the meat is dried in have been passed down with the ownership of the store.

The racing on Saturday was postponed ashore until just after 4pm when some rain clouds brought a bit of wind. We started a race in about 5 knots of breeze from the west that quickly died and backed. Mike Funsch and sons Colin and Alec punched out from the pin end on port and survived the 180 degree wind shift to round the weather mark first. The weather mark rounding was quite interesting with many boats converging together with spinnakers flying. The leg to the leeward mark became a beat as the wind built from the new direction. The race was shortened at the leeward mark with Team Funsch taking the bullet followed by Bill and Beth Tumlin and then by Jon Doyle with Brian Pickering. The sailors were treated to a fantastic ribeye steak dinner with broccoli casserole cooked by volunteers of Fleet 48. After dinner a local guitarist played tunes for the group.

Sunday looked promising with 5-7 knots from the west. The wind was pretty shifty resulting

in several general recalls for the first race. Fortunately, the course was a Windward/Leeward with the start/finish just a little bit up from the leeward mark. This allowed for the shifts to play out a bit more on the longer beat. Mark and I were able to round outside of David Huck, both behind Scott McCormack, who then did a turn for touching the mark. The run was status quo with positions remaining the same. On the next beat Paul Abdullah sailing with Scott Griffin closed the gap on McCormick and Jack Smith. We were able to take the bullet while Abdullah got by McCormack to take second. Team Funsch was just a bit further back in 6th.

The standings had tightened up a bit at this point with Team Funsch leading with 7 points followed by Mark and I at 8 and Buddy Wainright's team of Reneee and Pete Gregory at 10 points.   

The wind remained westerly at about 7 knots for the start of the third race. After sailing up the middle of the course, we met with the leader from the right side, Team Wainright, at the weather mark. We were able to maintain the lead to the finish despite a nice traffic pick on the final beat by Wainright. Team Funsch had a great run to bounce back to 12th. As it turned out, this would be the final and deciding race with Mark and I wining, Wainright second and the Funsch family finishing a point ahead of Addullah for third and fourth respectively. Thanks to Fleet Captain Scott Harris and the volunteers from Fleet 48 for a fantastic regatta.

Dieball Sailing customers scored 1,4,6,7,8,10!  Great job everyone!