On the sunny weekend of June 26, 27 Mendota Yacht Club Commodore Mimi Hayashi and

regatta chair Grant Frautschi welcomed sixteen I-20 teams for the annual ILYA I-20

Invitational. Regatta headquarters and dry boat storage took place at storied Burrows Park on

the East shore of Lake Mendota in Madison, WI just a few Muskie Jumps from the Governor’s pad. The red and white striped stacks of the Oscar Meyer plant guide practicing sailors return from the expanse of Lake Mendota to the piers and rail system at Burrows Park.

The usual registration hub-bub heats up as boats arrive from Fond du Lac, WI, Minnitonka,

MN, Indian Lake, OH and Iowa. Last minute readying/measuring/tinkering allows time for

plenty of pre-race speculation. It is generally agreed that there are nearly ten potential winning

teams sailing. The fleet is well stocked with several ILYA champs, past Invite winners and

various lake champions. There is no clear favorite although Steve Scheck and Leigh Leonard

come in as 2003 ILYA champs and Emily Green sailing with past ILYA champ crew, Scott

Noles boasts the ’03 home lake championship and a 2nd place finish at Nagawicka YC’s 2003 National event.

There are some serious competitors here. The Spargo/Brust team arrives with numerous titles.

’98 Nationals and ’01 ILYA champ Steve Yost, past Invite winner Grant Frautschi,

Windward® boat builder ’99 Nationals title holder John Hayashi with Anita Bersie, the

hardware winning teams of Kyle and Liz Metzloff, Paul and Mary Kay Bates and Stefan

Schmidt, the 3rd place ’03 nationals finisher all have eyes for the prize.

Saturday arrives bright but light on wind. After a couple hours of calm it is decided a lunch

break might be in order. Sure enough the wind filled nicely for the exact duration of the meal

and immediately fell off to zero as the I s took to the waning ripples. ILYA PRO, Bill Ward

signals for another postponement from the pier and the day threatens to offer no racing.

Then as soon as you could say “Margarita,” old Lake Mendota remembers there’s a little racin’ to get started. The wind fills from the WNW nicely at 8-12 mph. At first the conditions were ideal; relatively flat water and a good steady breeze (two on the high side, drag racing wind.) No great oscillations, a couple of shifts with a growing chop as the many miles windward of the course give the lake a chance to rough up a little bit.

With most of the fleet crowding the boat end, Stefan Schmidt and Ukrainian front guy,

Timofey Milovanov power out from the pin end in H5, ‘Tern’ to a respectable first mark lead.

The shorter scows don’t shoot up and around a barely reachable mark the way Stefan’s old E

scow ‘Heebiejeebie’ might have and a tap on the pumpkin calls for a quick 360. The first

rounding saw an order of Schmidt, Green, Bates, Bob Holz and Yost. The first downhill run

offered beautiful, ideal scow racing conditions.

At the leeward gate Scheck and Leonard foreshadow things to come by jumping several spots

into 4th position. Boatspeed sailing and a little wave management are in order on the second

upwind. At the top mark ‘Tern’ is still followed by H-88, Green in ‘Lanakila.’ Team Metzloff

(H-1) and Hayashi (FD 314) with Anita taking the splash join Scheck’s ‘Zephyr’ in the top five rounders. By the last leeward rounding ‘Tern’s’ lead had shortened over ‘Zephyr’ to about four boat lengths. It was clear to the leaders that Sheck/Leonard had both superior speed and heading for reasons that are nearly always determined much too late usually on dry land. Anyway, Schmidt cracked off to Starboard to check out the left side. ‘Zephyr’ motors out to the right and is greeted by a sizable veer. H 652 looks to be 100 yards ahead. Meanwhile Green, Metzloff, Hayashi and Schmidt change positions a few times all pushed by Frautschi (H 216) and Spargo (H 111) fast closing the gaps. The left finally materializes and

Schmidt/Milovanov finish twelve seconds behind first race winner Scheck/Leonard. The top

five in Race #1 are rounded out by Metzloff, Green and Hayashi.

During the first race the fleet had spread out a little and the lake was getting really lumpy.

Ever notice that the leaders get a longer rest before the second race is started? Today the

respite was welcome and the first few finishers were able to relax and find some easier water in Warner Bay in the lee of Governor’s Island. By the time the second race began a respectful

wave recognition was of vital import. The A scows laugh, the Es smile but the I-20s view the

speed bumps with caution. Sets of ‘tsunamis’ (really only 3-4 feet) were capable of putting a

serious crimp in one’s hull speed. Some boats over-heeled, tried to pinch up and ‘slice’

through. Some boats just pounded. We finally agreed that radical steering was necessary and

we turned off sometimes 30 degrees, eased our sails and abruptly headed back to course with

ratchets working overtime. On this day the waves were bigger than the wind so bearing off did

not offer to much danger of tipping, just a burst of speed and lots of re-trimming.

The second race’s wind shifted left to 275 at the start, 10-15 mph. After a leg of mogul sailing

the first rounding saw ‘Tern’ (H5) in the lead followed by Joe and LaCinda Terry (DB 34) in

their just out of the box Windward® I-20 ‘Adrenaline Rush.’ Next came Frautschi (H216,)

Metloff (H 1) and Hayashi (FD 314.) At this point in the day the wind came up considerably to match the now mature wave set…a serious twenty-minute westerly blast. What a ride! Teams sat as far aft as possible and willed their bows to avoid the menacing crests. That first downhill claimed a good portion of the fleet. The positions at the gate were vaguely recorded as PRO Bill Ward and assistant Carl Fritzner sent the RC mark recorder to help some of the five capsized teams. The floatation paneled main sails (a class requirement) prevented many

competitors from needing to quit the race and although some distance was lost many were

rewarded for righting, sailing dry and finishing.

The next two legs were fast but the big gust had come and gone so the tricky maneuver was the last leeward gate when boats needed to head deeply down for the douse. Skippers needed to give themselves plenty of room between the gates as trimming in and curling up sharply seemed to be the best escape from a hungry wave with a simultaneous gust during the dead down douse. More than a few sailors saw water bury the bow and even a bit of the mast base before the last blast up to the finish line. Schmidt (H 5) was followed by Hayashi (FD 314) and a surging Joe Terry (DB 34.) Joe split to the left and ‘Tern’ decided to cover the boat builder who had fewer points coming into the race. ‘Tern’ held for the win. Hayashi crossed second. Team Terry (DB 34) earned third followed by Scheck (H 652) and Yost (H 632) respectfully. Of the sixteen registrants ten boats finished race #2 and all felt they had done a good bit of sailing that sunny afternoon.

A great steak grillin’ shindig was enjoyed Saturday evening hosted by the Frautschi ensemble

with Commodore Mimi Hayashi conducting masterfully, but Sunday brought no wind and no

races. The regatta was settled on Saturday’s racing, one beautiful breezy afternoon.

It’s only a matter of time before the I-20 becomes the boat of choice for our younger ILYA

sailors graduating from the X fleet who wish to campaign an exciting two- person spinnaker

scow. All of us working hard to improve our finishing position will welcome the younger

speed freaks to this fleet and realize that cracking the top five is only going to get tougher and

more rewarding.