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July 24th , 2010  -   Soling 50 Class 2010 Club Championship

Well, it's over. I think we heard the fat lady sing!
What a show. What a contest! What a day for sailing/racing!
Richard French and Ken Campbell (from San Diego) battled it out right down to the end.
It was exciting down to the last race.

The day was sunny and hot (98 degrees) with winds up to 8 mph.
The BMYC Soling 50 Club Championship Regatta
was never a slam dunk by either Richard or Ken.
Richard won 8 first place finishes and Ken won 7.
The final results showed only 2 points between first and second place.

Ken Campbell, Richard French, Stan Ogden and Judy Madsen standing.  Ron Berg in front.

Here are the final results after 15 heats and 2 throw outs:

PLACE	SKIPPER	SAIL #	TOTAL POINTS
1	Richard French	85	18
2	Ken Campbell	81	20
3	Ron Berg	65	37
4	Stan Ogden	1887	46
5	Judy Madsen	1580	63

The 2010 BMYC Champion in the Soling 50 Class is Richard French.
Second place was Ken Campell.
Ron Berg was always in there with 3 second place finishes to break up the duo.
Stan Ogden and Judy Madsen finished up the fleet.

We thank Ken Campbell for flying to Bakersfield to compete with us.
It is always a pleasure to have Ken sail with us

July 10th , 2010  -   Victoria Class High Point Series

The weather was hot and muggy. Temperature on Saturday reached 101 degrees F, humidity 72%. It really felt like it for sure. Wind speed was up to 8 mph at times. Good winds. If you could stand the heat and humidity, it was a great day for sailing.

Talk about sailing domination... Richard French (#51) blew everyone away Saturday.
Out of 10 heats, Richard took 10 easy first places.
Ron Berg (#8) was a close second with 9 second place finishes.
Stan (#87) placed second once and then was third place every heat until his on-board switch began to malfunction and had to withdraw after race six. Dick McCoy had much of the same problem with his on-board wiring and/or switch and didn't race after heat #3. So much for the"A" Fleet.

Judy Madsen (#880) won going away, dominating the "B" Fleet, taking 10 first place finishes. Judy's only problem was that there were no other "B" Fleet Victorias sailing on Saturday. Are you lonely Judy? The "B" Fleet only needs one more Victoria to enter the final race day on September 25th... to win a trophy, don'tcha know! Judy, by the way, took a strong second place and six third place finishes in the combined fleet. Way to go Judy!

Here are the results to date:

PLACE	SKIPPER	SAIL #	DAY 1	DAY 2	DAY 3	TOTALS
FLEET A
1	Richard French	51	33	35	29	97
2	Chris Staiger	06	32	19	0	51
3	Ron Berg	08	0	22	18	40
4	Stan Ogden	87	24	0	10	34
5	Dick McCoy	07	11	18	3	30
FLEET B
1	Judy Madsen	880	17	19	10	48
2	Terry Havener	805	11	11	0	22

Our next races will be on Saturday, July 24th. It is the Soling 50 BMYC Club Championship Regatta. It's an all-day affair with races starting at 10:00 AM. We expect to have a few visitors from San Diego to race with us and try to take away some of our trophies. :-)

June 26th , 2010  -   Soling 50 Class High Point Series

What a great day for sailing! Saturday was superb! The wind was good, between 5 and 8 mph, fairly steady compared to what it usually is, or can be at Riverlakes. Only Richard and perhaps Ron knows what it's really like, since it's their back yard.

Five Soling 50s sailed today, plus Dave Morrison and his Fairwind #1007. Also several "Pool Shark" Footies sailed
between the Soling 50 races. Stan's Footy #87, Ron Berg's #299 and Richard French's #285 were out there, mostly with the "B" rig. What a great day for sailing! Did I mention that?

Chris Staiger captured 7 firsts and 3 seconds out of 12 races. Richard French took 4 firsts and 6 seconds. Richard led after the end of the first Race Day on February 20th by 3 points. At the end of this Race Day 2, both Chris and Richard were tied. Ron Berg did well on Saturday, capturing 1 first place and 3 seconds. Stan Ogden and Judy Madsen followed the fleet. What else could we do Judy?

Here are the results for the Soling 50 High Point Series to date:

PLACE	SKIPPER	SAIL #	DAY 1	DAY 2	TOTALS
1	Richard French	85	44	50	94
2	Chris Staiger	227	41	53	94
3	Stan Ogden	1887	25	24	49
4	Ron Berg	65	0	37	37
5	Judy Madsen	1580	15	14	28
6	Ken Covey	22	27	0	27

The next races are scheduled for Saturday, July 10th for the Victoria Class.
It is Race Day 3 for the Victoria Class High Point Series.

June 5th , 2010  -   Victoria Club Championship Regatta  
Here are the results of the BMYC Victoria Club Championship Regatta held on Saturday, June 5th. There were 15 heats with 2 throwouts sailed by 6 Victorias.

PLACE	SKIPPER	SAIL #	POINTS
1	Chris Staiger	06	16
2	Richard French	51	23
3	Ron Berg	08	35
4	Stan Ogden	87	53
5	Dave Ogden	79	64
6	Judy Madsen	63	68

May 22nd and 23rd, 2010
Soling 50 National Championship Regatta

The Bakersfield Model Yacht Club hosted the 2010 Soling 50 National Championship Regatta on May 22nd and 23rd. On Saturday, the winds ranged from 5 mph to almost 15 mph at times. There were dead spots on the pond at Riverlakes, and also there were occasional gusts, which caused many Soling 50s to precariously plane downwind with bows down. It was exciting racing with a few contacts and a couple of protests to the consternation for Ron Berg and Filippo Busalacchi. Richard French won 10 out of 14 heats on Saturday with a commanding lead at the end of the day.

On Sunday the winds were lighter, but the racing was just as fierce. Ken Campbell pressed and consistently beat Richard French, the leader on Saturday, but could not quite make up the difference. Richard won 3 and Ken won 5 first place finishes on Sunday, out of the final 10 heats. The other skippers winning first place finishes were Ty Beach 2, Filippo 2, and Kim Robbins 1.

The winner of the J.D. Vincent Craftsmanship Trophy for the most beautiful Soling 50 as determined and voted on by the skippers was Ron Berg with Soling 50 #65. Ron’s boat was red and white with a beautiful chrome strip down the side.

Regatta Director was Chris Staiger and Dave Ogden was an assistant and photographer.

Here are the results of the regatta:

PLACE	SKIPPER	SAIL #	HOME PORT	POINTS
1	Richard French	85	Bakersfield	34
2	Ken Campbell	81	San Diego	46
3	Ty Beach	11	San Diego	72
4	Filippo Busalacchi	1616	San Diego	82
5	Kim Robbins	711	San Diego	89
6	Ron Berg	65	Bakersfield	115
7	Tommy Busalacchi	1597	San Diego	128
8	Eric Conn	8	Long Beach	149
9	Judy Madsen	1580	Bakersfield	170
10	Bill Wright	125	Alameda	DNC

May 8th , 2010  -   Soling 50 Spring Regatta  
Here are the rersults of the BMYC Soling 50 Spring Regatta held on Saturday, May 8th. There were 18 heats sailed with 2 throwouts. As anyone who was there will tell you; the winds were... weird heavy gusts interspersed with lulls and complete doldrums - a little bit of everything. Here are the results:

PLACE	SKIPPER	SAIL #	POINTS
1	Chris Straiger	227	22
2	Richard French	85	25
3	Ron Berg	65	47
4	Judy Madsen	1580	60

 

April 10, 2010  -   Victoria High Point Series

Here are the results of last Saturday's racing at Riverlakes for Day #2.
We had six Victorias on the water. Here are the results to date:

PLACE	SKIPPER	SAIL #	DAY 1	DAY 2	TOTAL POINTS
FLEET A
1	Richard French	751	33	35	68
2	Chris Srtaiger	2006	32	19	51
3	Dick McCoy	907	11	16	27
4	Stan Ogden	1887	24	0	24
5	Ron Berg	4008	0	22	22
FLEET B
1	Judy Madsen	880	17	19	36
2	Terry Havener	805	11	11	22

Our next race day is on Saturday, April 24th for the Footy and Fairwind Classes.
Races start at 10:00 AM.

March 20, 2010  -   Footy and Fairwind Spring Regattas

Richard French reported that sailing on Saturday was good, but with a light turnout. Only four Footies and four Fairwinds turned out for the Spring Regattas.

Footies started first in the morning at about 10:00 AM or so. Here are the results of the day, after 9 heats and one throw out: Judy Madsen arrived late and had problems finishing the various heats.

FOOTY SPRING REGATTA

PLACE	SKIPPER	SAIL #	POINTS
1	Richard French	285	9
2	Terry Havener	278	16
3	Ron Berg	299	20
4	Judy Madsen	None	40

Note: All skippers were sailing the "Pool Shark" Footy.

The Fairwinds also sailed in the afternoon. Here are their results after 6 heats and one throw out:

FAIRWIND SPRING REGATTA

PLACE	SKIPPER	SAIL #	POINTS
1	Richard French	20	5
2	Dave Morrison	1007	11
3	Terry Havener	29	13
4	Judy Madsen	65	17

The next race day is Saturday, April 10th, 2010. It is the Second Race Day for the Victoria High Point Series. And starts at 2:00 PM. Free sailing in the morning.

March 6, 2010   -   Victoria Spring Regatta

The Victoria Spring Regatta was held on Saturday, March 6th. It was an all-day regatta with races starting about 10:00 AM. Winds were light, variable and fluky as usual.
Chris Staiger sailed 14 first place finishes in 18 races. Richard French shared the other four 1st places. Rob Berg, back from a vacation, was third with Terry Havener and Judy Madsen close behind.
Here are the results and the total points after three throw-outs:

VICTORIA SPRING REGATTA

PLACE	SKIPPER	SAIL #	POINTS
1	Chris Staiger	227	16
2	Richard French	51	26
3	Ron Berg	08	47
4	Terry Havener	805	59
5	Judy Madsen	880	65

Chris is packing today. He will be flying to Orlando on Tuesday with two Pool Sharks with extra rigs, accessories, radios and spare parts. The Footy NCR will be on Saturday and Sunday, March 13th and 14th. As of today there are 22 entries, with more to come. We all wish Chris some good sailing sprits to guide him this coming weekend, and I don’t mean hot toddies. Chris will be back on Monday, and I‘ll let you all know the results as soon as I receive them.

If Richard is going to San Diego next weekend for the Soling 50 and ODOM Class Spring Regattas, we also wish him the best of luck. Richard should do well. We have great representatives for BMYC in a variety of model yachting classes, don’t we?

February 20, 2010  -  Soling 50 High Point Series

The typical Bakersfield winds prevailed on Saturday. Somewhere between 0 and 4 mph with constantly changing directions and fluky conditions. It also rained in the morning. So much for the possible storm winds.

Before the Soiing 50s raced at 1:00 PM, we sailed the new Pool Shark Footies, recently built over the New Year. We had six in the water. Chris Straiger, Richard French, Stan Ogden, Tom Trento, Phil Scrivano and Dick McCoy. These little boats take some practice to sail. Because they are so light, they accelerate fast, but also stop fast when inadvertently headed into the wind. The practice required is to keep them moving...at all costs if racing. Curiously, the wind wasn't too bad in the morning. It really started to drop to zero when we brought out the Soling 50s. :-((

Five Soling 50s raced in the 1st of 4 race days of the Soling 50 High Point Series for the year.  Of the ten races completed, Richard captured 3 firsts and Chris 6 firsts.  One of highlights of the day was when Judy beat Chris in the first race, don’tcha know!

Here are the results for the first race day:

PLACE	SKIPPER	SAIL #	POINTS
1	Richard French	85	44
2	Chris Staiger	227	41
3	Ken Covey	22	27
4	Stan Ogden	1887	25
5	Judy Madsen	1580	13

The next races are scheduled for Saturday, March 6th at 10:00 AM.
It is the Victoria Class Spring Regatta with a few Footies in between for practice.

February 6 , 2010  -  Footy High Point Series

Well, the Weatherman promised wind and rain. We got both. It was FUN after the wind came up. The winds were from 0 mph in the morning with the Footies and started to strengthen with darkening clouds above to about 5-10 mph about Noon. We actually got in six (6) races. We had three of the new Pool Shark Footies and two V12s. Chris, Richard and Stan had the PS 3D Footies, Dave Morrison sailed Stan's V12A Footy and Terry Havener came out with his V12 Footy. Terry retired his Footy early and didn't race the entire series. Interestingly, Richard tied Chris with the same number of 1st and 2nds at 15 points over 6 races.

Here are the results of the Footy High Point Series after the first race day:

PLACE	NAME	SAIL #	POINTS
FLEET A
1	Richard French	285	15
2	Chris Staiger	227	15
3	Stan Ogden	1887	6
FLEET B
1	Dave Morrison	87	8
2	Terry Havener	?	3

After Noon, we started up the Fairwind races. By now the winds had increased to over 10 mph and began to rain lightly. We had Chris, Richard, Stan, Terry and Dave Morrison sailing Fairwinds. It was really good sailing, although a little puffy and squirrelly with wind gusts estimated at about 20 mph at times. That was when we were all knocked down for sure. Everyone agreed it was the strongest winds we had ever sailed in with Fairwinds in Bakersfield. Even though it was raining, it was fun sailing. As the rain increased, we decided to call it quits at about 2:00 PM, a little early for us, but someone mentioned how nice it would be sitting by a nice warm fire in the fire place with a drink in one hand and who knows what else? So we quit right then!

Here are the results of the Fairwinds, day one of the High Point Series:

PLACE	NAME	SAIL #	POINTS
FLEET A
1	Chris Staiger	227	24
2	Richard French	20	21
3	Stan Ogden	79	9
FLEET B
1	Dave Morrison	1007	16
2	Terry Havener	29	11

It was FUN sailing today!

The next race day will be on Saturday, February 20th at 1:00 PM for the Soling 50 High Point Series. Let’s hope we have some the winds we had on the 6th. It was Soling 50 weather!

PS: Don’t forget to watch the America’s Cup races at 1:00 AM Monday morning on your computer: http://www.americascup.com/

January 23, 2010   -  Victoria High Point Series  

Saturday's sailing at the Park at River Walk was as expected. The winds were light to non-existent at times. We sailed Victorias with the new Footy Class in-between races. The upper lake behind the Target Store was better than the lower lake, especially since their were very few fishermen and the parking was great...just a few feet from the water.

The main problem Saturday was the "weeds". The Vics with their bulb keels always pick up anything near the surface. And it sure happened on Saturday. Between races we all came to shore to check for weeds around the keels or rudders, and were not surprised to find some. Just one weed around the keel or rudder, would cause the Vics to almost come to a stop or prevent the boat from tacking in the very light wind conditions.

We had three of the new Chris Staiger's Pool Shark 3D Footys and two V12A Footys on the water before and between the Vic races. The wind was light but the difference in speed was extreme. The 3D Footy sailed rings around Stan's V12A with the big sails...going both upwind as well as downwind. Literally... it sailed circles around the V12A over and over again. What a demonstration of speed in the light wind.

Here are the results of the Victoria Class races, day one of the 2010 High Point Series:

PLACE	SKIPPER	SAIL #	POINTS
FLEET A
1	Richard French	751	33
2	Chris Staiger	2006	32
3	Stan Ogden	1887	24
4	Dick McCoy	907	11
FLEET B
1	Judy Madsen	880	17
2	Terry Havener	805	11

We were glad to see Terry out sailing with us again. Welcome back Terry.

Dave Morrison came out to sail with us with his Fairwind. He raced with us and was always well up in the finish of the Vicforias, mostly I believe he was 3rd or 4th overall in the fleet of 6 Vics. He was the only one who didn't pick up weeds...as far as I know. Blessed be the Fairwind keel.

Also Tom Trento came out to visit and help with the races. Tom had previously sold his Victoria, so he was without a boat. Tom took some great photos with Stan's camera.

Our next sail day will be on Saturday, February 6, 2010.
It will feature a dual event day for both Fairwinds and Footys.
We will be sailing the first day of the High Point Series for both classes.
Races will start at 10:00 AM at Riverlakes.

January 1st, 2nd & 3rd, 2010

The New Year's BMYC Footy Building Cavalcade was a huge success. Chris Staiger, the host, designer, expert sailor, engineer and Assistant District Attorney of Kern Co. in between model yachting activities, provided his newly fabricated Pool Shark 3D kits for all BMYC members to assemble.

Present at the party were Richard French, Ron Berg, Judy Madsen, Dick McCoy, Dave Ogden, Casey Ogden, Stan Ogden, Phil Scrivano and Tom Trento. Over a period of two days Dave Ogden videotaped the complete procedure on how to build the "Pool Shark 3D". The tape will be provided as a DVD in the future with each Footy ordered and shipped by Chris.

The club will have up to 12 new Pool Shark 3D Footys on the water racing within the next few weeks. They will all sail against a couple of modified and stock V12 Footys to test speed and handling. Results will be forthcoming. Specifications and photos to follow shortly.

December 5, 2009

Well, the wind was just as predicted by the weatherman...between 0 and 4 mph, mostly about 1 mph. We had a good turnout. Tom Trento was there first with his #80 Fairwind. Tom's receiver went bad and he bought a new radio and receiver from the new Hobby Shop on 3400 Buck Owens Blvd. "CE HOBBIES". Mostly airplane products...no sailboat stuff.

Dick McCoy was there with his #76 Fairwind. Chris Staiger came with his new recently molded 3D Footy hulls and decks as well as his prototype Footy. The BMYC Building Party is planned for January 1st and 2nd (and 3rd if necessary) at Chris Staiger's home to put together 10 or more 3D Footys for the club.

Ron Berg brought his # 65 Soling 50 as well as his #08 Fairwind. Richard French was, of course, there with whatever he wanted to bring out... particularly his new #85 Soling 50. Dave Morrison arrived and sailed his #1007 Fairwind. Dave Ogden also came out and sailed his #79 Victoria. I was also there with my V12 Footy...but forgot to bring the right radio...so I couldn't sail it. I also brought my new ODOM kit for all to see, recently received from Adrian Olson.

It was a good day for just talking model sailboats and casually sailing a very short course with big handicaps for the Footys, Victoria and Fairwinds, in favor of the biggies...the Soling 50s.