Everything was in place for an outstanding 25th anniversary event. Except wind!

September 14 & 15, 2024 were gorgeous sunny days and the lake was absolutely beautiful. YMCA Camp Chingachgook did a marvelous job providing abundant food, staff, fueled powerboats and rigged sailboats. Y-Knot volunteers were in abundance, helping to load, unload, administer, move marks and tow boats

Saturday morning wind was dead so the race committee postponed racing until after lunch. That was a good decision because afternoon did finally provide 5 knots from the Northeast.

So the race committee set up a windward-leeward course near Dome Island; a good location because it is sufficiently out of the “shipping channel” along the eastern shore where the waves are somewhat less and the wind is slightly steadier on a northerly.

Three races were completed although in the third, the wind was fading so the race committee shortened the course.

By the end of the day the old fox, Bob Kraemer, was in the lead with Jim Finkle and Eric Rose close behind. Jim had agreed to share a boat with Dave Whalen, who could only attend on Sunday, and all sailors hoped for more racing the next day.

Meanwhile, Saturday evening was certainly not wasted, with abundant cocktail hour finger food (the avocado smoked salmon dip was almost as addictive as the spanakopita) followed by an enormous buffet in the pavilion while the sun slowly set across the lake.

Sunday morning dawned another gorgeous day with a light easterly along the shore (possibly an inertial remnant of the clear evening’s katabatic) which encouraged the race committee to attempt racing immediately, fearing that it wouldn’t last. A short course was set extremely close to shore and a race was started.

But the RC’s wind anxiety proved justified and despite great patience by racers and support staff, Sunday racing had to be canceled after no boat could reach the windward mark within a half hour.

The racers bobbed on the glassy water for an hour, but when four kayaks paddled past the fleet, it became evident that the wind gods were winking at us, so racing had to be canceled for the day.

Saturday’s race results became the official results for the Regatta and as the warm afternoon wound down, Bob Kraemer was presented the historic trophy, recently renamed the Byrne/Stanley Y-Knot Regatta cup in honor of Ron Byrne and Rebecca Stanley, representing 25 years of Y-Knot racing in this lovely location.

Gold Fleet Results

The entire library of 2024 Regatta photos are on Google Drive:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1d94oRpNntHzoad73NGxYHS1XEKPxfZvY?usp=sharing

Many thanks to Ean, Erin, Katie, Keith and their respective teams for unparalleled support throughout the weekend.