WIT 2008 Closed Course Championships & Film Event Recap!
Ten DN sailors, competing in 8 boats raced the Inagural WIT Closed Course Championships on White Bear Lake, March 15 & 16.
Saturday:
N at 5 gusting near 15 mph in the morning. Three boats were set up at dawn, the plowed and groomed course had been overdriven by fishing traffic, in the preceding week’s heat wave. As others were busy with the shoot preparation, 5366 and 5404 led the find a better sheet of ice, some things never change.
We looked over several, finally agreeing on a cove on the south shore, moderately clear, minimal shell ice, and pretty good wind direction, as Rumjungle Team “No Worries Mate”, finished setting up.
After the safety meeting, cameras rolling we ran a series of 4 – 8 boat heats, as I saw it, 10 might be a crowd. In the sponsored field,
T “T-Bone” Thieler driving the CSI – Chapstick ® boat, (bio?)
Gavin Potts, driving the Quantum boat,
5366 driving the Team Oxford Global,
Aussie John Norton leading the RumJungle, No Worries Team (two KA Boats)
and the Reliance Development Team led by R Bruce Smith.
Terry Black Ice Moore, and a couple local cruisers filled out the white sail fleet, throughout the day, second lap times ranged in the 1:05 – 1:25 per lap.
Heat 1: 5 laps, 1st: CSI™ Chapstick® T – Bone had a great start, led wire to wire, Adam Koller drove the Oxford boat from a bad start, all the way thru the pack to challenge on the last leg, Team Quantum, with 08 season Rookie Gavin Potts driving, was not able to defend against the hard charging Koller.
Heat 2: 5 Laps, 1st Adam Koller, driving the Team Oxford Global Advisors boat, showed his mastery of managing thru the turns, pulling a classic final turn slingshot to get past he CSI Chapstick boat on the last leg, winning a tight race by about a boatlength. It was pretty apparent Koller was a threat when breeze was on.
Heat 3: 5 Laps, T-Bone turns it up, he just exploded off the start line, one hike, trim and it was “see ya!” Koller in Team Oxford second, and the other four scratching their heads… Gordy Bowers, former DN Luminary, perennial softwater champion and former US Olympic Head Sailing Coach almost went “Bobby Knight” on Team Quantum’s Rookie, Gavin Potts, and took him to tuning task in the pits.
The wind went down to 0 -1 in some lulls, we shortened course, and the shooters got some great interviews during the pause in the action.
Heats: 4,5,6 in a lighter breeze saw team RumJungle enter the fray, T – Bone continued to demonstrate his speed and technique dominance, but Gordy’s coaching started moving Team Quantum closer to the front, in each race until in the weekend’s only incident, they lost a side stay and the mast came down on the last leg in Heat 6, which we have on film.
Aussie Team Rum Jungle
4:00 racing suspended for day, the competitors and crew decompressed at the Spring Open House and Chili Cook-off at the White Bear Boat Works, all the chatter I was hearing was about how to make one of these IceRacers faster,
Sunday:
Wind delay, wind delay, set up for interviews, wind comes up, set up and test pit stops, set the course, wind drops to zero, time delay, time limit, 2:00 came, and we called it an event. In the practice heats there were several boats lapped on each heat, some real big runner alignment issues discovered,
The winner: The World IceRacing Tour, Closed Course Champion for 2008, James “T” Thieler, in a wind shortened series.
“The WIT has achieved a milestone here on White Bear this Weekend, We have exceeded all of our on the ice goals in this development season, validated every aspect of WIT Closed Course Completion.
o The racing the course is fun and fun to watch.
o We can groom a track and plan events to happen as planned.
o This clearly has a promising future in IceRacing “
WIT Event Organizer, “the icemaker”
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ON March 15th, 2008 sailing will change forever! The Flag is UP!
The Inaugural Icemaker Challenge - US Closed Course Championships - Tuning , Time Trials and Video Event
Setting the stage for The Icemaker 100 , a 100 lap endurance race in DN Iceboats, scheduled for January 2009 with some of the very best sailors in the world competing . The World IceRacing Tour is Sailing with Attitude, Sailing Worth Watching.
The Inaugural US Closed Course Championships are ON,scheduled for March 15th & 16th, at White Bear Lake, MN.
Imagine a sport that takes place in some of the most picturesque and harshly extreme places in the world. One that combines the danger, speed and action of extreme sport with the visual skill and grace of top level acrobatics.
This is Hardwater Racing at it finest. Boats so quick, the sailors find them more like high performance motorcycles than softwater yachts. A sport where surviving a race can be as important as winning a race.
Excitement. Action. Speed. High-visibility, and finally, sail racing so simple, it’s not "softwater" yacht racing.
The World Ice Racing Tour takes to the world stage in 2008/09 in The Icemaker 100, with teams of the worlds very best sailors racing from in North America, among those scheduled to compete is Karol Jablonski, 7 time DN World Champion, (hardwater) and Helmsman of America’s Cup Yacht Desafio Espanol, Valencia Spain last Summer. Jablonski says, “We are creating the future of sailing!”
The World IceRacing Tour Event Formats are crafted for a Global Television Audience, the 2008/9 season events include:
- The Icemaker 100, In Minnesota, North America, on a racecourse more like dirt track stock car racing than yachting!
- The Black Diamond, scheduled for Late January / Early February 2009 in Poland. An event that’s so exciting, most of the world’s best sailors are now clearing their calendars in order to compete. Sailing on IceRacing’s first Super Speedway Track.
The World IceRacing Tour has it all, speed, top talent, drama, pit stops, on board cameras and electronics.
Photo taken at 3:00 Thursday