Daily Reports
Day 1- Thursday, August 17

The registration process went very well today for the U.S. Singlehanded Championships for the George D. O’Day Trophy at Milwaukee Yacht Club.  All the sailors are set to race.  But, before we get to the real racing, a clinic sponsored by Rolex Watch USA Inc was held at for the competitors.  Kurt Taulbee from Sailfit was in town to put on the Laser clinic and he did a great job. 

Kurt started with an on shore chalk talk session, which had all of the competitors’ attention.  He made very good use of the dry erase board.   Next, Bob Pegel who is from Lake Geneva, measured all of the blades.  This was a bit of an undertaking.  Aimee Graham from Vanguard was there in full support.

Terry Bischoff, the PRO for this event, and his race committee team, pushed off from the dock around 1300 to set a practice race course and get some race committee work in.  Kurt went out with the sailors and did some on the water clinic work.  Terry and his crew ran two races and Kurt continued with his fine coaching efforts.  Dean Cady, Chief Judge, took the Harken 21’ RIB out for a test run and warmed up his yellow flag and whistle. There was a 10 knot breeze from the east, which developed a fairly significant chop.  Some challenging conditions for sure. 

After racing, all the boats were put away and we had a nice opening ceremony where we passed out the “one of a kind” Rolex hats that were designed for this event.  All the competitors introduced themselves.  The Judge Team and the Race Committee were also introduced.  Milwaukee Yacht Club put on a nice Sailor’s Buffet dinner and all went home full and happy.

Tomorrow at 1030 the first warning gun sounds and we’re off to a set of nine exciting races.  We’ll keep you posted from here in Milwaukee.