2014 Chaos Cup Winners Roger and Laura Sharp            2014 Chaos Cup 2nd Mark Riefenhauser and Dave Irving

2014 Chaos Cup 3rd Greg and Diane Kampf                         The fall colors were beautiful around the lake!               

WIth 11 boats on the line, QYC held the 2014 Chaos Cup in shifting and gusting winds and confusing us all enough to know why they should call it the Chaos Cup.  But that's not why.  The Chaos Cup started with a group of 110 racers in 1985, and at some point the boat named Chaos met with a sad fate when the Coast Guard rescued the crew from the boat and then had to let the boat crash and get ruined on the rocks.  But now it's a Flying Scot regatta and we are the lucky ones competing for the cup.

We had an unusually warm 70-degree day in October with beautiful New England fall colors in the background surrounding the boats.  There were 5 boats from Quannapowitt, 4 boats from Massapoag YC in Sharon, MA, and 2 boats from Candlewood YC in New Fairfield, CT.  With the shifty 12-16 MPH winds, there were boats crossing each other often in very close quarters, changing leads, some going from 1st to 5th or from 9th to 3rd in a very short period of time.  Several different boats won the 6 races although Mark Riefenhauser won 2 races. 

 Brian Hayes unlocks the mystery of lake sailing

The Race Committee kept us going quickly from race to race and we finished 4 Olympic course races before lunch.  During lunch, Brian Hayes from North Sails reviewed films he took out on the water and gave us some tips and tricks for dealing with shifty lake winds.  We always appreciate Brian's willingness to share what he knows.  We went out after lunch and the wind had shifted a bit, but we were able to get in 2 more Olympic courses before coming in for pizza.  At the end of the day, Roger and Laura Sharp were the winners, Mark Riefenhauser and Dave Irving were second and Greg and Diane Kampf were third.  Thanks to Eric Wojtaszek and the Club for hosting us - can't wait to do it all again!  Full results are here.

 What is that hanging from the mast?