Detroit MI Aug 26 — Aug 28
2022 CAL25 National Champions
Never Alone #758
Paul & Ross Nuechterlein, Ken Sewtka,
Ron Sherry, Tom Dawson
Gallery of Champions
The Cal 25 National Championship could turn out to be voted the number one regatta of the summer. With 18 boats loaded up with some of the best one design sailors in Detroit, the competition was stiff,
Matt Bounds the PRO found a way to give us ten well managed races sailed in sunny skies and fair sailing conditions. He only needed to go the “I” flag to control the fleet and line. He has always been a PRO that maintains great communication with the fleet as to what he is anticipating his next move to be. The postponements were perfectly timed with his usual words, “smoke em if you got em”.
The Cal 25 championship started off in the most unusual manner. The night before the regatta, the Hollerbach’s boat went missing and no number of calls to crew or Bayview sailors could account for its whereabouts. Final answer, Mike Hoey, our MC of ceremonies and legendary Cal 25 sailor and also a pirate, accidentally took the wrong boat to Crescent that he was planning to sail in the regatta. It gets better, he washed the bottom on the way.
The first day, the boat “Never Alone” sailed by Ross and Paul Nuechterlein, put on a clinic with a 1,2,1,1. Mike Hoey, our pirate, came in second with his new claimed boat called “Artemis”, and then “Thor”, sailed by the Ziegler’s, was third at the end of the first day.
Saturday, day two, was the toughest with increased powerboat traffic adding a new variable to the underpowered Cal 25 conditions. Keeping a Cal 25 going “fast” in those challenging conditions will make most sailors want plenty of grog. We had 3 kegs of DragonMead microbrew beer waiting on shore.
On day three, “Patriot” sailed by the McAllister’s showed its prowess in race 9 with a dominant first place finish. Also, one of the great memories for us was to sail all the way to the finish line right next to Sandy Svoboda on “Hercules Mulligan”. They had their boat flying.
For us on race 7, we had our bow out at the start but the pressure dropped for about 10 seconds which was plenty of time for the fleet to roll us and launch away. We took everybody’s stern on port tack and came off the line in 18th place. Even though we wanted to be left, we were the far-right boat. We got some nice pressure and a small rightie and we were back in the top ten at the first mark, thank you Art Melendres (previous champion) for praying for us in church all the way from California! On day three, “Artemis” and “Pepper” sailed by the Rozelles were changing positions all day for second and third.
“Never Alone” ended racing with an exclamation point by winning the final race. Coming into the final upwind mark, I heard the conversation every sailor wants to hear. “Kenny, talk to me about traffic”. “Ross, there is no traffic”. Ron Sherry was asked about sailing on the boat. “The “Never Alone” team had a regatta dreams were made of. The boat was well prepared with a BOD win and practicing Tuesday before the regatta to choose sails and get the rust off. Clean starts, being able to sail on the sides of the course we wanted, and minimizing tacks were the keys to victory”. By the end, six boats had first place finishes. My congratulations to all the sailors who came out and competed in this luminary event.
We want to extend a special thank you to John & Tracy McAllister for going above and beyond in planning this outstanding regatta.
Paul Nuechterlein
US758 Never Alone
Commodore Cal-25 Club Detroit
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