Seafair Trophy Race 2006

For the 2006 Seafair race we were greeted by sunny skies and a light breeze from the north which brought all the boat traffic wakes, in the form of rollers, on to the race course. There were 13 boats each for Divisions 1 and 2.

For this race we used a new format, the “Fan Plan”, which groups the boats that are closest in season points to run against each other all day long. This made for some very close racing and, with the rough conditions, may have contributed to a few accidents.

Kendall Landers the Producer of Seattle Boating Show was there with his crew and video taped our races for his local cable show.  They interviewed many of our members and the show will be aired at some later date.  We’re looking forward to it.  Classic Thunder would like to thank them for showing up to do a story on our club.

Here are some of the highlights from the preliminary heats;

In Division 2, the first heat had all the boats so close for three laps that it looked like a start each time around with Mitch’s Trendwest coming out on top.

In heat 2A, Trendwest was approaching the finish line with the lead when he stuffed the boat just 20 feet short and the KYYX drove over the submerged boat, slipping by for the win. Then Mitch limped in for second.

In 2B the Design 360 spun a prop and, by the time Mike Krone was able to row over to retrieve it, the boat drifted under the Ivar’s boardwalk. Danny Minalia jumped in the water and swam in to rescue the drifting boat. Mike then rowed back to the dock with Danny in tow. The heat was won by Mark Beaty with the 1990 Oberto.

3A had Dave Sacry and the Circus Circus stuff just crossing the start/finish line. Dave was going for broke since he had not finished in either of the prior heats. The boat disappeared under the waves but did pop up.  He drove to the infield and shut it down there to make sure he would not damage the wet speed controller. Jeff Howard and Elam were able to slip by the KYYX on the last turn to take the win.

All 3 boats that started heat 3B, Dale Schroeder’s “76” Miss Budweiser, Mike Schultz’s Griffon Budweiser, and Mike Krone’s Design 360, failed to finish.

The thrills and spills were more prevalent in Division 1 heats as the older style boats had a tough time negotiating rough water on the course.  Heat 1A had Mitch’s Miss U.S. collide with Pete’s Miss Bardahl but no call was made in this heat. The Miss U.S. did lose the tips of the aluminum propeller in the collision. They would tangle later in the day because of the Fan Plan and running the same boats head to head all day. Later in the same heat the checkerboard Bardahl driven by Mark Beaty did a spectacular flip coming off a roller.  We will have to wait to see if it was picked up on video.  Miss Seattle with Dale VanWyk took the victory.

In heat 2A, Mitch and Pete were at it again, only this time Mitch was called for the infraction of baring in on the Bardahl.  The checkerboard Bardahl won the heat.

In 3B, Jeff Howard driving the Miss Budweiser took his third heat win followed by Bob VandenAkker’s third second place finish moving both of them to the Div. 1 final.

In a first for the day, all the boats that started heat 3B finished and it netted the My Gypsy and Tony Minalia their best finish by taking second place.  Mike Schultz’s Thriftway and Mike Krone’s Hurricane IV ended up scoreless for the day but should see better results as the last two races will be held of flatter water.

With the weather holding, it was time to start the consolation and final heats.  Starting with Division 2, we had already determined 5 of the boats heading into the winner take all final, Trendwest, KXXY, Elam, Island Security Systems and 1990 Oberto.  Now it was time to find out who would run in the trailer position.  The five boats answering the call were the three Bud boats of Dale Schroeder, Mike Schultz, and Brent Hall along with the Circus Circus and Design 360. By the end of lap 3 all 3 Bud boats were either upside down or just dead in the water. Circus Circus lead and Design 360 was about a quarter lap back and unable to gain as they both had to work their way around the dead boats on the course. Circus Circus crossed the line first and Design 360 was second. Dave forfeited his point to move on to the final as the trailer.

Division 2 Final Heat:

It was a good start as all the boats had to work their way through the large rollers coming in under the walkway. By lap 2, the KXXY had rolled over in the south turn and gave the rest of the field an obstacle to go around. Up front were the Elam and the Trendwest with the 90 Oberto and Island Security Systems battling for third.  Circus Circus with Dave Sacry driving was slowly making up distance on the leading boats. Mitch, trying to extend his lead over the Elam, hooked the boat, cut inside a buoy and was assessed a one lap penalty. Soon after, the Oberto lost its cowling and had to pull off the course.  This left the Elam out front with Island Security Systems running in second. Circus Circus was still making up ground but the race ended with a third place finish for Dave. This may be the lowest point total for a boat (225 points for the day) earning a top three finish. The Trendwest made up the penalty lap and finished fourth.

After calling out the boats to run the Division 1 Consolation heat, Clint Crain with his Parco O-Ring Miss came up and asked why he wasn’t called, not realizing that he had made the Final already. He had been running so regularly in the Conny we guess he just assumed he couldn’t make the final without it.  Face it Clint, you’ve arrived!  The actual boats that would give it a go in the Conny were the cabover Bardahl, 1954 Miss U.S., checkerboard Bardahl, Tahoe Miss with Dan Clark driving, Dale Schroeder driving his beautiful Notre Dame, and Tony Minalia driving the My Gypsy. While battling for position the checkerboard Bardahl gained on the inside of the 54 Miss U.S., Mitch squared off the corner, taking away the lane from Mark, who could not avoid a collision.  Mitch ended up being disqualified from the heat.  The cabover Bardahl prevailed and moved on to the final as the trailer.

The Division 1 Final:

As the boats were being put in the water for the Division 1 final heat, one boat was missing. There was a miscommunication.  As race sponsor I take the blame as I thought I saw someone from the Bud camp gesture that I was heard when announcing the start of the five minute clock.  My apologies go out to Jeff Howard.  Jeff was in the middle of an interview with the TV filming crew and didn’t hear the clock from where he was.  It’s unfortunate that he missed the heat. The Bud was a final heat favorite as it had handled the rough water very well all day.  The other 5 boats were in the water at the 30 second mark.  Miss Seattle, Nitrogen Too, 1966 Miss U.S., Parco O-Ring Miss, and the cabover Bardahl made up the field. As the boats crossed the start line and headed into the first turn, there was water everywhere and some appearant collisions, but no one was able to get a clear view so no official calls were made. Out of the corner came the Nitrogen Too in the lead with Miss Seattle and Parco following. The Miss U.S. lost the cowling and was out of the race. Cabover Bardahl was back some and now in fourth place. This order didn’t change until Clint and the Parco’s made a high speed run up the back stretch trying to catch the Miss Seattle but it resulted in a huge blowover that ended his race. The finishing order was Nitrogen Too in first, Miss Seattle in second, and the cabover Bardahl in third.

We survived another Seafair race at Coulon Park and I thank all the competitors for being there to put on such a good event.

A special thanks goes to Judy Fenton for keeping notes for me so I could race boats and write this review. Thanks to Tim Knowles for picking up the course at the end of the day.

Sincerely,

Mike Krone

Seafair Race Sponsor