The 2016 Walleye Wagatta was held last weekend at Windpower in Fond du Lac, WI. The forecast was for strong winds early, so we got off to an early start and completed four figure-8 slalom races by noon. Adam Anderson cleaned up in the slalom races with three bullets and a third. Peter Hartwich claimed the other bullet. After a break for lunch there was a diminished wind that was still in the 5-10 mph range. The forecast showed that holding, so we decided to do a distance race consisting of a big triangle from Windpower to Deadwood point, back to the figure-8 jibe mark off of Windpower, and then back to the beach at Windpower. We thought this could potentially take as little as 30 minutes, but the wind continued to lighten as the racers made their way to Deadwood. After lots of jockeying positions on the upwind leg to Deadwood point the fleet was relatively bunched together, but on the downwind run in light air to the figure-8 buoy Don Altmeyer stood out as the fastest. He held strong all the way to the finish at Windpower, with Adam Anderson and Alex Monroe in pursuit for 2nd and 3rd respectively. The race took from 1:33 until 3:07 for Don to complete, with other finishers coming in until almost 4pm. After that journey we called it a day and spent time on the beack, at Windpower, and Sunset Bar & Grill.
Adam Anderson took the A Fleet title, followed by Arden Anderson in 2nd, and Alex Monroe in 3rd. Kevin Gratton won the Kona Fleet, followed by Del Carpenter. FULL RESULTS
Regatta Champ Adam Anderson
Don Altmeyer on his way to winning the distance race
Thank you to Larry Reed and Gene Baker for doing a great job on Race Committee, and to Ben and Kevin at Windpower for all the help getting the site ready and helping Windsurfing thrive in the area!
Next up on the MOWIND schedule is the Dam Jam in Des Moines, IA on May 21-22. See you there!