Midwinters West 2025

The plan was to stack two Waves and head out Thursday Night.  The waves are easy, and it should be a low stress weekend! The forecast was calling for high teens, so it would be a sweet Wave event. We had a couple new products to test, a Spinnaker kit for the wave and a new Flopper stopper system. Unfortunately the trip got off to a rough start before leaving the parking lot.


Day 1- Weds

Trailer loading and inspection went well, until the inspection of the tires revealed significant cracking of the sidewalls and tread. It turns out that one tire was 22 years old, and the other was 7 years old. Both tires were not going to make the 750-mile round trip. We found a shop with stock and would get them loaded up on Day 2.

Day 2 – Thursday

Tires were mounted, I always like bigger tires, so I opted for the next size up. The fender had room, so we could go from 4.8-8 to 5.7-8 tires… but the offset was not enough, so that when the trailer was lowered onto the tires, the tire set itself firmly into the frame! During the tire removal, the hubs were also inspected and found to have significantly cooked grease. Seals were replaced, bearings inspected and repacked and hubs reassembled. 5.7 tires were swapped back for 4.8 tires and the trailer was loaded! Just in time for an unscheduled rainstorm to accompany the final trailer hook up and boat strapping.
I left at 5:45pm and drove to a rest stop most of the way to the lake.


Day 3 – Friday

Woke up at 4:30 and drove the last two hours to the lake! New for 2025, google maps includes the washboard 6-mile road in the ETA, so the ETA was close to accurate. Rolled into the event site to find a mostly packed lot and settled in on the north side of the beach. The wind was already blowing, and I was eager to get the boat put together and evaluate out the kite setup. I had had the spinnaker in the boat kit for 4 years, but one thing or another has always prevented final testing!
The spin kit went together well, and I took off for a trial run in gusty morning conditions with an average of 18-20 mph breeze. A few lulls and some spicy gusts made for an exciting set. I was solo on the wave and my vintage tramp launch bag was not ideal, so the initial launch and retrieval was pretty sloppy, but after a few dicey moments I found the groove and blasted down the lake. The factory A- Sym kite works well, it can hold a beam reach well enough with the main sheeted in all the way, or go pretty far off the wind. The beam reaches are probably what lead to the fun on Day 4. The ride was very wet, and the spin pole was starting to bend, so I headed back to the beach for some more tuning and more clothes. Rooster makes a great Aquafleece Pro Top that is thick and fuzzy. I threw that on over the rest of my gear, added a dyneema line from the forestay to the pole and headed back out. By then it was late morning/ early afternoon, the breeze was settling down and a bunch of other boats had left the beach too. The kite is certainly big enough to add some speed against a stock setup. It was hard to drive deep for a proper VMG shootout due to the hull flying and excitement from the spinnaker beam reaching! After a few hours of fun, I hit the beach and packed up in an effort to save energy for the next day’s conditions. Fleet 51 put on a Friday night dinner and classic Hobie way of life bonfire circle.



Day 5- Saturday

 The big day! The breeze was fresh and chatter on the beach was that conditions might be too spicy. The forecast called for a big differential in the morning with it settling into a more consistent breeze by late morning. It held pretty true and there was only moderate race delay as RC got set up. I was pumped on the strong breeze and big Wave turnout. Last year we had some rough competition, I was hoping to defend my title from last year. The waves were out and ready to go and the 16s were lagging, so RC started us first. I had an OK start and crawled up the course and around the weather mark with the pack. The fleet split at the gate and David, Jim and I went up the right side of the course. I made a nice gate rounding at was pointing pretty high, I was struggling to gain on Jim and stay ahead of David. We mixed up some tacks and were all making some nice progress… then disaster struck! A marginal component of my starboard bow failed, and my bridle attachment point ripped out of the starboard hull. The mast dropped and I was toast for that race. I am a strong proponent for radios on the course, unfortunately I left my box of radios in the garage. As it stood, my boat was raring to go with the wave mast ball still intact, as the boat bobbed and wind pounded, the mast was almost raising itself, I gave it a push and the sail picked up the mast and the boat took off on port. A few other boats radioed in my distress and RC was looking for a demasted boat. Meanwhile, I was making my way upwind with an upright mast. I sailed outside of any lay line and thought I would be able to gybe and sail back to the beach, right about my gybe point, Dustin rolled up on the pontoon boat to help. I finally admitted defeat and got pulled back into shore. 
Once back on shore I found two other Waves. Jim had managed to finish the race but had an issue with his cleat. We borrowed a screw from a lower triple block assembly and got his cleat back together.  Then I found some dyneema, a drill and a bit to fabricate a synthetic bow tang for my boat. We were both back on the water within ten minutes and working our way down to the start line. Jim missed race two and I missed one and two.
Races three and four had strong breeze. There was a significant oscillation across the course, sometimes the right was favored, and sometimes the left was favored. If you guessed right or read the shifts correctly you could make up hundreds of yards on your competition! The day wrapped with good breeze and a great smoked pork dinner!

Day 6 -

 
The forecast was for a much lighter day, and at the competitors’ meeting it looked like there might not be any sailing. As we went through the raffle the zephyrs started to appear, and some nice breeze filled in. We got off two more races with similar shifting winds, but much flatter water. Jim Sajdak led a Wave racing clinic in the morning to share some tips and most if not, the entire fleet showed up to compare notes. Some notes on downhaul and start line position helped me with upwind boat speed, but a few bad choices had me chasing the fleet again. I utilized the stability of the light air to try out some downwind wild thing sailing and managed to catch 3-6 boats on each downwind leg, with the standard DDW sailing tactics in Wave sailing, I was incredibly pleased with the effectiveness of the technique. At the end of the second race, the wind shut down. We could look up longingly towards the beach, or down deep into the lake and observe the lake floor. 
The event wrapped with a warm pleasant afternoon for de-rigging and awards.
Adam Borcherding and Julie won first place in H16 A fleet; Jim Sajdak won first place in the Wave Fleet. Yassin Won H16 B Fleet and Caleb Borcherding was awarded top Youth sailor.