A Little Bit About Sheboygan...Volume One

The following is an unpaid, unpolitical but very biased assessment of our regatta host city.
One of the reasons our organizing committee is confident that anyone who attends the 2014 Lightning North American Championships is very likely to have a good time is Sheboygan, Wisconsin itself.

It is really a lovely small city, the perfect size to play host to us. It's small enough that you can get anywhere you need to in 15 minutes. But it's big enough to offer virtually any kind of dining and beverage experience you might find interesting. It is also home to the internationally-known Sail Sheboygan which operates a US Olympic Yachting Center and has hosted many of the most prestigious Match Racing events in the world. Sail Sheboygan and immediately adjacent Sheboygan Yacht Club are our regatta organizing authorities.

Sheboygan has lots of open park spaces including one within 3 minutes of the regatta site which offers the oldest and most-played disk golf course in Wisconsin (30 years old and it features an full service pro-shop!).

There are miles of beaches which offer the best surfing in the Midwest. Yes surfing...what you don't remember that Chicken Joe who actually won the surf competition in Disney's animated classic "Surf's Up" is from Sheboygan? It is certainly true.

You will find a nice little travelogue produced by Wisconsin Public Television at the following link:

http://youtu.be/JKVi1Brk4Rs

I just watched it and I had NO IDEA how great green grass and leaves look in Sheboygan!

We can't wait until you show up.

Obsession. There is really no other word for it.

Greetings from Ice Station Zebra.

When you go through a vintage winter up here in the upper Midwest, particularly if you're planning a major regatta or two, you sometimes find yourself exploring the perspectives only available from your mind's eye. Mark Wessel who's in charge of regatta infrastructure, has no doubt found himself in the snow packed parking lot adjacent to the Sheboygan Yacht Club in below zero conditions referring to his CAD drawing of the way 100 Lightnings will seamlessly glide into and out of the water. As early as last November, Todd Wake and I eyed the floor of Sheboygan Youth Sailing's building envisioning where sail measurement mylars might be placed for spot checks during the event.

Then this morning our regatta PRO Rich Reichelsdorfer sent me this photo of the racing area as it looks right now. It started me wondering. Yesterday we held a conference call relating to the first draft of the Sailing Instructions. We discussed course options and when Richard might prefer to use each... and average race durations and the length of the sail back in to the dock from the race course when the wind is from different directions. I assumed Richard was doing the call from his desk with the draft on his computer.

But just maybe he was doing the call from out on that bluff. At the very least, he's been up there...looking. This time of year that bluff is like a widow's walk for obsessive PROs. The mind's eye can compel such behavior during a Winter that refuses to yield the stage.