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Eric Douglas and others from the Midwest have been sailing at the disused Raco Airfield in the upper-peninsula of Michigan for some years. Last weekend a few of us from Madison (Wisconsin) along with Fran Gramkowski and Tom Hill joined Eric to see what it's like.
The Madison contingent arrived Friday and did some sailing and racing (ducking into our cars during a couple of rain showers that moved through). Saturday was mostly a no wind day, although Eric was able to sail the three miles around the airfield (twice!) and there was enough for a couple of races in the evening.
Sunday was almost perfect. Sunny, warm, and with an steadily increasing wind over the day. The early races were a bit of a challenge for the super-heavyweights in the group, but once the wind picked up into the high single-digits everybody was able to get around the 1/2 mile windward-leeward course pretty handily.
In the middle of the day we did two races around the airfield (one each direction). The nominally reaching legs were remarkably difficult, with a high premium placed on being able to sail along the slabs that make up the runway.
I've posted an album with a couple of photos from Saturday's racing.
I've also posted GPS tracks from my blokart. They give an idea of the size of the place and where we were sailing:
The Madison contingent arrived Friday and did some sailing and racing (ducking into our cars during a couple of rain showers that moved through). Saturday was mostly a no wind day, although Eric was able to sail the three miles around the airfield (twice!) and there was enough for a couple of races in the evening.
Sunday was almost perfect. Sunny, warm, and with an steadily increasing wind over the day. The early races were a bit of a challenge for the super-heavyweights in the group, but once the wind picked up into the high single-digits everybody was able to get around the 1/2 mile windward-leeward course pretty handily.
In the middle of the day we did two races around the airfield (one each direction). The nominally reaching legs were remarkably difficult, with a high premium placed on being able to sail along the slabs that make up the runway.
I've posted an album with a couple of photos from Saturday's racing.
I've also posted GPS tracks from my blokart. They give an idea of the size of the place and where we were sailing:
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