Midwinters West 2020

Thistle Midwinters West 2020

Mission Bay Yacht Club, January 29-February 1, 2020

by Mike Poltorak, #3410

This year’s Thistle Mid Winters West (MWW) turned out to be a fantastic regatta. I got motivated early to try to get all of the local competitive boats on the racecourse either with their owner or as a charter. We had all but two competitive boats being used for not only the Thistle MWW, but also for the Larry Klein Memorial Match Race competition.

This year we welcomed 35 boats from all over the country. We had boats from the Pacific Northwest, the Eastern Seaboard, and from the Deep South. We had representation from all over the country. The conditions were BEAUTIFUL. We welcomed several guests to our class, Larry Schmitz, long time MBYC member and Glen Selvin, a Finn Sailor from Alamitos Bay YC. Also, of note was the return of Stu Robertson. It was great to have these new faces on and around the racecourse. We had numerous out-of-towners chartering boats. This really boosted the participation numbers in the regatta.

Congratulations to Regatta Champion Greg Griffin from Jacksonville,Florida, and the runner up was our very own David Tillson. It was great seeing Dave back on the water sailing with Eric Heim, and his son Cole Tillson. For the Larry Klein Memorial Regatta, we welcomed Jamie Malm (sailing with his son) and Coach Robert Capita, the coach from the UCSD sailing team. We feel that by inviting new blood into our competitions, we will likely increase the participation.

The Thistle fleet is seeing a bit of a resurgence, and I encourage anyone that is interested in checking out these fine boats to come on out and join us. We can get you on the water as crew, or we can get you behind the helm. We have a fleet boat that is available to our members to take out and test drive… I think you will like the feel and performance of these awesome

boats.

A special thanks to PRO Andrea Caroe and her team for getting off all 9 scheduled races in very challenging conditions. I don’t think there is a PRO around that cares more about trying to do their best for the competitors.

On a personal note, I was very pleased and proud to not only have my daughter Mindy (and her boyfriend Sergio) crew for me, but I was also able to race against my daughter Miranda as she

skippered her first MWW without her dad. She had excellent crew in Craig Smith (Past National President) and Charlie Yingling (long time Thistler). Miranda had a successful regatta; she didn’t flip over and didn’t finish last. She even crossed in front of her dad on at least one occasion. This picture was taken by Judy Tillson. As a father, it gives me much pride to see my daughter keeping her boat flatter than mine as I duck to take her transom. Thanks, Judy, for capturing a very special moment for both me and Miranda.

The highlight of the regatta was after the regatta during the Larry Klein Match Race Competition. Since Mindy and Sergio couldn’t race with me, I was scrambling for crew. It was looking like I wasn’t going to be sailing at all…Along came my wife Belen to the rescue. After attending church,she quickly changed and came down and sailed with the old man. We missed the first race, finished a respectable 8th in the Race 2 and won the third race with a comfortable margin. Belen and I had not sailed together for many years, and it was very special for me to be able to share this win with her.

2020 Mid Winters West Results

Abbreviated results are below. View complete results by downloading the PDF. For the race recap articles, see the April/May 2020 issue of the Bagpipe.

Championship division

Presidents division

2020 Larry Klein Memorial Qualifying Series

Photo credits: Judy Tilllson