Centerboard Fleet

Centerboard Fleet Pages

The Western Carolina Sail Club Centerboard Fleet races on Lake Hartwell in Anderson, South Carolina. We race on Saturdays or Sundays beginning in March and running through November. We race in a mixed fleet under the Portsmouth Handicap system. The fleet Sailing Instructions can be found here: Centerboard Fleet SI's. The Fleet includes Lightnings, Buccaneers, Flying Scot's, Lasers, MC Scows, Force 5's and a number of other centerboard boats. We host a mixed fleet regatta in late March that is also a part of the Southeastern Lightning District travel series called the 2010 Springboard Regatta. We also participate in the Western Carolina Hospice Regatta in October.

Lightning Fleet 391 - Lightning Fleet page

Flying Scot Fleet 189 - Flying Scot Fleet page

2010 Fleet News

Congratulations to Team Baker and Ronnie Ashmore for their convincing bullets this Saturday.

Tough, windy conditions of 15-25 were forecast for Saturday. By race time, with the wind blowing all night, the chop rolling down Lake Hartwell from the West was vicious. The forecasters were dead on with sustained 20 and an occasional gust approaching 30, it was not a day for the faint of heart.

The first race was nip and tuck….between Baker and Ashmore as they were clearly faster than everyone else on the water upwind. Upwind speed against the waves took some good driving and both were on their games Saturday. Ronnie won by 1 second nipping Team Bakers at the line with Baker correcting by a mere 3 seconds for the bullet. Wow!

With a 1 hour and 1 minute race, PRO Mike Harrison mercifully shortened the course for the second race. Although not much was different in the results as Ronnie got off to a good start, never looked back and won convincingly over Team Baker by 1:03.

The most impressive part of the day was that all racers flew spinnakers and proved that if you are going to race in the CB fleet, you better bring you’re A game in all conditions. Main and jib downwind won’t get it done.

With 5 race dates and 11 races in the books, it’s shaping up to be a tough battle. With 24 possible races to go, it comes down to who is going to accumulate the most bullets. Right now it’s spread out between 5 competitors who have their eye on the crown. The current count is Hopp (3), Kiemele (2), Ashmore (2), Kreidler (2), Baker (1) and Benson (1) and it’s anyone’s game at this point in the season.

See you on May 22nd for Centerboard race date 6.