ILYA 2016 ILYA Annual Championship Regatta

Fontana, WI (August 22, 2016) – Since 1898 there has been an ILYA Annual Championship Regatta (minus a few for WWI and WW2). Traditions continued this past week with the annual ILYA Championship being held at Lake Geneva Yacht Club with 199 teams sailing this past week in four different classes of Scows.

There were 20 teams sailing the 38’ A Scows, 58 teams sailing the 28’ E Scows, the largest fleet was the 20’ C Scow with 65 teams and the MC Scow Class had 54 teams. Racing started with the A Scows starting on Wednesday Night and racing through Saturday. The MC Scows raced Thursday through Saturday. Both the E Scows and C Scows sailed Thursday through Sunday.

This was the second year in a row that the ILYA Championship was hosted at the Buddy Melges Sailing Center. The Lake Geneva Yacht Club volunteer teams did an incredible job from beginning to end with great hospitality, service, food, drink and more for the 875+ sailors along with family members and friends attending this great annual championship.

Extremely organized and well run racing with challenging conditions from beginning to end was in order for all the classes sailing. The way weather came at the sailors, with light air in the beginning, fronts, rain, big wind in the end the competitors saw a little bit of everything which really made it a great championship.

The one great thing about a longer championship schedule is that the competitors have to simply be ready for anything and everything, weather wise. Lake Geneva is simply a great spot for light, medium or heavy air with both its shape and size.

A Scows – 20 Teams
The Race Winners were I-333 David Davenport , Team Red Eye won the first and last race, I-55 Mike Keefe and his Ajax Team won the second race and I-1Eagle with Vincent Porter skippering won the third race. M21 Team Melvin, Patrick Hughes was first with 10 points. Second went to I-333 David Davenport finishing with 12 points. Third was I-1 Eagle Vincent Porter with a total of 20 points. Fourth went to Team Ajax and Mike Keefe’s crew with a total score of 23 points. Rounding out the top five was M8 Instigator and Judson Dayton’s team had 24 points.

E Scows – 58 Teams
The Race Winners were I 49 Brian Porter winning race 1, I-2 Vincent Porter winning the second and fifth races, I-1 with Harry Melges IV winning the third and fourth races. The Top Ten finishers were I49 Brian Porter 12 pts, I2 Vincent Porter 19 pts, M11 Erik Bowers 35 pts, WH77 Tom Munroe 39 pts, I9 Peter Strothman 41pts, M42 Chris Jewett 48.5 pts, I-23 Griffin Rolander 55 pts, SC55 Robby Wilkins 56pts, W25 Lee Alnes 57 pts, I-101 Scott Ripkey 60pts.

C Scows – 65 Teams
The Race Winners were I45 Andy Burdick who won race 1, the second race was won by B77 Charlie Kutschenreuter (Junior), another junior sailor Ryan Grosch from Nagawicka won the third race, race four was won by C Scow veteran Joe Schaub with his T17 team and the last race was won by B7 Joe Kutschenreuter. The Top Ten finishers were I45 Andy Burdick and his 3 youth team crew members with a score of 22pts, B317 John Porter 30 points, N181 Peter Keck 48 pts, B18 Brian Brickler 55 pts, B17 Taylor Canfield 56 pts, N74 Ryan Grosch (junior) 64 pts, B303 Frank Davenport (master) 75 pts, A36 Tom Eckert (master) 79 points, A14 Paul Reilly (grand master) 83 pts and B7 Joe Kutschenreuter 85 pts.

MC Scows – 54 Teams
The Race Winners were Race 1 Vincent Driessen Gull Lake, Race 2 Al Haeger Lake Beulah, and Race 3 Michael Greeson from Lake Beulah. The Top Ten finishers were Team Retro Eric Hood and Hannah Noll 10 pts, Peter Strothman Lake Geneva 14pts, Vincent Driessen Gull Lake 21 pts, Chris Tornehl Lake Wissota 25pts, Michael Greeson Lake Beulah 27 points (wins tiebreaker), Stu Oltrogge Clear Lake Iowa 27pts, David Koch Pewaukee 33pts (wins tiebreaker), Michael Considine Chicago Yacht Club 33pts, Steve Avery Okoboji 42 pts and Henry Chesnutt Lake Harriet 45 points.

Event Website

Report by Eric Hood, Event Media