Sailboat Regatta on Lake Dillon, Colorado

Sailboat Regatta on Lake Dillon, Colorado Jeniece Pettitt: Hi sailors, I'm Jeniece Pettitt for Plum TV. I am currently out on the beautiful Lake Dillon about to go out on a sailboat race. For those of you that didn’t think they are sailing in Colorado, think again. Frank Keesling: In today here, the Dillon Yacht Clubs are Saturday event at the Ptarmigan Sailboat Regatta that the Dillon Yacht Club hosts. We’ll have about 35 boats out on the water today, all keelboats. Most boats will carry an average of four people during the racing today and we have different boats from J-24’s to J-22’s and Stars, Ensign and there is a course that is designed on the water that the race committee will be announcing to the competitors, and the competitors will follow that course around the lake. And the first one to come across the finish line will win that race. Jeniece Pettitt: I was lucky enough to get to go out for a race in Doctor Jim Carollo’s sailboat, which is named “My lady J”. But before we go out, let's learn about the boats and meet the crew. Jim Carollo: This is J-24 so it's 24 feet long, it usually sails with a five-person crews. So we have foredeck, Mike here is foredeck and then backing up the foredeck is at the mast and Lisa is doing that position. Then after that one step back is in the sewer or the cockpit and so right down here in the sewer, Megan is doing the sewer and that job right there is to go ahead and bring in the spinnaker and aid in terms of other boat handling. The foredeck, the job on the foredeck is to go ahead and jibe the spinnaker pole. The spinnaker is the large sail that’s up in front of the sailboat and their job is to jibe the spinnaker pole and call wind as we go upwind. Jibing the pole is when we go from one direction to another direction. We move the sail from one side of the boat to the other. But to do that you have a big pole that holds the spinnaker up and we have to move that pole from one side of the boat to the other. The mast assists the foredeck to go ahead and position the spinnaker pole in the right position and also to call wind and tactics. The sewer is bringing in the spinnaker and helping with the sail handling on sail changes and then we get back to the back of the boat. The next person back is a trimmer, that’s Kevin and Kevin is going to be trimming all the sails, the spinnaker and the jib. And then the last spot on the boat is my spot where I'm driving the boat on the skipper or helmsman and my job is to go ahead and steer the boat and then trim the main sail and adjust some of the other controls back at the back. But that’s the whole crew on a J-24. Jeniece Pettitt: As we headed out of the harbor, the committee boat is was out on the water getting ready for the race. Frank Keesling: Well here we are in the Dillon Yacht Club Race Committee boat. We’re heading out on the water to conduct that racing for today. As you can see, the competitors are out on the water right now. We’re going to go out and get the race started for them. Jeniece Pettitt: Jim was nice enough to let me sail his boat for a while. But as soon as the starting sequence began, Jim took back over the helm and the crew got ready in their positions. Scott Snyder: Sailboat racing is a bit like a chess match. The first five minutes prior to the start is a lot of mess, everyone -- for position to get back that perfect start. So it's very exciting at the start and then from there it becomes very much a tactical strategic race and especially on Lake Dillon where the wind is very shifty, and anything can change in a heartbeat. The wind can go from five knots to 20 knots very quickly and drop back down. The wind can shift 30°, 40° even 50° at a time. So a lot of it is tactics and strategy and trying to make sure your boat is in the right place at the right time to get through the course as fast as you can. And unfortunately a lot it is a lot of luck too so -- Jeniece Pettitt: You would be surprise how intense the sailboat race can be. You often hear yelling out on the water as boats nearly collide with one another. Jim’s boat did very well in the race although we didn’t ended winning. Sailboat racing on Lake Dillon is quite competitive. Scott Snyder: But there’s actually a large contingency of sailing trip on Lake Dillon that travel all over the country, even over the world and race and we've been very successful. And part of that is because Lake Dillon is such a challenging venue to sail on and that makes sailors that come from Lake Dillon very tune to what's going on around them. They’re very sensitive sailors, sensitive to the changing conditions and so, in very light shifty conditions, Dillon Yacht Club sailors do very well imaginably. Jeniece Pettitt: So I'm back on shore after my awesome race with Jim and his crew. We had an incredible time out there. The wind there is perfect. The sun was glorious. It was good time. I grew up sailing on the great lakes of Michigan again which is some of the best sailing in the world but I had no idea that there was sailing as amazing as this right here 20 minutes from Veil on lake Dillon. If you’ve never been out here definitely make the little drive and give sailing a try for yourself.