North Sails One Design

The A Scow Nationals were held on Crystal Lake, Michigan – a big turnout and great racing was had by this awesome fleet. The Championship came down to the last day. Rob Evans was winning going into the final races with Andy Burdick and a group of others very close behind. The final day brought light air and shifty conditions. Andy Burdick sailing Terry Blanchard’s Silverhawk rocketed off the line of the first race the final day and won while Evans ended up 10th in the race. Burdick and Blanchard backed up the win with another bullet give them a double bullet on the final day to win the A scow National Championship.

1st Andy Burdick / Terry Blanchard

2nd Rob Evans

3rd Harry Allen

4th Joel Ronning / Gordy Bowers

5th Buddy Melges / John Anderson

Photo: I-28 Winning the A scow Nationals – Andy Burdick and Terry Blanchard race upwind in the light air on Crystal Lake.

For more information about the Nationals and North fastest A Scow sails, click here or contact our A Scow experts.

Minnetonka Yacht Club hosted the largest A scow championship ever! 30 of these racing machines hit the line this past week with the National Title in mind. Jeff Butzer and his PRO team handled some tricky conditions well. Three heats were completed and a National Champion was crowned on Saturday afternoon.

The first heat had breeze in the 8-12 range. John Porter’s Full Throttle jumped the port favored start and led from gun to gun. John Galley’s I-100 and Rob Evans M-1 scrapped to make it a fight but Porter was hooked up and going fast winning the first race. Galley, Evans were 2,3.

Storms moved in so the RC told the fleet to race to shore. No more racing for this day.

Friday had great breeze! 8-15 with some exciting rides downwind. To put it into perspective – the fastest speed on this day was nearly 18 knots going downwind of course. The A scows gigantic asymmetrical kite really makes the boat go! John Galley’s Silverhawk led from gun to gun in race number two. They had a big lead in the end while Porter ended up 2nd. Joel Ronning from Minnetonka was third in this race. To see the 30 Asymmetricals lined up downwind was quite a sight. Simply amazing!

Going into race 3 on Friday Galley and Porter each had a 1,2. The third race was the best of the series and ended up being the final race of the series as there was no wind on Saturday.

Chuck Lamphere and Hans Melges had the start of the fleet in this heat but it was a contingent of 4 boats that made an exciting race in the end. One that Colman Norris said would be one of the most memorable in his sailing career. Norris, Pat Hughes, Porter and Rob Evans traded positions several times through the race. Rob Evans highlight of the event was rolling Porter and the Full Throttle team. Evans had the lead! Hughes had the lead! The teams scrambled to fight for the victory gun. In the end Porter won the race!

This was the largest A scow regatta ever and with the hype and excitement we soon will see 40 A scows on the starting line!

1st John Porter

2nd John Galley

3rd Rob Evans

4th Colman Norris

5th John Anderson / Buddy Melges

6th Pat Hughes

For more information about the Nationals and North fastest A Scow sails, click here or contact our A Scow experts.

2006 A SCOW NATIONALS
Congratulations Silverhawk Team

John Galley and Team Silverhawk with Andy Burdick at the helm
wins the A Scow National Championship.

North Sails powered 1,2,3,4,5!

John Galley has finally won his first National Championship in the sport of sailing. A quest in the A scow class that started 5 years ago but really in many other classes dating back since the 1960's. Two final races were completed on Sunday. John Galley and his team fended off 11 time champion John Porter and legend Buddy Melges. 107 years of A scow racing in North America - unbelievable. The A scow is the Ultimate Ride. Congratulations John Galley on your big win and congratulations to the A scow fleet nationwide on a first class event.

Twenty A Scows invaded Green Lake, Wisconsin for the NCASA's annual US National Championship. Racing, camaraderie and top notch parties make the people and the sailing in this fleet second to none. 107 years of A scow racing in North America. Only this type of boat could last this long. The 38ft. sport machine is the ultimate ride in sailing!

Two races were sailed on Friday. The A fleet features an 11am start time. Two races back to back and then back to the beach for activities and fleet parties. On this day we had two light air races and still we were back to the dock by 2:45pm. In race one there was a battle to the finish between John Porter and the Full Throttle team vs. John Galley and Team Silverhawk. Porter led down the last run only to allow Silverhawk to fly by at the last moment and take the first race victory. Porter was second and current National Champion Rob Evans was third. Rick Buckley and Tom Sweitzer from Pewaukee were fourth and Chuck Lamphere fifth. The interesting part of this race was the velocity changes and angle shifts throughout. John Porter who has won over 10 major A scow titles showed why he is always tough - nailing the shifts throughout the race.
Race two brought the same sort of thing in a more dying breeze. The main event in this race was Rob Evans port tacking the fleet at the start. He and his crew lined up on port and went full tilt at the competition and the line - never to be challenged he and his crew were so psyched that they were looking at the fleet under the boom as they sailed across on port....Rob said, " The whole crew was watching this start take place, looking under the boom, we get hit with a huge shot and the boat roared up in the air - none of us were paying attention as we were hit with this breeze, I was on my crew after that"!
It was a Full Throttle race as John Porter tracked Evans down and won the race. John Galley was second after rounding the last leeward mark in fifth. Evans salvaged a third after the stellar start and Lamphere hung in there with a fourth.

Saturday brought in some rain and nice breeze. There was a break in the rain action and PRO Jeff Butzer revved up the fleet to hit the water. John Galley's Silverhawk tracked down Tom Whowell's G Force and Buddy Melges / John Anderson in Eagle to win their second race of the series. Pat Hughes from Minnetonka sniffed out a second - awesome for his first A scow regatta - welcome to the fleet! Melges was third and John Stark from Pewaukee was fourth.
The second race of the day saw a big fleet inversion. A big shift at the start allowed Chuck Lamphere to hook in and lead the race from bullet to bullet. They sailed a fantastic race to hold off Rick Buckley and Tom Sweitzer. Lamphere was never really challenged. Melges was third finishing off a nice day with a 3,3. Pat Hughes snagged a 4th in the race to finish with a 2,4 for the day and John Galley had a great comeback in the race - rounding the top mark in 16th and coming back to 5th in the end. Harry Allen from Minnetonka was 6th.

The party at Norton's Saturday night was outstanding. Todd Haines and the NCASA had a first class event with open bar, awesome food and speeches from every A scow owner and helm. Lots of fun, lots of great stories all coming out to the forefront. 107 years of A scow racing. A Mazing!

Congratulations from Team Zenda on the purchase of your new A Scow during the 2005 season! Tell us about your upcoming 2006 racing season at Pewaukee. How many club races will you sail and what will the fleet look like this upcoming year? We are assuming you are planning on attending all of the off-lake events like the National Championship, is this the case for the "Buckin-A" V911 team?

RB: The Pewaukee A Fleet will be very competitive again in 2006. We expect to have ten active boats competing. Brian Henke is getting a new A Scow and we have two new teams for 2006 with the additions of Bob Harring and John Stark, both, with very competitive equipment and established A Scow sailors as crews. For the past three years the Pewaukee Championship Season has not been decided until the last, or next to last race. That's exciting! We will have 16 Championship races scheduled for 2006 as well as our Tuesday twilight series. Couple those with regattas at two great venues like Lake Winnebago and Lake Geneva and we'll have a very active season of sailing. We are hoping to use our Tuesday twilight races as an opportunity to introduce A Scow sailing to some of our friends from Pine, Lac Labelle, Nagawicka, Okauchee, and Beaver who might want to try out these great boats and perhaps later put a Team together and join on Sunday afternoons.

Could you tell us a little about how the A Scow and the big fleet racing at Pewaukee gets you and your team revved up? Also, tell us about your team and the team aspect of A Scow racing.

RB: To get the most your racing team you have to have fun both on the water and off. We have learned over the years that when you address both areas your fleet expands because folks want to be a part of this. The more boats, the more competition, the more fun! The Pewaukee A Fleet has done this well. We are blessed with a good facility where we can dry sail (most Pewaukee A Scows are kept at the Yacht Club) and we have good camaraderie after the race. For 2006 we are hoping to outfit all our boats with GPS systems and purchase the necessary software to be able review the race back at the PYC. Additionally, we have several Fleet parties throughout the year along with a couple of Sail and Dines for our twilight series. In these events we invite the Teams, the Race Committees, and the rest who follow and support the Fleet.

The success of a good team is consistency of your team on the boat. We have been fortunate to have virtually the same team for the past few years. We have Tom Sweitzer on the helm, Rick Roy is our young guy at tactician, Tom Hyslop handles the Whomper along with my brother, David. I get the boards and we have Ric Sternkopf yanking on the jib. Sterny is being rebuilt for 2006 with a new knee so look out. These guys go out every race expecting to win and know that you are never out of a race on an A Scow no matter where you round the last buoy. To prove that it is the crew, and not the boat, we sailed three different A Scows in our 2005 PYC Championship Season and won at least one race in each boat. I thought that was quite telling. Also we are not kids, all but one of us is over 50 years old and we love beating the younger teams. We are also fortunate to have the support of our wives or girlfriends, known as the Buck'N Babes, as well as the rest of our families.

This is an exciting year for the A Scow One Design fleet with four new boats being built. What prompted you to move forward with a new A Scow at this time? Did you keep your old A Scow on the lake or did it go to another fleet?

RB: We bought the only A Scow made in 2005 and that may must have kicked off something good with so many new orders for 2006. How we got our new 2005 is an interesting story and shows the interest in these boats. We were competing in a regatta on White Bear Lake in late June. With White Bear Lake's growing interest in A Scow sailing I had hope to perhaps sell some of our less used sails. Then I was asked if we might consider selling the boat as well, I said sure. Buddy Melges had conveniently reminded us at lunch that they had a new boat just about ready to go in Zenda. Well, we sailed the final race of the regatta and we were docked at the WBYC pier and Fletcher Driscoll said to me that we should just leave it there as he felt he had a serious buyer for our boat. Unfortunately, this serious buyer could not be found (famous A Scow ploy) so I told Fletcher we were going to pull out. No sooner had we pulled our boat out of the water Fletcher and Jason Brown come up to me and said the serious buyers were on their way over and we should leave leave the boat at the White Bear Boat Works. I was skeptical. Our team continued taking the boat a part and we were preparing to drive her back to Pewaukee when they arrived. After about 30 minutes of discussion I told the guys to empty her out and see if Olaf Harken could take some of the sails back to Pewaukee because the boat was staying. It took a while longer to actually finalize the deal but that afternoon absolutely sober men from White Bear bought our A Scow and having been having fun every since. These boats create this much interest and excitement

We have appreciated the improvements in design especially the concealed boards. The boat has proven to be very fast and we won our first NCASA race on Green Lake in 2005.

Can you tell us a little bit about the A Scow class, the owners, the rules that are appealing to you and your team?

RB: The A Scow is a tremendously fast and fun boat to sail. It pushes you and sometimes it scares you with its awesome power. I love that it takes a unified team of people to sail and be successful. The fleet is made up of wonderful people who compete at a high level on the course, yet are fun socially and are willing to share their ideas on how to make the boats go faster through sail trim and crew techniques afterwards. The one design aspect is most appealing. It is great to have boats within our fleet that might be 20 years old that are still competitive and can and will beat you if you are not on your game. To endure the expense of upgrading the hulls regularly would not be appealing to me and if that were the case I most likely would not be an A boat owner and I'm sure others feel the same way. The one design aspect of our fleet will help our growth in the coming years as will giving the opportunity to more people to get on board and have a great ride.

Rick I can speak for all of us here at Team Zenda and North Sails One Design that we are all excited for you and your team with the purchase of the new A Scow. Good luck, sail fast, sail smart this next year. Thank you for spending some time with us, our sailing community and friends.

A SCOW
2005 PEWAUKEE FALL CLASSIC
Team Silverhawk and John Galley Fly to Victory

Pewaukee hosted the annual meeting on Friday night and then the annual Fall Classic on Saturday and Sunday. Pete Ogden from Pewaukee organized the event with NCASA leader Todd Haines. An excellent event was enjoyed by 14 boats. Russ Ackley and team ran the racing and they did a fantastic job.

Saturday was a picture perfect day! However, no wind - not a breath. Sunday arrived and it appeared to be the same thing. Then, Russ Ackley politely asked the fleet to launch and head out on the water. 5 minutes after the last boat was splashed a smooth SW breeze filled with gusts to 14mph and we had ideal A scow racing. Two races were completed and it was very, very nice sailing. Fast, tactical and exciting. Perfect A scow racing on Pewaukee.

Our National Champion - Rob Evans won the first heat in style. He and his crew battled with John Galley's Silverhawk the entire race. An active tacking duel took place up the last beat only to see the boats overlapped at the final windward mark. Evans had a great set and skated away from Silverhawk downwind. As they approached the downwind finish the M-100 team won the race by a few lengths. Silverhawk 2nd and V-8 Harken was 3rd.

Race two blasted off shortly after the first race. A windward end start by Team Silverhawk put them in the lead at the top pin just in front of David Koch / Jay Yaeso and Team Izzie sailed by Todd Haines. On the run Silverhawk increased their lead and for much of the race it was a battle between Koch and Galley's Silverhawk. Evans was back in the back but battled forward trying to get into the battle for the championship as everyone knew this would be the final race.

Galley took the bullet and the Pewaukee Fall Championship! David Koch and Jay Yaeso were 2nd in the race.

Congratulations to John Galley as he continues his commitment to the NCASA. He just joined the board of directors, jets in from Maine for the exciting racing and promotes the new organization heavily. Nice regatta John.

Here are the top 5

1. John Galley

2. Rob Evans

3. Jay Yaeso / David Koch

4. Jim Klauser

5. John Anderson / Rick Kotovic

Watch ascow.org for new and exciting updates!

The NCASA and the Lake Geneva Yacht Club put on a spectacular A scow championship. 22 A scows invaded the LGYC for this seasons Summer Sprints Regatta. Five races over three days enticed all the A boats and hundreds of spectators.

Regatta Chairs John Anderson, John Porter and Chuck Lamphere put on quite a show for the fleet on and off the water. Perfect race management and fabulous parties made this championship fun for all the A scow participants. As for the racing, it was competitive, close and challenging.

At the end of the event we saw John Porter and his Full Throttle crew squeak out another A scow championship. Starting the regatta with a 9,4 many thought the FT team was vulnerable. Like true winners though, they strung a series of bullets together, winning the final three championship races. This placed them in a tie with John Galley's Silverhawk Team. With the race wins though, Porter won the tiebreaker and remained the #1 A scow team in the country.

Going into the final race with winds in the 22knot range we saw 4 boats close to the championship crown. Galley, Porter, Buddy Melges and Coleman Norris. John Porter then went on to win the final race and the championship because Galley could only get back to 2nd place in thef final heat.

The rides downwind were incredible. These A scows were going over 25knots downwind!

The 2005 National Championship is on Green Lake, Wisconsin - August 12-14. The NCASA expects over 25 boats for this championship!

Rank	Boat Name	Sail No	Helm	Club	R1	R2	R3	R4	R5	Nett
					7-22	7-22	7-23	7-24	7-24
1	FULL THROTLE	I-49	J. PORTER	LAKE GENEVA	9	4	1	1	1	16.0
2	SILVER HAWK	I-100	A. BURDICK	LAKE GENEVA	2	2	5	5	2	16.0
3	PABST BLUE RIBBON	V-3	C. NORRIS	PEWAUKEE	4	5	2	2	7	20.0
4	EAGLE	I-1	B. MELGES	LAKE GENEVA	1	6	3	10	3	23.0
5	BUCK'N A	V-911	T. SWEITZER	PEWAUKEE	10	7	8	3	4	32.0
6	COSMIC WARRIOR	M-100	R. EVANS	MINNETONKA	3	3	9	4	16	35.0
7	SHADY LADY	M-55	H. ALLEN	MINNETONKA	6	1	16	11	11	45.0
8	G FORCE	I-12	G. BEUKEMA	LAKE GENEVA	8	8	10	15	6	47.0
9	WHITE MAGIC	I-96	C. LAMPHERE	LAKE GENEVA	12	17	4	6	12	51.0
10	QUANTUM LEAP	V-177	C. RECHCYGL	PEWAUKEE	15	9	12	12	5	53.0
11	FAST FORWARD	V-57	B. HENKE	PEWAUKEE	5	12	7	9	DNF	56.0
12	IZZZIE	V-115	T. HAINES	PEWAUKEE	21	10	11	8	8	58.0
13	VALKYRIE	V-999	J. KLAUSER	PEWAUKEE	17	15	6	7	14	59.0
14	PREDATOR	V-880	M. RETTIE	PEWAUKEE	18	13	17	13	13	74.0
15	AFTERBURNER	V-89	E. SCHLOEMER	PEWAUKEE	14	18	19	14	10	75.0
16	WHITE LIGHTNING	I-44	W. SHERRY	LAKE GENEVA	16	14	13	17	17	77.0
17	SLINGSHOT	M-11	D. WILLETTE	MINNETONKA	13	22	18	18	15	86.0
18	ADRENALINE	G-311	J. YAESO	GREEN BAY	7	19	15	DNF	DNC	87.0
19	MAGIC BUS	H-88	D. ANDERSON	MENDOTA	20	20	22	16	9	87.0
20	SPLIT DECISION	H-714	B. MATTISON	MENDOTA	11	16	14	DNF	DNC	87.0
21	BLUE CHIP	H-13	B. ANDERSON	MENDOTA	22	11	20	DNF	DNC	99.0
22	POSEIDON	V-150	R. SCHLOEMER	PEWAUKEE	19	21	21	DNF	DNC	107.0

The new National Class A Scow Association hosted it first National Championship on Lake Winnebago in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. Twenty-Five boats raced for the National Crown. The boat that had been dominating the championships over the past 20 years posted a typical result. First Place. John Porter and the Full Throttle A scow crew of Jeff Ecklund, Billy Freytag, Brother Brian Porter, Vincent Porter and Harry Melges III rose to the occasion to win this years Nationals.

The Full Throttle team never finished out of the top 6 in the 6 heat event. Their team won 2 of the heats overall. On their heels but over 15 points behind was runner up Coleman Norris from Pewaukee Lake. Norris has been one of the key promoters of the A scow. His donation of some outstanding traveling trophies for this event puts his name in the history books for not only being a tremendous inland sailor but also a prime supporter of scow sailing. His series included a race win and a port tacking of the fleet which was simply spectacular.

John Anderson's Eagle from Lake Geneva skippered by Tom Freytag finished 3rd overall while John Galley's Silverhawk from Lake Geneva finished 4th. Chuck Lamphere of Lake Geneva placed 5th overall. Lake Geneva continues its tradition of A scow excellence with 4 boats in the top 5. Watch out for Pewaukee though, they feature 14 boats on the starting line every Sunday afternoon and their fleet is improving dramatically.

Todd Haines, John Isom and others put on not only an exciting grudge match on the water but great social festivities for the fleet. To kick off the National Fleet in this fashion is truly special. To get sailors from Canada to attend and other other locations from around the USA says that the A scow is crowd attraction - a special boat and a special class.

Watch www.ascow.org for updates on upcoming 2005 championships.

You have been consistently one of the best teams in the exciting A Scow Class. What does it take to put a team together and find your way to the front of this competitive class?

Rob - You need some good reliable buddies on your crew, that’s for sure. As a helmsman, I find it ironic that I have so little control over the performance of the boat. However, pilot error can bring the party to a crashing halt very quickly so you really have to concentrate on driving the bus and let the crew make her go fast.

You have been sailing A Scows for a long time. The class has evolved with the addition of sprits, asymmetric spinnakers and carbon masts. Tell us how these changes have helped the class in your opinion and has it added to the fun factor?

Rob - Speed is fun. More speed is more fun! Besides making the boat faster, the changes to the boat have made A scow sailing easier and safer which allows the crew to concentrate their efforts more on tactics and keeping the boat in the highest gear possible and less on sheer survival.

What is the fast setup right now on your boat M-100? Also, do you change the rig around much in between races or do you just set it and go racing?

Rob - Acceleration is a key factor in this game. When a puff hits and you can get your boat up to speed just a little faster than the boat next to you it is huge. But, if the puff hits and you heal up on your ear that is not good at all. It's a fine balance, we do rake further aft and increase the rig tension as the breeze increases.

I hear the class leaders are shooting for 40 boats racing at the class championship regatta next year. What would that be like for you and the M100 team to participate in?

Rob - That would be a whole lot of Kevlar in one place! What a sight it would be, I can hardly wait! The A scow fleet is healthier than it has ever been in history and I see no reason why it won't continue to grow. Plain & simple, it's great fun with lots of great characters involved!

Rob - There is no question that A scows are the ultimate ride. It can seem like a daunting task to put together a quality program but with a little determination and few speed loving friends, it can be done and it is so worth it. A key factor that really helps is that competitors in this fleet are incredibly open and helpful in terms of sharing tuning information and maneuver techniques. There are no secrets in this fleet, plus having the support and expertise that Melges provides really turns this daunting task into something that is wholly doable.

Obviously, no other boat compares in terms of sheer speed & power. But the rewards go much further. What is really special is the feeling you get when a team of six individuals work together and bring the performance of the boat up the ladder of improved performance. The A scow has so many different gears of speed and there is no doubt that each crew member has a hand on the throttle. When things start clicking you can literally blow away the competition, that’s what I call fun! There are some great sailors and great teams competing in this class but it is plain to see that everyone involved is always working at getting better and learning new ways to improve their team's performance. There is never a dull moment!

Life is short; why not compete on the ultimate ride!

Rob Evans
Cosmic Warrior, M-100

Madison, Wisconsin and the Mendota Yacht Club celebrated its 100 years of scow sailing at this years Big Inland ILYA Championship.

27 A boats raced with a hot duel taking place between John Porter's Full Throttle and Andy Burdick's Silverhawk. It came down to the last race and the last beat. Porter came from behind to beat Burdick and win the Inland Championship in the A Class for the 9th time. Buddy Melges was 3rd, Rick Buckley 4the and Rob Evans was 5th.

Eighteen A Scows raced for this years Inland Invite. The regular heavy hitters were in the front of the fleet (Buddy Melges, Rob Evans), but neither could challenge the Full Throttle team of John Porter. Coleman Norris was 4th and Harry Allen was 5th overall completing an exceptional regatta for these two.
John Porter, Buddy Melges, Rob Evans, Harry Allen and Coleman Norris use North Sails exclusively on their boats. For top speed - North Sails Dominate!

Report by Andy Burdick

The 2002 ILYA A Scow Invitational was held on Pewaukee Lake, a famous scow lake for many year. 21 boats competed for the title. 3 races were held in light-medium wind conditions.

The varying conditions reaffirmed in peoples minds the dominance of North A scow sails as North Sails took places 1-5. Full inventories were found on all 5 lead boats. These boats have a sail inventory of 1 main, 2 jibs
and 3 spinnakers. The North logo was prominent!

Buddy Melges and his team dominated the event with a 1,1,2 score. Andy Burdick was 2nd, John Porter 3rd, Tom Burton 4th and Coleman Norris was 5th.

The choice is very clear in this high speed race fleet. North Sails are the best sails available to the racing public!

Congratulations North!

For more information on our winning A Scow program, contact the North A Scow experts!

Photo Pat Dunsworth