I rolled up to Ivanpah dry lake about 10 am on the 19th just a few
minutes behind Keith Leigler of Wisconsin. He left about 48 hours
earlier to make the event. I was on my 17th and a half hour of total
driving time. Peter, Bill and Betty Dale were already there as we
pulled up. Soon we were helping each other unload boats. I drove
through a snow storm in Montana and the boat was filthy because of it.
Next year I'm going to shrink wrap it before the trip like Keith did
to his boat. I found the trailing edge on the flap had delaminated and
had split open. I proceded to clean the road grim off and reglued the
trailing edge. I finally stepped the wing that had been completed only
3 days prior. The wind came up and I set out to sail it for the first
time. Within a few minutes of sailing I saw I had a huge problem. The
wing was too flexible. It looked like a bendy DN mast . I spent the
rest of the day and a few hours the next day making mid side shrouds
out of some spare whisker stays I had for iceboating. I bummed some
parts and tools from Keith and Peter to do the repairs. I was pretty
tired after driving all morning then working on the boat all day in
hot windy conditions. I'm accustomed to 20 to 30 degree weather now
I'm getting dehydrated in hot dry wind. Day two I finished the side
stays and take the boat out in the morning. I had the lake to myself.
Something I've never done at Ivanpah. It was alot of fun . The extra
side shroud seemed to do the trick. My next problem was that the
steering kept locking up as the boats springboard decompressed . It
was quite unnerving with the well heads and all in the middle of the
lake bed. I took the front end apart and found I needed to re route my
steering cables . I scrounged around the lake and found some rebar to
shove up the hull and reroute the steering cables. I finally got some
quality time sailing the boat . I found this wingboat to be one of the
most well behaved wings I've ever made. It hiked smoothly and had
better traction and stability than other wingboats I've made. I could
take my feet off the steering pedals at speed and the boat sailed
straight. I was concerned that I made the axle to soft but looking at
pictures it seems about right. By time Sunday came around I felt
ready. Typically Sunday mornings I feel sick to my stomach because of
the prerace gitters. A year of boat building and not knowing what to
expect from a new boat and trying to race at the same time gets to me.
My first race was in class 3 . I was pleased to end up not far
behind Allans Yellow Boat at the end of the race. It seemed like all
the hard work may pay off. The next few races confirmed it did. I won
a few races by a minute or two. In varing wind conditions. By Tuesday
I was leading class 3 and class 4 .I found the lake bed to be smooth
but extra gritty this year and my only tires were showing chords.
Frank Marsh gave me a spare set that were identical to what I was
running. I had to make a new center bushing from some pipeing that
Phil Rothrock gave me. It fit the spindle but I had to cut it with a
hacksaw. The bushing was out of square which would haunt me later.
Wednesday was predicted to have some higher winds so I put the wing
down over night.
On Wednesday afternoon I was stepping the wing and the mainwing
controls folded over as the wing was raised. Thank God they broke then
instead of rounding the weather mark. I had to sit out the races for
that day.That put me into 2nd place in both classes. I needed more
races to get a throw out.
Carsten set me up with a welder he knew in Vegas. I drove into Vegas
to meet the welder at 6am Thursday. It was easy getting up early
because I've barely been sleeping 4 hours a night all week because I
was too keyed up from racing and boat fixing. The welder was done by
6:15 and I headed back . The boat was ready to sail by 8:30 am.. I
sailed the boat a while until the wind died. Late that day the wind
came up and I was able to race class 3 one more time to get my throw
out. The Racing came down to if Allan won the next class 3 race he
would win the class If I won the race than I would win the class. Same
scenario for class 4 too.
The winds were light and shifty . I Pushed my self off the line
and ran next to the boat which seemed like eternity before it got
hooked up. I noticed a loud chirping noise coming from the bearings.
There is nothing worse than having a bearing issues as well as Allan
issues on the same day. Allan seemed to get into a groove in the light
air race. I never found mine . I ended up with my worst finish in 3rd
place. Allan took class 3 by a few points.
On Friday I still had one more chance to compete for class 4 and get
my throwout. I still had a loud chirping noise coming from the
bearings . I found the makeshift bushing I made were allowing the
bearings to loosen up in the spindle mount rims and rotate at a slight
angle when a side load was put on them. I also found the tire pressure
was a bit low for light air. One had 20 lbs. I re filled them up to 30
in anticipation of light air racing. We sat on the start line with
only 10 0r 20 minute left before the regatta would be called . They
sent the Manta singles out and they died before the windward mark.
After they were called back the wind came up to 20 plus with just
minutes to spare. I just sat in my boat after making arrangements for
a pusher. I looked up and the green flag had dropped. My wing wasn't
close to being trimmed and my seat belt was undone. My pusher was
talking to someone and I was screaming go go go! Inspite of all the
kaos I was able to round the weather mark in 2nd behind Allan. He was
further ahead and layed the mark at a better angle than me. I decided
to pinch it to keep Bill Dale from tacking on top of me.Once heading
downwind I felt in pace with Allan maybe slightly gaining down wind
and slightly losing up wind. We later found out we hit 79 mph. On the
second leg I tacked right after the finishline and Allan went staight.
I think I gained by sailing less distance . On the next downwind leg I
was about 300 yds behind him when he encountered lapped traffic and
the leeward mark at the same time. He came in hot and at a bad angle
and spun out. I saw what was happening and headed up and sheeted out
the wing at the same time to gain control. I was able to avoid the
lapped boat Allan and made a good rounding all at once. For the next 2
laps I kept waiting for the Yellow boat to re pass but it never
happened . I won the race and class 4.
I was very fortunate to have a bunch of generous helpful people
around me to help fix the bugs in the boat during the week. The race
committee did a great job getting races off when it didn't seem
possible. The food was great at the daily firsts . It was fun seeing
old friend too and getting to sail 9 out of 10 days . We are lucky we
can do this activity.

John Eisenlohr