SYRACUSE – After a Fourth of July without needed wind, the Wawasee Yacht Club finally got some wind in its sails Sunday morning for the only day of its scheduled Independence Day Regatta.

Sailing for the regatta was scheduled for Thursday and Sunday for the E-Scow and Lightning fleets, but a lack of wind on the 4th disallowed racing. With enough wind blowing across Lake Wawasee on Sunday morning, the fleets set out for two races. Even Sunday’s wind was light enough to cancel a desired third race (as well as heightened boat traffic wake/chop), but the WYC racers would take what Mother Nature allowed for the two races.

In race one for the E-Scows, the larger three-man crewed vessels, Casey Call’s 99 boat sprinted out to a nice lead on the third leg of five and never looked back to take the win. With about nine E-Scows all bunched together for much of the first race, Dave Irmscher’s crew needed to work hard to earned second place while Bob Herdrich’s crew posted a third-place finish.

Race two would have Irmscher jump out to a sizable lead halfway through and hold on to beat Ben Herdrich’s team to the buoy for the win. Dick Tillman’s team would show a respectable third place for needed points in the team standings.

After July 7 racing, Irmscher’s team are currently in first place with Tillman in second and Call in third.

The Lightning races, in the smaller vessels with three to four-man crews, had Jeff Schmahl’s team race out to a huge lead early on and cruise in for the win, with the Reiss/Miller vessel taking second and Bill Allen posting third place.

The Allen crew would learn from its mistakes in race one to emerge from the pack in the final leg of the second race. Without much opposition from the nine-vessel fleet, Allen’s team would grab race two’s top spot to help the team to second place in the points standings. Stuart Webster’s crew would bring its Lightning in second place and Michael Schmahl showed improvement amongst its young team with a third-place finish.

The second-place finish for the Reiss/Miller team keep the team in first place in the team standings after the Sunday races, with Allen second and George Buckingham’s crew in third place.

Racing is scheduled to continue next Sunday morning on through the remainder of the summer. A racing schedule can be found here, and general information on the Wawasee Yacht Club can be found by visiting the club’s Web site.

The video shows E-Scow vessels making the turn around the eastern buoy. Photos and video of the Independence Day Regatta are by Mike Deak.