Welcome Competitors

We are glad you are considering racing in the 2026 Championship of Champions regatta.  There are a variety of topics below that will help make your decision.  The host club is focused on making sure everyone that participates has a great time and enjoys the racing!

The Boat

The E Scow is a 28’ scow, the second largest of the current scows raced. With the spinnaker flying on a breezy day, they will exceed 20 knots going downwind. So learning how they work will be important before arriving. The club will also be working hard to ensure all the boats are as similar as possible in speed. One of the key aspects of making them equal is having someone on the crew that has E Scow experience, which we encourage you to strongly consider.  Please see the available crew board for people interested in racing in the event. We would ask you to contact people of interest to make your selection. Please contact the regatta chair if further details needed.

There is documentation and video footage to watch on racing an E Scow. Please see the links below. The videos were created by Melges to show you how to set and douse the spinnaker using different methods. Dropping the spinnaker in the lake is very disruptive and hard to recover from, so encourage you to absorb all of the videos.  The instructional day will be focused on how to use the boats, doing things like raising and lowering lee boards, raising sails and sail adjustments.

The boats will also be equipped with a device from Vakaros that will supply compass and other information for you. This will also enable an application called RaceSense, which provides an electronic starting line.  It is very easy to use, as when the PRO starts the sequence, it will automatically start the timer on your device.  When the starting gun goes off, your device will either show red (OCS) or green.  Please see documentation on both to learn about it, if not familiar. 

Food and Entertainment

The regatta fee includes food and drink for your team throughout the event. The menu will be provided at registration. If someone on your team has food allergies, please send an email to caseycall99@gmail.com with those allergies.  We cannot commit to a solution, but will try to accommodate.

The opening night dinner banquet will include a program at the end where introductions are made.  We would appreciate your introducing your team, the boat that was used when you won the championship, where you are from, and any fun facts you wish to share.

Our club house can seat about 110 people comfortably. With competitors and race officials, we have about 100 people.  So if you want to bring a guest, we have a few dinner tickets available, but they are limited in quantity. Our club members look forward to the open cocktail party on Friday night, which will be their chance to meet the sailors.  

Racing

The format for this event is planned for 20 races, so that everyone gets to sail every boat once. The teams will be required to change to a different boat every race.  Based on the need to transfer so many people, we will be using a large floating pier instead of individual boats for this exchange. This will be a continuous improvement project to make it as easy as possible.   There will be multiple volunteers to assist in boat rigging and getting in the water, transfers between races, and take out in the evening.

The PRO is Mark DeGuire, who has been the PRO for the past 5 E Scow National Championships.  He will have an experienced team to ensure we get many races in per day.  The reason for extending the event was based on the effort required per race in an E Scow. Racing 8 races in a day would not have made for much of a party in the evening.  

The SI’s will be made available on the RegattaNetwork site approximately a week in advance.

Communications

There will be communications from the PRO and the regatta committee made by either VHF radio, WhatsApp group chat, or both.  The VHF radio competitors channel will be included in the Sailing Instructions.

If you don't already have WhatsApp on your mobile device, please add that to your phone.  Once you have set up your WhatsApp account, please scan this QR code to be added to the WhatsApp group.  If you have questions, please contact Christie Call at 317-371-2988.  It is important at least one member of your team have this application enabled to understand updates.