SYRACUSE – The morning racing in the 2015 Independence Day Regatta could not have started any better. But for the E-Scow and especially Lightning sailors of the Wawasee Yacht Club, the opening of the Fourth of July weekend fizzled to a dud.

Friday morning’s 10 a.m. start was almost too perfect for sailing on Lake Wawasee. The holiday traffic was at a minimum, a 58-degree start to the morning cradled eight mile-per-hour winds from east to west, and hopes were high for three races from each fleet.

Race one saw some good racing from the E-Scows at the front, with a jumbled start pushing the contenders right to the front of the pack. The five-length stretch across the face of Lake Wawasee didn’t have much major movement among the sailboats, leaving the frontrunners to push each other to the finish. Taking the WA-21 vessel to a win was the crew led by Chad Herdrich, edging out Robbie Quiesser’s IH-95 crew. Casey Call’s WA-99 ran the line third.

It was a complete Herdrich sweep in the second race. Bob Herdrich used some smart tacking midway through the race to pick up some distance on Jamison Herdrich, the WA-47 taking the WA-11 to the finish. Scott Hackleman’s WA-17 was third with Herdrich’s on board while Chad Herdrich’s crew placed fourth.

The five-boat Lightning fleet didn’t have much of the drama at the finish line, with Brad Wagnon’s team taking honors in the first two races. Jeff Schmahl’s crew finished second in each race. The second Lightning race had all five boats right with one another after the second turn, but the southern push on leg three had Wagnon and Schmahl start to pull away for the two-boat race to the finish.

Race three was where the day turned. Just minutes before the start of the third race, which was delayed to move the buoys to help with a shifting wind, that wind decided to quit altogether. The Lightnings didn’t even get started as the wind would not cooperate enough to even get the boats going on the course at start time.

The race committee were faced with a tougher dilemma as the E-Scows had already left the start line for the third race when the Lightning’s were called off for the day.

Two legs into the race, the wind was almost completely non-existent and the mighty E-Scows were resting as idly as swans on a summer’s stroll. Facing a dilemma as the second turn for the leaders would force an immediate decision, fleet captain JB VanMeter decided to press on even as his own vessel was fluttering along at a snail’s pace.

As grumbles and consternation filtered into channel 68 on the committee boat walkie talkie, Call’s crew came home to a shortened course as race three winners. Terry Moorman’s team, which took fourth in the first race, placed second in race three and Dick Tillman’s bunch were third.

Racing for the WYC Independence Day Regatta will continue tomorrow morning at 10 a.m. with Sunfish fleets battling it out. Sunday the E-Scows and Lightning return to the high seas in search of more points in the season standings.

Visit the Wawasee Yacht Club website for more information, it’s racing schedules and club opportunities.