Philip, Thanks for the update on the Nelson Roltsch Regatta. Not sure if you know the story of Nelson. He was a good friend of mine and a student at Tulane while I was at Univ of Florida in the early 80's. I am a subscriber to the ICSA email list and every time I see a report for this regatta it brings up strong emotions from my memories with Nelson.
Nelson came to Pensacola from the Midwest as a youth in about 1978. His dad was in technical sales and could live anywhere so they chose Florida specifically to allow his kids to sail. Before moving south, Nelson had just won the Butterfly (kind of like a Sunfish) National Championships and was a keen sailor. I was the same age as Nelson and we met though the sailing scene in NW Florida. Upon moving south, he had given up the Butterfly and taken on the Laser in a big way. I was primarily racing Windsurfers and Hobie Cats so he was always trying to get me to sail Lasers. Nelson and I decided to try our hand at some keel boat offshore racing and I had a gig on an IOR 3/4 ton boat. Nelson came with us for a few offshore races and we had a great time making the boat go fast. Because of his natural ability and warm personality, he was sought by many of the big boat crowd in Pensacola. Here is the story of his last race. He was racing on a brand new J29 (outboard version) in the Gulf Ocean Racing Circuit off the Mississippi coast. I think it was in the spring of his freshman (or possibly sophmore) year at Tulane in approximately 1981. Back in those days we raced big boats offshore around the oil platforms in races anywhere from 100 to 250 miles length. This was one of the longer races and the wind was fresh (35 - 45 kt range) with really big seas. I was not on the boat but have heard the story from several people that were. It was night time and they had a reefed main and a storm jib up. Everyone except Nelson and Bert were down below resting. Nelson and Bert decided they were overpowered and Nelson volunteered to go up and douse the storm jib. While on the foredeck the details are sketchy but Nelson was in the process of gathering up the jib, when a big wave washed him overboard. Needless to say he was not connected, even though I think he was wearing a harness. Once Bert realized Nelson was overboard, he alerted the crew down below and they began the process of moving the motor from down inside the cabin to the little mount on the transom. Mounting a heavy outboard engine while leaning over a stern pulpit is a tricky evolution even when tied to the pier. After about 30 minutes they got the motor mounted, fuel line attached, and the motor started. During all this, someone got the jib gathered up and stowed down below. So there they were - at night, in huge seas, big breeze, everyone a little queasy, and 30 minutes into a man overboard with no sight of the man. It was like finding a needle in a haystack and was basically deemed hopeless after an exhaustive search. The USCG went out and did SAR with a helo the next day, but also never found a body. As far as I know the body was never recovered. We had a memorial service at the Roltsches house just east of Pensacola, FL and it was a very sad day for his family (mom & dad - Cliff and Peggy; bro & sis - Jeff and Laurie). Nelson was the oldest and his younger siblings really looked up to him. It was a tragic loss. I wish that I had a photo of Nelson. He was big strapping red head who could grind down just about anyone going upwind on a Laser, always with a big grin on his somewhat freckled face. Thanks for keeping the memory of Nelson alive and feel free to fwd this to others on the Tulane Sailing team. Nelson was a big fan of Tulane and I'm sure he was looking down on the scene last weekend and would approve of the decisions made by the YC & RC to cancel racing for safety reasons. Mike Johnson Univ of Florida Class of 85 -----Original Message----- From: Philip Krause <[email protected]> To: SEISA <[email protected]>; icsa <[email protected]> Sent: Fri, Feb 24, 2012 3:57 pm Subject: [ICSA] Nelson Roltsch Day 2 Sailors arrived on Sunday (2/19) morning to find the tail end of the storm rom Day 1, breeze topping out at 30 knots fron the N/NW creating heavy hop on the lake. The Race Committee postponed the start from 10am to 11am ith hopes that things would die down. Around 12pm we attempted to rig and aunch boats but conditions were still heavy and deemed unsafe by the yacht lub and the race committee. The forecast showed no improvement and the egatta was called. Unfortunately, due to unfavorable conditions on Day 1 and Day 2 we were nable to complete enough races to constitute a regatta (4 races in A fleet nd 2 races in B Fleet). Race Commitee had the sailors' safety in mind when aking this decision. -- hilip Krause ulane University Class of 2013 chool of Public Health and Tropical Medicine SPH Candidate ulane Sailing Team President [email protected] 508) 264-1558 _______________________________________________ csa mailing list [email protected] ttp://www.collegesailing.org/mailman/?listname=icsa nsubscribe: Send a blank email to [email protected] ________________________________________________ icsa mailing list [email protected] http://www.collegesailing.org/mailman/?listname=icsa Unsubscribe: Send a blank email to [email protected]
