Our first race of the 2013 season included two first-time
Grandview sailors, Ben Hicks and Josh Gray, and returning sailor, but first-time
captain, Graham Hale.
They,
along with returning captain Riley Leonard are
sinking the average age of a Grandview sailor faster than Bob Orben’s
Y-Flyer
(now John Auld’s).
And
with Tracey Wilson & Eileen Carroll assisting Beth Auld, Bonnie Hicks and
Mimi Riffle on the Committee Boat, the race was downright youthful in terms of calendar
age in addition to our ever –young spirit!
Soon
we will have to send out “tweets” of the race, and this blog will be old news. Bring
it on!
The first race of the season is always a bit of a shake-down cruise, and sure enough we lost Riley Leonard and the above-mentioned Ben Hicks
to rigging problems. Riley’s were
discovered at the dock, so he did not make it out on the water, and Ben’s were
discovered at the first mark so he had to abandon the race and head for
shore. The popular “Sunfish” and similar sailboats
have always been welcome in our races (we have a handicapping system for all
makes of boats), and we were encouraged to see Ben arrive with his Sunfish. Hear that all you “Sunfish”, “Snark”, “Snipe”,
etc. owners – come on out and race with
us!
It was also a shake-down cruise for the Committee Boat. Our volunteers skillfully navigated out to
our brand new yellow marker buoy, the result of someone’s excellent suggestion last
year. Much easier! And Beth Auld had purchased a nice, loud
megaphone with the proceeds of the T-shirt sale she organized last year. Broadcasting a "do-over" to the racers so that they could re-set their stopwatches made a non-event of some initial five-minute-warning
confusion (the result of first-race-of-the-season excitement). Anchoring instructions from the previous week’s
Committee Boat training/refresher session were
implemented well (use all 250’ of anchor line!). But the instructor had
not emphasized the need to slowly and artfully drag the anchor until it has a
chance to dig into the lake bottom (sort of like setting the hook on a fish) so
a second try was needed. But they were very
well-anchored after that! We are very
grateful to our above-mentioned Committee Boat heroes for making this race possible
– well done! We need and welcome
volunteers for all future races – see schedule in the “port” column. Let us know which date you can help us out. Volunteering
for just one race per season is a big help to us. We’ll give you a task to perform, and you’ll have a very
enjoyable time. We are especially in
need of those who can maneuver a pontoon boat and hoist an anchor. Total time commitment for most races is a little
over two hours.
We were fortunate to get a window of good weather for “the
race” although we sure could have used more wind – a LOT more wind. And as usual the wind’s variable nature made
for some strange occurrences. For
example in the second race, prior to the boats reaching the last mark, they were spread all
over the race course. But then the wind
favored those who were behind and penalized those were ahead. As a result there was near traffic jam at the
last mark. Almost as odd, there were no
protests after a lot of intense jockeying for position to get around that last mark. Speaking of odd, when was the last time you
saw Bob Orben being the crew instead of the captain (he crewed for John Auld in both races) It was great to
have Bob back racing with us after his year off last year, and we hope to see more
of him this year! And one final
wind-trick to mention; Tom Schroeder innocently started yacking with Tom
Jennings, distracting Jennings from his very wind-sensitive “Laser”
sailboat. And sure-enough a quick blast
of wind turned Jennings over. Schroeder
fessed up, taking responsibility for the capsize. Speaking of Lasers, everyone and his brother
tried to snag the Laser that Larry Olson put up for sale. Young Josh Gray benefited
from the "first-mover advantage" of his agile “intermediary”, Donna Mount. We
hope to see Josh out there in that Laser soon now that he has his first race
behind him.
We had a very impressive start for the second
race. About one month ago, Jim Voelz
conducted a "tips and techniques" session for the sailors. He urged us to be aggressive at the start
since most races are effectively won at the starting line. We even prepped the Committee Boat with new
instructions on what to do if an overly aggressive sailor crosses the starting
line before the starting horn. Well Jim
(absent for this race) would have been quite proud of us. By the time the starting horn was blown, we
were all lined up like Olympic sailors right at the starting line (and a narrow
starting line at that). Although we don’t
have a photo (we need some paparazzi to start feeding us photos of our races)
the photo below is a good representation of our starting line, with the moving boats all hitting the line just as the five minute timer ran down to 0.00.
And the Graham
and Catey Hale boat was over the line and had to start over. But again, due to the weird wind, the Hales
suffered nearly no time penalty, somehow making it around the Committee Boat and
back to the starting line before the rest of us had made any progress at
all. OK sailors, now we have to duplicate that start in a heavier wind.
After the race, Wayne Truex
commented that we were actually beginning to look like sailboat racers out
there! Whoa! By
the way, Wayne was able to accurately describe the good and not-so-good
maneuvers made by various captains as observed from his vantage point on shore. Maybe Wayne is the guy to send out “tweets”
of the race. At any rate, you might
consider asking him for a critique of your race strategy at the protest
meetings. Although slow at times due to
the wind, this race was far better than the four-wheeled one held by landlubbers about an
hour north.
In the first race, the “Memorial Day Trophy Race”, Tom
Jennings and Kevin Preuss finished way ahead of everyone else on a handicapped
basis, with Tom beating Kevin in the Laser class. Despite their new, less advantageous handicap
(due to a great season in 2012), Jim Riffle and crew Arlene Truex finished first
in the International class followed closely by John Auld and crew(!) Bob Orben.
In the second race Kevin Preuss was able to eke out a
razor-thin victory over Tom Jennings in the Laser class. But on a handicapped basis Lance Snider’s
brother Kent, with Lance as crew, whipped the entire fleet including the Lasers
with a handicapped time of 38.76 minutes vs. the Lasers at about 43.5 minutes. Kent and Lance had Kent’s young son on board
blowing at the sail for extra speed (its allowed). Tom Schroeder and rookie crew Josh Gray were
not too far behind the Lasers on a handicapped basis at 44.4 minutes.
Thanks to Wayne and Arlene Truex for hosting the Protest
Meeting after the race –indoor this time due to rain. Thanks also to Kevin Preuss for setting up
and taking down the race course, and for assistance by Tom Schroeder for set-up
and by Wayne Truex and Jim and Mimi Riffle for take-down.
The overall handicapped finish order of the first (trophy) race
was as follows,
from first to 7th: Tom Jennings, Kevin Preuss, Jim Riffle/ Arlene
Truex, John Auld/Bob Orben, Catey Hale/Graham Hale, Tom Schroeder/Josh Gray,
Lance Snider/Kent Snider & Son.
The overall handicapped finish order of the second
race was as follows, from first to7th: Kent
Snider & Son/Lance Snider, Kevin Preuss, Tom Jennings, Tom Schroeder/Josh
Gray, Graham Hale/Catey Hale, John Auld/Bob Orben, Jim Riffle/ Arlene Truex.
The next race is scheduled for June 9th. Jim Riffle has kindly agreed to act as race chairman. We need some help for this race. Sailors, please consider volunteering to help John Auld set-up or take down the race. Readers, please consider spending a few hours experiencing the race from the Committee Boat and helping Mimi by performing a task or two. Thanks!
