JUNE 15TH RACE REPORT

Old English proverb: "A smooth sea never made a skillful sailor”.  This stiff-winded race either honed or demonstrated the skills of our sailors, who were skillful enough to stay upright… or mostly so.  We welcomed back some sailors we’ve not seen in a while, Sherri Agnew christened her new sailboat without capsizing, and we have a candidate for the “Good Samaritan” award.

Thanks to Jim Voelz and Dick Pitman for setting up and taking down the race course.  And to our wonderful Committee Boat volunteers Beth Auld, Maura Leonard, Mimi Riffle and Jim Voelz.

Welcome back to Dick Pitman and John Gall.  The two doctors teamed up to give Dick’s Y-Flyer a great shakedown race after its 2-year absence, and they did really well!  As anticipated, rookie sailor Sherri Agnew was sailing her brand new Butterfly sailboat.  Considering the conditions, it was really quite an accomplishment that she did not capsize as she learned about her new boat’s limits while also skippering her first race which can be a little bit of sensory overload especially in high winds – well done!  

Lasers are very responsive sailboats, with the trade off that they also tend to respond to sudden wind gusts by attempting to capsize unless the skipper has lightning-fast reflexes.  So considering the winds, it was impressive that Riley Leonard, in only his second race in his Laser, only capsized once and recovered handily.  Well done Riley!  The rest of our Laser sailors were “Ghost Sailors” for this race: They were either out of town, or on committee boat duty, or had Father’s Day commitments, but all wished they could be racing instead. This included Chris Braun who watched the race with his guests from his pontoon boat, disappointed that parts for his new Laser haven’t arrived yet – it would have been quite a fun first Grandview race for him.   Just to make sure you keep our lingo straight, a “Ghost Sailor” doesn’t race, but “sure wishes they could”; A “Mystery Sailor” doesn’t let us know ahead of time they will be racing, but just shows up, and of course, is always welcome.  Anyway as the only Laser sailor, Riley picks up some points relative to the others, coming in first place in the Laser class.  That being said, from a scoring standpoint, the best time to miss a race is when many of those in your class are also absent.  So seven of our eight Laser sailors were fortunate in the timing of their absences.

Laura Garret capsized as we waited for the start of the second race while the Committee Boat struggled to get its anchors to hold.  She was having trouble righting the craft, so Paul Hass, aboard the John Auld Y-flyer jumped in and helped her out.  Thanks Paul and John!   Laura did quite well in both races, and in fact missed third place in the first race by only two-hundredths of a second behind Dr.s Pitman and Gall, and took 3^rd place in the second race.  Laura and Riley were both recipients of coaching from Jim Voelz from the Committee Boat.

Peggy Voelz won both International Class races in a fine performance. Although it would have been nullified by a disqualification, the two Y-flyers, each with experienced sailors, had quite a close battle in the second race, finishing within thirteen seconds of each other.  Final maneuvers approaching the finish line made the difference.  John Auld feels their last strategic tack won the race for him, but Dick Pitman thinks he would have won had he not mishandled his tiller extension, fouling his main sheet in it in the process.  His claim is based on the wind having just provided him a “header”  that would have provided his boat with a shorter distance to the finish than Auld’s boat. Nevertheless, the fact that Pitman/Gall touched the third mark without taking a penalty turn (as confessed at the Protest meeting) disqualified them anyway.    

A small group gathered for the Protest Meeting on the Schroeder’s dock and enjoyed the breeze, cheese, fruit and lively re-living of the race.   Dick Pitman forthrightly spilled the beans about touching a mark, which resulted in his disqualification in the second race as mentioned above.

Race Results were as follows

1^st Race Laser Class:

 Riley Leonard 1^st.

1^st Race International Class: 

Peggy Voelz 1^st, John Auld/Paul Hass 2^nd, Dick Pitman/John Gall 3^rd, Laura Garrett 4^th, Tom Schroeder/Moe Lar  5^th, Bianca & Lance Snider 6^th, Jim Riffle/Ross Kunkler 7^th

1^st Race Overall Results on Handicapped Basis (not for scoring): Riley Leonard takes 6^th, moving Sniders and Riffle/Kunkler down one place each.

2nd Race Laser Class:

 Riley Leonard 1^st.

2^nd Race International Class: 

Peggy Voelz 1^st, John Auld/Paul Hass 2^nd, Laura Garrett 3rd, Tom Schroeder/Moe Lar  4^th, Bianca & Lance Snider 5^th, Sherri Agnew 6^th Jim Riffle/Ross Kunkler 7^th

2^nd Race Overall Results on Handicapped Basis (not for scoring): Riley Leonard takes 5^th, moving Sniders, Agnew and Riffle/Kunkler down one place each.

Our next race is June 29^th.