SAILORS CELEBRATE A FINE 2015 SEASON

(photos courtesy of Lisa Duret)

Sailors and Volunteers gathered on a gorgeous, warm late September afternoon on Wayne and Arlene Truex’s patio overlooking the lake for a final “protest meeting” to celebrate another fine season of sailboat racing.  

(The perfect background music for reading this post is "Sailing" by Christopher Cross.  Just click here, then come back to this tab in your browser to continue reading while the music plays.)
 
Had we known the weather was going to continue to be so ideal for another two months, perhaps we would have extended our sailing season.  And perhaps your blogger would have been more timely in posting this report instead of enjoying the great weather.   Last year’s casual format of t-shirts and shorts was deemed a success, so we did it again.  The pitch-in “snacks” became very much more than that, so we were very well fed and many probably skipped dinner later.

Wayne and Arlene welcome some sailors and guests.  Shown seated at the table in the foreground enjoying some wine are our ghost-sailor-of-the-year recipients.  You'll see more of them later...

The 2015 Season in Numbers:

• 50 different individuals participated in our races as captain, crew or volunteer.
• Our sailor roster for 2015 was 27 sailors, averaging 10 per race. 
• We had 23 committee boat volunteers, averaging about 5 per race. We averaged 8 boats per race with a high of 11 boats.
• We had 20 individual races on 10 race days.
• We have roughly 3 generations of sailors represented at every race, matching wits, skill, experience, ...and a little skulldudgery.

We recognized and thanked the many people who contributed to a great season:

Hosts of Our Events:
Wayne and Arlene Truex for hosting this and all the other protest meetings this season, and for storing & putting out equipment, rigging several boats at their dock for each race,  and being the general meeting place and still the “Home Port” of the GYC.

Kevin Preuss and Lisa Duret for hosting the Spring Social 

Tom & Julia Schroeder for hosting the Season Orientation Event

Jeff & Gloria Voelz for hosting the Memorial Day Breakfast
 Ray and Sheila Ison for hosting the July 4^th Breakfast

Max Henry for organizing and conducting the Kayak Race

Harry and Sandy Meshberger for hosting the Labor Day Breakfast.

Committee Boat Volunteers:
Without them, we cannot sail!

•  Beth Auld, 
• Dick Bray, 
• Lisa Duret, 
• Steve & Gretchen Fisher, 
• Ross Kunkler, 
• Allie Lindhorst, 
• Dave & Linda Maudlin, 
• Candy & Dave McClean, 
• Harry & Sandy Meshberger, 
• Jack & Sandi Miller, 
• Donna Mount, 
• Bob Orben, 
• Jim & Mimi Riffle, 
• Angela Shelton, 
• and Bob & Tricia Zachidny.  

Committee Boat chair Beth Auld (center) recognized our volunteers.  Here she is pictured with volunteers Bob Orben and Mimi Riffle

There are more pictures of our Committee Boat volunteers enjoying their time on the water in the Starboard Column.  Over there -->

Good Samaritans:
It seems every year someone comes to help out a sailor who is needing some assistance, or helps in some other extraordinary way, and we like to recognize them: 

John Gall, for ceasing the rigging of his boat, and speeding barefoot with a stethoscope around his neck to a fellow sailor's side.  He advised them to set sail not for the starting line, but instead for the emergency room. It was a good thing.. the surgery was that afternoon.

Mike Mullinix, Paul Hass and John Auld for adding layers of fine wood to our many-decades-old historical trophies since we were running out of room for engraved labels for the new winners.   We joked that instead, we could have made enough room on the trophies by consolidating Jim Voelz’s many yearly engraved labels on to one large engraved label listing all the years he had won them. 

        

Club Officers:
Tom Schroeder for his role as Commodore, etc.
Mimi Riffle (Secretary/Treasurer) for Soliciting memberships at every event, recruiting hosts for our events, arranging for the  trophies, serving on committee boat many times, and helping out with social events.

Beth Auld (Committee Boat Chair) for recruiting volunteers, serving on committee boat many, many times this year.  No sailor was required to serve on the Committee Boat for lack of volunteers.  Beth was our “paparazzi” this year, taking  photos of each of our sailors in action.  She used them to create picture-frame trophies using nautical-style frames Mimi Riffle opportunistically found at a great price. Beth also pitched in to help with our other events as well.

Kevin Preuss (Race Chairman) for organizing all the races, helping many of our sailors set up and/or take down the race course and offering help on any and everything.

Their Spouses! Jim Riffle, Julia Schroeder, John Auld, and Lisa Duret who participate in all of the above.

Next, Kevin Preuss, assisted by Mimi Riffle awarded the racing trophies:

Holiday Trophies
Due to boat traffic, we no longer race on the major holiday weekends, but we keep the tradition alive by awarding trophies for the next-closest race day:

“Memorial Day” Race Trophy- Laura Garrett

See: plenty of room on the base of that trophy for another fifty years worth of winner's names

 

“July 4th” Race Trophy – Kevin Preuss

that's him, hiking out

 "Labor Day” Race  Trophy:  Jim Voelz 
 

Crew Awards
1^st Place: Paul Hass

Paul (right) with captain, John Auld

2^nd Place: Arlene Truex

 

  3rd Place: Tom Schroeder

He was lucky enough to crew for Catey Hale, Tom Jennings and Jim Voelz

Butterfly Class:

1^st Place: Peggy Voelz

Peggy (right) & Laura

2^nd Place: Laura Garrett

 

3rd Place: Sherri Agnew

Sherri in her blue-winged Butterfly

Laser Class:

1^st Place: Jim Voelz

2^nd Place: Kevin Preuss

3^rd Place: Riley Leonard

 

International Class:

1^st Place: Tom Schroeder
 

2^nd Place: John Auld
 

3^rd Place: Catey Hale
 

Rookie of the Year:
Matt Schroeder

There is Matt (right) learning to "sail" using a trolling motor with his Uncle Tom.

Ghost Sailors of the Year:

(This tall, ornate, heavy, and transparent trophy is awarded to the sailor who were physically absent from the most races, but were there “in spirit”):  The Winners are
 Lance and Bianca Snider

Tom (right) watches as Lance (left) and Bianca (middle) proudly display the beautiful Ghost Sailor trophy.    And you guessed it; they were the ones in the chairs in the first photo of this post.

Booby Prize  

(this historically important ugly white porcelain chamber-pot mounted on a pedestal is now awarded to the sailor(s) or volunteer(s) who experienced some sort of noteworthy mishap, perhaps through no fault of their own.  The winner is no longer required to drink from the pot):
 

John (left) a good sport, cheerfully accepts the "booby prize"

The winners for the second time were John Auld and Paul Hass.  Their boat developed a leak and had to be bailed regularly while they raced.  They also tried a battery operated bilge pump.  Normally we decorate the trophy in a manner appropriate to the event for which it was won.  But this time we determined the pot was perfect “as is” for bailing out a boat.

2015
SEASON CHAMPION
(more points earned than any other sailor)

Jim Voelz

..and after all those awards, it was time to head back to the desert table for 2nd helpings... " By the way, make that four generations!"

And that's the end of the 2015 Season. See you next year!

Is the background music still playing?  Have you not finished your beverage yet?  Why not visit the Starboard (right) Column-->
and view some pictures of our finer moments? 
 
All are welcome to come sail with us next season!  Are you going to be a new sailor in 2016 and want to study up over the off-season?  Contact Tom Schroeder to check out the best beginner sailing book, and obtain a copy of our GYC orientation materials.