We had a really good 56th season, but it was bittersweet because we lost three mainstays of the Yacht Club: Wayne Truex, then Joe Voelz, and then John Sohn. Joe Voelz was one of the original founders back in 1961. These were special people. We toasted them with heartfelt esteem at our final protest meeting.
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| Wayne & Arlene |
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| Joe and Phyllis |
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| John and kids |
On our 10 race days we had 46 race participants nearly half of whom were not sailors, but volunteers on the officiating boat or “committee boat”. In an average race we had 10 sailors and 5 volunteers.
In 2017 our fleet of sailboats was in the process of catching
up to the significant number of new sailors that joined us in 2016 and a couple of
new sailors this year. That catching up
process took a while as boats were fixed, traded or acquired. We should realize the full benefit of more boats and sailors on the water in 2018.
Our overall champion was wind-reader Jim Voelz again this year.
Jim accumulated nearly 70% more points than the next-closest competitor!
Jim accumulated nearly 70% more points than the next-closest competitor!
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| Jim Voelz (right) accepts 2018 Overall Champion trophy from Race Chairman Kevin Preuss |
He also won 1st place in the Laser
Class.
Peggy Voelz won 1st
place in the International Class,
and our
1st place crew was Paul Hass.
(The post that follows this one has photos of all those who
won awards and some of the fun we had at the final protest meeting of the year)
We had a number of unusual events this season:
- We joined a nationwide hygiene movement
among yacht clubs all over the country by burning our winter socks after the
first race. Bet you didn’t know that
sailors wear the same pair of socks all winter. A photo of this event was
published in the Republic Newspaper.
P.U.! - The Republic also ran a feature article on
the Club in September with lots of great photos. Here is the link to the article: http://www.therepublic.com/2017/09/19/sailing_away/
- Matt Bartlett was our first windsurfer competing in a race in nearly twenty years.
- We think we set a club record with 30
capsizes on an epic race day on June 25th – check out the exciting post
for that race. Here is the link http://grandviewsailing.blogspot.com/2017/06/flip-flip-flip-fast-fun-and-furious.html
- And we had our first paddle board race which
was conducted along with the kayak race at the 4th of July
breakfast. – Thanks to Max Henry for coordinating.
Our
Spring Social, Holiday Breakfasts and Post-Race Protest meetings remain popular
based on attendance. Thanks to our
hosts:
Margaret
Powers – Spring Social
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| Hostess Margaret greets Mike during cocktail hour at the Spring Social |
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| The feast before us at the Spring Social |
Steve
and Marisa Willment – Memorial Day Breakfast
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| Memorial Day Breakfast |
Mark
Cassidy and Dianne Fisher – July 4th Breakfast
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| July 4th Breakfst |
Steve
and Vicki Zeller- Labor Day Breakfast
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| Labor Day Breakfast |
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| We recognized the "Labors" of our GLOA Board and Committee Members. Here Frank Reindl thanks Brad Arthur for his 9 years of service as Board President at an important time for the lake. |
and of course Arlene Truex for all those Protest Meetings.
Thanks to Beth Auld, our Committee Boat Chairperson, Lisa Duret, our Secretary/Treasurer, and Kevin Preuss, our Race Chairman. And thanks to the 50 families that are members of the Yacht Club.
