AUGUST 18TH RACE REPORT

We had a mysterious (and polite) visitor from a faraway land, resolution to some troubling questions from the last race, a new revelation related to the “high five syndrome" exposed in the last report, more limbo,  two (!!!) Sunfish sailboats, a very pleasant day for  committee boat volunteers and sailors,  race results that could have been predicted by “body language”,  and a new sailing tip involving aggravation.   Fortunately for you,  we have great pictures by Committee Boat volunteer Tricia Zachidny that will save many words (so keep those pictures coming!).  We also received positive feedback on having appropriate background music for reading the blog, so we'll have some of that for you as well.

Before we get to unfinished business from the last race, we want to thank our Committee Boat volunteers for a really great job.  Thank you Beth Auld, Bonnie Hicks, Bob Orben, Mimi Riffle and Tricia Zachidny!  Also, thanks to David and Tracey Day for spotting and returning some race-related gear.   Jim Voelz set up a good course, assisted by Ben Hicks who volunteered to help and learn.  And finally, we extend our best wishes to Maura Leonard, who had volunteered to help out on the Committee boat, but had family members involved in a car accident the night before and was helping them out.  We hope everyone recovers quickly and well.

From the August 4th race report you will remember that we had some questions about some artwork sketched by the committee boat on the scoring sheet:

Question for our Committee Boat artist: Is this a) a woman with long hair whose upper body has been thrown backward by the rocking of the committee boat, b) a volunteer vomiting due to seasickness,  or c) a volunteer going under the "limbo stick"?  (the limbo stick seems to be becoming a recurring theme)

We learned at this week's protest meeting that the artist was Sandi Miller, who was feeling a little woozy from the rocking of the waves that day, which makes option "b" above the correct answer. 

You may also remember that we showed a pair of pictures (below) showing how Wayne and Arlene Truex righted the capsized Y-Flyer, and we were wondering about Wayne's well-being in this procedure:

Arlene secures the line in the ski boat after Wayne positions it properly on the Hobie.  That's Wayne, high and dry, standing on the pontoon in the water.  Earlier, Arlene fell from the "skyward" pontoon - wheeee!

OK Arlene! Gun it!  No, Wait! Where's Wayne?

 In the second photo we wondered “Where’s Wayne?” When asked at this week's protest meeting, Wayne nonchalantly commented that he remained standing on the seaward pontoon  as Arlene expertly applied just the right amount of throttle on the ski boat.  As the Hobie slowly turned mast-to-sky, Wayne said he merely “entered the water” (notice he is fully clothed in long sleeves, long pants and a nice hat).   “No big deal, what did you think would happen?", he asked.   Okay then! 

And to finish the unfinished business: There was another previously unreported  2013 victim of “high five syndrome” the consequences of which are quick and sudden capsize.  The victim is none other than Kevin Preuss.  Kevin revealed that in the July 28^th race, after beating Tom Jennings for 2^nd place, he became "celebratory", let down his guard and received an unwelcome visit from the ever-vigilant Grandview wind gremlin and SMACK! suddenly found himself in the water.   

On to this weeks’ race:  OK, after turning your computer's volume down a bit, you will want to start the background music now by clicking here and then coming back to this window on your browser while the music plays.

The wind was just like the last few races and we’ll spare you the disparaging description other than the fact that even after handicapping for boat speed, the last-place finisher took well over twice as long to finish as the first-place finisher.  To be fair though, we don’t handicap for attitude. Yet.  And from here on in we’ll let Tricia’s pictures narrate the race with a little help from that background music which is Jimmy Buffet's "Changes in Lattitudes, Changes in Attitudes":

The attitude we all wish for:  Jim seems satisfied after finishing more than five minutes ahead of the second place boat in the first race.  Careful Jim, this is when “high five syndrome” strikes!

The determined attitude:  Catey Hale and John Auld are focused on the finish line.
  And they finished well, taking 1^st place in the International Class.

The laid-back attitude:  The most comfortable boat in the fleet,  with a recliner-like cockpit .  How did they do in the race? Well........

We had two Sunfish sailboats with us, for this race.  If you have a Sunfish in the shed, dust it off and come out and sail with us!  Or lend it to someone who will.

Ben and Eileen gave it a go, but alas some rudder difficulties caused them to abandon the race.  We hope they are back for the next race.

Graham Hale (left) is joined by Nicholas, the Hale’s foreign exchange student from France.  Nicholas told Graham that in France, it is considered proper etiquette for sailboat racers to bow to the Committee Boat volunteers upon crossing the finish line.  And so they stood up and did, to the delight of the volunteers!

John and Jack Gall do not realize that they are about to be passed prior to crossing the finish line.

Jim and Arlene in the colorful Hobie catamaran snuck up on the brothers Gall beating them to the finish line by one second.  But applying the handicap, the brothers Gall beat them.

Here you see Riley (who did well in both races – way to go Riley!) about four or five feet ahead of Tom and Bob just before the finish line (the orange pole).  The wind had died, but Riley had some residual boat speed, while Tom and Bob had no boat speed whatsoever.  So.......

Thirty seconds later (!),  with Riley long gone, Tom and Bob finally cross the finish line.  "If we couldn't laugh we'd all go insane!"

We had quite a gathering at the protest meeting with our numbers again being the trigger for lower-deck status of the many seating options at the Truexs'.  Bob Orben gave away one of his sailing secrets by advising John Gall within earshot of others that with the constantly shifting winds at Grandview you need to “aggravate the sail”.  If I understand this correctly this means you have to regularly try pointing the boat just a little closer to the wind to see if a wind shift has occurred that will permit you to sail a better course than you previously thought was possible.  I think this may also be known as “pinching” (which is also aggravating, so that would make sense).  Have I got this right Bob?   Anyway it was one of those gatherings that can occur only at a special place with special people - Grandview Lake.

Race Results

Laser Class:  Jim Voelz  sailed the only Laser, thus winning both races in his class. And had we handicapped him he would have come in first versus all boats in the International Class (the rest of the fleet).  

International Class after applying handicaps:

1^st Race:   Jim Riffle/Arlene Truex 1^st, John Auld/Catey Hale 2^nd, Peggy Voelz 3^rd, Jackson Gall/John Gall 4^th, Riley Leonard 5^th, Laura Garret 6^th, Graham Hale/Nicholas 7^th, Tom Schroeder/Bob Zachidny 8^th.

2^nd Race: Peggy Voelz 1^st, Catey Hale/John Auld 2^nd, John Gall/Jackson Gall 3^rd, Riley Leonard 5^th, Graham Hale/Nicholas 6^th, Tom Schroeder/Bob Zachidny 7^th, Laura Garrett 8^th.

Our final race is Sunday September 1^st at 2pm.  Come sail with us!