HIGHLIGHTS OF THE 2013 SAILING SEASON & A SAILOR'S RESOLUTION FOR 2014

Here's  the best of our 2013 sailing season in the following order:  1. Highlights, 2. Thanks, and 3. Awards.  At the very end of the post is the 2014 resolution captured in two photos (Thanks Steve).

 1. Highlights and fun facts about our sailing season

Participation:

• We had 42 participants in total this year.  26 of those were sailors, and 16 were volunteers. 
• We welcomed 5 brand new sailors this year, and we are getting younger!  New sailors include Ben Hicks, Erin Gall, Nick Gall, Laura Garrett, and Josh Gray.   
•  Along with our 7 new committee boat volunteers that makes 12 new participants in total for 2013 - Welcome!. 
•  So more than 1/4 of our participants were new to sailing races this year.

The (Devilish) Wind: 

• In most races the wind favored the four or five boats that made it to the first mark first.  The rest were left without much wind. 
• The wind continued to punish those who relaxed or became celebratory after crossing the finish line by capsizing them with a sudden strong gust.  We call this “high five syndrome”.  

  

  Jim has just won the race, and is quite relaxed, making him a prime candidate for "high five syndrome", though he escaped it this time.

•  The wind also punished a few of us at the start/finish line: After coming about, with no forward momentum, it took Tom Schroeder and Bob Zachidny about two full minutes to go 5 feet to cross the finish line while Riley Leonard zipped by on the forward momentum he had before the wind died.  And Andy Jennings was actually blown backward within feet of the finish line.

Riley (foreground) is moving, Tom and Bob are not. (the finish line is marked by the orange pole)

Number of Races: 

We had eight race days, two more than last year.  That means we needed more Committee Boat volunteers than last year, which kept Committee Boat Chair, Beth Auld and our volunteers busy.

Firsts: 

• We had a mysterious visitor from a faraway land who introduced a new custom. 

  

  Nicholas and Graham stand and bow to Committee Boat volunteers

  Nicholas, the Hale’s foreign exchange  student, along with his captain, Graham Hale stood up and bowed to the Committee Boat volunteers after crossing the finish line, like they do in France (or so we're told).
• We had a baby being born during the "LABOR Day" race.   Peggy Voelz was in Montana with their daughter (the new Mom), keeping husband Jim posted on progress via mobile phone.   As sailors passed by Jim during the race, he would yell "still pushing"!  Shortly after the finish Jim waved two noodles in the air which signaled “It’s a girl!”

New Nautical Terms:   

We had some new nautical terms introduced to us in 2013. You’ll find these explained or used in context in our race report blog entries. 

• By and Large 
• Bob and Weave 



Skyward - as in " the skyward pontoon" get it?

• Skyward
• Snarling (of the anchor line) 
• Aggravate the Sail 
• "Become Celebratory " 
• High-Five Syndrome (can infect someone who has "become celebratory").

2. Thanks to the following who made our races and social events possible:

Our wonderful Committee Boat volunteers: 

• Beth Auld 
• Eileen Carroll 
• Tracey Day 
• Norm and Susan Egbert 
• Steve and Gretchen Fisher 
• Josh Gray 
• Bonnie Hicks 
• Dave and Linda Maudlin 
• Emily McGurdy
• Jack and Sandi Miller 
• Donna Mount 
• Bob Orben 
• Mimi Riffle 
• Tracey Wilson 
• Tricia Zachidny

  

  Donna gets ready to start the race

  

  Just another lazy afternoon on the Committee Boat

Our event hosts:   

Spring Social: 

Larry and Nancy Olson 

Memorial Day Breakfast: 

Mike and Leah Essex  (and for sponsoring our use of the Harrison Lakes Country Club for the banquet)

July 4th Breakfast: 

Dan and Judy Hoyt

July 4th Kayak Race:  

Max Henry 

Labor Day Breakfast: 

Ed and Dolores Krome

Hey, by the way, we still need event hosts for 2014!  Please consider hosting the Spring Social, Memorial Day Breakfast, or Independence Day Breakfast. 

And thanks to trailblazers Brad and Carole Arthur for volunteering to host the 2014 Labor Day Breakfast.

Home-Port Harbormasters:   

Before the Race at Truex's

After the race at Truex's

Again this year, after every race, Wayne and Arlene Truex hosted the protest "meetings" at their home.  This is after all the activity that occurs at their dock before the race since they store all of our race equipment and rig and launch three or four boats at every race and then get them all unrigged and everything put away.

Various Yacht Club Efforts:  Thanks to....

Mimi Riffle for all of her hard work again this year as Secretary/Treasurer handling with memberships, treasury, trophies, organizing the banquet and a dozen other things including, being one of two people, who each were on the committee boat 70% of the time.
Jim Riffle for helping Mimi with just about everything. And for his race coordination when Tom Schroeder was unable to, along with Tom Jennings and Kevin Preuss. 

Jim and Mimi

Tom Schroeder for his work as Commodore.
Julia Schroeder who finds herself helping out behind the scenes with just about everything husband Tom does, and keeps him on an even keel (most of the time).

Beth Auld for her work as Committee Boat Chairperson, having a fundraiser for the club with t-shirts, bought a megaphone, found decorations and trophies for our events, among other contributions. Beth came up with the idea of having a Committee Boat training and refresher course, and she and John hosted it at their home.  Beth recruited volunteers (about half were new) and volunteered herself at about 70% of our races.

Beth thanks our committee boat volunteers and gets ready to present them with tokens of our appreciation

Kevin Preuss for volunteering to be Race Chairman next year.

John Sohn for serving as our arbiter and judge of protests, although we didn’t keep him very busy this season since we were all so civil to each other!

Jim Voelz for sharing his tips for winning races. 

Jim teaches us how to race

And as a testament to those tips, Wayne Truex (keeping track of all of our errors

We are looking like serious sailors aren't we?

from shore) even commented that we are beginning to look like serious sailors.

We are thankful for photos from the past season courtesy of the Hales, Millers, Zachidnys, and others.   These photos really added to this year’s blog.   If you would like to share digital photos of our races, but need help with the logistics, Tom Schroeder will be happy to assist you to make it really easy.

3. Trophies and Awards: 

Awards: Laser Class

1st Place:   Tom Jennings

2nd Place: Jim Voelz

3rd Place:  Kevin Preuss

Crew Awards:   

We have a competition for those who crew for our captains.  Crew members receive the same number of points as the captain they crew for in each race.

1st  Place: 

Arlene Truex

2nd  Place: 

Catey Hale 

3rd Place:  

(tie) Bob Orben and Lance Snider

Lance

Bob (and Mimi)

Good Samaritans Award:  

Bianca

 Lance and Bianca Snider won the “Good Samaritans Award” for stopping during a race to help keep the capsized Hobie catamaran from turtling (see the August 18th race report).  They then went back to finish the race, but of course finished last. 
They were awarded our last unsold sweatshirt to signify that they would give the shirts off their backs to those in need (they really would).   It is a 2XL which is good because they will have to both wear it at the same time since we only had one left!

Awards: International Class: 

The International Class consists of boats of many different types, which are handicapped according to statistics published by US Sailing.  Except for the Hobie which we manually calculate.

1st Place:   

John Auld

"Awright!!!" John exclaims as he makes off with the 1st Place trophy.

2nd Place:   

Jim Riffle

3rd Place: 

Peggy Voelz

Awards:   Ghost Class:

Tom lifts the heavy ghost class trophy and prepares to give it to the winner.

   Last year we introduced the ghost class in honor of Larry Olson who really wanted to be sailing, but was unable to. This year’s winner in a spooky sort of way, kept the same boat idle (he bought Larry’s Laser sailboat).  Josh Gray is the winner.  The reason for his absence is very honorable, so we didn’t give him any grief about that (he was busy working on his Eagle Scout project most of the summer). We hope to see a lot of him and his Laser next year.

Josh

Oh yes, and Larry Olson tells us that although we didn’t SEE him at the banquet, he was actually there, and overheard everything that was said about him.  Uh oh!

 

 

Awards: Rookie of the Year 

This award is based on points accumulated during the season:  Our rookie of the year was Laura Garrett. Laura is the daughter of Jim and Peggy Voelz from the Voelz racing dynasty.  In Laura’s first race, they finished 1st, 2nd and 3rd on a handicapped basis.  Laura was a model of perseverance in a year with a very difficult wind.

 

 

Awards: Holiday Trophies:  

Memorial Day Trophy 

Tom Jennings

July 4th Trophy

Jim Voelz

Labor Day Trophy

Tom Schroeder

Awards: Booby Prize:   

Tradition requires that the white porcelain chamber- pot trophy be appropriately awarded:   

You may remember that in 2011 Bob Orben and Wayne Truex won this trophy jointly because they disqualified each other in the same race. 

In 2012 the winners were John Auld and mystery man and good sport Paul Hass for the dramatic capsizing, turtling and successful recovery of the Orben Y-Flyer.   

This year we also have joint winners, They are Committee Boat volunteers Sandi Miller and Susan Egbert. Like recipients of the past, they will have to fight over who gets to display the stylish trophy shown below.  Due to high seas, both Sandi and Susan got feeling a bit seasick.   Sandi even registered a written protest complete with a stick figure drawing.   She said that they were bobbing like "wobbly Weebles" on board the Committee boat.  The chamber-pot trophy was decorated to be a depiction of the Committee Boat’s dilemma, complete with wobbly Weebles and Sandi’s stick figure drawing.

Awards: Championship Trophy: 

2013 Champion John Auld

The Championship Trophy goes to the captain who scored the most point using our scoring system.  This means that he won the most races with the most number of competing boats.  This is the first year he sailed his own boat with great results. This year’s winner had four crew members who can share the glory.  They are Bob Orben, Paul Hass, Bob Zachidny, and Catey Hale
Like last year’s winner, this year’s winner did not miss a single race and is the only one of all of our captain or crew who didn’t.

This year’s Champion sailor is John Auld.

That wraps up our highlights of the 2013 season.
For the 2014 season, Steve has provided us with a great resolution:

We would be pleased to have you join in our sailing activities in 2014 - Happy New Year!
(And there are some sailboats available, see port column)