LUCY STRIKES AND THE SAINTS COME INCHING IN: August 11th Race Report

Photos courtesy of Beth Auld & Tom Schroeder

Despite occurring during the “dog days” of summer,  it sure looked like a good day for a sailing race.  That lured twelve sailors in nine boats out to enjoy a good summer's race.  

Pre-race practice conditions were pretty darn good.  "What a great day for a race" everyone was thinking.  And nine boats, how exciting!  

 Well GOOD GRIEF!, at the sound of the starting horn the wind DIED.

 Low-wind sailing skills became the differentiator along with a little luck.

We are grateful to our all female “Women Power!” Committee Boat team of Beth Auld, Cindy Bartlett, Bernice Rains and Mimi Riffle.  

That’s a whole lot of officiating experience right there!  

They did a fine job of conducting the race and sticking it out to the bitter end.  Kevin Preuss and trainee Phil Bush set up the race course earlier in the day when winds were decent.  Kevin also organized the race, and he and Lisa took down the race markers at the end of the race.  Beth Auld organized the Committee Boat volunteers.  Thanks everyone!

In the first race with light to non-existent  and “variable” (an understatement) wind,  Matt Bartlett managed to find the wind that no one else did at a few points and smoked the field, finishing 3 minutes ahead of next group of boats.  Later he reported that several wind indicators within sight showed the wind coming from completely different directions. There were no real laggards, and it was great to see all of those sails clustered in a pretty tight group.  Jim Voelz finished second.

Matt (left) is way out front of the closely-packed rest of the fleet after rounding the 2nd mark.

Just as the wind-starved racers were starting to think maybe they shouldn’t attempt another race, the Lucy-like wind showed up again holding out the football for the ever-optimistic sailors.

You thought the first race was slow?  How about adding 5 more minutes of motionlessness.  In this race it was our legendary wind-reader Jim Voelz who skillfully found the scant winds and finished first by a lot, followed by Kevin Preuss.   

 

Start of 2nd Race: Catey & Elizabeth Hale are out front and Jim Voelz is close behind.

The fickle wind spread the field out this time with a ten minute spread between first and last, about twice the spread of the first race.  The Committee Boat likened the painfully slow finish to a funeral procession. And racers had to paddle back to their docks or find a tow. 

 

Approaching the finish line with almost no wind, the saints come inching in.  Some even had to "ooch" back to their docks. Ooching is illegal during the race. What is ooching?  Go to the search bar under the blog title photo, type in "ooching" and you'll have a good time finding out.

There was no protest meeting so that those helping with and attending the Garden Club picnic had time to get cleaned up.   By the way, the picnic at John and Donna Sasse’s was wonderful with enough clouds to provide shade from the evening sun, perfect temperature, that great view from their place,  and of course the great company of Grandview regulars and some new faces.  Oh yes, and the delicious food everyone prepared. 

Race Results:

First Race:

Laser Class:  Matt Bartlett 1^st, Jim Voelz 2^nd, Laura Garret 3^rd, Dianne Fisher 4^th, Kevin Preuss 5^th, Steve Willment 6^th

International Class: Catey & Elizabeth Hale 1^st, John Auld/Paul Hass 2^nd, Ben Cartwright/guest 3^rd.

Overall on a Handicapped Basis: Matt Bartlett 1st, Jim Voelz 2nd, Laura Garret 3rd, Dianne Fisher 4th, Kevin Preuss 5^th, Catey & Elizabeth Hale 6^th, Steve Willment 7^th, John Auld/Paul Hass 8^th, Ben Cartwright/guest 9^th.

Second Race

Laser Class:  Jim Voelz 1^st, Kevin Preuss 2^nd, Dianne Fisher 3^rd, Matt Bartlett 4^th, Laura Garrett 5^th, Steve Willment 6^th.

 International Class: Catey & Elizabeth Hale 1^st, John Auld/Paul Hass 2^nd, Ben Cartwright/guest 3^rd.

 Overall on a Handicapped Basis: Jim Voelz 1st, Kevin Preuss 2nd, Dianne Fisher 3rd, Catey & Elizabeth Hale 4^th, Matt Bartlett 5^th, John Auld/Paul Hass 6^th, Laura Garrett 7^th, Ben Cartwright/guest 8^th, Steve Willment 9^th.