CLEVER MOVE IN THE SAILBOAT RACING CHESS GAME May 20th Race Report

We began our 2018 season with participation at “high tide” - fourteen sailors in eleven boats and five volunteers on the Committee Boat.  More importantly we welcomed some newcomers to the sailing community.  The race was a low-wind skills affair with a clever move that allowed several sailors to accomplish a long sought after goal.

Welcome Phil Bush and Margaret Powers to the sailing community!  And we hope visiting first-timer Jeff Cartwright (Tom’s son, Ben’s brother) is a frequent participant as well.  We were also pleased to have visiting Norm,  (Cindy Bartlett’s father), and a guest of the Cartwrights on board for this race.

Jim Voelz set up the race earlier in the day when the wind was decent. He made a wise call to eliminate one of the marks when the situation changed by race time.  Our well-staffed Committee Boat included Beth Auld, Cindy Bartlett, Phil Bush, Margaret Powers and Norm Woodman.  Arlene Truex hosted us for the protest meeting.  And Kevin Preuss and Beth Auld organized the race/committee boat.  Thanks everyone!

Most races are won at the start as we learned from the GYC’s winningest sailor, Jim Voelz, at his racing clinic the day before.  So there was a "crambitious" swarm at the somewhat narrow starting line when the starting horn sounded.  The Committee Boat did a nice job of identifying two boats over the line before the horn sounded and notified the offending skippers who had to start over. Tom Schroeder and Steve Willment in the JY-15 hoped to wait behind the starting line until just before the starting horn, then tightening their sails.  But even without the sails trimmed their boat had momentum,  and they had to turn away from the line to avoid a false start, which cost them precious time.  Others were kept from “barging” (squeezing in between a starting line buoy and another sailboat at the last second) with the threat of a potential protest.  What a show for the Committee Boat volunteers, especially the first-timers!

 

The first leg of the race was upwind from the middle of the lake headed due west.  The wind was okay for this leg.  We rounded the mark and headed straight back east toward a marker near the dam.   

A very clever move by GYC veteran Tom Jennings was reported by the genuinely impressed casualty, Jim Voelz.

Leading the fleet as usual and sailing side-by-side, Jim on the left and Tom on the right, both would soon need to turn right to go around the marker-flag.  Jim could not turn until Tom did.  Tom waited until the very last minute to turn.  He made it around the marker flag without touching it, but it was too late for Jim.  Just a normal part of sailboat racing and very much expected and proper.  Jim had to make a 360 degree penalty turn for touching the flag.  In doing so he fouled Matt Bartlett by getting in his way and causing him to alter his course.   Matt could have protested which would have required Jim make two more 360 degree penalty turns, but gave Jim a “by”.  In return, Jim offered Matt a liquid refreshment to be redeemed at some future time.

The last leg of the race was straight west again, in to a now non-existent wind. There we sat.  Motionless.  For a long time.  A very long time.  Lance and Bianca, not far from the launching ramp understandably shouted their regrets and paddled to their trailer lest the afternoon race stretch into evening.  And the Cartwrights with an offer of a tow, bailed as well.  Some time later a slight breeze surprised us, coming from behind instead of from in front.   The remaining fleet crept ever so slowly to the finish line, with a few accomplishing the long sought after goal of finishing before Jim Voelz.  All courtesy of an opportunity Tom Jennings was able to use to his advantage and win the race.

We had a good turnout for the protest meeting in good weather and enjoyed Arlene Truex’s patio and yard.  Thanks again Arlene!

Race Results:

Laser Class:  Tom Jennings 1^st, Matt Bartlett 2^nd, Andy Jennings 3^rd, Laura Garrett 4^th, Jim Voelz 5^th, Dianne Fisher 6^th, Kevin Preuss 7^th.

International Class:  Tom Schroeder/Steve Willment 1^st, John Auld/Paul Hass 2^nd.

Overall results on handicapped basis (not for scoring purposes):  Tom Jennings 1st, Matt Bartlett 2nd, Andy Jennings 3rd, Laura Garrett 4th, Jim Voelz 5th, Dianne Fisher 6th, Tom Schroeder/Steve Willment 7^th, Kevin Preuss 8^th, John Auld/Paul Hass 9^th.

Next Race AND SOCK BURNING:  June 3^rd.

WE (should be) BETTER RACERS NOW! Seminar by Champion Jim Voelz

Class is about to begin outside

Sailing Champions Jim and Peggy Voelz hosted us at their home for a racing clinic conducted by GYC’s winningest sailor ever, Jim Voelz.  As expected,  many of our sailors took advantage of this opportunity to learn the techniques Jim has found to be most important to winning races.   

He covered: 

• Boat preparation and helpful equipment

• How to prepare for the race prior to the start

• The importance of the start of the race and good starting strategies

• Strategies for upwind and downwind legs of the race and the final leg

• Rules for the start, rounding marks, and other right of way matters

• How to handle protests

It was a very valuable session and we anticipate sailors will be putting Jim’s advice into practice.  It sure seemed that way at the start of the race the next day.

Thanks Jim and Peggy!

It began raining so we moved inside

SPRING SOCIAL MAY 18TH

Sailors Matt and John at the Spring Social sporting the official Yacht Club shirt for lake social functions.  We forgot to specify tucked or untucked.  We will take that up at the next protest meeting.

About sixty or soYacht Club members and new Grandview Lot Owners gathered at Donna Mount's beautiful home to greet one another after a long winter and celebrate the season ahead.  We prayed for a safe season at the lake and for those traveling to and from.
We had some sprinkles of rain, but Donna's spacious accomodations kept us dry and able to move around, sample all the appetizers,  and visit everyone.  Thanks very much Donna for hosting us!

By the way, if you left one of the pictured items, you may pick it up at the GLOA office during business hours.

2017 SEASON HIGHLIGHTS

This post is a brief summary of our 2017 season.  It accompanies the 2017 sailing awards post that follows, and the many 2017 photos in the Starboard Column (smartphone users will have to click on the "view web version" to see the full blog with port and starboard columns)

We had a really good 56^th 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.

Wayne & Arlene

Joe and Phyllis

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 Voelz (right) accepts 2018 Overall Champion trophy from Race Chairman Kevin Preuss

He also won 1^st place in the Laser Class.  

Peggy Voelz won 1^st place in the International Class,   

and our 1^st 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 25^th – 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 4^th 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

Hostess Margaret greets Mike during cocktail hour at the Spring Social

 

The feast before us at the Spring Social

Steve and Marisa Willment – Memorial Day Breakfast

Memorial Day Breakfast

Mark Cassidy and Dianne Fisher – July 4^th Breakfast

July 4th Breakfst

Steve and Vicki Zeller- Labor Day Breakfast

Labor Day Breakfast

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.

2017 SEASON AWARDS GATHERING

This post about sailing awards accompanies the 2017 season highlights post that proceeds it.

Following the last race of the season we docked our boats, tallied the results and gathered as usual at the Truex's patio to dine on great pitch-ins, award trophies, medals, and tokens of gratitude.

Remember we just got back from a race.  So here we see our sailors critiquing their strategies and tactics and otherwise re-living the race.  These are weighty matters worthy of discussion and contemplation.

Meanwhile guests showed up like....

Marissa and Steve, hosts of the Memorial Day Breakfast, 

Many-time gourmet Committee Boat volunteers Jack and Sandi,

Beth, bearing gifts, 

Mimi and Julia, upbeat as usual,

Jim Riffle sporting port and starboard eyeglass floats

We celebrated Tom's milestone birthday.  Here he blows out the candles. Sure, go ahead and count them and do the multiplication (times 5).

 A very heartfelt toast:

We began the awards presentation with an acknowledgment that although we enjoyed the racing season, it was bittersweet because of the loss of three mainstays of the Yacht Club, first Wayne Truex, then Joe Voelz, one of the founders, and then John Sohn. We knew that we were enjoying the company of a wonderful group of people like they really loved to.  We raised a toast to their memory, knowing they would have appreciated it.

We thanked our  Committee Boat volunteers, event hosts, good Samaritans, and others.  Here Beth hands out a memento to volunteer Randy Clark.

Here the "Ghost Sailor" trophy is held up for display.  It was awarded to five sailors who were with us in spirit, but not in a boat, at least not as much as we wanted them to be.  To be fair to the various winners,  the trophy will be traveling on an established schedule from home to home for display.

The Booby prize is marched out and awarded to Matt Bartlett, captain, and Jim Riffle, crew of the M-Scow that capsized and turtled in the epic winds of the June 24th race.  Matt's scribbled sketch of the event on a post-it-note (below) was enlarged, laminated and displayed in cylindrical form inside the pedestal mounted chamber pot trophy.

Then the serious race trophies and awards, won based on points were awarded by Race Chairman Kevin Preuss.

The holiday weekend "Trophy Race" trophies were awarded, one for each of the holiday weekend races according to tradition (times have changed though, so we avoid having races on holiday weekends)

Jim Voelz won the Memorial Day Trophy Race.  The trophy is now a "double-decker" monument because of the age of the club and the number of past winners

Tom Jennings displays the July 4th stained glass trophy he won.

The Labor Day Trophy got some special attention this year.  Several years ago, Wayne and Arlene Truex had a beautiful stained glass trophy made to replace the "chamber pot" trophy that we now use as the "booby prize".  Wayne hated that chamber pot trophy because it is so ugly (then he and Bob Orben won it the first year it became the booby prize).  Since the GYC was so important to him, Wayne's brothers wanted to memorialize him in some meaningful way.   So they had a very beautiful stand made for the Labor Day trophy with an engraved plaque in Wayne's memory. 

Peggy Voelz won the Labor Day Trophy Race and  displays the trophy and stand in memory of Wayne Truex.

Then the 1st 2nd and 3rd place trophies and medals for the 3 classes of competition were awarded (Lasers, International, and Crew)

Jim Voelz won 1st place in the Laser class

Laura Garret won 2nd in the Laser class

Tom Jennings won 3rd in the Laser class.  Sorry no picture

Peggy Voelz won 1st in the International Class

Tom Schroeder won 2nd in the International class

John Auld won 3rd in the International class.  That is his crew, Paul Hass to his left.  You'll see him again in a minute because.....

Paul Hass won 1st Place in the Crew class

Arlene Truex won 2nd Place in the Crew class

There was a three-way tie for third in the crew class which included:

Ben Cartwright

Elizabeth Hale, &

Gediminas Ramanauskas

Then some special overall awards were presented:
Ben Cartwright won the "Rookie of the Year" trophy (sorry no photo)

and Finally,

OUR OVERALL 2017 SEASON CHAMPION,

JIM VOELZ

Jim accumulated nearly 70% more points than the next-closest competitor!

We are expecting another great season in 2018.  See you then!

Long Lasting Photo Op (missed?). September 24th Race Report

Warm temperatures and fickle on again, off again winds are a bad combination.  But despite some long periods of limp sails, we had enough “on-again” periods of wind for two decent races, a good turnout of nine sailboats (including John Gall back for a visit from the Wilder West) and a great turnout of five Committee Boat volunteers.  

Thanks to Committee Boat volunteers Jim and Mimi Riffle, Lisa Duret, Cindy Bartlett, her visiting Dad Norm, and to Kevin Preuss for setting up the race course.

The start of the first race was a real yawner.  Nice to see nine boats all lined up right next to each other.  Would have made for a great photo, and there would have been plenty of time to snap it too.  For nearly ten minutes with no wind they just sat there.  Banter among sailors was the highlight.  And the Committee Boat reminded one sailor that sculling, like ooching, is not allowed. Then finally, slowly, a breeze got some forward motion going and lasted to the first mark.  Then it was “on again” in decent fashion and off again.  Late September winds are usually better than that, but at least the lake was fairly quiet. The second race was better wind-wise.   That’s sailboat racing though, you deal with the conditions you are dealt, and different techniques and strategies apply to that kind of wind.  If you snooze you lose when a light breeze you weren’t ready for catches you unprepared. 

Six Lasers set sail.  In the first race Jim Voelz, GYC Republic cover girl Laura Garrett, and Matt Bartlett took first, second and third respectively.  In the second race it was Jim Voelz, Dianne Fisher and Laura Garrett.

The International Class was a bit underrepresented in this race.  Peggy Voelz, Sherri Agnew and Tom and Ben Cartwright finished in that order on a handicapped basis.  In the second race it was Ben and Tom Cartwright, Sherri Agnew and Peggy Voelz.

Had we handicapped all the boats, the finish order in the first race would be Jim Voelz, Peggy Voelz and Laura Garrett, keeping it all in the family.  In the second race it was Jim Voelz, Ben and Tom Cartwright and Sherri Agnew.

Thanks to Arlene Truex for hosting an enjoyable protest meeting.

Complete Race Results are as follows:

RACE RESULTS FIRST RACE

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

International Class:  Peggy Voelz 1^st, Sherri Agnew 2nd, Tom Cartwright/Ben Cartwright 3rd.

Overall results on handicapped basis (not for scoring purposes):  Jim Voelz 1^st, Peggy Voelz 2^nd, Laura Garrett 3^rd, Matt Bartlett 4^th, Sherri Agnew 5^th, Dianne Fisher 6^th, John Gall 7^th, Tom Cartwright/Ben Cartwright 8^th, Kevin Preuss 9^th.  

RACE RESULTS SECOND RACE

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

International Class:  Ben Cartwright/Tom Cartwright 1^st, Sherri Agnew 2^nd, Peggy Voelz 3^rd.  

Overall results on handicapped basis (not for scoring purposes):  Jim Voelz 1^st, Ben Cartwright/Tom Cartwright 2^nd, Sherri Agnew 3^rd, Peggy Voelz 4^th, Dianne Fisher 5^th, Laura Garrett 6^th, Kevin Preuss 7^th, Matt Bartlett 8^th, John Gall 9^th.

Our next and final race is Sunday October 1^st at 2pm, followed by season awards at the final protest meeting at 4pm.

JOHN SOHN: Long-time Active Sailor with the GYC

We are saddened by the death of John Sohn. John was a member of GYC for many years. He raced his Y-Flyer at club races as well as at sailing regattas at Lake Lemon and other venues. After he retired from racing he remained active until just a few years ago by serving on the Protest Committee where his knowledge about the racing rules resolved many protests. He was a valued and well-respected member of GYC, and he will be greatly missed.  Our sympathy is extended to his wife, Jane, his children, Brent, Dan, and Suzanne, and to other members of his family.

John sailing his Y-Flyer with his kids