The 2011 Midwinters is nearly upon us. Registration and measuring was open Sunday and Monday, by the end of the day Sunday we had about 35 boats checked in. There were only a few centerboards that needed some "massaging" so measurement was fairly painless.
Monday was the first day of official functions, that means meetings. The executive committee met first at 9 am then the board of governors went at 11am. Happily the govs. meeting was the shortest I have ever attended and we heard the same about the first meeting so all is good. Some of you may recall the class was losing money a couple years back but through cost cutting measures we are back in the black.
A practice race was scheduled for 2pm and about 35 boats participated. The weather was really nice, sunny and pleasent with a seabreeze pushing little whitecaps. Since nobody ever really wants to win the practice race I won't mention the winner by name. For Tuesday the split will be about 40 in the Championship and 25 in the Challenger division, so the split worked out well.
Kim and I had volunteered to handle the welcome party so we were hoping not to mess it up too badly. We served heavy horse doovers so with many of the fleet pitching in a dish or two the Kitchen was looking well stocked. We started setting out platters of chow and the frenzy was on. It seemed that by the time the next dish was set out the previous was wiped clean. Oh oh... More platters for them! After a little while we began to get the upper hand, maybe we were tiring them out. John Domagala took the stage for a few annoucements and to hand out prizes from Schurr Sail one of our sponsers. Thank you Schurr sails!
Ron Pletsch also had a tribute to our recently departed Jeff Penfield. It is a shame Jeff couldn't be with us to sail the first midwinters at the Sarasota Sailing Squadron.
The crowd thinned fairly quickly after dessert, there was a cool breeze that had a few of them looking chilly. We were happy to have the first day go well and hope for more the rest of the week.
I want to thank everyone from the Sarasota fleet for pitching in with food and labor at the Welcome Party!
The forecast for Tuesday is nice, sunny warm and a healthy sea breeze.
2 comments:
You guys organized a GREAT welcoming party. THANKS
Thanks Eightball, you were reall a big help!!
Post a Comment