The Great Minnow Recap – by Frank Kersting

Blustery Race Day as Nate comes calling

Hurricane Nate entered the Sunday race, so it was canceled.  Luckily Bill Miller, living up to his reputation as ‘The Master of Racing,’ ran 7 races on Saturday.  After the 7th grueling race, Bill polled the racers; Frank Kersting tiredly responded, “I AM 71.6 years old, Bill!”  The winds were a constant 9-11 miles an hour with hints of white caps throughout the day as Nate cast his initial cloud cover over the southeast.

Holding 7 races in the span of 3 hours meant that the marks were set to the wind, so they were demanding.  The POYC racing has 9 options for courses.  Bill ran several of the longer courses and then shouted his own version of course challenges to the passing cruisers. At the party, Steve, who was also on the committee boat, said that “They thought about adding ‘D,’ ‘E; and ‘F’ to the mix for good measure?”  These new course designations were both a test of long-term memory and seamanship!  A good time was had by all!

Dale Sturm – Winner  Dinghys

Rob Hatcher – Winner Cruisers

The first race was punctuated by barging at the windward buoy followed by a hull-on-hull scraping.  As Dale observed, “Sailing is the fastest 4 miles an hour in racing with no brakes!”  As the 7 races progressed, the cruisers sorted themselves into predictable finishes with Rob Hatcher never mixing it up as he flew away from the fleet.  That left the rest of the fleet to figure out who was ‘really starboard, as both captains freely called out for right of way!  What fun!

Dale Allison – Second Place – Cruisers

Carol Kersting – Third Place Cruisers

As all the boats were returning to the docks with exhausted crews, Dale Sturm was not only first in the dinghy class but also first to the docks.  When Tom Cripps debarked from Dale Allison’s classic cruiser, Tom’s arms were so bruised that everyone commented that ‘the beating must have continued until Tom’s morale improved because they came in second.’  Third place belonged to Carol Kersting as she captained her able crew through puffs, headers and gusts.  Debbie Champion and Kevin Klarer ran solid races as Denise was sidelined with a mending heel.  Troy, his son Dillon, and friend Frank rounded out the cruiser class as they were tested on their maiden voyage in their newly purchased Oday 25—well done, Troy and crew.

Leah, the social chair, set a fine banquet as Troy had volunteered to ‘smoke some butts.’  The bar-be-cue was delicious and the sides well-complemented the meat dish.  Thanks to everyone who brought a side dish.  In the evening, Allen and Denise serenaded the mellow group with songs from Fleetwood Mac, the Beatles and other artists whom we all knew and loved, Thanks to everyone who made the event so memorable.

The Great Minnow ’17 is in the books.

The next race is Saturday, Oct 14, the Pirates Plunder with skippers’ meeting at 10:00.

Also Friday October 13th – is our October Meeting and Movie Nightmare ..  See Details on Facebook page!