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Journal of the Atlanta Yacht Club Volume 65, Issue 5 / November 2015

The weekend of October 9-11, 2015 saw 30 teams sail in the

61st Gilbert Beers Memorial Regatta on Lake Allatoona at the

Atlanta Yacht Club. Some things remained the same: our

volunteer spirit, great race committee, plentiful food, coolers

of beer, stiff competition, and the best time to be had with your

sailing gear on - EVER. Why fix what ain’t broke? And the tro-

phy theme added a totally new twist to the weekend . . .

And the Beers Winners are . . .By Amanda Hodges

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Shirley Gore’s Friday night Chili dinner was definitely a trophy winner and had sailing friends and fam-ily gather in the clubhouse to eat, drink beer (of course), and socialize. There is something special about the combination of a great family sailboat, Fall creeping in the air, and AYC fleet #1 at their home club.

The number of family sailing teams is noteworthy: two sibling teams, six husband/wife teams (awe heck, make it seven since Steve and Mike might as well be married), eight parent/child teams, and one brother/sister-in-law team that has sailed together so long, we all ASSUMED they were married! Then there’re the family fleets sailing: Hodges had five boats on the water and Hatchers had two and the Blacks had sailors in two different boats. Sailing with and against your family at the same event is unique to our sport and quite wonderfully apparent in our class.

Saturday morning brought moderate to medium winds (peaked at 16) for the three Junior sailors with their able crews for a three race series. Team Timo and Clint won the close series with a 1-2-1 against Team Savannah and Carlin with a 2-1-2 and the most impressive was new-comer to the class, Ava Kuznicki, skippering for the first time with Dad, Eddie, crewing and she stayed close and did not turn over!!!!!!

The first race of the seniors found Alan Thompson with National Champion Crew, Marie Thomp-son Abdullah, hit the shore and take off! The rest of the race was ”Let’s watch Alan and Marie sail flaw-lessly around the olympic course” time. I decided to race against Doug and

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Lauren and failed to note that two of the “Brat Pack”were sneaking in to take me at the finish line giving me a 5th. I was 2nd/3rd the WHOLE RACE and then those rotten kids (Shelby and Clint) put me in FIFTH?!? Oh well, I was sailing with my sister, Tara, down from Virginia. We did have fun together. And we did beat my hus-band…..

Second race was also a moderate breeze and full Olympic course, with the lead swapping boats ev-ery leg of the race. I was bound and determined not to let the “Brat Pack” of Shelby and Clint get me right at the finish this time. Half way through, Mark Barton had a decent lead and kept a loose cover on the fleet as the wind slowly built. The last leg found me fighting off Carlin, Shelby, and Kevin Black while hoping that Mark and Jill slipped up and took a bad shift tacking up the lake to the finish. When, from out of NOWHERE, comes the third member of the “Brat Pack”, the MOST disrespectful, rotten child a mother could have named Sammy Hodges to slither his way into a 2nd and lead John and Andrea Bright to the ambush! I came in fourth! Reminder to self: I am sailing with my sister. We did have fun togeth-er. We still are beating my husband…….

Saturday night produced a few trophies, as sail-ors were asked to dress as the trophy winner of their dreams. I, of course, was Carlin’s “Trophy Wife” dressed as barefoot, pregnant, and in the kitchen cooking a dinner of baked spaghetti. The Morse combo of Grammy winner Heather and Nobel Laureate Curtis were eventually out-done by Sammy “the driver” golf trophy. No, re-ally, he actually sprayed his entire body - includ-ing club - gold and held the ‘pose’ as if he were the ACTUAL trophy. He definitely won the costume award. The game was Trophy Trivia with each table vying for top honors asking questions about Oscar trophies, Nobel Prizes, and sailing tro-phies of every kind. After the games, we gathered around the winner of the “Best bonfire at a regat-ta” award and told trophy-sized tall tales. Play-ing “What if…” around the fire produced roaring laughter and insights into our fellow sailors that may have crossed the TMI line a few times.

The standings Saturday night had two ties and six boats within 2 points of each other! It was anyone’s race Sunday morning when we awoke to calm water. When the RC went out to check the wind, only newbie enthusiasts Eddie and Ava

Kuznicki (they didn’t know any better) and Sis-ters Smith (Amanda and Tara) drifted out to attempt a third race. When the third horn blew, we knew the race committee had no other choice, but had hoped to drift to a clear win over Shelby and break the tie. I had to settle for a tie-breaking win.

Regardless, having my son throw his mother and Aunt off the dock to celebrate the victory was trophy enough for me. We won one for us sailing sisters, Dad (Randy Smith), Mom (Betty Smith-field Smith), Granddaddy (Smitty Smithfield - First Commodore of AYC, co-founded Y Fleet #1, and started the Gilbert Beers Memorial Regatta in 1954) and all our sailing family and friends who, year after year, make the treck to AYC and provide us with the best Y racing in the country!

The trophy table was packed with awards. The Kuznicki pair won the coveted “All the Marbles” trophy for going out there and sailing five gruel-ing races in their first regatta ever and staying up-right! True to the name, EVERYONE at the Beers this year won a trophy. And for the first time ev-eryone gathered around the flagpole to show off their Beers trophies. Although some suspected that the trophy they got looked suspiciously like a recycled soccer, tractor pull, softball, or piano trophy, we all will cherish the memories of a win-ning weekend of sailing and fun with the best sail-boat class ever…. Y-Flyers!

Your sailor, teacher, Vet, wife, horsewoman, mother, grandmother, sister and 2015 Beers tro-phy winner, Amanda Smith Hodges, Y-2660

From the Regatta Chairman,

Carlin Hodges:

Anyone get the idea to

give me a hard time

about my wife beat-

ing me in the Beers

Regatta,just keep in

mind she BEAT YOU,

TOO!!!!

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HALLOWEEN REGATTA

BY GREG KIBLER

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Halloween Regatta is a great way to end the sail-ing season for the Snipe Fleet. As with the pre-vious 60 AYC Halloween Regattas, the only way an event of this caliber happens is through the willingness of so many people to contribute to make it exciting and fun. We want to thank all of you who so generously volunteered time and/or resources to make the 2015 Halloween Regatta a great success.

We had 100% Snipe fleet volunteers’ participa-tion. From loaning boats and cabins, helping with meals, kitchen duties, registration, cleaning, traf-fic control, design, marketing, and decoration, donation of supplies, sponsoring complimentary race committee meals, awards, appetizers, and of course sailing.We had committed sailors enthusiastic to make

the weekend a great mix of sailing and fun. Once the Halloween Regatta started, a group from the Master’s Regatta stayed to take on another chal-lenge. We had very skilled sailors coming from Florida, South Carolina, Kentucky, Oklahoma, Massachusetts, Maryland, California and of course from our own AYC Snipe Fleet 330.

We had the best of PROs: For the Junior Re-gatta, Clint Hodges from the Y-Flyer Fleet, and for the main Regatta, Bryce Dryden from the Thistle Fleet. Both Clint and Bryce put together great race committees willing to do whatever was needed for a great sailing competition.

To make it all legal, Carl Owens and Brain-ard Cooper provided support as Judge and SCI-RA representative respectively, keeping the races fair and compliant.

We cannot be remiss in thanking our Corpo-rate Sponsors for this year: Coca-Cola, Coral Reef Sailing Apparel, APS, Boat U.S, and Quantum.

Sailors for the second part of this double regatta started arriving at the club on Friday afternoon excited by the news that the wind was actually go-ing to be above the 1-3 knots that Master’s sailors endured for the previous three days. The welcome from the Snipe Fleet 330 with the

traditional Friday night Chili was enhanced with the incredible show that the Tut Campbell Band gave. Tut is a Snipe Sailor and a musician. Our own Dave Blauvelt and Russell Plunkett joined the music performance. While adults en-joyed food and music, AYC children enjoyed their traditional Halloween Custom party and Trick or Treat around the Cabin Colony.

Framing the weekend, this year’s weather condi-tions were very favorable: overcast, not too cold, not too hot. Wind was there, shifty and all, but that is Lake Allatoona and we take it as it comes. The Junior Regatta with 7 boats was the begin-ning of great sailing competitions. With 3 races completed the winners were: 1st: Jr Skipper and Jr. Crew: William K. and Timo K. (Georgia/Germany Team)2nd: Jr. Skipper and Jr. Crew: Christopher S. and Carlyn B. (Tennessee/Georgia Team)3rd: Jr. Skipper and Jr. Crew: Jasper F. and Ni-cole R. (Annapolis Team)

Thirty-eight boats made up the Spooks group and 7 boats participated as Goblins. After a Sat-urday filled with sailing, a cup of Hot Buttered Rum energized people to start an evening of fun. Appetizers, a great catered meal, music, danc-ing, costumes and then the traditional costume awards for the most original, the most controver-sial, and the best team effort were awarded by the Judges of the night Mark and Mindy Sherry. This year we had a Chez Pas Boxswine Pig – Craig McLean- wining the most original, and The Chesapeake Crab Feast, The Annapolis Team from Snipe Fleet 532 winning for the second year the prize for Best Team Effort. This fun group of sailors is already planning next year’s trip and is inviting all AYC to go to Annapolis soon.

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Sunday morning’s competition determined the winners of Halloween. In the Spooks group:1st: Paul Abdullah and Marie Thompson Abdullah, FL2nd: Tarasa Davis and Merrill Varn, GA3rd: Sonya Smith and Steve Pickle, MD4th: Christopher and Lindsey Stang, SC5th: Ian Elliott and Rita Fullick, GA

In the Goblins group:1st: Tut Campbell and Ross Copenhaver, AK/GA2nd: Woody McLean and Amelia McLean, GA3rd: Jamie Peva and Trish Peva, MD4th: David Blauvelt and Carlyn Blauvelt, GA5th: Craig and Gayle McLean, GA

At the end of this busy weekend, we were tired but proud of all that AYC had accomplished for the sailing community. We are positive sailors left with great memories and the desire to come back next year. If you have never attended a Hal-loween Regatta and its many social opportuni-ties, please join us next year.

With day after day of rain and more forecasted for the entire weekend, plus a very iffy wind forecast, we were not quite sure what to ex-pect. Registration started slow but we ended up with 10 Lasers and 5 Opti’s ready to brave whatever Mother Nature had in store. Everyone rigged up in light and shifty winds (what’s new there); the forecast had it building throughout the day, so all were hopeful. Larry Bull had the race committee out and ready as we waited on the wind. Finally it looked like the forecast was right and it started to fill in, at least temporar-ily. The first race was light but fairly steady but then it went back to very light and shifty condi-tions for the next two races and picked up again to get a total of five in for the day. The Opti’s only got two races in because of a major act of sportsmanship from the entire fleet. Lucy S. had an equipment failure and was far behind the rest of the fleet, at the leeward mark, the other girls rafted up in the middle of the race to wait on her to catch the fleet! We could all take some lessons from them. RC called it a day and we headed in for Ed’s Famous BBQ dinner. With the rain coming down and a full lake, we had no place for the usual huge bonfire, but all was good. Marshmallows were roasted over a fire, s’mores consumed, or in some cases devoured, and everyone just relaxed in the warmth of the club. Sunday still came with rain, but the winds they were a howling. There were quite a few changes to radial sails as the white caps formed. The first race for the Lasers got off to a rough start as everyone tried to adjust to the winds, steady 15 with gust up to 30. At one point, there were 5 Lasers tipped over at the

Wow, what a wild and wacky No More Turkey Regatta for Lasers and Optis . .

By Eric Jorgensen

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same time! Everyone was pretty quick at righting their boats, but they had RC hopping! Every Laser sailor went over at least once during the day. We secured another safety boat and got the fearless Optis going; they sure showed the Lasers up as I don’t think a single one of them capsized! After 4 races for the Lasers and 3 for the Opti’s, we called it quits and headed in for a well-deserved lunch and awards. There were a few sore and tired folks as we settled in to eat. The results for the Laser Fleet: 1st place, Robert Burke, Mike Carlson and Clint Hodges fin-ished out 2nd and 3rd. Top Junior went to Mitch P., a frequent guest from Alabama. The Opti’s finished with Carlyn B. in 1st, Evie B. and Lucy S. taking 2nd and 3rd. Special mentions go out to all the other junior sailors not mentioned above for brav-ing the conditions, Katherine J., Colin S., Ellie S. and Josie S.! Thanks to all that helped put this together, from providing extra food for meals, serving and cleanup! I would be remiss if I didn’t give a special shout out to Race Committee and the extended team of last minute volunteers that went out on the water to be sure we had a safe event. Thank you all!

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Apprentice Master Champion (age 45-54) Davis/Kibler’s 1-2-1 scores far outdistanced Grand Master (age 65-74) winners Stephan and Monica Irgens of St. Louis, whose 6-4-2 finishes gave them second place overall. Third place overall and Masters Championship (age 55-64) went to the team of Art and Jen-nifer Rousmaniere of Winchester, MA in a tie-breaker

With light air once again ruling the day, hometown girl Tarasa Davis, sailing with Greg Kibler, solidified her grasp of the 2015 Snipe US Masters Championship with a bullet in a failing breeze at the Atlanta Yacht Club in Thursday’s final race of the series over a competitive 14 boat fleet.

over Don Hackbarth of Atlanta and crew Merrill Varn of Jacksonville. Ray Schmit and Elisa Silvera Adams of Bos-ton were fifth overall. The only Great Grand Master (age 75 and above) participating was John Muhlhausen of Atlanta, with David Mhlhausen crewing, who finished eighth overall.

Congratulations to

Tarasa Davis & Greg Kibler

2015 Snipe Masters

USA Champions !

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One-Design fleets at AYC

ThistleLOA 17’-0”2 to 3 person boatwww.thistleclass.com

EC12 MeterLOA 4’-11”Radio-controlledwww.ec12.org

OptimistLOA 7’-9”1 person boat (junior trainer)www.usoda.org

Snipe LOA 15’-6”2 person boatwww.snipe.org

LaserLOA 13’-9”1 person boatwww.laserinternational.org

Y-FlyerLOA 18’-2”2 person boatwww.yflyer.org

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Tom Henderson Vice Commodore

Don HackbarthCommodore

The calendar year is winding down, but activity at AYC on the water and land continues non-stop. The Opti and Laser Fleets continue with their Frost Nip racing. Come January, we will again host our Saturday night sailing clinics and din-ners. The main fleets will be back on the water racing in early March. House and grounds reports that this past year we have had well in excess of 100 events at our facilities. AYC is adapting very well to becoming a 12 months a year operation. If you and your family have not been actively par-ticipating, you have been really missing a great time. Get involved, and bring a friend and their family and introduce them to the unique family recreation opportunity we have to offer.

Replacing our Membership turnover and grow-ing our Club has been a major challenge over the past several years. What AYC has to offer is ex-tremely appealing to young couples with young children. Many have limited sailing experience, but a strong desire to learn and have sailing be-come a main family activity. Letting our friends know that sailing exists in the Atlanta area that it is an enjoyable family experience, and getting them to come up to the lake and experience it for themselves, is the responsibility of every Mem-ber.

It has been a pleasure to serve as your Com-modore this past year. The volunteer spirit at AYC makes serving as a Committee Chair, Board Member, Flag Officer and Commodore a very ful-filling experience. You all ‘lighten the load’. I thank everyone who volunteered this year. Ev-erything you step up and do, no matter how vis-ible it is, contributes to the success of our overall organization. Sail on AYC.

We’ve had an incredible year on the water at AYC! Our “On the Water” programs continue to evolve and to provide us with new friends and most im-portantly new members!

We had a busy year and our thanks go out to all of the membership that have served on race committee, helped with the regattas and for par-ticipating on the water.

As noted, at last years annual meeting, we have been busy upgrading our on the water assets. We were directed by the ACOE to remove the tires from all of our docks and I’m please to report that we will have accomplished that task by year’s end. We addressed dock 2 this spring and Barry and Davis are scheduled to work on the North dock this month.

Again, at the insistence of the ACOE, we had to address issues with Private dock 2 and I’m pleased to report that we have addressed those is-sues as well. You will see some additional work being completed there as we install new covers on the AYC slips to provide protection for our out-board skiffs. This work will be completed before year-end as well. Our vintage mid-80’s outboard on the work barge expired and we are in the pro-cess of switching things around such that RC 3 will get a 40HP Yamaha. The McKee Craft will inherit the 40 HP Honda and the work Barge will inherit the McKee craft engine. The jet propelled rescue boat is an under utilized asset as this point and we are fully considering all our options. The new RIB is helping to support all of our on the water programs and is a very well received addi-tion to the program, both on our lake and sup-porting our traveling Opti sailors.

Thanks to Charlie Clark for taking on the Race Committee post this year and to Ian Elliott and crew who kept everything in working order. With all the work and expense that we had on the agenda this year, we decided to delay the compe-tition of the storage barge. We will schedule this in the coming year and we hope to have that in place sometime this spring.

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Larry BullRear Commodorecontinuation of Vice Commodore report

Thank you to our Marketing Committee chaired by Katrina Blauvelt. They have been hard at work increasing our visibility in the local com-munity and in the sailing community. Debbie Dryden has been instrumental in getting sev-eral items inserted into local newspapers. Alan Thompson and Bill All and the rest of the team have been working hard to pull together promo-tional materials to support our membership ini-tiatives. Jennifer Garrett and the Communica-tions Team has been working on upgrading the Web page with our new tag line, “Come sail with us”, and inserting new home page photos. We will continue to work diligently in this area as this is increasing becoming the first impression that we make with prospective new members.

All club-sponsored regattas went off without a hitch thanks to Courtney Bradley and her team; 54 boats at the AYC Open, 5 Lasers partici-pated in the Junior Championships, 7 Y-Flyers competed in the Woman’s Championship and 10 Snipes competed in the Club Championship. Our junior programs continue to grow and our young sailors continue to improve their skills. Evie B. is the first AYC junior qualifying to participate in the USODA Team trials!

Junior Week, thank you Mitchells, Amy Thompson and all the volunteers that hosted 36 campers with 5 of 6 coaches having grown up at AYC! We have had several new member families join AYC as a function of our Adult and Junior “on the water programs”.

2016 is going to be equally as busy! As noted in last year’s Rear Commodore’s report, AYC is a truly 12 months a year facility. Some dates to note, 2016 Commissioning is March 5th. It’s ear-lier than normal to accommodate our growing schedule of events. We are hosting a US Sailing PRO training and certification event on Saturday February 6th. Please sign up on the US Sailing Web-site. We have 14 plus PRO’s that will need to renew their certification in order to keep our fleet racing programs healthy and vital. Also we are hosting the Y-Flyer Mid-Winters, March 18-20, 2016.

It has been my pleasure to serve you as Vice Commodore this year. Thank you all for your sup-port.

When I took on the responsibility of Rear Com-modore I asked, “Well, what does the Rear Com-modore do exactly?” I was told, “if it isn’t float-ing it’s yours.” “What does that mean?”, I asked. I soon found out and why it’s called Rear Com-modore. Fortunately I have had eight wonderful Committee Chairs, who have helped me out over the course of this year. I would like to present some of this year’s highlights.

With the generous donation by the Cabin Colo-ny, we were able to repair the Cabin Colony E-Sec-tion road. In addition, the ACOE has approved a drainage project that will allow us to continue to repair existing roads in the common areas. This will include the Lower Lake Road below the club-house next to the Opti docks. Unfortunately, we have lost the road below the A-Section of the Cab-in Colony to the Lake as the ACOE will not allow us to rebuild this. I am happy to report there were no serious inju-

ries this year. Under the guidance of Health and Safety Chair, Courtney Bradley, we have new safety signs posted in conspicuous areas around the Club. In addition, by the recommendation of Erin Clark, Play Yard Chair, we installed a magnetic lock to help manage the children in the playground. I am also proud of unsung hero, Landscape Chair, Rita McCormack for adding the perfect touch of beauty and color around the Club.

This year I have learned how important the kitchen is to the overall functioning of the Club. We had major repairs to the freezer, blodgett ovens, and ice machine. Under the guidance of Kitchen Chair, Lavon Hatcher, the kitchen is running smoothly, and all equipment is now in good working condition. She is also responsible for all the great signs around the kitchen area. Lavon has been my barometer this year. If Lavon is happy I know we are doing something right.

I think you all will agree the Entertainment Committee has done an outstanding job this year. We can all thank Tracy Allardice and her com-mittee for a great year. Tracy tried blending some new things with the old traditions this year, and I

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continuation of Rear Commodore report

think she was quite successful. Offering a baby sitting service at events was also a great success. Rumor has it that Santa will make a special stop at this year’s holiday party.

I can say without hesitation, we are now a year round facility. We are no longer closing the club-house for the winter. This year we have accom-modated events in the clubhouse every month of the year. This includes the Winter Seminars spearheaded by Peggy Davis along with fleet meetings and the traditional events. Mike Carl-son, House and Grounds Chair, reports we have had 117 events, which have included 66 club-wide events, 39 fleet events, and 12 member only events. The clubhouse and grounds have gener-ated approximately $6000. in added revenue for the Club.

Since the clubhouse and grounds have become increasingly popular, we are at a point where we need a person to help coordinate events. This becomes quite apparent when large events are planned. I believe this falls outside the current scope of the House and Grounds Chairman. Therefore, I am very pleased to announce a new position at AYC. In 2016 we will have an Event Coordinator. Peggy Padgett has graciously vol-unteered to take on this position in 2016. Peggy has a very good working knowledge of the Club and its resources. I believe she is the perfect per-son to fill this position in 2016. We still have many challenges ahead includ-

ing additional road repair and water system up-grades. We are working on future plans to do these repairs as our budget will permit.

In closing, I would like to say being your Rear Commodore has been a rewarding experience for me. It is gratifying to see a plan come to fruition that benefits the membership. I want to thank all my committees for their fine work. I would also like to say that it has been an honor work-ing with Don Hackbarth. You will never meet a more dedicated person than Don. I look forward to working with Tom Henderson and Craig McLean next year so we can continue our ongo-ing projects and make the Club even better. Also, I want to encourage members to step up and vol-unteer, especially in leadership rolls. I think you will be surprised how rewarding it can be. Thank you

Y-Flyer News Buz Benzur Y

The Y-Flyer Fleet enjoyed a great 2015 season. The year saw the addition of two very active teams, Henry and Jeanette Taylor and Ed-die Kuznicki and his daughter, Ava. Eddie and Ava are both are new to sailing, but their enthu-siasm level runs high and every race they sailed was better than their last. Henry has the enviable advantage of having his wife as crew. And Jea-nette seems to actually enjoy her job, since so far she hasn’t jumped overboard to swim back to the dock. This in itself is quite an achievement. Shelby Hatcher continues to prove her mettle

every time she steps onto a Y. She’s graduating college in December with a double major in Crim-inal Justice and Political Science with a minor in Computer Science. But despite the time-con-suming distraction of her studies, Shelby placed 2nd in the Club Championship, 2nd in the Ladies Championship, 2nd at Chippewa and 10th at the Y-Flyer Nationals and 2nd in the Beers.

You don’t have to be a member of the Y Fleet to participate in our Mid Winters, March 18, 19 and 20 at AYC. Borrow a boat and come on out. The weather forecaster is calling for temperatures in the mid-80s with steady 10 mph NE winds for the entire weekend. OK, I know its months away and the forecast is probably somewhat overly optimis-tic, so along with your suntan lotion, better bring along foul weather gear just in case.

Here are the final Y-Flyer Fleet scores for the season:

Spring Series: 1st, Carlin Hodges; 2nd, Aman-da Hodges; 3rd, Heather Morse; 4th, Shelby Hatcher and 5th Karl Andersen.

Fall Series: 1st, Paul Eberhart; 2nd, Jim Wom-ble, 3rd, Heather Morse; and 4th, Amanda Hodges.

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IEC12 Meter NewsJohn Muhlhausen 12It has been another splendid sailing year for the EC12 Meter Fleet. We began sailing our Winter Series in early January at Murphey-Candler Park in north Atlanta and moved over to AYC in April where we held our Spring and Fall Series con-cluding in mid-October. Over our 10-month sail-ing season, we sailed 121 races and averaged over 7 boats per race. Our fleet also hosted two regat-tas: our annual Gone with the Wind Regatta, a two day event in April; and a one day Red White Blue Regatta in mid-July. Our top skippers for the year were Ian Elliott, John Muhlhausen and Bill Tumlin.

When the temperatures rose and the days be-came longer, many of us would get together on Friday nights after work with our 6-packs and sail until dark or when the zephyrs disappeared, whichever happened first. These casual times have became known as our Friday night Beer Sails.

Ian Elliott recently returned from Saint Au-gustine, Florida where he represented our fleet at the 45th EC12 National Championship Regatta. Due to the large number of boats participating,

51, each race was sailed as 3 heats with 17 boats comprising each heat using the promotion rel-egation system.

Ian reports that he learned a lot over the 3 day event and was impressed by the high level of competition. After his recent 5th place fin-ish at Halloween, he said sailing the NCRs was much more intense, especially when the winds hovered around 15 mph the last day and the pos-sibility of a wipe out at close quarters was ever present. His personal highlight was finishing 3rd in the first race.

Sean Fidler, a new comer to the Class, won the Nationals by a substantial margin. His sail-ing credentials are quite impressive: several past world championships including the 2015 EC12 World Championship in Canada he won several months ago, and numerous national champi-onships. Sean was a former member of the US Sailing Team and a 1991 Pan Am Gold Medalist in the Lightning Class.

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Thistle Fleet News Nancy Molitor

Color that sailing season GONE! Club races are over, all 2015 regattas are behind us, and if the rain ever goes away, we Thistlers are about to settle down for a long winter’s nap (or maybe a short winter’s nap). Rumor has it that Commis-sioning will be moved UP next spring in hopes of harnessing more plentiful wind, so don’t let too much frost pile up under your boat trailer.

To recap the fall, since last Scuttlebutt, we have four more regattas to report. First was the Wild Turkey on a rainy weekend back in September, where “we” (Sean Adams, Len and Shivelys) represented three of the eleven boats. Sean, with Pete Gregory crewing, gets a high five for fin-ishing third, just behind the dauntless duo of Greg and Scott Griffin. Len was successful in getting AYC to schedule our Club Championship on a weekend that did not conflict with this re-gatta, so it behooves our fleet to send more boats their way next year.

The Old Salty in Charlotte was to be next, but Hurricane Joaquin forced them to cancel, trim-ming the Southeastern Fall Series by one. Better news for Birmingham’s Great Pumpkin, which drew 22 boats and almost more wind than was wished for. Several boats had planned to sail with only one crew and so scuttled their teams to lend more hands and pounds to other competitors. Bob and Cammie McCormack split up, Bob sailing with Buddy and Renée Wainwright and Cammie and Gavin jumping on with Scott Griffin — a good choice, since Scott won the weekend by one point over brother Greg. Len auctioned off his crew Mike King to Bryan An-derson and Jennifer, and Len himself crewed for Reid Collins. Good sailing, provided you were three up!

Finally, despite a rather stormy forecast for the weekend, the Bloody Mary turned out to be an-other good regatta, with 19 boats sailing. Light winds and rain on Saturday yielded to 10-12 knots Sunday morning, garnished with shifts, puffs and gusts. With four races total, Bob McCormack was AYC’s top finisher in third, with Gavin, sail-

ing with Charlie Clark, next in sixth. While looking strong in tenth place on Saturday, Len and Mike lost ground on Sunday in the windy conditions. Jack Smith also turned out to crew for Brent McKenzie. The Jubilee, unfortunate-ly, was scheduled for this same weekend, so per-haps for that reason it had a disappointing turn-out of only five boats. None of our guys made it down there.

That wraps it up for the Southeastern Fall Se-ries, which requires three regattas to qualify. We had a lot of folks with two, but only Len made it into the big-boy league. Congratulations to Fleet 48’s participater par excellence!

Back at home, my “Stats Man” Bryce reports that of the 77 races we had scheduled for this year, we were only able to actually sail 47. After last year’s new scheduling approach failed to generate more boats on the line, this year we reverted to the old system of scheduling races every free week-end. But our participation numbers remained pretty much the same — so next year’s fleet cap-tain will really be challenged to up the ante! This year’s winners have sure done a horizon job on the rest of us: Dave and Diane Shively are in the winner’s circle with 24 races and 76 points, while Len Wert, close behind with 70 points, clearly wins the participation award with 35(!!!) races tallied. And the Tumlins, despite travels, uncooperative joints, surgeries, rain, sleet, gloom of night and no doubt a dozen other obstacles, still managed to bag a third place with only thir-teen races — go figure!

Next year we look forward to having at least two new teams on the line with us: David and Sharon Hunt, who bought the Snyders’ boat, and John and Nadja Aquino, who just missed getting introduced to you in the last Scuttlebutt. John and Nadja moved here from Chicago about a year ago. Both skippers, they sailed both a Fly-ing Scot and a 30’ keel boat, so when they joined the Club recently, it was an easy choice to get a Thistle because of its similarity to the Scot. They crewed a couple of times with Len and with Dave Shively before their newly purchased #3996 ar-rived by truck from California. Len helped them get it set up a couple of weeks ago, and if it hasn’t made its maiden voyage by now, I’m sure it’s about to do so. Be sure to make yourself known to John and Nadja when you see new faces in a

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white Thistle — they won’t be strangers for long around here!

In shoulder-season news, it seems we always have a few fugitives on the lam. If you missed Jeffrey and Julia Martinroe this fall, it is be-cause they were in Europe for a couple of weeks, meandering through the Netherlands, Italy, and along the Rhine valley in Germany. In the other direction, Bill and Beth Tumlin are just about to return from a South Pacific cruise, which has included Hawaii, Bora Bora, Tahiti, Bali Hai and a smorgasbord of other destinations requir-ing Spell Check. Going south, the Shivelys are heading to Cozumel for yet another dive trip be-fore the weather turns. (Never one to lose sight of priorities, Diane insists that even though their return flight lands at 5:20 on the 21st, they will make it to the Thistle fleet meeting that night. But pie? Will there be pie??) And slightly closer to home, Bob and Scott McCormack head to Jacksonville for a J-24 regatta later this month. They have a pretty good crew lined up, but will be racing against the 2015 World Champion, so as Bob says, “About to get our comeuppance!”

Our September Fleet meeting was an infor-mal one at the Clubhouse, following the Satur-day night dinner hosted by the Board of Gover-nors. Our thanks to Doug Folk and family for taking charge of the Club-wide dinner our fleet was asked to host later that month. October was so crammed full of regattas that we didn’t even try to hold a meeting, but November is about to make up for it. By the time you read this you will surely be full of beans! — along with hamburger, chicken, tomatoes, onions, cheese and everything else that goes with the world-class chili fest that is happening at Mike and Jennifer Garrett’s house on the 21st of this month. Then fast for-ward (as if the holidays were ever otherwise) to December 12, just one week after the Club Christ-mas Party, when Johnny and Lauren Sinclair once again open their home for our Thistle Fleet Party. Be sure to earmark the 12th for a night of food, fun, friends, end-of-year awards, elections and anything else that falls in the category of holiday frivolity. Look for a real live invitation in your email soon, and plan to make merry with us!

AYC’s R. Means Davis, IV has been se-lected by US Sailing as the 2015 recipient of the Harman Hawkins Award. This honor will be bestowed upon Means in San Diego on February 4th at the US Sailing Leader-ship Symposium.

The Harman Hawkins Trophy is awarded annually to an individual who has made outstanding contributions to the sport of sailing in the field of Race Administration (Judging, Race Management, Umpires, Appeals, Racing Rules and Classification). Selection of the recipient is made by the US Sailing Race Administration Commit-tee from nominees sought by the Judges, Race Management, Umpires, Appeals, Racing Rules and Classifiers committees.

The Trophy is named after Harman Hawkins (1919-2002), whose extraordi-nary involvement in sailing and numerous chairmanships of the Appeals, Judges, and Legal Committees brought him many honors and awards, including US Sail-ing’s prestigious Nathanael G. Herreshoff Trophy. In his lifetime, Hawkins served as a President of US Sailing, Commodore of Manhasset Bay Yacht Club, Storm Trysail Club and President of the Yacht Racing Association of Long Island Sound.

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. . . and a Final MessageJohn Muhlhausen

As we say good-bye to another sailing year, it is time for us to reflect how lucky were are to have such a wonderful place in paradise to gather and be surrounded by the love of our “lake family”. We are blessed.

As it invariably happens each year, it is also a time to bid farewell to current and past lake fam-ily members who have left us; Bill Reese (past commodore), Pem Williams (Club treasurer) and David Pontious (son of former commo-dore, Frank Pontious). As you gather around the tree with your loved ones this holiday season, re-member those of our lake family, who are facing health and personal challenges, and say a prayer for them.

As I say farewell to serving as editor of Scut-tlebutt, I once again express my deep apprecia-tion to Kitza Muhlhausen, for proofreading my work before permitting it to go out the door, Steve Guebert, for faithfully getting my digital efforts onto our web-site on a timely and profes-sional manner, and all my event and fleet report-ers (alias scribes), who have faithfully submitted articles and photographs that have documented 2015 so well. And finally, I would be remiss in not thanking you, the membership, for all your kind words about “the look” of Scuttlebutt. It has been a privilege and honor to serve as your editor these past five years. Peace be with you.

Recently MarriedLauren McLean and

Chris Mershon

Lauren is the daughter of Craig and Gayle McLean