2005 Season Summary
by Michael Ehnis

Club Racing Results

Flying Scot  Interlake  Laser  MC Scow  Sunfish

Regattas

Flying Scot Districts  No Sweat  Hot-to-Trot  Hot Scot

Photos

Annual Dinner  Crystal Ball  Fall Color Tour  Flying Scot Districts  Progressive Dinner  Recognition Awards  Whirlyball

The 2005 season proved to be one of the most interesting and most challenging in the clubs history. It will be forever remembered as the year with plenty of hot weather, which meant plenty of light air (maybe a little too much) and as the year Fritz Wagner PYC Quartermaster, laid awake many nights praying that the Service and Committee boats engines would be running on race day. Eventually one of his prayers was answered as the BOG approved the funds (pass Kirsten the smelling salts please) to purchase a brand new spanking four cylinder black beauty. With all that power under the hood maybe the sailors will do some “tubing” on those light air days.

The 2005 season will also be remembered as a year of change in terms of member participation. After the 2004 season, a few stalwarts of the program decided to hang-up their sailing shoes as life was steering them in another direction. It was little strange not seeing Dick Barker, Don Thiel, Gordon Reeve, and John Hubbel out sailing with us and socializing afterwards. By late July we said goodbye to Greg Schymik who was off to Arizona (you know it’s a dry heat out there but we are not so certain about the sailing) to further his education. In early August Ib sold his boat (fortunately the Turtle 2 is still in the marina) ending over 35 consecutive years of racing at PYC. Fortunately, we gained back one member from years gone by, Robbie Babcock, who purchased #1010, Dick Barker's old boat. Somehow, however, one could sense that he was still longing for #1037 (seems to prove the old point that you never forget your first true love).

The season started with the Race Committee meeting to set this year's schedule. Like the season before, there was discussion about the weekend racing day(as there has been for the past umpteen years). After some thoughtful debate it was decided that half the season would be sailed on Saturday's (May and June) and the other half on Sunday's (July, August and September). Though neither weekend fleets were totally thrilled with this arrangement, it was a good compromise that generally made everyone happy.

Though “heavy air” was in short supply for most of the season, when it did blow (to the author’s delight), there were some interesting developments on the water which always make for good copy. Unfortunately there aren’t pictures to document (some may say incriminate) these moments, thus a written description will have to do.

Things got rolling on the first Tuesday night race as Race Committee Chair Colleen Hughes in her first ever race in the MC Scow, quickly found herself testing the cool spring waters prior to the start. Consequently, she spent the evening trying to right the ship with the help of the Cathey’s and their floatboat (with Felecia forcibly directing traffic). It eventually took our Superman of the moment, a.k.a. Jack Coleman, to jump in and boldly brave the frigid conditions for the ride back to Colleen’s home in her submerged vessel.

It wasn’t too long after all the Tuesday excitement that there was “tip-over” Saturday, May 28. With the wind howling and boats planning, two Interlake sailors could also say, “we were swimming” as Jack Coleman/#1286 and Tom Ehman/#1318 found themselves over in the second race of the day. To add insult to injury a faulty pump left each to bail a small amount of water from their boats.

It should be noted, thats so rarely does one find #1318 with it’s bottom showing, that the author decided to get the scoop from the crew, Christine Erdmann, as to the events which lead to this peculiar situation. In her honest opinion, it was a combination of things that conspired (the author’s adjective) together at one moment creating their impending predicament. First, she admitted that her technique for flying the chute was flawed as she wrapped the leeward sheet around the hand thus not allowing her to ease the sail at the key moment. Also she noted that at the time, the skipper of #1318 was being a wee bit aggressive (which the author just cannot fantom). There is nothing like breaking in a new crew.

The late May excitement was followed up two months later on July 24 with “tip-over” Sunday. This time two Scot sailors, Andy Ingall and Jack White decided to clean out their cockpits. Both had issues at the downwind pin located at the North end of the lake. Andy just plain tipped over in a gust while Jack somehow found a way to fall out of the boat leaving his crews with too much wind to keep the boat upright (BTW – the skipper of IL #1318 also did the same trick earlier in the race). It was an expensive lesson for Andy as his spinnaker took a trip to Davey Jones's locker. If trying to right the boat wasn’t enough, Andy also had to deal with an inexperienced Laser sailor and his wife who were asking for rigging assistance during the entire affair. Whatever happened to good old fashion etiquette and letting one tip over in peace?

The July 24 race also should be noted for a couple of other things. First, the Interlake race turned out to be a dandy between Clark Chapin and Steve Wiseman. Clark lead for all but the last 200 yards as Steve and his crew, wife Pam and Colleen Hughes, pulled it out at the end. This will also be remembered as the day that the second race was cancelled after a very contentious drawn out RC meeting which left one member suggesting we may want to rename our club something like “the woosies sailing club”. (The author tends to think this might be a little extreme, but he does tend to agree that there is a propensity for the club as a whole to start thinking about canceling when the wind starts to blow.)

2005 was the season that PYC hosted another big event: The Rebel Nationals. PYC’s own Kirsten Petro took to the water in the junior event. Playing the part of a damsel in distress, she was able to coax Bill O’Donnel and Brian Hawkins into helping her put a beat-up, vang-less hull together at the 11th hour. No one including the skipper herself seem to remember her finishing position (though we know she wasn’t the caboose). Kirsten did however, represent the club well in spite of some obvious handicaps.

For the main event, PRO Tom Ehman and his crew of club members' dealt with the light conditions and got off several quality races. It became fairly obvious, however, that some of the competitors had a slightly different opinion of the PRO after race #3 and of a corresponding course change made during that race. Let’s just say that from this casual observers vantage point, reading the sailing instructions wasn’t high on the most of the competitors lists. It was quite interesting to hear Gordon Chapin radio in, “We have one boat who went around the mark the wrong way.” He then proceeded to call another and another. It was just like the Pied Piper. In all, 12 skippers shot themselves in the foot by taking the marks the wrong way.

What ensued afterwards was quite humorous. Feeling they were “wronged”, all 12 skippers decided to protest the race committee. From all reports there was plenty of grumbling in the park afterwards with some people threatening to pack it in. It was up to Dick Barker, Brook Smith and Clark Chapin to determine the validity of the arguments put forth by this group. The only thing missing at the protest table was the box of Kleenex that the judges should have been handing out as they heard tale after tale of woe. Despite the sailors vociferous assertions (F. Leeward Bailer Speak) and objections to the management's change of course, their protest fell on deaf ears as the judges disqualified all those who were in error.

It was a good year for traveling as several members took to the road to fine-tune their skills by sailing at different venues. Some of the highlights included four skippers from the Interlake fleet (Chapin, Smyk, Cathey, & Coleman) venturing to Indianapolis for the Interlake Nationals. Somehow they survived some very, very light air. And, our club was very proud of Ann Taylor as she captured the Women’s National Championship. It should also be noted that Ann’s job took her to the South after Hurricane Katrina as she helped many people who displaced by the storm.

If it wasn’t enough the first time around, the same group plus Tom Ehman, packed up and returned the first weekend in October for the Poltergeist to try their luck again on the reservoir. It seemed that the wind made some mark roundings interesting especially for Jack and Ann who approached a mark with the crew reminding the skipper not to hit it. Of course after many assurances by the skipper, that is what occurred, thereby touching off some typical banter which all of us can relate to. As far as finishes, if it were not for a lackluster showing in race #1, Tom Ehman may have been knocking on the door to victory raather than placing a very respectable 6th in the twenty-some boat field.

From the Laser fleet, Jim Meyer easily was the lone representative of all the small boat sailors to try his luck off the lake except for the Leland regatta where fellow member Jim Sundstrum joined him. Jim’s stops and accomplishments included Lansing (4th of 13), Barton (2nd of 15), Leland (2nd of 29), the District Championship in Traverse City (7th of 25 – 1st in age group and Pontiac (8 of 25).

The Flying Scot fleet took two consecutive weekends in August to attend the Districts at DYC and the annual Crystal Ball. The DYC event held Aug 6-7 will be remembered for the long tow to the starting line, the incredibly short races on Saturday, porta-potties lacking hand washing equipment, the sounds of heavy base booming from car stereos as you drove around Belle Isle (and lots of trash too) and of course the loooooonggggggg, hot sail back from the race course Sunday afternoon. Congratulations to Brian Hawkins for capturing 3rd place and giving Paul Lee (2nd place) a run for his money.

The Crystal Ball, the following week was a also celebration of fleet captain Todd Moore’s 40th Birthday. The old man celebrated with all of us in the conference room at Mayfield's (the PYC spot for the second year in a row) on Saturday night. The party included plenty of food including pizza along with a couple of great social activities including card games and the “green room” word game that drove engineering minds like Brian Hawkins and Ela Sliwerska crazy. As for the racing, Brian & Suzy Hawkins (3rd) and Jim & Marie Davis (2nd) showed the PYC strength in the 14 boat field.

One of the best efforts of the year came in mid-July as a contingent of sailors from all fleets trekked over to the first annual Orchard Lake Challenge Cup put together by its wonderful host Mark Fries and his "little known" brother Derrick. In addition to the host club, other clubs participating included Pontiac, and Lake Lansing. Sailing in Lasers were Colleen Hughes, Roy Toth, and Andy Nixon. In the multi-handed division sailing in OLCC “Y’s” were Commodore Bill O’Donnel, Fritz Wagner, Tom Ehman, Jack Coleman, Ann Taylor, and Tyler and Felicia Cathey This became more or less a “hurry up and wait” event as storms invaded the area throughout the day. At one point the club lost power. This didn’t seem to distract the team from the task at hand as they acquitted themselves quite nicely by winning the event and the trophy.

September was once again regatta month as the No Sweat, Hot to Trot and Michigan Hot Scot were all successfully run and attended.

The annual dinner concluded the season on Saturday November 5. The evening had a couple of highlights. After a very good meal by the PYC kitchen and chef Brian Huff, Commodore Bill O’Donnel introduced the PYC cheerleading team featuring Suzy Hawkins, Suzanne Moore, Marj O’Donnel , Beth Ingall and the author. Hatched on the fall color tour, this wily group came complete with uniforms, pom-poms, and that teenage spirit (somewhat fueled by the spirits of the glass beforehand). Cheers included Give me a P, give me a Y, Give me a C what’s it spell; Pull the centerboard, clear the weeds, give your boat lots more speed; and everyone’s favorite Starboard, Starboard, You have no rights - - PROTEST (complete with red flags positioned on each members stern). Next season the team will hold try outs with the goal being to successfully build a pyramid.

This years recognition awards were highlighted by the two first time occurrences. The Sailor of the Year was given to Both Brian Hawkins and Bill O’Donnel. Both were very deserving based not only because of their respective on water successes, but also with how they promoted the club and demonstrated true sportsmanship all season long. The other notable thing about this evening was the absence of the Broken Rudder award (to the glee of Tom Ehman). How dare no one from this club step up and derogate this clubs reputation with moments of clumsiness and boneheaded actions!! It pains the author that he cannot relate and report one certain funny mishap. Will the annual dinner survive if this headliner is not given out in the future?

Also noteworthy was the recognition of Tom Ehman with the Thomas Lott award for all the things he does to help the racing program, especially behind the scenes. Tom also was recognized with the Chapin coaching award as he maintained his competitive edge in the standings while going through the trials and tribulations of breaking in new crew.

2005 was a fun year, with much group spirit and comradery. We look forward to much of the same in 2006.