2007 SEASON SUMMARY HOME ANNUAL DINNER

PHOTOS: HIGHLIGHTS RECOGNITION AWARDS

Annual Dinner

This year’s event was held Saturday November 3 which coincided with the 100th anniversary of Michigan – Michigan State football game leaving some sailors with the dilemma of trying to figure out whether to make the social hour or not. Hard core fans like Jack Coleman and yours truly passed on the food and drink, electing to wait it out and home watching Michigan pull out a sensational come from behind victory 28-24.

With the game out of the way, the evening’s dinner and awards took center stage. Dominating the awards were the Hawkins and Davis clans. Brian (with the help of Bill O’Donnel) was recognized for his efforts in putting together and coordinating the revival of the junior racing program on Tuesday evenings with the Chapin Coaching Award. Son Sam was voted as the Most Promising Beginner. Andrew Davis was recognized as the most Outstanding Junior as he not only won the junior division but he also was also successful skippering Flying Scot 784 on the weekends as well as crewed for Fritz on Thursday nights. Rounding out the family awards was his father Jim who was recognized with the Sportsmanship Award.

Other awards highlights included Greg Harrison being recognized as the Most Improved, a remarkable feat considering this being he and Elona’s first year of racing. Their many hours of practicing on non race days paid off as they moved from being the caboose at the start of the season to winning a race during the Commodres Cup and putting some heat on the fleet stalwarts. Michele Smyk took the honor of Outstanding Crew while Tyler Cathey was presented the Thomas Lott Award for his many contributions which included organizing the Friday night introduction to sailing, assisting in organizing the Hot to Trot as well as filling in and sacrificing race time to do race management when someone missed their assignment. Brook Smith was voted Sailor of the Year for his accomplishments that included winning the Gold series, placing second in a tightly contested Silver series as well as finishing second in a very competitive off-lake regatta at Clark Lake.

The final presentation of the evening, and always the most anticipated was the Broken Rudder. This year’s recipient, Suzanne Moore had no challengers to the thrown. As the author remembers, it was early May and it was fairly windy (15-20) blowing out of the East. The first of two races had just been completed and Suzanne was piloting 2397 for the first time with crew Colleen Scoville. Like all the participants they headed for the club during the intermission. The author, who had gotten in ahead of 2397 was walking down the dock when he heard a big crunching sound. He remembers it sounding as though a bunch of kindling was being thrown on a wood pile and thinking “That sure didn’t sound too good”.

So what really happened? Apparently, our new skipper on her approach to (in her terms) “park her boat” and seeking advice from her crew (who didn’t have any), lost control and rounded up going full speed into the stub dock of none other than Mr. Interlake himself Tom Ehman. Fortunately for Tom he had that “mote” protecting his precious pea or this “hole” incident could have been a lot uglier. Instead, we had a scene reminiscent of London Bridge Falling Down. To her credit and the respect of every sailor in the club, Mrs. Moore didn’t let this small incident deter her from going back out racing like many new skippers might have. She quickly forgot about it and sailed competitively the rest of the season.