Practice Race (Saturday)
Carter Utzig
Some would ask: “Was the 17 hour drive worth it?”
Yes!
We were met at the gate by a team of people who unhooked,
unbagged and did all the measurements at record speed for us (valet service).
One of the best run measurement/registrations I’ve ever seen.
This place is beautiful! A cool (I left Charlotte at
100+degrees), nice little breeze moved us around the practice race.
Practice race is a good name for it.
Not because my crew needed a refresher but its skipper (me) did.
There are 101 boats here.
Lots of old friends to see and visit with (and
unfortunately one special one whom we lost).
Oh! The practice race. Yeah.
I am supposed to write about the race.
We sailed out 3 hours early to the main part of the lake and were
engulfed by the green rolling mountains.
On the way out, we made a number of new friends in cruising
boats who sailed up to say hi and to wish us luck. Of course we need luck, so we were very happy to collect all
this new luck for later use.
The race, oh yes. It
appeared that everyone was entranced by the same things we were.
Lots of competitors passed by the racecourse and sailed off into the
lake, this meant that the practice race started late.
Who cares- this is Vermont. Anything
is fine with us. We had meshed with
the local culture.
The race started with 5 knots of breeze and good shifts to
mix it up. We met some nice people at mark roundings. Then we finished.
I don’t remember anymore, since it was a practice race and we were just
really happy to be here.
Officially (or unofficially, since the race didn’t really
count), the results were:
Odd Group:
1 Tom Allen Jr.
2 Tito Gonzalez
3 Jed Dodge
4 Michael Huffman
5 Ched Proctor
6 David Peck
7 Bill Cabrall
8 Judy Hanlon
9 Craig Cobbum
10 Gary Hurban
11 Jon Guth
12 Patrick Gallagher
13 Mike Breault
14 Dave Gorman
15 Carter Utzig
16 Patrick Zachary
17 Al Boucher
18 Neil Hayes
19 Dick Moyer
20 Steve Davis
21 Paul LoGerfo
22 Clarence Johnson
23 Georges Peter
24 Ben Wallace
25 Jim Bigham
26 Ernesto Martinez
27 Eric Cutting
28 Bob Sengstacken
29 Sterling Bush
30 Joe Ray
31 Brad Wagnon
Even Group:
1 George Fisher
2 Franz Edson
3 Jamie Brickell
4 Carl Muska
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