The legend of the McCree light air wizardry continues, move over Harry Potter

Beautiful fall afternoon, light air, no sailing on Saturday although we launched and drifted around for a while before giving up.  We enjoyed idle time on the lawn, napping in the camp chairs for me, football, euchre and other games of skill for team’s 313-B, Ninjas, and Wylie E. Coyote.  The highlight was Bache “glow” ball in the volleyball pit, although Amy was a little disappointed to not find the volleyball, that’s always in the van, until Sunday morning.  Great weekend for golf, Dan Norton and other Sunfishes got in a round after Saturdays abandonment, but I forgot to remind Dave to bring his clubs.

Dinner at the club for most of us, our table went for the prime rib but there were plenty other fine selections.  Becca and Amy and Jacqueline and Chris Snyder’s kids hit the dance floor well into the evening, Dave and I watched the MSU loss to Notre Dame.  Good conversation with our host, Bill Rogge, former NCYC and DLYC commodore, about the role of food service, live bands, sailing programs and social memberships in overall yacht club membership happiness, and a little idle talk about fielding nominations for next year’s District officers. 

Sunday brought a light SW 2-5, PRO Merrill Bales went with distance over accuracy, so the course had a lot of port going up and starboard coming back, and weed beds which meant board management as high as knuckle, and easing jib to telltales when we couldn’t steer the lift, and flopping onto port tack early as we could.  Lost track of the leeward mark in the first race and sailed a few boat-lengths too far.  Otherwise, uneventful sailing in the drift-a-thon, with three wins for us, which ended the George Sipel regatta win streak at 3-in-a-row.  Trey Rose won the coveted Bruce Goldsmith “colorful” award for style points; Kevin Morin won mid-fleet; and the “good enough for who it’s for” award was held till next year, due to lack of candidate/nomination.

Dave Laidlaw drove the tractor for the boat haul that took a little longer than usual because the lake was down a foot, but it was a pleasant afternoon for boat packing and chatting amongst friends, and a few of us had a distant flashback to the Tawas Beach Club regatta years, so everyone was fine with that.  Brad and I stopped at Lansing for late afternoon lunch with Larry Koster from Lake Lansing. He dropped in because he saw a Lightning in a parking lot.  Along the way, a little conversation about the magic of Bruce Goldsmith, who was a friend to so many; and the true meaning of “Send in the Clowns”. 

Representing fleet 216: Terry Hart, Leland Hart, Amy Abramczyk on HartBeat; John McCree, Dave Corcoran, Becca Brown on Horse w No Name

Respectfully Submitted: David Corcoran

2012 Champions (Pictured left to right) Becca Brown, Dave Corcoran, John McCree