2008 Wrap-up

Well, another sailing season has come and gone.

This year we had seven regattas. The Chico Classic had disappointing wind again, but there's some fresh blood in the regatta management, and renewed enthusiasm for this event. This year the infamous raffle was back with some great prizes donated by A Main Hobbies. Next year the regatta date will be moved up a couple of weeks, which should give us a better chance of some wind.

This was the second year that we went to Scott's Flat for the "Go For The Gold" Regatta, hosted by the Gold Country Yacht Club. This year the wind was strong but rather shifty, giving good double-trap rides but punishing severely boats that picked the wrong side of the course.

Our third regatta of the season was The Commodore's Classic at Huntington Lake. In addition to the cats, we had some great turnout from the Wylie Wabbit and Moore 24 fleets. The wind as always was just about perfect. Martin from Maui Jim gave out some great prizes - 12 pairs of high-end sunglasses - 10 as trophies and two through random drawing as well as 5 silk hawiian shirts.

The wind showed up again at our next event, the Firecracker hosted by the Klamath Yacht Club. Along with the wind came a great social scene at the club bar, and more blue-green algae than you can shake a hiking-stick at.

Our string of wind-luck ran out at Eagle Lake. But we did all get a chance to visit with Marvin Peltier, our good friend and long-time MHRA member. The Eagle Lake Regatta was an event that Marv always looked forward to all year. Whenever he'd start a new job (and he had to often as he was in the residential construction trade), one of his conditions was that he get a full week of vacation around the date of Eagle Lake. Marv passed on September 15, after a long battle with lung cancer. He was in a great deal of pain when he visited us at Eagle Lake, but he didn't let that stop him.

After Eagle Lake came the Silver State Classic. Due to low water conditions at Washoe Lake, we moved this event to Pyramid Lake. As this is the first time we've run an event at Pyramid Lake (at least in living memory) we kept it quite informal. We did a 20 mile distance "race" on Saturday, and some fun sailing on Sunday. On both days the wind didn't pick up until a little after noon, but when it did the wind was quite decent - single-trap conditions (maybe 6-10 knots) and rather steady. We also got a little full-moon night sailing in on Saturday night. I think everyone was quite pleased with the venue, and next year we plan on making this a serious regatta.

Our final event of the season was Bodega Bay. This year we had very big swells and big wind, so the racing was kept to inside the bay.

Final 2008 Series Winners:

• Division 1

  1. Mike Peavy and Jody Christopherson

  2. Peter Schmalzer and Travis Thompson

  3. Jason Smith and Paul Thurman

• Division 2

  1. Mark Forwalter

  2. Pam Simonson

  3. Jay Gardner

The 2008 Business Meeting was held on November 15 in Chico, with a reception at Jason and Christina Smith's house in Paradise. The attendees agreed on the following event schedule for 2009:

• Black Butte: April 18-19

• Scotts Flat (GCYC): June 6-7

• Commodore's: June 20-21

• Firecracker (KYC): July 4-5

• Eagle Lake: July 11-12

• Silver State: August 15-16

• Totally Dinghy (RYC): September 19-20

• Bodega Bay: October 3-4

The "Totally Dinghy" Regatta, hosted by the Richmond Yacht Club, is a new event to the MHRA schedule. However, MHRA members have attended this regatta in the past, and we'll pass on information from them about this event in the near future.

The following members were elected to serve as officers for the 2009 season:

• Commodore: Jason Smith

• Treasurer: Marco Vailetti

• Scorekeeper: Travis Thompson

• Membership: Christina Smith

Meeting minutes, including financial statements, have been sent to all MHRA members. If you have any complaints, especially complaints about this website, but also complaints about life in general, please contact Jason Smith.