Race News
by Ron Roberts

The Mid-Winters are upon us! Sailors against Mother Nature once again. As usual, Mother Nature won. Yes, in spite of the fine work of the Race Committee under the direction of Staff Commodore Mark Thompson, we hurried up to race with no where to go. We had a fine start both days, but the wind pooped out. One of the most essential pieces of sailing equipment needed for the first weekend’s races was the anchor. I spoke to one sailor on Sunday who said he had to use his anchor five different times and still never made it around the mark!

All in all, we had less than half the boats finish each day. In some cases whole divisions never got one boat to the finish.

Fortunately, with the help of Chef Ian, we had a better that usual racers dinner. The racers were much impressed with the two carving stations with roast beef and turkey.

Dinner was followed by the Rock & Roll sounds of the Contra Costa All-Stars! You should have seen everyone on the dance floor. The first set was monopolized by the youngsters. Moms and Dads and kids and sailors were all strutting their stuff together. For the last two sets the band really started to roll. The dancers kept dancing and the band picked up the pace. The dance floor was still jumping when it was time for the band to go.

Special thanks go out to all the volunteers who made the weekend a big success. We were served by some of the old guard along with a new group of race committee helpers. Frankly, with this being my first regatta, I must say how impressed I was with everyone’s efforts and good will.

Special thanks to Matthew Gorton for his excellent work on the water setting marks and his commitment to the computer. New Member, Tara Nickerson, worked above and beyond the call of duty with the new race program. She spent hours and hours inside the race committee office and rarely saw the light of day. John Bundschuh came through with a video camera and we had video of the starts for the racers to view at the end of each day. Torild Roberts was a great success with new Mid-Winter Regatta sweats and t-shirts. The Corinthian Women were involved, as usual. They opened the club store each day and sales were brisk.

Apart from the lack of wind, everything went fine. Now we’re waiting for the double whammy of wind for next time!

Don’t forget, the next and final weekend of the Mid-Winters is February 17 & 18. With as many boats as didn’t finish, there’s still plenty of room for competition. New entries are being offered a reduced entry fee of only $25.00! So, come one, come all, to the second half of the Mid-Winter Regatta. I look forward to seeing you there.

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