A one-race regatta is still a regatta! Hats off to the race committee at Lake Norman who managed to squeeze a race in invery, very light conditions yesterday. Thekey was to find pressure, and some people found it on the right, while others found it on the left. The race was shortened just in time as the water turned glassy and everyone was then towed in. This morning we all floated around,visiting between boats, having a grand old time, as the race committee tried hard to conjure up some wind. But there is no way to pull off a race if the weather gods do not cooperate, so after almost two hours everyone got towed back in and the regatta was over.
I don't have the standings in front of me; we'll have to post them when we get home. Right now we're on the road and we have stopped for our quasi-traditional, post-regatta steak dinner at Texas Steakhouse. Even this place has wi-fi, which is just crazy!
The Case of the Wandering Traveling Trophy
Trophies were given five deep in both the Championship and the Challenger fleets. In addition, being a nationally sanctioned race, there were two traveling trophies awarded, one of which was for the highest finishing couple for whom this was their first Wife-Husband.
The awards committee, helped by Carol Claypool, first tried to give it to the second-place boat, but they demurred, saying they'd attended a Wife-Husband a few years ago. At that point, the committee worked its way down the list, landing at a boat that had finished a few places behind us. But this being our first Wife-Husband, I thought we might be the winners. So I slunk up to the front, in full view of everyone, of course, to whisper in Carol's ear that we, in fact, had finished higher and this was our first Wife-Husband. I went back to my seat just as they announced their mistake. Ben and I happily went to the front to humbly accept our award. Then, in the midst of awarding the other trophies, Carol came back to us and mentioned that, in fact, John Wake and his wife, Sharon, who finished fourth just ahead of us (he got us by about half a boat length!), also had never done a Wife-Husband before! So there you have it, after being almost awarded to three different boats, the trophy finally landed in the right spot! Hurray, John and Sharon!
John and Sharon also win Ben's award for "coolest boat-name and t-shirt combination." Their boat, Lucky Dog, had a great cartoon graphic and then John and Sharon wore shirts with fire hydrants on the back!
The high point of the trophies, I thought, was Carla Vitez's short speech when she and her husband, Larry, won the first-place trophy. She talked about what a great marriage builder sailing the Flying Scot was. Partly, she said, because it taught them to work together, partly because they were always learning new things (in Larry's case, it was learning patience instead of yelling "pull the green rope, the green rope!" which earned a big, understanding laugh from the crowd) and finally the opportunity to sail with so many lovely people, at which point she listed many couples from Lake Norman and elsewhere whose friendship she had enjoyed over the years. That was quite a fitting tribute to the class and was received with a warm round of applause from the gathered sailors. After that, the awards were over, everyone hit the road. Between leaving Charlotte and stopping for dinner, we passed two other Flying Scots heading north on the highway (one with Vermont tags, that's a long drive!), which always gives me a little thrill.
Next year's Wife-Husband will be in the Midwest District, at Delavan Yacht Club, which we are really looking forward to.
