Heavy Weather 2006: Reports

Heavy Weather Weekend at Bremerton Yacht Club in the Pacific Northwest kicked off with a Friday evening of wine tasting – perfect for some proper pre-racing attitude adjustment. Saturday started with continental breakfast in the clubhouse while the visiting club skit teams learned that “Sea Chanties” would be the theme for their skit performances to be performed that evening; each team then had the remainder of the day to create and fine-tune their thespian efforts in preparation for their evening performances. Saturday evening started with a social hour that preceded a great sit-down barbequed ribs dinner. Following dinner, four clubs presented their versions of “Sea Chanties”, which ranged from traditional to heavily stretched versions, all of which were wonderful entertainment. Queen City YC sang their way to first place and were awarded year-long custody of the “Rubber Clam Gun” trophy. Finally, a band took the stage and provided us with dance music for another several hours.

While Mother Nature may have opened her freezer to us for a few of the previous nights, race day Sunday dawned with clear, sunny skies and without any wind; so much for “heavy weather” again this year. Great day for predicted log racing in February. 34 entries defrosted out enough to get to Bremerton Yacht Club for the start of the race. The course of 17 miles took us on a tour of Sinclair Inlet plus a fixed throttle round trip through Rich Passage in pleasantly warming sunny weather and flat seas. All boats and crews returned by mid-afternoon, turned their contest logs and readied themselves for the evening’s festivities. At 1730 hours, the social (and story telling) hour commenced – also known as “dance” hour since it seems that IPBA racers will tap dance all around any question regarding their own scores since they are quite reluctant to divulge any of that info prior to the formal awards presentation. Race awards followed the sit-down dinner with Racemaster Leo Longenecker and BYC Commodore Charles Billings making the presentations.

Chuck Silvernail of host BYC led all finishers with 0.7609 %, followed by Dean Lentgis (1.5732%) and Bill Anderson (1.6479%), both from Queen City YC. Interestingly, both Chuck and Dean have previously won this race while this was Bill’s first time at Heavy Weather. Awards were also presented to the first three places in each of five classes and to the racers with the best score in each of seven legs; the novice trophy went to Bill Anderson of QCYC for the best score of all first-time participants in Heavy Weather. The traveling team trophy for the best score of the top four finishers from each participating club went to Bremerton YC.

Heavy Weather Weekend wrapped up Monday morning with a breakfast in the clubhouse and thanks being given to all who attended and helped make the four day celebration a resounding success.

(P/C Mike Henry)

Our wine experts were from Young's Columbia Wine Company from Renton; district manager Tod Nelson, and sales representative Kevin Gardner. After three wine tastings I have learned that wine has a very mystic quality, and the "wine tasting contest" proves that most of us can't tell the difference (when blind folded) between red wine and white wine. We had 10 contestants in the wine tasting contest, who each paid $6.00 for a chance to win the 5 liter bottle of fine Italian wine. After 4 rounds of intense competition, we had two final contestants that were tied with 50 points each. For the final round they had to pick between a cab and a merlot, and our very own Pam Smith came up on the loosing side. Linda Cole from Port Orchard Yacht Club was the winner.

I heard a lot of very positive responses about the wine tasting, and the event went very smoothly. I had hoped for another 40 people to attend, but it was a great kick-off to the weekend. We had a positive cash flow - which was due to some great raffle items, and PC Mark Miller's presentation and sales.

Nancy and I want to thank all of the committee members (Sam & Barb Throm, Keith Hallman, Ray & Sharon Baker, Mark & Roxanne Miller, Laurie VonRuden, Silvia Nelson, Leo Longnecker & Stacy Neil, and John & Marilyn Adair) for their help.

We hope that you all feel as we do - it was a lot of work, but we had fun at the same time.

Thank you one and all for your help and attendance.

(Capt Andy Kupp)