by Capt. Flak » Sat Nov 23, 2013 11:03 am
David, I hosted a one-day fun regatta a few years back. I had poker chips in my pocket with the sail numbers of all the boats. At the end of each heat, I would pull out a chip and that would be the throwout for that skipper. I also had another pocket full of chips with sail numbers and I would pull one out and that was an instant bullet. There would be two first places for every heat and since we sailed as many heats as there were skippers, everyone got at least one bullet. For poor Gerhard Kelter, I pulled his chip both times he won, So he had to throw out a bullet and because he had won already, he did not get to have an extra free bullet. Too funny.
One other funny thing I did was I had a little air horn. I told the skippers that at some point during the day, I would blow the horn and no matter where the boats were on the course, they had to turn around and race back to the finish as fast as they could (no more going around marks). The mistake I made was we were sailing a triangle course and most all of the boats were going around the wing mark. It was pretty much the same distance back to the line for all of them and it was impossible for me to score them. I just gave everyone a bullet for that heat.
The event was a lot of fun for everyone. They really did seem to enjoy having a fun day of sailing with no real prizes on the line. I did have a really great door prize. My company gave me two club seat tickets to the Redskins vs Jaguars game on that Sunday.
Joe Walter #24
Class Secretary