RESULTS OF SERIES RACING - 1978

SUNDAY SERIES

WEDNESDAY NIGHT SERIES


PARTING SHOTS ON 1978 ACTIVITIES

Certain years in the history of the Valcour Sailing Club can, in retrospect, be recognized as 'water-shed' years for the changes and new directions that occurred in the Club. 1978 was certainly a landmark year in many respects. As the record indicates, most prominent was the move to the PHRF handicap system of rating which remains the standard today [1987] for both the LCRC and the VSC. That year also marks the first running of the Mayor's Cup Race which has been described by many as Lake Champlain's premier race in terms of its participation and prestige. The racing schedule had evolved from the weekly Saturday Knockabout/Snipe races of 1966 into a full schedule of Club and LCRC races that is recognizable in format to the new member today. All of the Special Event Races, except the Peter Eisinger Memorial Cup Race - added in 1980, had established traditions. The Sunday and Wednesday Series were the norm.

In the LCRC, the Valcour had long been the opening race of it's series, with the Ile St. Michel added in 1975. By 1978, VSC boats were competing and winning LCRC races in all classes except Class A. VSC members were not only active in LCRC activites, they were at the very core of its planning and administration. One needs merely to examine the record to see what members guided the Valcour Sailing Club to the mature on-going institution it is today. Essentially, the die had been cast by 1978. The pattern of yearly activities in the Valcour Sailing Club would be refined as new faces and new ideas came to the forefront. But tradition was the greatest force.

There are a few activities of the Valcour Sailing Club which, in 1978, continued to defy lasting solution. The business of the committe boat, while attacked in many innovative ways down the years, seemed to resist effective solution over several seasons. The perennial search for a shoreside facility, with which to focus social activities, was illusive. And the question of a boardboat/Jr. Sailing Program, while attempted several times, again proved to be linked to the enthusiasm of just a few active members for just a season or two. Even today, these three areas of Club interest resist incorporation into the long-term traditions and efforts of the Club. One aspect of the Valcour Sailing Club seems clear. If all of its members are dedicated sailors, there is little human inventory left over to address concerns that do not involve on-the-water activities. The inclusion of power boaters, as was the case when the VSC was the sailing group within the Plattsburgh Yacht Club, would provide a broader base of interested members with which broader objectives could be addressed. It would appear that our sister club in Shelburne, with about a century of tradition, includes a greater diversity of people with an interest in marine recreation. Having members with a thirty to forty foot power boat extends the realm of possibilities.


LATE WINTER AND SPRING ACTIVITIES IN THE VSC

Winter can seem like an eternity to the avid sailor; watching the ice go out of Lake Champlain is a favorite spectator sport for those living near the Lake. Down through the years there are many examples, in the records of the VSC, of efforts to ease the burden of not having the boat in the water. One example of this is a reference to a "mid-winter picnic" in the VSC Bulletin of February 8, 1981.


GREETINGS TO ALL!!!

Spring, believe it or not, is just six weeks away, and VSC is celebrating with its first-ever Mid-Winter Picnic Sunday, February 22nd at David and Mimi McDowell's home. Time is 1:00 pm. Come by foot, car, snowmobile, or iceboat. Fun for all - skating, cross-country skiing, broomball, fantasizing about windshifts, whatever ... Plenty of food, including fresh Clam Chowder, and enough anti-freeze to cure any worries. Soda for the kids, too. Everybody welcome; bring new members..... Cheers - hope to see everyone at the party ... Tim Byrne, Secretary

And from a VSC Bulletin of February 1983, is this invitation to ease the woes of cabin fever in the North Country.

WINTER FROLICS (at the) Walling Homestead - Cross-country skiing, hot tub, video games, music, frivolity, and fun for the entire family! Bring skiis, games, and whatever you need to entertain yourself and others (Yes, David - that means bagpipe music). A meal will be provided (if it's not your mother .... it must be Bob) at a meager fee of $5 per adult, children free! The fun begins at three and will last until the bell tolls for you. Please let the Rear and Mrs. know if you are coming and how many of "youse" there be ....

Included in the foregoing announcement was a map with detailed directions for the chart-reading skippers and crews that included a partial section of Lake Champlain; reference to Garden Island included this 'Notice to Mariners:' "Take Note Tom, if you end up here you've gone the wrong way!" What an excellent source of information all this could provide for a Valcour Sailing Club trivia game: Who was the "Bob" doing the cooking at the Winter Frolics of 1983? What is the story behind "Tom" and Garden Island? What is another name for Day Point? (answer: Bag Pipe Villa). For whom did the bell last toll? (answer: only the Rear & Mrs know the answer to that one.) Anyone for trivia?

Apparently, the Winter Frolic in February did not satiate members appetites for diversion from what must have been a long winter that year. On April 1st, Roger Patnode advised the members in a VSC Bulletin that:

The ice is out, the days are longer, and the urge to launch returns. An exciting sailing season is taking shape as the racing, cruising, and party schedule gets set. .... On April 16 at 8 pm "SHOWBOAT" will take place at Howard Johnson's. This will be a night of entertainment, dancing, frolic, and fun with a fashion show, drawing for a Patrica Reynolds' painting, cash bar, and hors d'oeuvres to benefit the YMCA.


LE SACRE DU PRINTEMPS

There is a certain "ritual of spring" evident in many late winter and early spring Bulletins of the VSC. To the casual reader, they may not seem immediately evident. But if one reads many years of Bulletins in a short time, the pattern becomes clear. There are forces of nature afoot in the North Country as the vernal equinox approaches - forces that are only now becoming better understood for the effects they may have on the sailor's subconscious mind. While not overtly documented in VSC records, patterns nevertheless emerge, and seem to approach a crescendo by about April First. For example, these.

Notice that frolicking is traditional in the Valcour Sailing Club; there are winter frolics, spring frolics, and a few fall frolics. But not so much frolicking in the summer, according to the records. All in all, the VSC sailors are a rather frolicsome group, especially when their boats are not in the water. The best place to frolic during the off-season is on one's boat, mounted, in one's cradle of course; but the off-season weather being what it is in the North Country, one usually has to do their frolicking at someone's home, or some other warm place. Regardless of all this, it is untrue that sailors of the Valcour Sailing Club would rather frolic than sail. Frolicking just seems to be the next best alternative.

Another tradition in the Club is that of the Commodore, or the Secretary, or whoever is writing the Bulletins, to properly advise each member, no latter than April 1st, that the "days are getting longer." This seems to be the key stimulant in awakening sailors from their long winter of frolicking and serves to remind them of the need to start their bottom preparation. One can only imagine how late the sailing season would be if this ritual was not kept. One ancillary piece of information, that "the ice is out", or some advisory to that effect, is also provided; but there seems to be no compelling evidence that this adds any impetus above and beyond being advised of the lengthening days.
[RdF - actually, a better stimulus is to visit your favorite competitor at his place of business, preferably at his busiest time - say when he's doing his taxes, and ever so casually mention that your new suit of mylar/kevlar sails are almost finished, and the boatyard is doing a really great job in fairing your keel and spraying your new bottom paint. If he hasn't done anything about boat preparation yet, that is bound to get him thinking about it. For really difficult situations, you can add a muffled reference to that additional tweleve seconds the handicappers have finally given you, as you walk out. Any skipper who does not respond to that kind of stimulant is not going to be a threat to anyone out on the course, come summer.]

Another tradition in the Valcour Sailing Club, usually evident in the brochures handed out each spring to encourage members to pay their dues early, and recruit new members, is a reference to lower dues for "non-boat owners." Not ever having been advised that I owned a "non-boat", I have never taken the opportunity to pay less. But after much reflection on the sailing characteristics of my first sailboat, I am now convinced that that lower rate must have applied to people like me. The current Club Treasurer advises, however, that overpaid dues are not refundable for previous years. Since it usually takes skippers a year or so to discover that they are owners of a non-boat, the VSC has not lost any money to irate skippers asking for a refund. But if anyone ever comes up with a firm definition for a non-boat, like one that rates 219 sec/mi but sails more like 360, we surely will have to rethink the dues structure for non-boat owners.


RESULTS OF SERIES RACING - 1979-1982