Hear Ye, Hear Ye… Due to the fact that I have been drafted, pressed, shanghaied, coerced, etc. into being this years Race Committee Chairman by our Illustrious, and obviously a little deranged, Fearless Leader and Commodore; Ken Griffin, I am pleased to announce the “First Annual – First of the Year Racing, Drinking and Spaghetti Eating Bacchanalia Throwdown Regatta”. (Here-after known as “the Event” cause I ain’t that good a typist!) Weather and wind permitting, this will be a two day event. On Saturday, the 29th of January, we will have a series of short around the buoy’ races. Skippers meeting to be held at 1200 hours (noon) with racing to commence at 1300 hours (1:00 pm), followed immediately by the traditional swearing, screaming, rail-rubbing, laughing, hollering and general mayhem. Upon completion of as many races as we can possibly get in without the Race Committee being lynched, shot or strung up from their own yardarm, the intrepid mariners will retire to the veranda of the OSYC Clubhouse for the traditional “Imbibing of ye Adult Beverages” and ye “Telling of Tall Tales”. This, in turn, will be followed by the First Annual “Cumma Stuffa You Face Widda Summa Wunnuful Pasta”. The timing of this event will be determined by how long it takes to marinate our Fabulous Chef-in-Residence, Mr. Ken Griffin, Esq. in a provocative sauce of diet Sprite and Seagrams VO. Hopefully sometime between 1800 hrs (6:00 pm) and 2200 hrs (10:00 pm). (that’s meant to be funny…we will shoot for dinner at 6:00 pm…right Ken?) Sunday’s racing will be reverse start races, (if I can find someone that can do the math and has the formula…like Bill Lewis or Carl Saylor, HINT, HINT!) over a “to be announced” course. Due to the fact that we do have some civilized, non-heathen members that participate in religious observances, the Skippers Meeting will be held at 1300 hrs (1:00 pm) and racing to commence at 1400 hrs (2:00 pm). This should make it easier for those who might be a little indisposed due to overindulgence of the previous days “Imbibing of ye Adult Beverages” to have some additional sobering time. The drinkin’ and lyin’ will pretty much stay the same. Sadly, there will be no trophies given out due to the exorbitant cost of having the event name engraved. However, I promise to give everyone that finishes a beer! All those who would like to attend, please RSVP via e-mail to Ken Griffin at kennifer@windstream.net On a serious note; if you haven’t participated in racing in the past, please come out and give it a shot. I promise you will have more fun and will learn more about sailing your boat than you think possible. Everyone out there will be more than happy to help you get started, give you pointers, answer any questions, give you more advice that you might possibly want or need and most importantly help you have a really great time. We will be putting together a Racing Schedule as soon as possible so look for it in the next week or so! If you have any suggestions, please send them to me at toezup@bellsouth.net or to Ken Griffin at kennifer@windstream.net Gimp