Oak Hollow Sailing Club held its 4th Annual “Blue Chips Charity Regatta” on Saturday, July 15th, in memory of our past member and club officer, Nancy Valego, and to raise money for cancer research in honor of Nancy. Our club has raised over $4500 for the Susan G. Komen Foundation from donations and tee shirt sales during the past four years. Thank you to all our members and friends of the club who have contributed to this worthy cause! Nancy’s son, Matt, attended the event on Saturday, and passed along his family’s thanks to us for our recognition and remembrance of Nancy, and our contributions to cancer research in her honor.
We had a wonderful turnout for the event, with over 40 members present. Thank you to Sue Cole, Roger Bates, and Mary Dusek, for morning refreshments, coffee, donuts, and ice, and to the many participants who brought side dishes and desserts for our post-regatta cookout.
Special thanks to Bruce Leigh, who somehow entered the marina before sun up and launched the pontoon boat by himself, which is no small feat. The boat was floating and ready for the race committee before anyone else arrived – thank you, Bruce!
Tom Kirkman volunteered to handle PRO duties, and was assisted on Race Committee by Chris Malcolm, Mary Desek, Annette Grefe, and Mike DuPont. The course was set up as windward – leeward with a gate at the leeward end, and the wind cooperated so that three races were completed by around 2 pm, with two one-lap races and a final 2-lap race. Thank you to all Race Committee volunteers for a very fine job of execution.
Fox 8 Sports covered our event, and we thank them for the few hours they spent filming and interviewing us about our charity event and about our club in general. This should be good publicity for OHSC. The camera man sailed with Michael Nordahl and was able to get some very good video on the water.
Following our regatta, Jerry and Paul grilled hamburgers and hot dogs for our cookout, and we enjoyed the food and post-regatta fellowship. Awards for the regatta were presented by Paul and Linda. Congratulations to the following sailors and crew:
Mono-hull First Place: Phil Andrews, who won all three races
Mono-hull Second Place: Dan Schuee and Merritt
Mono-hull Third Place (tie): Linda Marsh, John Fulcher: and Michael Nordahl
Multi-hull First Place: Roger Bates (who edged Warren Mitchell by one point)
Multi-hull Second Place: Warren Mitchell
Tom Kirkman pointed out that there was enough wind during each race to allow all sailors to keep moving, and thus our times from first to last were better than usual. There was a 20-minute time limit once the first boat crossed the finish line, and no boat ever had a DNF in any of the three races (except one who chose to go in). That is unusual for a summer race on Oak Hollow Lake. Congratulations to all sailors!