By Mike Ferring, Racing Captain
Mark the fall racing series “finished” and then click on this link to sign up for the next round! It’s coming fast. The first Tempe Town Lake race is Sunday, January 7; the first Lake Pleasant race is one week later on Saturday, January 13.
Here are your fleet winners. Lake Pleasant. Catalina 22: Nancy Uhl on Neil Thibodaux’s boat; PHRF Spin: Mike Ferring; Portsmouth: Devon Howe; Santana 20: Martin Lorch; Thistle: Jason Rziha. Tempe Town Lake. Catalina 14.2: Mike Ferring; Portsmouth: Sean Kenealy; ILCA (Laser): Paul Miachika; Sunfish: Kate Crowther.
In the fall we saw 100 registrations to race at one or both lakes, a number close to an all-time record. But study the results page and you’ll find that a lot of the people decided to register to race but then never raced. It reflects a significant shift in behavior over the last few years. People will decide whether to race based on such things as weather forecasts and competing activities. There are other shifts, too. More people are racing at Tempe Town Lake and fewer at Lake Pleasant. Lake Pleasant racers have abandoned Sundays—so this spring we’ll race six Saturdays and no Sundays.
How do we keep track of 100 racers on two lakes and 14 race days each season? It means lots of detail work.
Next time you see Rob Gibbs, thank him for years of service as the club scorekeeper. This is an enormous job that requires much sweating over poor penmanship and confusing results. Rob is retiring from the job and will be replaced by two people: Maryellen Ferring for Tempe Town Lake and Paul Liszewski for Lake Pleasant. They’ll take over what longtime scorekeeper Dave Christensen called “reading the chicken bones”: finishes scratched on handwritten scoresheets and inevitable finishing disputes. Rob, Dave, and predecessor Tom Ohlin managed to do it skillfully for years.
Click here to check out the end-of-season TTL photos taken by Mike Ferring.
Photos: Mike Ferring