2016 Annual Christmas Party/Awards

                                                                                                                                                    by Cathy

Front row: Bob, Cathy, Bruce, Amber. Middle row: Jackie, Burton, Laurie, Larry, Martha, Doug P., Jim. Back row: Sandy A., John, Nancy, Marshall, Paul, Gary.  Photo by the other Bob.

This year's annual Christmas party was hosted by Jim and Selena. It was a perfect place for the party. Great turn-out. Great food. And their beautiful home with lots of Selena's beautiful paintings as a backdrop. Wow!   

Thank you Paul, Jim, and Selena for all your hard work in putting the event together and thank you to everyone who brought food. It was all wonderful.

Awards were presented at the meeting and then there was some discussion about whether or not we should be sending dues to the National Butterfly Association. I am not sure what was decided. Maybe that we should request their treasurer report to see how they are spending the money and what we would get for our dues.  

The series winners for 2016 were:

Winter Series: Paul, Burton, Gary / Cathy

Spring Series: Paul, Sandy, Gary / Cathy

Summer Series: Paul, Sandy, Burton / Nancy
Fall Series: Sandy, Paul, Bruce / Laurie

Butterfly sailor of the Year: Paul

Below: Paul presents the Fried Shroud award to Bruce. Previously this was the Broken Dagger-board award but as that has gone missing and since it was rather cumbersome, Paul created this smaller plaque for the most spectacular accidental sailing event of the year. Bruce certainly earned it this year when his sailboat was struck by lightning during the Butterfly Nationals! Poof.

Note from Paul: Bruce was the inaugural winner of the award when he hit a hidden log underwater, it split the board lengthwise, still all the way down in the trunk. He didn't capsize but knew something was wrong, no flow of course as the board went two different directions. He could barely get it out when he got to the dock and I believe it was in 2013. 

Lots of clapping as the awards are presented. Burton accepts his various quarterly awards. Gary accepts his awards and details the winners and sailing participants by quarter and Paul presents the awards:

The ladies accept their quarterly trophies! Yea! 

Paul accepts the Butterfly of the Year award for the 3rd year in a row:

Congratulations to all!!

The new officers for 2016 are:

Fleet Captain: Paul

Race Chair: Jim

Secretary/Treasurer: Bob

Gary continues in his mostly thankless role of scoring the races! This can be time consuming and it's great that he keeps track of things then hands off the results to Frank who posts the scores. See link at the top right of the blog site.  

Thank you Paul for being our fleet captain since 2014. You make it look easy and are such a hard act to follow that no one is even considering stepping into your shoes. Seriously. You do so much for the fleet. We thank you!

And I am not sure how long Bob has been secretary/treasury but as long as I can remember and we appreciate your keeping track of everything and continuing in your role. Thank you!

As for Jim as new race chair. You will do a great job and put your own twist on it. Race chair is a funny behind the scene role - setting up combos where people have fun together and we all keep safe. Sometimes it is challenging to find those perfect combinations but our program is the best and everyone does their part!