The Div. 4 AGM went off without a hitch and was another great success. Held at Peter & Ruth Nelson’s house in Seattle on Sat., Nov. 7, we were blessed with the usual local (Fleet 95) suspects (sans Caleb Tarleton who was in Pullman for the weekend). Driving in from outside the area were: Paul Evenden & Tawnya Fox (Vancouver, BC), Paul & Olinka Morrill (Portland), Mark & Della Sele (Wenatchee), Al Jones, Tim Webb, Scot Chapman, and probably one or two more that I missed. It was great to see Martin & Janine Hollinsworth (with James & David — I hope I got those names right) as well as Kenny & Kristin Youth.
The AGM had Laura Sullivan presenting a bunch of metrics which, in a nutshell, say the Division is growing and doing well. Paul Carter announced that because of our hard volunteer efforts and a lot of careful planning we were able to make some money on division regattas last season and get the Division coffers up to a comfortable and reasonable level.
Paul Evenden distributed preliminary results for high points champions, before Tim realized that Peter had supplied Tawnya (Paul’s real points recorder!) with some wrong results. This skewed and screwed the whole list up. Stand by for official results. But unofficially, it looks like John Ped will win the 16s, Dave Wilder in the 17s, and Paul VonStubbe the 18s. Kenny “Too Young” Youth wins the 16Bs, Jeff “Solo” Rickard the 18Bs, and Valerie “Lady Z” Pioszak the 14s. Congratulations to all of the (early) winners!
The biggest surprise of the afternoon came from Paul Evenden when he announced his desire to host a Hobie 16 North American Championship at Harrison Hot Springs in 2018 or 2019. The division poo-bahs enthusiastically endorsed his idea so Paul is going to go back to the drawing board to sketch out the details.
A preliminary 2016 regatta schedule was hammered out. Stand by for a future announcement on that. Shortly thereafter Peter, Laura, and Olinka retired to the kitchen to prepare dinner while the rest of the crowd gathered to watch Jerry Valeske’s photos and videos from the past season.
Dinner consisted of a large Mexican burrito buffet with Todd & Olinka bringing a fresh apple crisp for dessert. The festive food ushered in the party. Music cranked up as the rum and tequila started pouring. Conversation was lively as everyone mixed and the banter and laughter continued well into the night.
Thanks to all who participated to make the meeting productive and the party fun. Notable contributors to both included: Bob Combie, Scot Chapman, Mark Olsoe & Diane Johnson.
Hobie Division 4 