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Sailing for 2007 should be fantastic... Great Yacht Club, great Club facility, great schedule, great summer, great lake, great competition, great friends... Our GLYC website continues to be a challenge... just recently being brought back under control... hopefully you can enjoy the pages as they unfold!
July 21, 2007 The month of July has been a time for families, business and vacations. The Star Match Racing, the VanderMolen Cup, has been postponed until the Fall of 07 to enable full participation among the Star Fleet. Monday, June 4, 2007 'Star Talk' by Jon VanderMolen After a failed attempt on Wednesday to kick off the 2007 Eliminations, the sailors showed up Sunday all 'electric-like.' How many other major sports in America start their season off with the Super Bowl? (ummmm... NASCAR) It did not look good most of Sunday as this low pressure system has stalled over the Great Lakes region, now for nearly a week, and is wreaking havoc on the winds. We have 16 registered sailors in our fleet and nine showed up to brave the weather. In the hour before the race the wind was beautiful, 6-9 out of the south east. Just as we started pushing back into line to launch, a big dark cloud came out and let loose with a hard rain. It killed all the wind and we thought we were done for the day. But just then, out of the Northwest, came this nice gentle breeze. In our haste to get this series off, we went off, off into the big lake they call Gichigumee. On the sail out, we took notice of the competition, speculating that this looked more like it was a light, middle-weight bout, or the Family Feud, then we decided no this is the - TALLEDAGA SUPER SPEEDWAY! We fired the Wonder Boy Chevrolet up and made it through pre-race inspection just fine. We had a new motor put in earlier in the day; gone was the bubble sail, in was the 8144 hp NASCAR Lillia sail. Inn the practice laps we felt fast, but, after a clean start, we found our tire pressure was low. The wiley, old veteran Parfet, in his 2003 Toyota Camry, was hitting on all 7 cylinders, and made out to an early lead on the inside line. Wonder Boy was stuck in traffic, while the Budweiser boat (Jimmer/Klerk) was 'smoking.' We kept seeing little white puffs of smoke coming from the front of the boat and we later figured out it was the damn crew sucking on cigs to detect the wind. Jim Babel, in his Home Depot Chevrolet 8175, muscled his way over the fleet at the start and went streaking up the high line chasing his brother Bill in his 1979 Vintage Dodge Charger. The Rainbow Warriors, Greg/TC, were looking on the outside for rainbows, we think. We knew time was a factor, in this, the fastest race on our circuit. We reached the top turn in 6th place, but the wind had temporarily turned off completely. We pitted, fixed the air pressure and exited the pits in our own little zephyr. We carried that zephyr all the way to the leaders. The RC wisely decided to shorten the race and we all skidded to the finish line completely exhausted from the mental anguish. Bill Babel and crew Geoff Lindenberg won the shortened race and said later, "We won this one for Torben." As for the Wonder Chevrolet, well, Tichnor was heard during the post race interviews demanding "We're the best there is, there's no doubt about it, we wake up each morning a we pee excellence." Third place finisher Jim Babel and Bill Hawk were quoted as saying "we're either going to win or wreck the fleet trying, but a 3rd id a keeper." The Bud boat and Rainbow warriors were right on our heels in the end, both complaining about lack of fuel temperature or brake pressure or something incomprehensible. Turner and Parfet were talking mileage or star color or something; Zinnbinn/Ryan and Mike/Billy were all smiles. We take our Talladega show on to Wednesday night where we will be sailing 2 (two) races. Ricky Bobby
The 2006 Sailing season looks to be the busiest and best sailing schedule we've had in years. Put your sailboat in early and join us all season long! Check-out our Schedule! There are 6 regattas being hosted in 2006 at Gull Lake. (see Regattas for details) Star Tulip Tune - Up - May 19 -21 Click to see Tulip Tune Up write-up *** Click for Final Results Laser/Laser Radial-GrtLakes-June10-11 Flying Scot Districts - July 29-30 210 Midwest - August 6-7 210 Nationals - August 9-12 Snipe North Americans - August 18-20
Our Gull Lake Yacht Club website has been undergoing a 'make-over' and hopefully the results have been worth the wait! The Gull Lake Yacht Club sponsored an Advanced Race Management Seminar on February 25 and 26. The seminar was well attended by sailors and Race Committee members from the Midwest. The participants now eagerly await the results of their testing.
But, please be patient as the work progresses. The sailing, the activities, the camaraderie, the programs and the location on beautiful Gull Lake are still our main attraction. Join us for hours of the best sailing in southwest Michigan!
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