Minutes of the First Floating Skippers (Party) Meeting
Location: Meeting was held near the Race Committee Boat.
Setting: It was a beautiful day at Block Island. Warm, sunny, gently moving air but not the breeze necessary to race sailboats. While floating around under an extended postponement - an impromptu skippers meeting occurred on Elmo.
The host boat duties including delivering invitations, collecting skippers and, of course, refreshments. As of the first pick-up there was no agenda for the meeting.
The Skippers all cooperated (albeit confused initially as to the reason for the reason for the meeting). All of the crews were all too happy to have their skippers off the boat. At the termination of the event, many of the crews did not want their skippers returned.
First to the meeting and key instigator was John Coffey who tempted the two male Elmo crew members off Elmo and then chose to leave Tern to join the four single women on Elmo.
Then to even out the ratio a bit Paul from Andiamo was collected, then JP from Last Tango followed by Billy from Cyan. There was a motion by JP to moon the boats that were following closely. This was clearly seconded by Paul from Andiamo and once in-sync John, Paul, JP and Billy mooned their own boats. Soon after this, Joerg from Kincsem joined the meeting. At this point, the focus became collecting all the skippers possible. Other boats that donated their skippers included Flame, Kima, Scaramouche, Woody, Wet Paint, Wet Leopard, True North among others. Bob Johnstone joined the melee from Gannet.
While the meeting’s agenda was non-existent, that does not mean that there were not heated debates. An important topic of debate was over the beer choices aboard and the taste preferences between Budweiser, Foster, and Heineken. While the majority of skippers were debating the beer selection, Vicky Neiner, J80 owner and Elmo crewmember, was driving Elmo and Joerg was directing her to the J105 whose skippers had not yet been collected. (Note Vicky did a magnificent job collecting and distributing about 18 owners and did not hit a single vessel!). The other areas of conversation were where best to stand for pictures, and how deep the float lines were under the water.
Alas all good things must end and the wind began to pick up. First, an announcement was made by the race committee about potentially racing, and a second announcement was made for the J105 boats to please pick up their skippers. This prompted an unusual response as many boats drove away from Elmo instead of towards her.
The Elmo skipper and crew contemplated having the whole bunch on board for the next race. JP (Last Tango) volunteered to do foredeck with Don Priestly (Wet Paint). John Coffey (Tern) wanted to be the boat babe along with Paul (Andiamo). Elmo’s bow babe was now convinced that they all had to leave. After much cajoling the crews finally were convinced to pick up the bosses.
Elmo apologizes to those boats whose skippers were not included. Time, beer, and life jackets simply ran out and lets face it 22 people on a J105 is a little crowded. Next year we board the big boats!
Congratulations to Kincsem, Morning Glory and Picante for a job well done!
And the closing question — What does Kincsem stand for?
Respectfully submitted,
Bobbi Coffey