A Beautiful Day for Mall Race '04

Story by Mark Barr

On Saturday, Dec. 18th the Mall Race went off without a hitch. Twelve Butte Sailing Club members attended the event, sailing in a total of 5 boats. The day was clear and sunny with very light wind predicted. In fact, some forecasts called for calm conditions. As it turned out, they were almost right this time. We did get a southwest breeze of about 1-5 mph, with the forebay looking glassy in places throughout the day. We did manage to get in one good race, starting in the cove with a course of B-Z-Finsh.

The four Thistles started together with Paul's Hunter 216 the lone keelboat until Bruce Gillet arrived about a half hour later. Each skipper and crew squeezed as much speed as possible out of the meager breeze. Wade Hough's beautiful red boat led Jim Marazzo off toward the south levee while Doug McWilliams and I worked the middle of the course. The lead changed hands several times before the Z mark rounding and the subsequent spinnaker set.

The parade of boats around Z mark went, Wade, Mark, Jim, Doug, and Paul. Wade was leading the downwind leg with his chute up when he and Bettie Ann lost a life jacket over the side. They turned around and did their man-overboard drill quickly, but I slipped by him in the process. Things were looking good for myself and my crew, Jody Christopherson. As we approached the peninsula mid way home, Jim and Michelle Marazzo, working their chute down the north shore, glided up next to us and jibed flawlessly. Try as I might, there was no getting past them. With spinnaker poles back, I followed them towards the finish line at the dock.

With about a hundred yards to go, Jody pointed off to our right. Seemingly out of nowhere, Wade and Bettie Ann Hough were "roaring" towards the finish. They finished 5 seconds ahead of Jim and 10 seconds ahead of my boat. Close behind, Doug and his crew Ken Anderson were gaining on us all the way to the line. Bringing up the rear, with his huge asymmetrical spinnaker up, Paul Richey's Hunter 216 was moving nicely. Apparently, he had run aground earlier in the race and had trouble getting "unstuck". Paul and Bruce cruised around long after the Thistles had docked. I suppose they were eating lunch on their boats (a bit more comfortable on a keel boat).

It was a light day. That's for sure. However, everyone seemed to have a nice day. We sat together and ate our lunch on the picnic tables near the boat ramp. The sun was warm but there was a nip to the breeze. It was certainly a better day than one could possibly have going to the mall, right?