The Banquet

The Gulf of Maine Ocean Racing Association had it's annual awards banquet at the Taste-O-Maine (sic) last Friday night. Martinis were $5. There was a steel band from Lewiston featuring sailor and GMORA board member Peter Garcia on 1st drum. They played well, but somehow failed to transport us revelers to the Caribbean. People pooled at the far side of the room. Maybe because that's where the bar was.

During dinner Cam Lewis shared his infectous excitement for racing giant multihulls around the world. He's hopeful of repairing his boat (it's missing 30 feet of one bow at the moment from a close encounter with a submerged shipping container) and getting back out there. Unfortunately, it took him half the presentation to realize that the images his projector was putting up were unrecognizably dark. The audience was too polite or too disinterested to let him know. The food was not memorable.

Following dinner, GMORA gave out its awards. Prizes consisted of generally nice if uninspired framed and matted photos by Andrew Sims. Successful racers were recognized. There were some quite parochial 'fun' awards for things like best boat name and best crew (awarded to a skipper?!). The feel good awards of the evening, much deserved, were to Fred Clemens in recognition of his many, many years of dedication to running races of all kinds, and to Dick Hale, as Points East sailor of the year for his continued amazing success.

Fred Clemens

Dick Hale

Sandy Marsters did his usual good job presenting the sailor of the year award, but privately admitted he had missed one big sailing personality story until Friday night. GMORA also gave an award for the best run regatta of the year (Portland Yacht Club's State of Maine PHRF Championships), but unfortunately neglected to see that a race committee rep was there to accept it. It's nice to recognize the efforts of the volunteers who run races, but better if they are around to hear the applause.

Over 100 sailors showed up for the bash, almost double the turnout in 2002. That doesn't mean that participation in racing is up, however. I have put down my own thoughts about improving turnout elsewhere. Hopefully, turnout will be the priority for GMORA in the months ahead...