The end of the 2009 racing season has finally come upon us. In the very short 2 months that I have been here I have gotten to enjoy some great times with the sailors and parents and get to know them all. There are many people who I personally need to thank but the list is to long. THANK YOU to everybody who has helped me out since I have joined the pram fleet! You guys have made this transition for me very smooth and enjoyable!
After the School's Out Regatta, we had one more weekend of fun with each other till we were done for the year. On this day the yacht club asked us to join in on the blessing of the fleet. We arrived at the yacht club early to unpack boats from the regatta and to get rigged for the event. Since it was being held on the cut at Bradenton Yacht Club the kids couldn't sail thru and I would have to tow them thru till we got out into open water. We were one of the last to go in the blessing (guess they were saving the best for last) and it was a great time. I drove our new coach boat and Mike Dowd, our Red, White, Blue coach rode along with me. Also riding with me was Alan Capellin and his daughter Grace. His other daughter Darby would be getting towed thru and her boat was getting blessed. When we made our way thru Commodore Joe McClash introduced the Pram Fleet and announced all the kids names who were in their own boats. After that the Priest gave us a blessing and when he was finished we got a good ovation from the crowd and a good blow from the cannon.
After the blessing of the fleet, we took the kids out to sail around a little bit and to play some ball tag. We didn't let them stay out to long since we had our end of the year party to go to. We brought them in around 11:30 and let them de-rig and clean their boats off before we went for the real fun. On the way to the party I let each sailor drive the new coach boat for a couple of minutes. All the kids were excited since the boat was less than 2 months old and they had all been bugging me to drive it since we got it. By the time everybody was done we showed up for the party fashionably late. Oh well it's our day to do what we want.
The party was being held at the Norrie's house on the Manatee River. Why they decided to let us all kids run around there all afternoon was besides me but a very gracious thank you goes out to them! They had a huge backyard so the boys threw the football around for awhile and the girls went straight to the pool. After letting everybody have there own fun we all gathered for some cheeseburgers and grilled chicken. There were lot's of sodas and snacks as well. We all sat around and ate and told jokes and laughed and had a good time.
One of the things we had the kid's do at the party is come up with awards for Mike and I since we had done awards for them shortly before that. After letting them deliberate for awhile they said they had come up some funny things for us. My award was the 'Slow and Steady Award. They gave me this because everything is done slow but steady and always gets done. They also gave me a very large coconut that had fallen off a tree. Mike's award was the 'I don't Know Award'. They gave him this award because they said whenever they asked him a question, he would just shrug his shoulders and say I don't know. They also gave him a coconut but it was much smaller than mine. We laughed for 20 minutes over these awards.
The party was winding down and I had one last thing for the kids to do before we all departed for the year. BANANA SPLITS!! All the kids got to make their own Banana Splits and eat as much of it as they wanted. After eating 2 boxes of ice cream I think they had enough. We started to pack every thing up and clean up the mess we had made. I have to give another thank you to the parents and the great support they have given me and to the Norrie's for letting us hold our party at their beautiful home.
On another note I have to tell all the sailors how extremely proud of them I am for all the accomplishments they have made this year. I also need to thank them for trying hard at practice and every regatta they come to. You guys have been such a joy to teach and we are gonna have alot of fun in the years to come. Keep up the great work. I'm so very extremely proud of all of you!! I'm very proud to be here as the Director of Sailing and very excited as to what lies ahead of the Manatee River Pram Fleet! Stay tuned for updates on the Summer Classes.
Fair winds and fast sailing,
Danny Wiedenhoft
Director of Sailing
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