ABYA Bay City Rendevous 2008

Members Compete in ABYA Boat Race A group of MRYC members made the trip north to Bay City for the Annual Spring Rendezvous (and one member made the trip TWICE) where they enjoyed a great weekend, featuring a 50’s sock hop. Besides twisting in costumes of poodle skirts and rolled up t-shirts, the featured attraction was the annual Rubber Band Boat Races. This was the first year that MRYC entered a boat in this event. And actually this almost didn’t happen (see above note regarding one member making trip twice.) MRYC did not win the class B race on its first try this year but did win the trophy for best new entry. (And it is not important on how many new entries there were). A time of 2.444 seconds was put up on the first timed run which was the fastest in the class B (which is 2 seconds or above.) A.B.Y.A. race officials then had some timing problems and it was decided to run "2 boat drag races" to complete the competition of the day. MRYC ran its first drag race and it was called a tie. The entire crew felt that we had won by at least 6" but we were forced to run it again. The second race we won hands down to advance to the semi finals. The pit area was tense with all crew members putting the final race preparation on the boat for the next race. Commodore Gerry "Mr. More Power" Prainito and Vice Commodore Clif "NASCAR Cash" Chiera were the Pit Crew. Past Commodore Tim "Fast Hands" Dowd who was the "driver" had his work cut out for him with the veteran team we were to face in the semi finals. The boats were readied and lined up at the start line and the countdown began. Off went the boats and all looked good for the first half of the course until the other teams boat pulled ahead midway on the track. The checkered flag fell and it was to our great disappointment we lost the race. On a good note to this race was the team that beat us went on to win the whole class B race. So, it’s back to the garage this summer to try a few new things, tinker with some old things, and be back to race again next year. Thanks go to all the people that donated their time and a few dollars to buy our boat this year and help prep it for racing. Moss Rossi helped the ABYA on Saturday for quite some time setting up the timing systems and Al Croll spent time with prep work early in January. Those that attended all had fun this year and hope more members can join in on what is becoming a yearly event. Look for this “infamous” boat to be on display this summer! Quite impressive.