Opening Day

Well, Opening Day has come and gone. I can tell you that when George and Nancy asked Elin and me to chair opening day, we had no idea what we were getting ourselves into. Now that we have done it we really feel that it was a great opportunity to get to know the true nature of Queen City Yacht Club members and their families and friends. We are a terrific club full of volunteers with positive attitudes, great ideas and lots of energy. Even though the weather did not cooperate we had a great time with good attendance at all of our club-sponsored events.

Once again Paul Grimm and his brain trust came through for us with a great idea and a fabulous execution for Dave and Michele Bedners’ boat decorated as the ”Kalakala Trailer of the Salish Sea.” WE HAVE HARDWARE!!!!!

Special thanks to the following:

Andy Gerde, who was ever present and really helped out wherever he was needed.

Judith Pippin, who organized 20 bartenders into numerous shifts serving somewhere on the order of 1500-1600 drinks… we are a thirsty group.

Bill Field, once again organized all the ticket sales and created all the tickets, selling around 800 of them for the various meals served.

Dan Wilshin organized all the moorage for the visiting clubs and since we never heard anything it must have gone well.

Bruce Ramon organized shuttle service with 34 volunteers into numerous shifts.

Nancy Austin and her team organized the decoration of the club and purchased all the materials.

Butch and Nancy Scherrer with a crew served a great meal of brats and beer to 105 hungry people.

Elin and I as well as a great crew of Barbecuers served 201 steak dinners on Friday night. Tyee Yacht Club offers a steak dinner on Saturday Night and P/C Jennerich had ours on Friday and theirs on Saturday and he said “there was no comparison: yours was way better.” Go team!

We also served a spaghetti dinner to 189 people on Saturday night and some of best cooks in the club thought the sauce was the best they had ever tasted. Special thanks on the sauce go to Elin Storey, Mike Hillmann, Steve Weiss, Brian Barton and Stephanie Marcelynas: they started the sauce on Tuesday, May 3rd.

Brooke and Renee Kimes, as well as a crew of Tarettes, hosted the Sunday Brunch and even though it was Mothers Day, they served more than 180 a great meal.

Opening Day is a lot of work, but we had a great time working with all of our old friends and meeting a host of new friends. There were at least 150 volunteers for the various tasks. Thanks to all who helped and if we missed your name in the flyer in this issue of The Bilge Pump we apologize in advance.

Dick and Elin Storey