The Linville’s were members of the Minuteman Model Yacht Club long before I joined. Jim was my first contact with the Club, but I remember both very well. They had gregarious personalities, they were avid builders and skippers, and they were very quick to help any newcomers to the hobby. Sue passed a year or two after I joined the Club and Jim continued, passing only last year. Their participation at the regional and national level left a lasting impression on the Club and on the hobby of model yachting.
This year was the second Jim and Sue Linville Memorial Regatta. 7 skippers showed up to compete for the traditional 1st, 2nd and 3rd place” Ducky Trophies” and the newer “Ducky Perpetual” Trophy.
The weather was beautiful at the pond. Happily, the weeds were very minimal, but unfortunately so was the wind. The forecast was for 1-3 mph winds with gusts up to 5 mph…except there weren’t too many gusts. Since nobody ever said you had to sail very fast or maneuver very much to call yourself a sailor, we sailored on.
As a bit of irony, before racing started our friend John Lamport showed up with his giant motorized ducky to demonstrate how fast we could be going if we actually had wind. Certainly, afterwards nobody went as fast, except for maybe my motorized RC rescue boat.
It goes without saying that the race was challenging but there were few complaints since we were there to have fun. It also goes without saying that because of the light wind, there was not always a lot of separation of the boats going around the marks, so mark rounding’s were very exciting.
When racing was over John Martin had proved he could find wind even when others struggled. He was followed closely by Rick Laird in second and Chris O’Brien in third.
My thanks to all of the skippers who showed up to help remember Jim and Sue, and my thanks to Steve White for helping to keep score.
Cliff Martin,
Commodore
