The Great Synopsis
Ed Guinaugh


From a little dinghy, March 1984:

(The following is included by popular demand--the history of the club for 1983 as narrated by the Secretary)

Many, many moons ago, there was a great one who walked upon the waters, with a little help from his Catalina 22. And this spirit has a vision, and in that vision he saw great winged spirits skating upon the shimmering light. And so he called others unto him, and they were guided by his light, not that of the beatific heavens, but a candle in a paper bag with a rock in the bottom.

On 9 Feb, 1983 at 8:00 PM, 8 people responded to an invitation of Ray Woods, to get together at his house and talk about sailing and ways of furthering our appreciation of it in this area. We had all attended the 1st Gold Country Regatta, and that combined with an enthusiasm for sailing, we were off and floating with a skeleton crew of officers, manning the pumps. Setting sail required publicity, money, effort, ideas, slide shows, stamps, and lots of cookies. But we were lucky, we had the basics. We had a lake. And most of us even had a boat.

Then on to the good stuff, which at that time was a sunny day, and a chance to hit the lake. Opening day had its pomp and fanfare, balloons, a race, and a lot of toasting to the new boating season. Growth and experience came with time, a change of names, faces and places. We sailed the Caribbean from a real estate office, learned who had the right of way in a race around a pool table, and crewed in Tahiti and the San Juans while in the back of a restaurant. And we raced, we ghosted, we sat, and we raced some more. We raced by canoes and ski boats, while everyone seemed to race by the boat I was on. And it was still great, just like the people and all of their effort that has gone into the founding and nurturing of our club.