Remembering GCYC Founder
Ray Woods


Razark, Ray Woods’ Catalina 22 was the most ‘tricked out’ sailboat I had seen when I first joined GCYC back in 1991 after buying an Omega 14 sailboat from Lynn Buchanan. He had a contraption – I now think it may have been a wind direction and speed indicator – on the outer end of each spreader and cassette tape streaming on the shrouds. And he had reversed his mainsheet so it was no longer a ‘head knocker’ and easier to adjust from the helm.

He often hung Razark in his barn by the huge ceiling beams and long straps. I even clocked some ‘air time’ in these barn slings when I pulled the swing keel out ofQuarterMac, my MacGregor 25, hoisting it off the trailer and dropping the keel. To sand and polish the bottom, I then rolled QuarterMac onto its side – while still in the air – so I could stand up and sand.

But the impressive thing about Ray was that he looked like an “old salt” should look, even if he was sailing on a fresh water lake in northern California. He always wore a captain’s cap (like a Greek fisherman’s hat) and he robustly filled his blue jean overalls. His white “chin curtain” beard (shaved upper lip) was trimmed perfectly, matching the mariner from my east coast N.C. high school mascot.

And boy was he was a stickler for the rules of sailing. He would enforce and even ‘force’ the rules on everyone on the water, insisting that you file a protest if you were fouled or do a couple circles if you fouled someone else. He felt it Corinthian to follow the letter of the rules, not just their intent. I remember he pulled “the old 39.2” on me during one of my first club races in 1991, coming up under me (to leeward) on the beat to the first mark and yelling “coming up, coming up” turning up into Winginit until he forced me to tack away or bumped me – causing a protest on his part for me not getting out of his way soon enough. I quickly learned about “mast abeam” so I could hold him off on his repeated enforcement of the rules (no longer in effect, but back then you could force a windward boat “up” into the wind until the windward boat was in line with the mast of the leeward boat, then they had to stop).

In checking our racing archives, Ray and Razark took first place in the Catalina 22 division at the 1989 Gold Country Regatta. I understand he had been battling Don Samuelson (MoBettah) and Doug Epperson (Myott) for honors in alternate years before that. He finished third in the 1990 regatta, fourth in 1991, fifth in 1992 (see atrend here!), but then was third in 1993, didn’t race in the 1994 regatta and took fifth in 1995 when it was a Catalina 22 Western Regional. He didn’t race in any more regattas after 1995, but did continue to participate in club races through 1997, then he ‘retired’ from active racing in GCYC events. That was about the time many in our club were switching to faster Santana 20, Capri 22, Ultimate 20 and Moore 24 boats.

I last saw Ray at Scotts Flat Lake during our annual regatta a couple years ago, the one where we would be hosting the Catalina 22 Nationals the next week. There was a twinkle in his eye and a puff in his chest as he surveyed the host of Catalina 22s on our lake. I suspect he was thinking back to August, 1982 when he garnered anyone with a sailboat to come out and play on Scotts Flat Lake that summer for a sailboat race. 42 boats participated and the Gold Country Sailing Club was born.

A big, heart-felt “Thank You” to Ray Woods, the founding father of GCYC and the Gold Country Regatta.


Jerry M. Lewis
GCYC Race Chairman, CRO
s/v Kudzu, Capri 22