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Plenty of Monkeyshines at the BIG TOP DIXIE!


By Nancy Molitor (Thistle 3798)

It wasn’t too hard for Fleet 48 to come up with a theme for the 2012 Dixie -- since only the week before the demolition team had arrived to clobber our aging clubhouse, guests arrived to find dumpsters where it used to stand and two giant tents across the road to host all our fun. Thus, therefore and ergo: the one-of-a-kind “Bigtop Dixie!” Needless to say, we played off that theme all weekend and created our own three-day circus.

Everybody who’s ever been a Dixie patron knows that winds on Lake Allatoona have a history of clowning around anyway, and this year simply raised the bar. Fifty-six boats, full of optimism, headed out on Saturday afternoon to a light but quite sailable breeze, only to watch it fizzle out on the last couple of legs of our extra-long course. Jessie Shedden, with Paul Abdullah as crew, stayed the course to win in the first fleet, and John and Leslie Irvine won the second fleet.

Just enough of a sucker puff tricked the RC into giving us a second start, so off we headed into what quickly became Drifterville. But count it did, giving Chris Klotz (in his heirloom Thistle #1) and Scott Griffin, sailing with Skip Dieball, the two bullets. The rest of us more or less floated in, except for those who chose to get their paddles out early and head for the dock. After a rousing three-ring party that included appetizers and Margaritas at the beach, a truckful of dinner from “Happy Belly” and music courtesy of our own Paul Abdullah, we retired for the night with Shedden in first place and three others behind him by only one point.

Fortunately, the wind gods woke up in a better mood on Sunday. It was a gorgeous day, the lake was full of water, and we got both starts off without a hitch. This time Michael Lenkeit won the first division and Scott McCormack the second (though Scott’s DNC in Race 2 didn’t sit very well in the trophy competition). The finishes were jumbled for almost everybody -- except for Shedden, sailing an impressive 1-3-4 in his first Dixie as skipper. Clearly some of that Finefrock dust has rubbed off!

Thanks to everyone who came – it was great clowning around with you!!




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