2009 Tulip Time Tune-Up

Gull Lake, Michigan – “The Unknowns” were the headline band at the Bayview Gardens Restaurant and Supper Club.  After a “ripping” tour through the western-central-Michigan pre-memorial Day geriatric set, the Unknowns decided to take it down a notch with two glorious evenings at the Bayview by playing in front of an international and multi-generational crowd on the shores of serene Gull Lake.  However, it was completely unknown to The Unknowns, that an international super fan would emerge late Friday night.  Enter stage left, Marc Pickel.

Oddly, the Gull Lake Tulip Tune-up Time regatta was scheduled to be sailed the same weekend as the Unknowns last gig.  Sailors from Siberia, Germany, Seattle, Boston, Florida, and even Canada trickled into the sleepy town hoping for some sun, sailing, and a little late night hot tub relaxation.

These boys practiced and worked on their equipment (that is not a euphemism) all day, so some suds and exquisite cover tunes would seem to hit the spot.  Canadian Steve Cutting sailed with me and I measured the passage of time by the redness of his face and the height of his hair by Sunday afternoon he resembled the “Heat Miser.” The older boys, Bill Hawk, the Babels and their posse, decided to eat burgers and check out the Hawk family wall photos before heading over to a pre-Unknowns party at the North American Sailing Center.  After indulging in some wine-in-a-box and bourbon, Jon VanderMolen shut it down at 10:15 pm (for those keeping score, this is about 45 minutes longer than Todd Gay would have flipped the lights on and off).  Time to visit the Bayview and pay my three dollar cover charge, the Unknowns must have cleared a cool $300 that night.

 I knew I was set for long evening when a large group of seniors slow-danced to a heavily stylized version of “Freebird”… definitely vintage “The Unknowns”, probably a riff from the 1986 Paw Paw Concert and Bake Sale (I could never forget eating Norm Wilhelmsen’s bunt cake with a Reo Speedwagon cover tune of  “I Can’t Fight This Feeling Anymore” to help wash it down).  By the way, that was not a euphemism either.

 Watching a 70 year-old couple grind it out on the dance floor certainly called for a Guinness or two.  Meanwhile, German-raised Marc Pickel was growing weary of propositioning strange women at the bar so he wandered out to the dance floor.  Marc perfected both the air guitar and seldom seen air-keyboard as well.  The ladies took note. It was apparent by Ed Morey’s coloring the next morning that he was Marc’s wingman for most of the evening. 

 On Saturday, the breeze on the lake was strong but the first race was fair enough for all.

The weather mark was set near the yacht club and the first leg established a quick lead for Peter and Dan Wright from Chicago followed by Jud Smith/Brad Balmert of Boston, and Marc Pickel/Ulf Greve of Germany.  These three held their position through the race and the downwind finish.  The second race brought winds over 20 mph.   Some of the teams sailed in to the harbor, including Arthur Anosov and silent-Ed Morey, what was ailing Ed is still unknown… he likes to keep to himself.  

 The second race was a little too much for most, only 10 boats finished.  Dr. Bob Tietge dismantled Jack Rickard and Chris Wallner and Jack’s boat at the weather mark while on port tack.  Naturally, Dr. Bob politely apologized.  At the jibe mark Jud Smith and Brad had the lead but the next four (Pickel/Greve, Jim VanderMolen/Mike Wolfs, the Wrights, and me/Steve Cutting) were right on top of each other.  However, I broke up the group with a wild death roll (or, happy fun roll) on the next reach.  Nobody wanted to be near us including my whisker pole, Steve Cutting (my teammate), and the keel wasn’t interested in staying in the water either.  The pole took a powder after we put the keel back down.  A couple of pole-less jibes later (yes, this is a euphemism) we heard a loud bang, so we trimmed in, discovered it was nothing serious but retired; big mistake.  There are no throw outs and limping around the race course would have saved us sixteen points at least; lesson –learned.

Jud and Brad made it look easy, with Marc and Ulf in second, and steady-as-she-goes Jim VanderMolen and Mike Wolfs locking down third.  The last race was cancelled.  Sailors with too much time on their hands only start to stir up trouble.  Jon Klerk smoked a box of cigarettes and put out the fire with some beer and proclaimed that the President wanted to take his gun (not a euphemism) and was going to move to Canada.  I hooked him up with Steve Cutting for a ride and gave him five dollars for his trouble.  Meanwhile, Pickel had a far-away, unknown look in his eye, in his mind, he was already at the Bayview… he was already there, man.

Mark Strube was quiet though and seemed to be on a mission to relieve some built up or backed up stress or pressure (yes, a euphemism).  He did not sail on Saturday and it looked as though he might have to double his fun on Saturday night to set things right.  It is still unknown what transpired that night, Strube never showed for Sunday racing. 

It was nice to see the regulars again this year, the Rickards, Mac and Darren, Turners, little Jeffrey Schaefer, Parfets, Greg and TC, Big Al and Dr. Bob, the McCarthys and even the McCarthey grandchildren were prancing about.  Sunday brought strong wind and all the competitors crawled out of there caves; even Larry Whipple.  Larry and Phil Trinter scored a quick third behind the Wrights and winner Jud Smith/Brad Balmert.  We nailed down 14^th but finally learned something.  We started on the pin and were forced to the edge.  Downwind we were forced to the edge and it looked like that is where the wind was building but every boat to the inside gained on us.  We vowed to stay in the middle up and down wind next time and on the favored tack.  Simple, but it worked and we won the next race and almost won the fifth race but Whipple and Trinter were too much.

Jud and Brad battled the Wrights on the last two races for the regatta but Peter and Dan played it right and held on for a record 10^th Championship in over 40 years.  Thank you Gull Lake and Jon Vandermolen for another chapter of beautiful sailing and what-not on serene Gull Lake.