2016 Griesbach Regatta Results Posted

Post date: Aug 7, 2016 1:42:36 PM

Despite a few dark clouds that loomed over the western mountains, all of Saturday's storms bypassed Lake Mascoma. It was a very shifty breeze from the northwest, which shifted more to the west as the afternoon wore on. In typical Mascoma fashion, there were periods of very light winds followed by big gusts. The average wind was 8 mph with the strongest breeze at 14 mph. Strongest recorded gusts were 23 mph.

Dick Lathrop and Judy Saide were fast all day, recording four bullets. Reg Jones & Cathy Geiger managed to make their Hunter clip right along even with their reefed sail, recording two second place finishes. Right behind them were Dave Beaufait & Bill Fontaine in the Rhodes 19, which was given to the Club by the Griesbach family and in whose honor the regatta is named. Joe Gasparik and Wendell Smith came in at fourth place in the Flying Scot. Richard Balagur, although coming in at fifth place overall, had a solid second place finish in race 3, despite not having any crew on a very shifty Mascoma Lake. Steve Kovacs, also skippering the Dolphin singlehanded, had a good race with a third place finish. While Katerina Daub & Cameron Smith finished last, they had a very good first regatta - in the first race they had a fourth place finish, and in the final race, they came in fifth.

Special thanks to: The Griesbach family (see below the results listing), Sally Sharp who got the cold drinks ready, ran the committee boat, and moved the marks to compensate for the ever shifting wind, Reg Jones who brought the tent canopies in case of rain, Betty Ann Heistad who brought the burgers, dogs, buns, condiments, etc. and had the grill running, and to everyone who brought other goodies to the potluck to share. Also thanks to Dick Lathrop for traveling from Connecticut to sail with us, as he has given so much to the sailing community in the Upper Valley over the years as a sailing director, instructor, and ambassador. He continues this work in New London, CT through his Sea-Legs program.

Griesbach 2016 Results are final as of 9:00 on August 6

Overall

Sailed: 4, Discards: 0, To count: 4, Rating system: USPN, Entries: 7, Scoring system: Appendix A

R1

Start: Start 1, Finishes: Place

R2

Start: Start 1, Finishes: Place

R3

Start: Start 1, Finishes: Place

R4

Start: Start 1, Finishes: Place

Sailwave Scoring Software 2.19.8

www.sailwave.com

History

Marga and Ernie Griesbach came to Enfield for many years as guests at Kluges. In 1986 they bought a condo on Lake Mascoma and in 1990 moved to a house in Canaan. Ernie met Dick Lathrop, who was manager of the Dartmouth Sailing club, in the summer of 1988 in a rescue operation. When Ernie was having problems one afternoon on the lake sailing his "beer cooler", as Dick described it, Dick motored over to help him. They became good friends, and Dick later helped Ernie find a good boat, a Rhodes 19. When Ernie died from complications of surgery in 1992, Marga donated the Rhodes to the sailing club and Dick initiated the Griesbach regatta, which has become an annual event in Ernie's memory. Marga also had a handsome trophy made for the regatta.

The history of the Griesbachs is remarkable. Marga and Ernie were both German Jews. Marga was captured by the Gestapo in Germany and taken to a ghetto in Riga, Latvia. She was later shipped to a concentration camp, Stutthof, in Poland and then to a labor camp. Those who were able to walk were marched back to Germany, but Marga was able to escape with her mother, who suffered severe frostbite.

Ernie's family moved from Germany to France in 1933 because of oppression. When the Germans invaded France, Ernie's sister was arrested by the French and placed in a camp, Guers, for German Jews. The rest of Ernie's family escaped. The sister, however, was released when the firm that she had worked for indicated that she was an essential employee. As she was heading back toward her home in Bordeaux, she stopped in the marketplace of a small town and remarkably bumped into her family, as they were fleeing. The reunited family headed to Spain, crossing the Pyrenees on foot. They reached the US in 1941.