Story by Barry Hambrick

The Great Scot is in the record books and what a weekend we had with the help of Hurricane Matthew! It all started Friday night with a cookout for all. Stan and Donna Graham cooked 40 hamburgers for our visitors from out of town along with our fleet members. The following morning, we had boats arriving from Michigan, Mississippi, Tennessee, Georgia and Texas. 29 boats in all setting an all-time record of attendance. The biggest concern, however, was winds blowing around 25 plus! We had 18 boats attempt to race and were only able to get in one race due to the fact of the wind’s speed and shifts. A couple of boats encountered hardware problems and needed a tow and a few others had trouble remaining upright. Little did we know that this race would be the only one for the weekend due to Sunday’s conditions being worse than Saturday.

That did not stop the regatta! The Scot Fleet had a great party planned with a number of members handling various duties throughout the weekend. I can’t say “thank you” enough for everyone jumping in and taking care of what was needed and to be handled. Stan and Donna Graham, David and Beth Hardwick, Dave and Toni Hackney, Tim and Pam Pack, Richard and Billie Wade, Patrick and Denise Whatley, Marty and Charlie French, Doug and Kim Fox, our fleet captain Andrew Fox and my favorite fan club, Tracy and Emily Hambrick. We would also like to say a big thank you to Bob Blythe, PRO and the members who served on race committee this weekend. It was a difficult task and conditions were not easy! Thank you to those of you who sponsored the event with a generous monetary gift. We could not have hosted the event without your help. It was an over- the- top anniversary celebration.
Highlights from the evening….We had an awesome appetizers and dinner catered by our friends at Butts to Go. Wade Reich and his team do an outstanding job with food! Right before dinner, we held our annual Great Scot Raffle. There were so many prizes and it was a huge hit with everyone. Even if you didn’t win a prize at the raffle, no one went home empty handed. Every guest received a 40th Anniversary F/S etched mug filled with tea and tea cookies to carry out the Scottish tradition at our Great Scot Regatta. Once again this year, we had a wonderful DJ, George Buchann, who kept us dancing all evening as well as providing music for the Awards Ceremony. At his suggestion, we are proud to have paid tribute to our great nation by playing the Star Spangled Banner before the festivities got started. We also had a guest speaker, Mr. Sandy Lawton, who played an important role in getting the Scot Fleet started at The Birmingham Sailing Club some 40 years ago.

At our Awards Ceremony, we honored Harry Reich for his continuing support of our club and our fleet. We also paid tribute to Tim Pack and Dave Hackney as former Fleet Captains for reviving the fleet to where we are today, and thank them for their contributions. Richard Wade received an award as our District Champion, and Andrew Fox was recognized for winning the Challenger Fleet at Mid Winters. Patrick and Denise Whatley received the Harry Reich Sportsman Award, and on behalf of the Scot Fleet, Andrew Fox accepted the Fleet of the Year Award from our District Governor Rob Fowler.

Thanks to Denise Whatley, we have photos to share from the race on Saturday. If you would like to view them, please visit here.  They will be up for 180 days.

As you can see, we had a wonderful 2016 Great Scot Regatta. If you were not able to attend this year, we encourage you to please make plans to do so next October! We’d love to see you there.

Results are here.