And the Winner Is...

[Daniel Hearn]

...Neil Lynch, of Marquette, Michigan--the new owner of the brand new Jeff Kent mast donated by Ken Smith to the North American Ice Opti Racing Association.  Neil is the perfect winner of this great raffle prize, being a new, unranked DN sailor competing in his first event.  In the "close, but no cigar category" were John Dennis (#5 draw), Bob Cave (#4 draw), Rich Potcova (#3 draw), and Jorge Bohn (#2 draw).  In total, 149 ten dollar tickets were sold for the raffle, with all proceeds going to support North American Junior ice sailing development.  Many thanks to Ken Smith for passing his good fortune forward.  Thanks to everyone who purchased tickets to support the effort.  And one final thanks to all who also shared with me their great memories of ice sailing when mailing their checks. 

I continue to be inspired by the great attitudes of ice sailors far and wide.  After a week of challenging regatta conditions last week for the NA's, what do you see on the Forum? Nothing but positive comments coming from far and wide.  Very cool!

By the way, there's a great video of the event posted on the Four Lakes Ice Yacht Club website.  It's on Vimeo, and it's hi-res, so you can watch the 3:48 piece full screen.  Really nice work by the production company out of Thunder Bay.   

[Ayes]

I have two things to say:

First, a very special thank you to Dan Hearn, Ken Smith, and to everyone else that made the contest a success.

Second, in the spirit of "pay it forward" , I will be starting an ice opti program in the north central Upper Peninsula.  We will have to import some coaching talent, as I fall woefully short in that regard.

Ayes
aka Neil (not the dog)
aka DN 5444