
Originally Posted by
roadtripse
Well, if it makes ya feel better, Buiz took a drive by shower from Inferno a couple of times. One can never be refreshed enough...
My impressions of the weekend:
1) Best time I have had at a donzi rally in two years. No drama equals mucho fun.
2) That damned green wheeled smoker is going to kill me yet, but we will continue taunting the beast.
3) The Gorge is an incredibly beautiful place to run a boat.
4) Take a new guy for a quick blast in the Flowerpot and watch the bugs collect in said teeth.
5) Bill and Christina are gracious hosts. And Roger rocks. The saloon is empty without Allie.
6) I'll be there again next year...
Todd, I concur on all points; especially #4! Thanks so much for the ride in the Flowerpot - she is an incredible boat. For me it's the gold standard of 22 Classics, well though-out and impeccably rigged. Also thanks for the contribution of time and dead cows for the dinner on Saturday. Best steaks ever (and you managed to keep your eyebrows intact, just barely).
And another huge thanks to Bill and Christina for putting this thing together. There is a TON of behind-the-scenes coordination to pull something like this off, from reserving cabins to coordinating private rooms for lunches to lock times to getting all the indians rounded up in the morning (and/or early afternoon...). You guys rock! The sunset cruise on the Fountain was a great time as well.
Not going to try and mention everyone else by name, because I would fail miserably and leave folks out. But my crew had a LARGE time again due to the great group of folks that attended this event. It was a hoot being the "welcoming committee" at the entrance to the floating cabins. Getting a chance to chat with everyone as they walked (or got carried) by our porch was a HOOT.
I was a little behind schedule on the prop testing and intended to do some tuning on Thursday, but that was scuttled when we lost the shift cable during our inaugural sunset cruise on Wed night. The one thing I hired out because I didn't feel like dealing with it came back to bite me; apparently the cable is not supposed to be routed where it can touch the coupler... Big shout out to my best friend Jamie for spending all day getting the boat sorted out with me in the parking lot and to the girls for taking it all in stride. The old cable is still for sale cheap BTW.
Other than that the boat ran great although still slow as hell. This fact was highlighted for me in spectacular fashion when Todd cruised at my WOT speed and then dropped the hammer in the 'pot. At least we did the last-minute muffler yank in the parking lot so it sounded fast... At one point at the swimming hole we had 13 folks on the bowrider (don't tell the USCG!) and 1500 watts of tunes CRANKED. There was at least a six pack of beer consumed as well. So we're slow, but we have a lot of tiddlywink spirit!
Thanks again to everyone for everything. We'll see you guys next year!
1998 Donzi 21LXR
1971 Boston Whaler 13
"Speed's fine, but accuracy is final."
- Bill Jordan