Ted and Helen Brien wrote us with some memories of SSSS in the 70’s. For those who might not know them, Ted and Helen were made Life Members for running our races on the water. For several years their powerboat, the Briney — yes, powerboat — was The SSSS RC boat. Racers did not have to volunteer to run a race each year, as they do now. It was stressed to me that we awarded both of them Life Membership. Helen is being rewarded for what she herself did, not just for marrying someone who helped get our racing program get started.
In 1970 I talked to George Hansen about joining SSSS. It was always called that. He invited me to join because, at that time, I had a sailboat.
We would take turns as the starting boat. After we would get them started, we would join the race. There was no handicap, first boat across won. Later we would have a complicated handicap system. I can remember when Harold Sargent took his complaint to the national level. He lost.
Even before there was a dock on Squaxin Island we would go around an old log, plenty of room there, and we would leave it on the port side.
After we got rid of our sailboat we went into the Briney. [Ted hurt his back, coming down from his mast too fast, and wanted an easier way to get out on the water. He volunteered to be RC boat for us.] We figured out some kind of a system [to finish races]. Helen would write down the time-of-day when I would call ‘mark’, and we would both insert the name of the boat. That was OK, until one day, with a following breeze, six boats came over at once. That was interesting.
Dick Deyoe was very Slow. One day I awarded him the ‘Creepy Mousey Award’ [for making the RC boat wait the longest]. This was the beginning of a long line of Creepy Mousey Awards.
We had a slingshot with [water] balloons. There was a contest to see who could put a balloon into someone’s sail. These were really big slingshots.
In 1976 we took a cruise to the Broken Islands, Barkley Sound. We found several SSSS boats at Marble Island. Had prawns and a barbecued fish. Took Mort James to Bamfield, Canada, and left for Neah Bay.
That’s all we can think of now.
Ted & Helen Brien