The "Golden Baton" Award

The golden baton is a "Knucklehead" award started in 1997 by Wayne Lee and Ron Songrath. The first recipient was Lu Lyall for running into a moored sailboat in Newport Harbor with his 27' Formula. At the inception it was just a Golden Baton with the words "I am Stupid" on it. Through the years it has taken on a life of its own. It can be passed at any time to the new recipient for a stupid move. It is both endearing, and embarrassing at the same time.

The "Golden Baton" today

A tradition has been born that each time it is passed, we added a trinket of the "stupidity" to the physical being of "The Baton". 

No Particular Order

	Who: Lu Lyall, Added: First "Golden Baton" Recipient Reason: For hitting a moored sailboat with his powerboat
	Who: Ron Songrath Added: A BandAid was added to the baton Reason: Slipping off his 3A drive he freshly WD40'ed and put a 12" slice in his leg with a clever prop!
	Who: Wayne Lee Added: Hose clamp Reason: His water hose popped off due to a loose hose clamp and almost sunk his 42 Fountain.
	Who: Stan Leader Added: Piece of anchor line Reason: Stan fouled both of his props with the mooring tag line in Avalon, Catalina.
	Who: Jeffrey Cheng Added: Spark plug Reason: Jeffrey decided to economize and bought Pep Boys spark plugs with the wrong heat range and ruined two Cobra Engines costing him $40,000 in rebuilds.
	Who: Chris Prouty Added: Sand in a bag Reason: While on the SCOPE trip to the BigCat poker run, Chris decided not to follow the others through the tricky waters of the Delta, but make is own way......right into a sandbar and had to push his boat for a bit.
	Who: Jim Dunphy Added: Hospital bracelet Reason: Jimbo "Cannon Balled" into 3' of water on the SCOPE San Diego trip at the Lowes Coronado, broke his leg in two places and had a rod surgically installed.
	Who: Ken Bowen Added: Air brake knob Reason: Ken forgot to apply the air brake on his toterhome and it rolled down an on ramp, through a barbed wire fence and into a ditch. He was in the bathroom taking a leak and his family was sitting at the dinette.
	Who: Pam Burns Added: Key ring Reason: After a long day of boating on the SCOPE Lake Mead trip, she got a ride back to the hotel with someone else only to ask......."Where is my Tahoe?" (she left it on the launch ramp).
	Who: Ron Songrath Added: Ball cock valve Reason: Not properly installing a hose to his ball cock valve and having the hose pop off.....nearly sinking his boat.
	Who: Chris Lee Added: Bag of sand Reason: Chris idles his 29 commander for 10 minutes at "Big Sandy" beach at lake Mead with both drives in the sand and filled both engine blocks with the same.