And a hearty thank you from Salle Santa Cruz!!

-----Original Message-----
From: Jeff Powell [mailto:jeffp@...]
Sent: Tuesday, May 01, 2007 4:09 PM
To: SDC Fencers
Cc: Mary Keane
Subject: Salle DeCesare and the Boardwalk Open

Hey Gang,

I need to tell you a story. It is titled:

How Salle DeCesare Helped Save The Boardwalk Open

On Saturday, the Boardwalk Open was in full swing in
the UCSC campus when the unexpected happened: the power
went out. Apparently the entire campus went dark.

I wasn't there, but the good folks from Salle Santa
Cruz that were hosting the tournament realized that
all of SDC's scoring machines could be run on batteries,
and moved what they could over to those machines.

Alas, it wasn't enough, and power wasn't restored quickly.
They had to stop the open epee at the round of 16.
Basically, the fencing was called due to darkness.

On Sunday morning I was called by Mary Keane asking
what they could do to run their other scoring machines
on batteries, as they had the foil half of the entire
event to run, the power still wasn't back, and 4 strips
wasn't enough.

We talked a while and figured out a plan. Mary has a
generator and I have a big UPS. That combination would
drive their scoring machines just fine. Ambient light was
enough for the morning and afternoon, so we hoped things
would go fast. And they did, for a while. They had 8
strips in use as often as they could, but eventually
things slowed down as fencers were directing, they ran
out of directors, breaks were needed, and what-not.

And darkness set in, again. As it always does.

But Sunday we had more time to plan. We got some halogen
lights (thanks to Mary's SO) and put them on the generator.
Then we finished the open foil events using SDC's battery
operated strips. It was an odd sight, fencing by halogen
work light on two strips in that big gym, but it worked.
We finished cleaning up at about 9:15pm, I think. Well
after dark.

It was an interesting and eventful tournament, but it
never would have finished up without SDCs equipment.
So on behalf of Salle Santa Cruz I need to thank the
good people of SDC for the equipment loan. Though it was
never planned that way, it saved the day. Thank you!

The UCSC people say the problem is the main underground
power cable to the west fieldhouse is bad and must be
replaced. They weren't going to work on that until
Monday to save money. Imagine that. :)

Anyway, thanks again. You really came through!

--jeffp