Are you ready for another season of sailing?
Pete Japikse
The warning signals are being sounded, and next week the preparatory flag goes up for our 2012 sailing season!
The advance teams have been hard at work – the docks are nearly ready for us (no small feat this year), the power and water are back on in the clubhouse and shelterhouse, the Pink Lady has been outfitted with a new motor, all the committee assignments have been made, the PRC has been busy making up the season roster, and sailing emails are flying around the fleets!
Mother Nature teased us a little bit this week – just enough to make us remember how much fun sailing is, and to remind us that it is time to get boats washed, waxed, and ready to sail. Although there are frost warnings posted for the next two nights, Spring is certain to be back before we know it.
So here we go!
Next week is club opening weekend. Please check the website for duty assignments, and come join us on Saturday to get the property opened and ready for the season. There will be work parties for grounds, clubhouse, harbor, kitchen, and vessels. We will begin bright and early Saturday morning and work till we are done – the last couple of years people came ready to go and we had all our tasks done by lunch time – there is no reason why we cannot repeat that accomplishment this year.
Following the club opening, we will have a contractor painting the beams and the fascia boards on the clubhouse so that they have a fresh look and are ready for another 10-15 years of duty protecting us. Until that task is done, we will leave the patio fans bagged and protected.
April 15 will be our first race – and a practice race at that. This is a great opportunity to get the boat launched, have a fun sail, and use a ‘non-scoring’ race to remember which lines work which controls and to discover the odds and ends that you disconnected last season. (Thank goodness for digital cameras!)
The regular racing season begins on April 22.
Also on April 22 membership Judy Hearn has invited all of our new members from the last couple years to join together at the club for a welcome brunch and orientation. If you missed that email from her, please let her know that you can join us for this.
We have a special event that we would like you to help us advertise! On May 12-13 (a weekend) we are hosting a learn to sail class for the public. This replaces the red cross course that we used to run. The entire class will be held at the sailing club. We will start at 9:00 AM on Saturday, and introduce our guests to basic sailing, both on shore and on water. Each of our fleet captains have been asked to round up at least two fleet members and boats, and together we will provide instruction and sailing fundamentals. Lunch on Saturday will be provided, and dinner on Saturday will be a chili cook-off between the fleets. There will be time for more sailing after dinner. On Sunday morning we will resume at 9:00 AM and finish at noon, and offer those that are interested the opportunity to crew in the races or ride with the race committee as space is available. This is a great opportunity to recruit new members for your fleets, and also a great opportunity to invite those friends that you have teased with your sailing stories who might want to know a little bit more about our great sport. Cost for the weekend is $25 per attendee (maximum one fee per family) to cover the cost of the books and supplies we are using from US Sailing. So . . . drop over to the CLSA.US website, and download the flyer from the news page and share it with your friends. If they are interested, ask them to sign up by sending an email to: Learn...@clsa.us. We already have a number of folks signed up. And wait . . . you are not done . . . put the date on your calendar and let your fleet captain know that you will be there at the party!
The last order of business for this message deals with lifts and boats. Please sign up for a lift party so that you can get your lift back in the water. Our harbor is a fantastic place – and walking around it is so much easier when the lifts are where they belong – in the lake. Please be very careful when you are walking by the water – it has been a very wet winter with numerous floods. There are sink holes and washouts in a couple of places. We will be working with the state to remedy those obstacles. If you have boats or trailers stored in the parking lot, please have those moved as soon as possible. As we all know, the parking lot is marginal in size when all of us are at the lake – therefore the club rule that requires boat and trailer storage only in the boneyard. (Speaking of the boneyard, as part of my midwinter sailing travels I had an opportunity to view another club’s boneyard, and came back with some ideas to help us organize ours a bit. I will work with the board and officers to pursue some ideas – if you have some of your own, please send me a note or tell me at the club when you see me.)
I had the rare opportunity (for me) to go sailing two weeks ago at the MC midwinters. To be honest, I was intimidated about jockeying around a race course and starting line with 79 other boats. But once I got on the water, I remembered how much fun this is . . . and I discovered that the size of the fleet was really no different than sailing with my friends from Cowan. And the chop in the water was no worse than what we experience at our prestart games on our own little inland puddle. I came back from there with skiing fully flushed out of my system for the season and ready to sail some more at Cowan. I hope that each of you finds the opportunity to flush out the wet winter blues and get back into your boats with us up at the sailing club.
Looking forward to seeing you all very soon,
Pete Japikse
Commodore