David Phelps. From The Helm July and August. In This Issue. Waterlines Editor Angela Schuler

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1 ISSUE 59-07/08 July and August 2017 Cultivating a Rich and Proud Legacy of Boating for Pleasure and Sport Waterlines Editor Angela Schuler In This Issue From the Helm Rear Commodore Parking Cruising Fleet GTYC s ABC s In the News M24 Father s Day In the News Seen and Heard History Coming Events p1 p2 p3 p3 p4 p4 p5 p6 p10 p12 p13 Submissions due by the 4 th Tuesday of the month prior to publication words or less please waterlines@gtyc.org From The Helm July and August Fellow members, In February Angela Schuler notified the board that we would need to find a replacement for her volunteer position as Waterlines Editor by June Unfortunately, we have not found our new editor. Could it be you? It is a great way to know what is happening. Waterlines is an important archive for housing the history of our club. Have you volunteered lately? Maybe this is your chance to give time to your club. We need you! Here are the details: - 10 hours the last week of the month - Work on it at home - Creative Freedom - In fact, Dave didn t write this article Angela wrote it. - You don t have to be a solo editor. Find a friend and work on it together. Contact Angela at or angela@angelaschuler.com to talk about how to transition Waterlines from her to you. David Phelps Commodore 1

2 REAR COMMODORE Liz Zimmerman Strengthening Our Yacht Club Community Over the last several months we have lost several founding members from the early days of GTYC. What we must carry on is their ability to create the community that we still see here today. We have an obligation, a responsibility, to give back to our club in a way that makes it stronger for the next generation. That is what the likes of The Babels, The Clines, The Sweeneys, Ned Lockwood and The Cornwells-among others-did for each of us. The past month or so there have been several reminders that our club was built from the ground up, from the old lawn-mower factory to the place we love today. Founders Day was the visible and tangible acknowledgement of those who set us up for success. It was also the introduction of our newest members, and many of them will still be finding their way into our community for some time. Like a set of Jenga blocks, as we take from the bottom, and add new layers, the foundation may weaken. We need to continue to strengthen our base. Those of us who were new members 15, 20 or more years ago, can continue to build the yacht club community, as can our newest members. We can lead or serve on committees, help with events, get involved at the board level. We are a yacht club which requires volunteers to accomplish many of our events. Newer members should not be shy to get involved. Between projects at Bluewater Hall and ongoing activities at GTYC there are a variety of opportunities for all skill and interest levels. It has been suggested that each skipper of a racing boat, line up one volunteer to assist with Race Committee sometime this season. It doesn t have to be a regular crew, but might be a friend, spouse, part time crew member. I now have those spots available on the new club Sign Up page. I just signed up for GTYC Community and you should too! Sign up now on SignUp.com: Also look for opportunities to help out with Coast Guard Day, Hobie 33 Nationals and more. We will continue to use this same Sign Up page more and more. Fast, easy and FREE signups and scheduling save time and make it easy to organize activities everywhere you make a difference - we can use this sign up program for many things at the club. Let me know if you have an upcoming event that requires volunteers and I can help you set up a page. Looking back, even in 1974 the newsletter called out for work days, for all members to participate. The needs of the club have changed a little, but the call-out was much the same. At that point they had required 6 hours per member. Today we don t track hours, but Doc Rob does keep track of who shows up to help. And for associate members it helps move you up to active member status. Of course this includes things as simple as remembering to bus your own table after dinner, and putting away toys on the beach and kids' room, or more involved like helping at clean up days, dock-in support, or any one of the many committees. At the recent memorial for founding member Jean Cornwell there were many memories of how Jean built community. She was an involved parent, and held her children responsible. There were expectations to be upheld. Jean and Gordon wanted to better the programs they were involved in, like the Ski Club and TACS among others, not only for their own children, but for the next several generations. Please consider how you can get involved, ACTION ITEMS - Sign Up: - Get involved with Race Committee - We need a newsletter editor - Keep an eye out for other opportunities in upcoming communications. 2

3 PARKING Parking Update The summer months are the upon us, and it is great to see the boats at the Club. With the boats in the parking lot, our available parking becomes more limited. The parking committee has worked over the last year to maximize our available parking. We will be issuing two parking stickers for each Active membership. These stickers are to be placed on the driver s side windshield bottom corner. The stickers will be used to track parking lot usage, and inform future parking lot decisions. Parking Lot Courtesies - On Wednesday nights, please limit one car per boat. Request that remaining crew park in an additional parking location. - Please limit parking to one car per family. If driving separately, please park additional car in an additional parking location. - Please do not block the south exit of the parking lot. Parking Lot Policies Maximize club parking on club property. Park all vehicles, boats and trailers within the marked spaces. Do not park on the Veridian parking lot north of the club, the North Bay BioSciences building across M-22 from the club, or on the M-22 right of way. These are tow-away and ticketing zones. Additional Parking After normal working hours additional parking is available across M-22 behind the Westport building; however, continued use of this area is dependent on the excellent relationship we have with our neighbors. Bluewater Hall unless an event is taking place. Drive carefully on the grounds especially after dark. M-22 is a high traffic area, and parking on the right of way is dangerous and discouraged. Show extreme caution when exiting the club. CRUISING FLEET 2017 North Channel Rendezvous Please plan to join fellow GTYC boaters on Thursday, August 3rd Annual North Channel Rendezvous This summer's rendezvous will take place at John Harbor, Ontario - L N, W. John Harbor is located near the western end of the Whalesback Channel and about 4 miles south of Bear Drop. The Great Lakes Cruising Guide provides the following description: John Harbor has long been a favorite of North Channel cruisers. It offers two deep water anchorages, open enough for good ventilation but well protected by surrounding islands. John is noted for blueberries in season. And there is a lovely sandy beach! Fly your GTYC burgee and a good time will be had by all! Contact Pete and Sue Stott or Fred and Lisa Wilmeth with any questions. 3

4 GTYC s ABC s Reminders For Everyone At Grand Traverse Yacht Club, ABC stands for Always Be Considerate. Especially in this busiest season of the year at our Club, it is important to remember that a little common consideration toward your fellow members, for the building & grounds, and toward the staff, enhances the enjoyment of the summer s events and Club usage for everyone. Little things add up fast! As a largely volunteer-supported club with limited staff and facilities, it is the members duty to pick up after themselves, police the building and grounds, attend to maintenance & repairs, and maintain security. - Do you buss your own table of used glassware and dinner dishes? - Take a shift washing glasses for the bar staff on a busy evening? - Sweep up some of the amazing amount of popcorn that ends up on the floor on a Wed. or Fri. night? - Help your children tidy up the kids room play area? - Make sure the ping-pong & foosball equipment is put away? - Bring in cups, bottles & cans, glasses, dishes, and trash from the lawn area, beach, and parking lot? Refrain from drinking alcohol in the parking lot anyway under restrictions of our liquor license. Thursday and Saturday mornings always reveal a scattered collection of beverage containers! While we re at it, empty cans & bottles don t go in the trash cans they have deposits and we have an obligation to recycle there is a table next to the ice machine in the kitchen dedicated to returnable bottles & cans. great opportunities for group volunteerism, but stuff needs doing all year round to keep our building and grounds attractive and functional. If you possess particular skills and/or interests in areas of building & grounds upkeep, let Dietrich & Annie know. Finally, everyone is acutely aware of parking congestion at GTYC, and, without getting into a discussion of boats over cars, etc., a little awareness and consideration will go a long way toward making the current situation less annoying: The lines are narrow park between them (and for those few spots that T up to others, leave room in front of your bumper for a properly parked car to open its door enough to get out & in again). Keep the South driveway open and use the North drive for entry, South for exit (one-way circular drive), and drop off passengers before parking on site or elsewhere. Use the Westport Building or Bluewater Hall off-site parking, and please ask your non-member guests, or extra crew members, to do so. Parking on the M-22 right-of-way is illegal, dangerous for those entering & exiting, and inconsiderate of other Club members and the property. Keeping the ABCs of GTYC in mind as we enjoy another activity-packed summer season at our great Club will make everyone s experience that much more enjoyable and satisfying! Taking note of wear & tear on the facility is helpful if reported to the Buildings & Grounds Committee for attention (Dietrich & Annie Floeter, co-chairs). Even better, if you notice something needs fixing, be part of the solution: Grab a screwdriver, hammer, paint brush, rake, caulk gun whatever is required and git er done! Our Spring & Fall work days are 4

5 M24 Father s Day Father s Day brought a great example of building our GTYC community. There was an impromptu decision to have a fun, casual regatta for the Melges fleet. As some of the bigger boats were coming in from the Northport race, four of our M24 fleet-bad Idea, Alligator, Le Coq, #500 were fighting the big winds, duking it out on the course. Bob Clark and Liz Zimmerman threw down a starting line and blew some whistles. Following the racing, as the sailors put their toys away, families gathered with a great spread of classic pot-luck, grilled up some brats and watched the America s Cup. There were kids playing catch on the lawn, sailors comparing notes on sail trim and rig-tune, and as we wrapped up everyone pitched in cleaning up and making sure we left the club as we found it. 5

6 IN THE NEWS THE ART OF RACING ON THE BAY SAILING WITH THE GRAND TRAVERSE YACHT CLUB IS NOTHING SHORT OF A TRULY NORTHERN EXPERIENCE BY PATRICK SULLIVAN JULY 8, 2017 Reprint from NORTHERN EXPRESS But that spot turns out to be ever-shifting, as weight needs to be moved from one side of the boat to the other. In the minutes leading up to the start of a Wednesday night sailboat race on West Grand Traverse Bay, the Grand Traverse Yacht Club s longtime weekly tradition, vessels crowd together, each angling for an advantageous position on the water s invisible starting line. If you look out at the scene from shore, the cluster of boats and sails looks chaotic. It looks even more so aboard one of them. The Northern Express stowed away on the Rights of Mann, a 34-foot Sabre, for a mid-june Wednesday night race. This is our story. NO PLACE TO HIDE A little more than an hour before the race, the crew crowds on to the 1988 fiberglass craft, owned by Sam Bender, a New York City transplant whose accent betrays his East Coast origins. The term crowds is apt, not because the boat is small, but because the crew includes extra people at least a couple extra hands plus a stray reporter. Unlike most Wednesdays, and perhaps owing to the perfect weather (72 degrees, sunny, light wind), everyone showed up, plus a couple more. It might not be great weather for a sailboat race, but it s great weather to be on the bay. Although an optimal crew would be five, including the skipper, Bender would not hear of leaving anyone at shore, even the stragglers who showed up at the last minute; they re part of the crew, and they ll be part of the crew this evening. With eight people aboard, this reporter goes in search of a spot where he won t be in the way but can still hear the lively back-and-forth banter between Bender and his crew. That rules out the cozy cabin down below. The right spot turns out to be a corner near the stern, just to the side of the captain s wheel. Tonight it might be nice to have extra bodies on the leeward side, said Jed Mooney, a Grand Traverse Yacht Club board member who joined the Bender s crew as a sort of sailing guru. Translation: Every time the boat tacks, the dead weight hiding in the corner near the stern must to squeeze to the other side of the boat while attempting to cause as little trouble as possible. GRAND TOURING RACERS There are three classes of boat that take part in the yacht club s Wednesday night races. The fastest and most serious are also the smallest the Melges 24s, sleek white wedges that skim along the water with crews of three or four. The allure of racing Melges is that all of the boats are virtually identical, so the race is close to a true test of a crew s sailing ability. Next are two classes called Grand Touring Fleet larger sailboats that either sail with spinnakers, those bulbous sails that float out in front of their boats like Thanksgiving Day parade balloons, or with just jib and main sails. The spinnakers add considerable speed to their boats, so the crews that use them need more experience. The Rights of Mann sails in the jib and main class. We signed up for the jib and main because we don t have the experience, and it s a little less complicated, Bender said. The Rights of Mann s crew is not new to sailing or racing, but they are new to racing together, and that s what presents the evening s main challenge. Sails must be trimmed to the optimal tightness, turns must be carried off with as much efficiency as the crew can manage, and each movement of each crew member must be carefully orchestrated. 6

7 As the crews got ready to race, the jib and main boats motor out into the bay on diesel power, getting out to where the sails can be raised. When the motor is cut, the sails go up and, once the wind fills the sails, there is a palpable change in the propulsion of the craft. The boat leans into the water and picks up speed. Six-or-so miles per hour have never felt so exhilarating. It s a light-wind evening, however, and that first gust would be the Rights strongest of the day. The crew tacks to turn back to the west and settles in to listen to instructions about the imminent race broadcast over the boat s radio. GETTING READY FOR A START Around 5:30pm, more than a half hour before the starting horn sounds, there s a little time to sail around the bay and get a sense for what the wind is like. That means a series of tacks, a maneuver where the wheel is turned and the boat changes direction, moving the sails out of the wind so that they swing to the opposite side to find the wind again. For a crew that s just getting used to working together, it s a move that takes a few practice tries and some yelling above the wheezing of the winch before it starts to come off smoothly. But this pre-race sail cannot take the boat just anywhere in the bay. First, each crew has to be careful to stay out of the way of other sailboats. And, as 6pm approaches, the bay seemingly fills up with boats. Suddenly they re everywhere, traveling in all directions, and somehow they re managing not to crash into each other. There is something beautiful in the improvised choreography, and it s hard to imagine how it works in strong winds when every boat is sailing three or four times as fast. And yet there is still another consideration as the seconds tick away toward the start time: All boats must keep an eye on the committee boat, which is already lined up with a buoy for the start of the Melges 24 races and soon will position itself elsewhere to send off the spinnaker class boats. The invisible line between the committee boat and the appointed buoy make up the starting point of the race, a line that ll earn you a penalty if you cross it before the race starts but could earn you an edge if you re just close enough when the starting horn sounds. The timing is part art and part science, because getting a 34-foot hulk of fiberglass to slow down or speed up at the collective will of a crew who are not used to working together is a complicated matter and one that requires lots of practice. UP NORTH TRANSPLANT Bender and his wife, Susan, visited northern Michigan 30 years ago, and they liked the place. When they retired a couple years ago, they decided to move here almost out of the blue. Bender said sailing was not what drew him to Traverse City, but once he got here, he couldn t resist the allure. When I first moved here, I thought I would learn to play golf, but I opted for the boat instead, he said. In a way, Bender is both a seasoned sailor and a novice. He d owned a boat years ago in New York and sailed on the Hudson River. When he got to northern Michigan, he applied for membership at the Grand Traverse Yacht Club, volunteered to pitch in, and found himself on some crews. Last fall, he decided to bring a sailboat from Connecticut to northern Michigan. This is really my first season at it we did a half season last year, he said. This is a new crew, and we just started working together. Slowly, he s cobbled together a crew from people he met at the yacht club and people he met at the Newcomers Club of Grand Traverse. I know I m not the best sailor. I know I m not the fastest boat, Bender said. If we do well, we do well. I don t want it to be a negative experience is the best way to put it. Sailing in this kind of race takes a captain who tells his crew what to do, but there s a democratic atmosphere on Bender s boat because everyone is learning their roles and everyone is free to make suggestions. 7

8 For my needs, I like to have people that are congenial. I m not doing this to squabble and argue, Bender said. Sometimes I think maybe I d just like to go cruising, but I like the excitement. OTHER PEOPLE S BOATS When the horn sounds at 6:15pm, the Rights of Mann is in a good position, but soon finds itself calmed with several other boats between its sails and the wind. There isn t that much wind to go around, and it s going to be a slow race. Mooney fell in love with sailing early and made a career out of it. He grew up in Gross Pointe and raced at yacht clubs there; he learned to sail at Camp Lookout, south of Frankfort. He s been a competitive sailor since junior high, and he s raced the [Bayview] Port Huron to Mackinac sailboat race nine times and the Chicago [Yacht Club Race] to Mackinac six times. I just got hooked I just started sailing and racing as much as I could, Mooney said. He owns a business, Mooney Marine Services, that does maintenance, repairs and custom rigging. The business grew out of his love of sailing. Basically the business came from helping the people who took me sailing maintain their boats as a thank you, he said. I m a proud member of the other people s boats yacht club. Mooney met Bender at the yacht club, and when Bender bought his boat last year, he asked Mooney to join his crew. In Mooney, Bender found a ringer. Over the years he s been on crews that have dominated the Wednesday night races. The experience on Rights is different, though, because of the inexperience of the crew. Bender said that over time the crew could develop and become more competitive. Mooney said it is satisfying to help along a group of people who don t have a lot of race experience. Sailboat racing, really, is as old as sailing itself, he said. For centuries, sailing was the mode of transport in the world, and there was a real advantage in doing it well: Fishermen wanted to be the first to the fishing grounds and first back to port with the catch. That took good sailing skills. These sailors had to make their boats perform the best they could, and that was before racing, he said. Racing is just a development of that sort of attention to performance under sail. THE PERSONALITY OF THE BOAT The race is made of up three legs that stretch between buoys back and forth across the bay. Tonight s race has a calm quality because the wind is so mild; sailing between these turns and around the buoys is smooth and uneventful. There s time to talk and enjoy the scenery. Crew member Bill Byrne started sailed competitively after college with friends at the Gross Isle Yacht Club. In 2014, he moved to Traverse City to retire and decided to take up sailing again. He bought a 19-foot sailboat and took classes. He met Bender at the Newcomers Club, and when Bender got his boat, Bender asked Byrne to join his crew. Different crews include people of all ages and from diverse backgrounds. Byrne said it s important to find the kind of crew that suits you. I think part of it is kind of the combined personality of the boat, the way people s personalities mesh on the boat, he said. You re under a little bit of strain, especially when you re racing, and you ve got to click as a group. Byrne said it s not the speed that he finds alluring, it s the character of the motion. What s really kind of captured me sailboats don t go very fast, relative to power boats, but you re much closer to the water, Byrne said. When the boat s heeled over, and the water starts to flow over the side, there s that sensation of speed that kind of gives you that exhilarating feeling. It s the wind against the sails. It s the tension on the lines, on the sheets. It s all of that that starts to get into play. RELATIVE CALM The relative peace of the sailboat race this Wednesday stands in stark contrast to what the crew experi- 8

9 -enced a week earlier, when they found themselves in the path of a quickly approaching thunderstorm. The crew could see the storm barreling in from the western horizon as they raced. It was pretty impressive, said Catherine Allchin, a seasoned sailor from Suttons Bay who was invited to lend some experience to Bender s boat. It was like we were trying to beat the storm, you know? And we got into shore, and the rains hit. We were just deluged right as we got the boat tied up, so it was good timing. Some of the crew, like Allchin, have been yacht club members for years, and they ve jumped from boat to boat. Others simply show up and walk on to any crew that ll take them. The week before, Allchin said a young man who d learned to sail when he was little showed up at the yacht club. Mooney had invited him to join his crew, but when the evening arrived, Bender learned of another boat that was short-handed, so they sent the young man there. Everyone was happy to see the kid came back the next week to race on the same boat. He s like, Hey, I really want to sail, Allchin said. You don t necessarily need sailing experience to show up and sail, though it helps. What you do need is a strong desire and willingness to learn. If you let them know at the yacht club that you re interested and want to be on a crew, they ll do their best to help you get on a boat, Allchin said. Allchin likes the temperament of the Isle of Mann s crew. They want to race as fast as they can, but they re not consumed by the competition. There are those who really thrive on the winning aspect and being very competitive, and then there are those who want to go out and do the best that they can, she said. In my lifetime, I have raced aggressively, and I enjoy being on a boat where people want to learn and where you re passing it on. 9

10 SEEN AND HEARD AROUND THE CLUB photos and quotes may be wholly unrelated 10

11 SEEN AND HEARD AROUND THE CLUB photos and quotes may be wholly unrelated 11

12 HISTORY GTYC Safety, Cruising and History Tom Cowell PC47 We recently came across this list of safety equipment made up for the Cruiser Fleet by Warren Cline. You'll note some things have changed but the survival needs are just the same. Some of the items listed give away the issue date in 1967, fifty years ago this summer. By the way, the author, Warren Cline was father of 2007 Commodore Bud Cline and Bud's uncle, Ted Cline, was Commodore in The CB radio has given way to VHF radios and cell phones. It has been my recent experience that for many marina locations today you'll have much better luck contacting them by cell phone than VHF. The common life jacket of the day has evolved into today's self inflating PFD with automatic strobe lights and personal GPS locators. Even so, recent rescues during the Mackinac races have demonstrated that the simple whistle is still a very effective rescue tool. Take heed of the Man Overboard Procedures in Rule 3. Maybe the warmer summer waters in the Bay would be a time to experiment not just with locating a MOB but the challenge of getting them back on deck. Rule 4 can be laid to rest except for the few. Morse Code has been mostly relegated to history even in aviation and amateur radio. 12

13 SERVICES COMING EVENTS August August 2 August 3 August 4 August 6 August 9 August 10 August 11 August 12 August 13 August 15 August 16 August 17 August 25 August 26 August 27 August 29 August 30 August 31 Centerboard Thursday Interlakes and Lasers Nominations Meeting Coast Guard Day Centerboard Thursday Interlakes and Lasers Hound Dog Regatta Hound Dog Regatta Hound Dog Regatta GTYC Board Meeting 6pm Centerboard Thursday Interlakes and Lasers Hobie 33 North Americans Hobie 33 North Americans Hobie 33 North Americans Waterlines Deadline Nan-C-Jay Centerboard Thursday Interlakes and Lasers September September 2 September 3 September 6 September 13 September 19 September 20 September 27 CYC Red Fox Regatta CYC Red Fox Regatta GTYC Board Meeting 6pm Because a date/holiday is listed should not imply the Club is open for that holiday Board meetings are open to all members Check the Club s ONLINE CALENDAR for Up-to-date Event InfoRefer to NORs and SIs for official racing dates, not the online calendar 13