Blackbeard s Epitaph. From the Commodore. Dave Whitney. ALL THE NEWS THAT S IN THE WINDS (252)

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1 BLACKBEARD SAILING CLUB Upper Broad Creek On The Neuse PO Box 1543, New Bern, NC Volume 39, Number 4 COMMODORE Dave Whitney VICE-COMMODORE Jimmy Sellers SECRETARY Lu-Ann Perryman TREASURER Ken Gurganus DIRECTORS Bill Talbert Bill Braun Lu-Ann Perryman Tom Wynn George Nauman Bill Drechsler DOCKMASTER Pete Moore DINGHY & DRY STORAGE Ted Clark (Dry Storage & Woods) John Stokes (Dinghies) EDITORS Bill Green George Myers bscepitaph@yahoo.com bscdirectory@gmail.com From the Commodore Most of you had a surprise in your this month. BSC has initiated e- billing for quarterly statements. You receive exactly the same statement you are used to seeing at a considerable savings to your club. Simply send your check with your member number noted, as before. We only had to send seven statements by snail mail and hope to cut that number further. We added six new members during Spring Workday, leaving us with 4 openings. There are applications in process to cover these and we hope to fill our ranks with another initiation in May. Thanks to Bill and Jan Green for hosting a successful game night as our last Spring Social for There were a lot of blank faces at the Trivial Pursuit tables, though. Some of us are not as smart as we thought we were! Actually, I think the new topics are maybe not age appropriate for us older folks. The next social event will be the 4th of July. This evolved last year into a Family Day, and was quite successful. At present, no one is heading up this event, so volunteers are needed to keep the process going. Please contact Janet Harrison or yours truly to volunteer. The Junior Sailing program had their first training session on April 9 th. A total of seventeen youngsters are signed up but there is room for more. Check the BSC website for information on this program. The SJ21 Wednesday Series kicked off April 6 th, with six boats hitting the water. This is a great way to get out on the water, and there is always room for more. Dust off those SJ21 s and get out there! Big boat racing begins at BSC with the ECB Cup scheduled for the weekend of April 30 th and May 1 st. This is a team ALL THE NEWS THAT S IN THE WINDS (252) event with sailing clubs competing with each other for the ICRC trophy. There are three of these team races each year, giving clubs a chance to compete up and down the Neuse River. Cruisers are always welcome to a friendly competition in their very own class. Most even leave their biminis on! Come on out and get on the water. Your BOD has begun funding capital projects for First on the list is an environmental issue elimination of the sewage drain field. This year, $8550 will be spent to insure that capacity is reserved in the Fairfield Harbour Plant. The actual hookup, which will cost $28,000, is scheduled for the next couple years. Second on the list is drainage of the infield. This has been put on hold pending input from the Department of Water Quality. Once we know our options, we can move ahead with fine tuning our design. Another hot topic is dredging of the south side of the launch ramp. During the recent low water event, Arnold Giles took pictures that show exactly what needs to be done. We are looking at hiring a company to do bucket dredging of the hump. Of course, we don t want to do that until we are sure that silting will not recur. The last item of great interest to be funded, is the replacement of showers in the Men s Bathhouse. This is long overdue and will finally get done this year. This project will be done using club labor, so we will be putting together some work teams soon. If there is money left after these projects are completed, we can move on some others. The costs are too vague at this point to make any promises. Spring is here, so come down and enjoy your club. See you on the water! Dave Whitney

2 Page 2 Race News Half a Regatta Better Than None The NYRA Invitational at Bridgeton Harbor Marina demonstrated that March can go out like a lion, too. Saturday morning was chilly, windy and gray, but still attracted seven PHRF boats and nine SJ 21s. The San Juans raced across from Union Point and completed four races. Dan Bornarth dominated the spinnaker class with four wins in Black Jack. In the working sails class, Doug Longhini in Kanga edged out Roadrunner for first place. PHRF boats raced a fast middle distance course of about 16 miles, beginning with a down wind start off Union Point. Sounds easy, but when you are accustomed to windward starts, timing the line crossing is harder than it looks. Only Dave Whitney in Silent Pursuit and Compass Rose were registered in the spinnaker class, but since it was a reach down river and back, we really didn t get a chance to fly the chutes. Our one attempt did us more harm than good. We were going really fast, but in the wrong direction. But together with the five non-spin boats on the same course, it was like having one big non-spin fleet in a reaching sprint. There was lots of sail tweaking and string pulling to get maximum boatspeed. Compass Rose beat Silent Pursuit in the spinnaker class, and we elected not to have a second race to keep the sails dry. Non-spin boats did have a second short race which they squeezed in before it got wet. Longview and Aquilla from Fairfield Harbor YC took first and second in both races. Arch Altman in Julie was third in both races. Saturday evening s cookout dinner was moved into a shop building at Bridgeton Harbor, so everyone stayed dry and sociable. Sunday s scheduled races were cancelled due to a forecast Real Feel of 33 degrees, heavy wind and lots of rain. Smart decision. April, May and June Race Events April 30/May 1 is the ECB Cup, an ICRC Team Race hosted here at Blackbeard. Our Team Captain Arch Altman by Mark Brennesholtz has been busy rounding up racers and cruisers, and it looks like Team Blackbeard should have at least eight boats to do battle with our nemesis ODC. It is also a NYRA Boat of the Year (BOTY) event. The NOR has been published. Contact Mike Bonner at or msbonner@suddenlink.net. May 14 is the New Bern High School Naval Junior ROTC Regatta at Bridgeton Harbor Marina. Format is college style round robin in Flying Juniors. For some fun dinghy racing with these fine cadets, contact Doug King at o r d o u g - king888@yahoo.com. May 28 & 29 is the North Carolina Offshore Championship in the ocean off Beaufort. The venue ashore will be the NC Maritime Museum s Gallants Channel Annex which now has excellent docks available. If you have not raced in the ocean, it s fun. Just think of it as a trip nearly to Cape Lookout but without the worry of dragging anchor in the Bight. More later. June 4 & 5 is the River Dunes Leukemia Cup. I don t have details about the format yet, but I understand that there will be cheap dockage at River Dunes, which is east of Oriental on the Neuse. Of course it is a charity event, but it might connect well with the NCOC the weekend before in Beaufort. More later. June 17/18 is the overnight First Citizens Cup starting off Broad Creek in the evening and sailing to NR1 (spinnaker) or AC1 (non-spinnaker) and returning Saturday morning. This is also a BOTY event. Contact Mike Bonner. June 18 is the Indian Island to Ocracoke Race sponsored by Pamlico Sailing Club. Not a very serious race that normally attracts some Blackbeard boats, and I ve heard of a couple planning on it this year. Contact Greg Miller at or gmiller53@suddenlink.net. June is the San Juan 21 Eastern Nationals which will be hosted by Bridgeton Harbor Marina this year. Expect a big crowd of locals plus lots of out of towners. Contact Mike Bonner. NC-PHRF Questions about handicaps or getting a rating? Mark Brennesholtz is Blackbeard s representative on the North Carolina Performance Handicap Fleet committee. Many regattas now specify that entrants submit current PHRF rating certificates. Contact Mark at or markbrenn@ec.rr.com. Mark At the NYRA Invitational Wii skippered by Tinka Talbert just beat Jeff Thomas in Duct Tape in the third race. Tinka was second in the regatta behind Dan Bornarth. (Zahradka photo) The long distance PHRF racers started downwind off Union Point, went under the Hwy 17 bridge, reached to #17 and returned via Northwest Creek #1. It was a reach-reach so spinnakers were not an asset at this year's NYRA Invitational. (Zahradka photo) Dave Whitney in Silent Pursuit finishing the long distance race just off the historic New Bern waterfront. (Zahradka photo) Ted Clark is not just fishing on this gloomy day at the NYRA Invitational in New Bern. He was the mark boat for races, and we thank him very much. (Zahradka photo)

3 ETYSA Update Thanks to all the ETYSA supporters who came out for BSC s workday and to help us rid the back woods of unwanted junk boats. And thanks to those who came out for the ETYSA workday so we could make sure our junior sailboats are ready for another season of sailing. San Juan 21 Fleet 8 NYRA Invitational Members of San Juan 21 Fleet 8 attended the NYRA Invitational held at Bridgeton Harbor Marina, and had a great day of racing. Due to the weather forecast the regatta was shortened to a one day event to prevent the competitors from enduring an ugly, cold, and wet day on Sunday. As a competitor, I can say I fully supported this decision. Under the leadership of Bill Jarvis the race committee pulled of four solid races with two triangle courses and two windward/leeward courses. When the scores were tallied, the working sail fleet had Branin Thorn helming No Quarter to a third place in his first San Juan 21 regatta as an owner. Hans Lassen and Brian Sears on Road Runner turned a strong performance to finish second and back into the winners circle was Doug Longhini and John Pitcavage in Kanga. In the All Sail fleet, it was a battle between the genoas and the jibs. Two boats raced with jibs and two boats with genoas. In a breeze that was right at the crossover for either sail, it was the jibs that won out. In third place was Mike Evans and Mark Weinheimer on Joyride. Second place was Tinka Talbert and Clare Brock on Wii. First place was Trevor Bornarth, Dan Bornarth, and Lee King on Black Jack. Trevor drove Black Jack on the downwind legs in his first The ETYSA spring sailing session has started and we have 17 kids participating in three groups. The under-seven group are our Junior Pirates. Kids who are new to sailing are in the green fleet and those already familiar with sailing and the Opti s are in the advanced group. This session will consist of five sailing dates through June 4. Go to the ETYSA tab on the BSC website for updated session information. by Dan Bornarth ETYSA Membership applications can be found at the ETYSA tab on the Club website for those interested in supporting and becoming a member. So far we have had tremendous response from a large cross-section of the membership. We are always looking for volunteers. No experience in teaching junior sailing is required just an interest in helping the next generation learn about sailing. Be prepared to see an enthusiastic group of kids on the BSC beach over the next few weeks and through the summer. Dan by Dan Bornarth ever San Juan 21 regatta. Great job for a ten year old! Wednesday Night Racing is Back! Starting April 6 and running through June 15 th, the San Juan 21s from Fleet 8 are racing on Wednesday nights at BSC. On our first night we had six boats racing on a breezy evening. Three fun races were completed. In the upcoming weeks we are looking forward to having up to ten boats racing. The Wednesday night series is a fun event open to everyone interested in coming out. Everyone who comes out to sail will be guaranteed a crew position. No one is left on the dock. There are also a couple of San Juan 21s available if someone wants to come out and give it a try. Just contact us in advance so we may get this organized. We work to be off the dock by approximately 6:00 pm, with racing starting at 6:15. Racing is held in front of BSC on Broad Creek. We set a course with the intention of getting in three races. After the racing bring something to cook, as we will have a cookout under the pavilion. For more information please see the NOR located on the BSC website under the ETYSA tab in the documents section. Dan Page 3

4 Page 4 Hurricane Season is Coming! The hurricane forecasting team at Colorado State University is predicting an above average 2011 Atlantic hurricane season. The team now calls for 16 named storms, instead of 17, to form in the Atlantic basin between June 1 and Nov. 30. Nine of those are expected to turn into hurricanes, with five developing into major hurricanes with sustained winds of 111 mph or greater. The team predicts that tropical cyclone activity in 2011 will be about 175 percent of the average season. By comparison, 2010 had actual tropical cyclone activity that was 196 percent of the average season. The hurricane forecast team's probabilities for a major hurricane making landfall on U.S. soil are: A 72 percent chance that at least one major hurricane will make landfall on the U.S. coastline in 2011 (the long-term average probability is 52 percent). A 48 percent chance that a major hurricane will make landfall on the U.S. East Coast, including the Florida Peninsula (the long-term average is 31 percent). A 47 percent chance that a major hurricane will make landfall on the Gulf Coast from the Florida Panhandle west to Brownsville, Texas (the long-term average is 30 percent). The team also predicts a 61 percent chance of a major hurricane tracking into the Caribbean (the long edited by Christina Riley -term average is 42 percent). See Forecasts/ for detailed forecast information. Colorado State University is one of the few centers to utilize meteorological statistical forecast methodology to create predictive hurricane models from their 29 past years of hindcasts. Their hurricane forecasts are based on statistical schemes which, owing to their intrinsically probabilistic nature, will fail in some years. By comparison, NOAA s National Hurricane Center predictions, and those of the Department of Transportation s Maritime Administration, are climatological and choose to focus on more time-sensitive maritime weather activity (i.e., daily, weekly). Christina A Picture s Worth a Thousand Words If you have not done so, the editors encourage you to keep a watchful eye on the growing collection of photos on the website. These provide a great record of the good times and experiences to be had at BSC. There are a couple of pages on the website to check out. Look under ETSYA / Photos and Racing / Photos. We would like to give a big thank-you to all the members who share their pictures with the membership in this way. In particular, we d like to thank Judy Hills for the great photos featured above. [More of Judy s photos can be seen at These future Pirates are having a ball. If you have photos you are willing to share, please upload them to the website. It s a straight-forward process, but please drop us a note if you need assistance.

5 BSC Dog Committee News Page 5 by Larry Sorenson Progress to date Four short term tether points have been installed. The Committee would like feedback on how the locations are working. In the works A 40 X 50 exercise area has been sited just outside the gate. The fencing has been donated. A volunteer work party is being arranged to remove it from its present location. Future plans Construct the 40 X 50 exercise area. We will dig the post holes and set the fence post on one weekend and allow them to set. On a following weekend, we ll install the fence and made it dog tight. Larry Sorenson will hold a dog training session after each doggie work day. Watch for the dates and, if you are willing to work on these projects, please let Larry have your address. He has some contact information but please don t assume he has yours! You may contact Larry at or llsoren@earthlink.net. Blackbeard s tip of the month for responsible dog owners Going to and from BSC, please ensure the safety of your dog. Your dog needs to be in a dog crate or wearing a seat belt while in the back seat. It is not safe for your best friend to be loose in the car especially in the front seat. If you are in an accident and the air bag inflates, it can produce a very bad situation for your dog. A dog crate secured in the back seat is the safest option. The next best is a seat belt in the back seat. Doggie seat belts are available at pet stores. Larry Prospective New Members The following individuals have requested membership in Blackbeard Sailing Club: John Hryharrow and Leslie Hamilton Durham Charles and Marsha Batchelor Raleigh Roger and Nancy Sowerbutts Trent Woods by Ken Caviston Slip Wanted? Slip to Sublet? by Christina Riley Hello fellow BSC members! It s that time again, when we shake out the sails, start the engine, clear the bilge and hopefully no baby duck eggs fall out of anything! The weather has been great the wind and water beckon and some of us will be throwing off the dock lines. In the last Epitaph our Commodore wrote, We have a number of members who have been on the slip waiting list for a long time. The BOD is looking at a number of options to alleviate this problem [and] boats that are for sale may be asked to move to a different slip until the boat sells. I d like to suggest that any member who will be gone for a significant length of time should, with Dock Master Peter Moore s concurrence, list it for sublet using the Articles For Sale feature of the Club website. I will be subletting my slip for the next six or seven months and will be trying this out. I want to encourage members, whether prospective lessors or lessees, to follow suit. If you re a member without a slip, this could be a great way to get your boat to BSC for the warmer months, save some money, and really experience the club! For more information, please contact Christina Riley or Peter Moore at the numbers listed below. Christina Contact Information: Christina: Peter:

6 Blackbeard Sailing Club PO Box 1543 New Bern, NC Page 6 BSC Schedule for 2011 April 24, 2011 April 30 & May 1, 2011 May 6, 2011 May 8, 2011 May 30, 2011 June 3, 2011 June 17 & 18, 2011 To Be Scheduled Easter ECB Cup ICRC Race Mothers Day Memorial Day First Citizens Cup Overnight Race BSC Boy Scout Outing July 4, 2011 Independence Day 4 th of July Weekend BSC Independence Day Festivities July 15, 2011 August 12, 2011 August 13, 2011 August 13, 2011 August 27 & 28, 2011 September 5, 2011 September 9, 2011 Marine Yard Sale, 8:00 AM Shrimp-A-Roo & Raftup, 4:00 PM Blackbeard One Design Regatta Labor Day September 10, 2011 General Meeting, Nominations & Covered Dish October 7 th Weekend, 2011 Mumfest October 14, 2011 October 15, 2011 Fall Workday & New Member Orientation November 4, 2011 November 5, 2011 Annual Meeting, Election & Covered Dish November 19, 2011 Turkey Trot SJ 21 Nationals at BSC November 24, 2011 Thanksgiving Day December 3, 2011 New Bern Christmas Flotilla December 9, 2011 December 10, 2011 Covered Dish Social December 25, 2011 Christmas Day December 31, 2011 New Years Eve Party (informal get-together) January 1, 2012 New Years Day January 1, th Fred Latham Regatta January 13, 2012 January 14, 2012 Officer Installation, Awards & Dinner/Dance Dates & Events are Subject to Change Socials begin at 5:30 pm / Dinner served at 6:30 pm Deadline for the Epitaph is the 11 th of each month.