FROM THE MASTHEAD TELLTALE. Eastern Shore Sailing Association P.O. Box 374 Salisbury, MD. Lazy Days of Summer Edition July 2006

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1 Lazy Days of Summer Edition July Bridge Members Commodore John Motsko Vice Commodore Betsy Cottingham TELLTALE Eastern Shore Sailing Association P.O. Box 374 Salisbury, MD FROM THE MASTHEAD As we approach the half way mark in the 2006 season, I would like to make a quick comment on some outstanding events that have taken place over the past month. Two of our members, Walton Alder and Deke Sheller recently competed in the Newport to Bermuda race on Walton s boat Great Shoal, finished a respectable 49 th place in the IRC scoring system ( out of 263 starters), and 4 th in the IRC Family Class competition. Looks like this puts Walton in the lead for the ESSA Bluewater Cup! Also, one of our newest and youngest members, Roy Sarraf, was part of the crew returning the sailboat Montauk Light from Bermuda back to the States. Congratulations to Walton, Deke and Roy. Secretary Kristin West kristinslp@aol.com Treasurer Dave Stapleford oasisp33@comcast.net Choptank Fleet Captain Paul West pwestla@aol.com Tangier Fleet Captain Jerry Gerlitzki gerlitzki@intercom.net Race Chairperson Bruce Franz bfranz@bwave.com We have gained no fewer than 20 new members to ESSA so far this year. I hope all of you are enjoying sailing with our club. The Bridge would like to hear back from you. How are we doing? Are you happy with the decision to join ESSA? How can we improve your participation in the club? Have you been able to meet other members? Please drop me a note when you get a moment and share your initial impressions with the officers. We want to make your first impressions great ones. (If you are not getting messages, make sure we have your address). We hope to have many participants in the Labor Day races at Deal Island and hope several of the boats from Cambridge will be able to make the trip for this 2 day event. Just as a reminder, Sunday, September 3 rd will be the Captain s Cup Race, a 30 mile around Tangier Sound race and on Monday the 4 th, we will join the now dwindling fleet of Skipjacks for a mile race up and down the Tangier Sound area directly west of Deal Island. Many boats will spend the weekend in Deal Island for the races and festivities. Contact your fleet captain for more information and make plans to join us! Lastly, I wanted to say a word about the volunteers who have given many hours of their free time for ESSA. Without all of you, the club would just flounder in uncertain seas. Thanks to all of you who have helped keep us on course this year. Soon we will be nominating new members to help us guide the club in If you are asked to help out, I hope you will take the challenge and join the Bridge. If you have an interest in volunteering your services in 2007, by all means, let your intentions be known. Please contact any Bridge member if you want to be involved next year. John Motsko, Commodore 1

2 ESSA Bridge Meeting The next Bridge meeting will be held on Monday, August 7, 2006, 6:30 pm at Ledo s Pizza in the Pecan Square Shopping Center on Nanticoke Road. All ESSA members are invited to attend. Next Newsletter The next newsletter is scheduled for the end of August, Anyone who has information that they wish to include should it to Janine Motsko (janinemotsko@comcast.net) by August 20 th. If you would like to get the Telltale by instead of snail mail, send an to janinemotsko@comcast.net Newsletter Editor Janine Motsko janinemotsko@comcast.net Webmaster Tim Fuhrmann SailingBum@writebyte.net Boat ads can be placed at no charge to ESSA members on the website. Send Tim Fuhrmann a description and photo (if available) to the address shown above. FOR SALE Achilles 8.5 ft. Dinghy and Honda 2 HP, 4 cycle motor. Contact: Larry Rossi at or TO ALL ESSA MEMBERS The Telltale is the link to ALL ESSA members, and contributions by any member are always welcome. In addition to info relating to sailing, please let us know about any momentous events or other topics which would be of interest to other ESSA members. NEW LINKS ON THE ESSA WEBSITE ESSA WELCOMES THE FOLLOWING NEW MEMBERS John Lindinger, Jr. 110 Amherst Drive Newark DE Delving.jbl@netzero.com Brooks Bridges 116 Glenburn Ave. Cambridge MD brookermau@yahoo.com Mike and Bonnie McAllister 235 Dykes Road Salisbury MD N3wks1946@yahoo.com John Michalik 508 N. Main Street Hebron MD divbell9@msn.com The roster of ESSA members was sent with the June Telltale. If you would like an updated roster, please send an to janinemotsko@comcast.net. Additionally, a current roster will be sent to all new members. Any corrections should also be sent to the editor. 8/13 2

3 UPCOMING EVENT ESSA's annual picnic "Fun in the Sun" will be held on Sunday, August 13 th at the Bivalve Harbor/Marina. This is a great opportunity for both fleets to get together and meet our new members. The festivities will begin around 1 PM with hot dogs and hamburgers provided by ESSA. Bring your own beverages. We are asking everyone to bring a side dish. Around 3 PM, the tide should be high for the Frosty Races. If you have a frosty, (kfkundell@salisbury.edu) and let him know if you can bring it. Rain date is Sunday, August 20 th. IN OTHER NEWS On July 5, 6, & 7 our friend Paul Hull, in conjunction with the Cambridge Yacht Club and the Tred Avon Yacht Club, hosted the 2006 Penguin Internationals Regatta. Several ESSA members helped Paul pull off a spectacular regatta which earned Paul much praise and many thanks. Our kudos goes to Paul. Bob Long provided What's Next for use as committee boat. Sandy McCallister was kind enough to provide not only two crash boats, but his son Spence and Dad to assist as well. Bruce Franz rounded out the Windward crash boat with John Zimmerman and me working the leeward boat and taking pics. Beginning Wednesday July 5th, what followed was three days of fantastic weather, wonderful sailing and a lot of fun by folks from as far away as Columbus and Chicago. So far as I could tell, a good time was had by all. Respectfully Submitted, Tim Fuhrmann Webmaster MISSING - rudder for Frosty # 654! I believe the rudder for my Frosty may be residing with someone else s boat. It is white with a green tip at the bottom and has a 1/2" PVC tiller extension w/rubber gooseneck fitting. There is an unclaimed rudder in my shed I can exchange. Thanks, Deke Graffiti on the Bridge 3

4 Add your 2 cents worth to the Telltale. Do you have any cruising suggestions? How about any comments about ESSA? We are about ALL of the members of ESSA, so share your thoughts with us. Send an to janinemotsko@comcast.net. July 14, 2006 The Nathan of Dorchester s Inaugural Trip Up the Nanticoke River (Submitted by Janine Motsko) On Thursday, July 13 th, the Nathan of Dorchester left Cambridge for a 2 day journey to Vienna, MD, to participate in the town s 300 th anniversary celebration. The plan was to meet the Nathan around Bivalve Harbor and sail along with the skipjack for part of the journey up the Nanticoke River. A few ESSA members were ready to participate in this first-time event on the Nanticoke, as the Nathan has never traveled in these waters before. Capt. Frank Newton was to call John Motsko when he was at the mouth of the river, and Capt. Newton expected to be in the Bivalve area around 2 pm. We were all planning on meeting at 12:30 in Bivalve and sail around until the Nathan was in our area. Around noon, I looked out (we live a few houses north of the harbor) and saw the Nathan across river, directly in front of our house. John was able to call the Nathan at that time they didn t have a phone signal at the mouth of the river, and they were making better time than expected. Capt. Newton extended an invite to anyone who wanted to go along for the rest of the ride, so we got in our power boat, and John took Betsy Cottingham and me aboard to catch up with the Nathan. We boarded the Nathan around Wetipquen Creek for the last leg of the trip to Vienna. The skipjack was under power the whole trip, but it was still very educational to talk to the crew members about the origin of the ship and the many activities that have taken place on board (weddings, bachelor/bachelorette parties, funerals, etc.). After being picked up by John in Vienna, the 3 of us came back to our house, had cocktails in the pool (VERY hot day), and then went to Boonies for dinner perfect ending to a very different day. A RACING TIP By Deke Sheller My niece, Cindy, was recently married and her husband, Jim, is a commercial airline pilot. Cindy s father, Walton, was having a conversation with Jim and asked him what pilots talked about during a flight. Jim s reply was We talk about flying the airplane. On Lolly this same mind set is true. When we are racing, which includes while we are preparing the boat in the harbor until we head in after the last race, we are talking about racing the boat. Concentration on the task at hand is a large part of success in racing a sailboat. Before the start you should be thinking about favored ends, favored sides of the course, where you want to be at the start and where you want to be three minutes after the start. Up-wind you should be concentrating on lifts and headers, waves, current and steering the boat. Off the wind concentrate on wind pressure, competitors and steering the boat. If you are the helmsman concentrate on steering. Let your crew look at other boats and wind conditions on the course. One of my favorite crew is Richard Duval. Richard is constantly telling me what is happening on the course. Although some or his information may not be immediately pertinent, I never have to take my attention away from steering to look around. Concentration and focus are two main ingredients for Lolly s success. Remember Talk about flying the airplane! Barging is simply the failure of a windward boat to keep clear at the start. Submitted by Del Walter Rule 11 states: ON THE SAME TACK, OVERLAPPED: When boats are on the same tack and overlapped, a windward boat shall stay clear. This means that at the start, any boat to windward shall give way to the leeward boat and is not entitled to room at the starting mark if a leeward boat is able to sail high enough to exclude the windward boat (close the door). Rule 16 does limit the action of the leeward boat by requiring the leeward boat to give adequate time for the windward boat to respond 4

5 to a change in direction (luffing) from the leeward boat. The time required is only that necessary to avoid a collision. If the windward boat does not respond promptly, they are "barging" and committing a foul on the leeward boat. Remember: You can reach to the starting mark as long as there is not a leeward boat in the way. If there is room to go without fouling anyone, have fun. From The Tangier Fleet Captain Jerry Gerlitzki Summer is here! And along with summer comes its calm breezes, but in Bivalve we ve been fortunate enough to get some substantial winds for the end of the second race series. The winds may be lighter but the action never ceases, with plenty bumping and grinding! Enough so that it spurred a suggestion to put a helpful racing rule in the Telltale every month, starting with Barging on the start. I love ACTION SPORTS! If we could get back to the serious side for a second I just wanted to bring up a point about responsibilities of the fleet captain. As you all know by now I have a few shortcomings when it comes to the racing side of sailing and I want take this opportunity to thank all the members who have helped me along as fleet captain and especially David Stapleford for continuing his great work with the racing results. Thanks, Ken Kundell for all your help, with Fun in the Sun. Again I couldn t do it with out your help. From the Choptank Fleet Captain Paul West For those of you who didn t make the July 4 th cruise to Solomons, you missed 3 out of 4 days of good winds, only one 15- minute thunderstorm, no debris in the water and the chance to expose your sunburn to a 125 degree shower! Yes, those sun showers REALLY work, especially after 8 or 9 hours in 90+ degree heat. You missed watching us drag anchor a couple of times (we now know how to ensure that we ve really gotten a good bite). You missed a really good meal at Vera s on St. Leonard s Creek and a great anchorage just down the creek from her place. All in all you missed a really good, relaxing time. There s always next time though so if anyone has any ideas on places to go let us know. We are looking into a wine festival in Norfolk this fall if anyone is interested. The first evening we were in Dunn Cove and the wind was still blowing at dusk. We were below deciding what to eat when something just didn t feel right so I came up on deck only to see that we were drifting toward a bulkhead! Aarrgghh!! We quickly jumped into action and set the anchor again, this time backing down a lot harder on it and were thankful we caught it when we did as we didn t want to end up like the 45 Island Packet that had dragged into the mud sideways before we got there and had been waiting for the tide to come in so they could kedge off. The second night we were up the creek from Solomons in a little cove with two other boats when the one thunderstorm of the trip rolled in giving us a short little microburst that caused the boat to heel about 20 degrees, blew our life ring off its rack and launched our dinghy, almost flipping it, and pulled us loose. This time we had to go out in the pouring rain, haul in the anchor, retrieve our life ring and foot pump that spilled out of the dink and reset the anchor again. I felt bad for Kristin as she had just gotten out of the hot shower and had to jump immediately into a cold shower and play with the anchor. It became obvious very quickly that we needed some role reversal with the strain on the anchor rode dragging through the mud, so I went forward and heaved on the anchor line and by the time I got it pulled in, the rain had dwindled to a sprinkle and the wind died back down so we reset once again. One of the other boats in the anchorage was not so lucky. A 40+ foot Halberg Rassey whose crew had left the boat to go ashore pulled loose as well and almost drifted into a dock. They came back after dark and to get out of the mud and reset their anchor in the light of the houses onshore. The other boat was a Tayanna, also in the 40 foot range, owned by a single woman in her 50 s (guessing her age) who had been cruising alone for 2 and a half years. She had 80 feet of chain out and didn t budge. I m sure having an all chain rode has saved her more than once. We had a great sail home, interspersed with some motor sailing, and ending with a screaming reach up the Choptank exceeding hull speed with our old blown out #1, loaded down with cruising gear and towing a 5

6 dink. All in all it was a great trip and good to see how the other half lives. 6