Gulf Coast Sailing Club October Luff n Laff

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1 Gulf Coast Sailing Club October 2016 Luff n Laff SAILPLAY IS ACTIVE See Sign up for the series and receive discounts on regatta entry WFL PHRF ratings are required for regatta participation renew at Regattas coming up Oct 29 th NS&YC Commodore s Cup Nov 12 th MIYC Fall Regatta Oct 12 th Social Meeting 6 pm- Location for Members Meeting will be at Harold s Place located at 2555 Tamiami Trail N Oct 29 th NS&YC Commodore s Cup Regatta November 16 th Members meeting season kickoff 2016 World Sailing Blind Match Racing World Championships NOR - NSYC Commodore s Cup Flyer for 2017 Members meetings 2017 Sugden Sailing & Picnic flyer Flyer - noted author Michael Tougias, November 16 th Nominations for Officers and Board members for 2017 are hereby solicited from all the members. Anyone interested in the governance of the Club is encouraged to put their name in for consideration as an Officer or Board Member. The Board Nominating Committee has put together a slate based on interest expressed to date which is included in this newsletter and will made its final recommendations to the Membership for the final slate of Officers and Directors, and this slate will be voted on at the November Membership meeting. An absentee ballot will be made available to all members for anyone not able to make the November Membership meeting. Send Nominations to GCSC Secretary, Shawn Todd at no16mom@gmail.com Commodore s Comments Congratulations go out to one of our club members Kris Scheppe who was part of the TEAM USA and took the bronze medal at the 2016 World Sailing Blind Match Racing World Championships. Read the great story of this event in the newsletter. I hope everyone has a great summer. The summer has come to a close so now it is time to start thinking about the coming season in Naples. To help keep everyone up to date on SWFL activities, we have including not only sailing and members meeting but other items of interest in this newsletter and all these events are on the calendar on the web page. Soon we will reactivate payments on line capability for annual dues and regatta registration. As you know but might not appreciate fully, the Gulf Coast Sailing Club exists because of its wonderful volunteers. Each year we, the club members, select officers from the membership to guide our club forward but

2 many more volunteers are needed for the club to survive and thrive. Our main source of income is from our dues so membership is very important to wellbeing of the club. For the past several year Kristin Daer has stepped up to chair the Membership committee and has keep the club on a steady course, but unfortunately Kristin and Doug are relocating to Ohio. We are fortunate that Terry Nauck and Joan Kachel will co-chair the Membership Committee next year. If meeting and greeting people and helping to bring new members into the club might be something you would like, we would love to have you join the Membership Committee. We are also very fortunate that Craig Spicer, the PRO for all of our regattas has volunteered to Chair our Annual Charity Regatta for If chairing a committee is too big a step to take at this time think about serving just as a member on one of the several committees we have. Volunteering for the Regatta Committee, our social committee for coordinating our land side events, our small boat sailing committee, our public relations committee or helping out with our monthly newsletter or web page are all important roles for club members. As you can see it takes lots of hands on deck to keep the Gulf Coast Sailing Club afloat, as you look around the club you will see lots of old salts, it would be good to expand our membership to add some younger members to our group. Please think about how you can help as we need your help to be successful. Contact Jeff Weisz at Jeffrey.weisz@newcanannancapital.com who will be updating our volunteer list in the coming months 2017 is shaping up to be an exciting and fun filled year and we need your input and help especially on the newsletter, PR efforts and web page administration. Also, if you are interested in participating in helping to organize our racing and fun sailing events at Sugden feel free to contact me with any questions you might have. The initial slate of officers and directors prepared by the nominating committee is presented below

3 ITEMS OF NOTE Thanks to Chris Hagan for keeping the club going during the summer and organizing the members meeting social events. The details for the October 12 th are included in the newsletter. For our November 16 th members meeting ( note the date change) we will be back at River Park Community Center with a New Presentation from NY Times bestselling author Michael Tougias It has been a fantastic summer in Connecticut. Hope to see everyone in Naples soon. Moe Scully mauricescully@gmail.com SEE DETAILS FOR EVENTS BELOW Published on September 22 nd, 2016 by Dave Perry I was fortunate to have the opportunity to run a North U Match Racing Clinic for the vision impaired sailors preparing for the 2016 World Sailing Blind Match Racing World Championship, being held September at the Sheboygan Yacht Club in Sheboygan, Wisconsin. Four teams participated, coming from California, Canada, Great Britain, and a team composed of sailors from Massachusetts and Sheboygan. Though each team had a sighted coach, they race with no sighted person on board. Truly amazing! The clinic was in the Sonars they are racing in the Worlds, with three sailors to a boat. The skipper is required to be 100% blind, and the two others can have varying degrees of vision impairment. They had some goggles I could wear to experience what their vision ability was like. One common view is like looking through wax paper. You can make out shades and rough shapes, but there is no clarity. The other is like looking down a straw, but the straw is in a different place in each eye. They can see what they see clearly, but it is tiny, and they have no depth perception. Plus, if they lose sight of it, it takes them a while to search around to find it again.

4 They use two marks to form their starting line, each making a unique sound, and a windward mark with its own sound. They sail the traditional match racing course (W-L-W-Finish), but use the pin end of the starting line as the leeward mark. Each boat has a noise maker which makes a different sound on each tack. In addition to the sounds of the marks, they have watches that beep and vibrate, and they are talking with each other as normal, so their world onboard is very loud! This is just one of their challenges. Another one is keeping track of where they are. If they lose track of the marks, they can get quite lost. And of course, they need to be able to maintain the point of sail on which they want to sail. All this while trying to beat the other boat across the finishing line! We spent most our time talking boat handling, speed, and match racing tactics just like at all my other match racing clinics. We brainstormed ideas to address their challenges, and we had solid three hour training sessions on the water filled with drills, practice starts, and races and lots of feedback. We did a session about the Sonar on the dock, and we simulated the prestart and sailing the course on land, using the marks and doing the walk-throughs in real time. On the water, they were good at sailing the correct angles, the skippers feeling the wind on their heads, the angle of heel, and hearing the boat go through the water, and the trimmers feeling the actual sail and the angle of the boom. What I loved most was that every sailor and team was committed to improving, and to sharing their own experiences for the benefit of the others. Everyone s attitude was that they were a group of sailors trying to get better at sailing and match racing, and their vision was just part of the puzzle to solve to become more successful. Each one of them loves sailing and being out on the water, and the challenge of racing. No different than any of us who love the sport. To go sailing and racing, all these vision impaired sailors need is an invitation or some support from someone to be included in that person s sailing experience. My experience with this racing community could not have been more positive. I encourage others to seek out the same positive experience by reaching out and including them as well. It is truly a win-win situation! Event website: Tags: Dave Perry, World Blind Match Racing Championship

5 Members Meeting November 16 th at River Park Community Center Featuring So Close to Home An American Family s World War II Story of Survival and the U-boat that Attacked Them Michael J. Tougias, bestselling author and co-author of 24 books, offers a dramatic presentation based on his co-authored book So Close to Home. Tougias will use slides of the attack, the survivors, and the rescue to make this an edge-of-your seat multi-media program. On May 19, 1942 a German U-boat in the Gulf of Mexico stalked its prey 50 miles off New Orleans. Captained by 29-year-old Erich Wurdemann (Iron Cross and coveted Knight s Cross recipient) the submarine commander had his sights set on the freighter Heredia with 59 souls on board. Most of the crew were merchant seamen, but there were also a handful of civilians including the Down s family. The family was comprised of the parents, Ray Sr. and Ina, along with their two children, eight year old Ray Jr., nick-named Sonny, and eleven year old Lucille. Fast asleep in their berth the Down s family had no notice that two torpedoes were heading their way. When the ship exploded all four members of the family were separated from each other. More than half the crew and passengers aboard the Heredia perished, but incredibly, after 15 hours in the ocean facing sharks, hypothermia, drowning, and dehydration all the members of the Down s family survived and were reunited. Ray Downs Jr. aka Sonny is now 82 years old but he remembers every detail of the voyage, the attack, and his family s miraculous survival story. Tougias also had access to the U-boat commander Erich Wurdemann s War Diary, and the presentation will include a discussion of the challenges faced aboard the sub, and some of the other daring raids the commander made off the coast of America. SO CLOSE TO HOME is a survival story and history book rolled into one, similar to Laura Hillenbrand s Unbroken. I enjoy doing these programs, says Tougias, because I like to transport the audience into the heart of the action so that they ask themselves what would I have done. It s like watching a movie with the author giving behind the scene details. A book signing will follow the program, and the presentation is suitable for all ages. Tougias, known for his fast paced writing style and character-driven stories, has written several true survival thrillers, including The Finest Hours, which is now a Disney movie. His other sea saga s, include Rescue of the Bounty, Overboard!, Fatal Forecast, A Storm Too Soon, and Ten Hours Until Dawn. On a lighter note, the author penned the award-winning memoir There s A Porcupine In My Outhouse: Misadventures of a Mountain-man Wannabe. With his daughter Kristin he also co-authored The Cringe Chronicles: Mortifying Misadventures With My Dad.Visit for more information

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10 HELLO ALL SAILING FLEET SKIPPERS!! Frank Brown has done an excellent job of again designing, developing, maintaining thewww.sailplay.com site! To date we as organizers know that we have several entrants in all of our events without fail. Additional participants may decide to join yet for the season! The GULF COAST SAILING CLUB has again agreed to manage the document collection, report the summary, record payment collection, and they will be making the payment distributions to each club REGATTA EXEMPTIONS for REMAIN: 1. Summerset Regatta (CMCS) 2. AVOW Hospice Charity Regatta 3. Bone Island Regatta (Race to Key West) Please encourage all SAILING prospects to engage and enroll for a single entry fee and one time document submission annually at Please also encourage all participants to respond to the survey at Please provide any suggestions, observations, and comments for improving this vehicle and encouraging increased regatta participation! For those who did not receive an entry form for the NSYC COMMODORE S CUP, and who will not be joining the SW FL Regatta BOTY events by utilizing the NOR and ENTRY FORM is attached above!

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