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

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BLACKBEARD SAILING CLUB Upper Broad Creek On The Neuse PO Box 24, Bridgeton, NC 28519 Volume 40, Number 3 COMMODORE Dave Whitney 252-637-4238 VICE-COMMODORE Bill Braun 919-846-1938 SECRETARY Jan

1 BLACKBEARD SAILING CLUB Upper Broad Creek On The Neuse PO Box 24, Bridgeton, NC Volume 40, Number 3 COMMODORE Dave Whitney VICE-COMMODORE Bill Braun SECRETARY Jan Green TREASURER Ken Gurganus DIRECTORS Ed Doughty Bill Green Bill Talbert Nick Karasek Archer Watkins Pete Thorn DOCKMASTER Bill Drechsler DINGHY & DRY STORAGE Ted Clark EDITORS Judy Hills George Myers bscepitaph@yahoo.com From the Commodore As usual, we had a great turnout for Spring Workday, with over 100 members and guests pitching in to make our club a better place. A number of trees were cut the weekend before, so there was a lot of clean up to do. We are opening up the wooded area along the gate for an expansion of dry storage and to provide better places to store trailers. Vice Commodore Bill Braun had a varied list of projects for members to chose from. Anchors have been set around the dock box platforms, to prevent the walkabout situation that occurred during Irene. A number of repairs were made to the docks, an enlarged finger pier was finished at the end of A dock, and a myriad of other projects were completed. The cooking crew, led by George Hall did a fine job, and Terry Hanchey, our usual lead chef, was hardly missed. He was excused to go on a romantic cruise. We have extended memberships to 9 new eager member families. We were able to find wet slips for five of them immediately. We are still on the minus side for membership however. We have a unique opportunity for sailors who are interested in joining the best sailing club in North Carolina. We have memberships and SLIPS available for the first time in a long time. If you have friends who are interested, please step forward and sponsor them. I have had two queries just this week, so I know there is a lot of interest. We will bring in new members again in June to build up our membership rolls. As a part of Workday, members were asked to bring the paperwork required by the new Slip License Agreement. There was a beehive of activity in the clubhouse, as members presented copies of their insurance, registration, and signed copies of the new SLA s. Many also had their Hurricane plan complete, although that is not mandatory until May 31 st. Those of you who were not there can mail the required information. Bill Drechsler is the Dockmaster, and Ted Clark has taken on the role of Dinghy Captain in addition to handling Dry Storage. These two have a lot of paperwork to wade through, so please take the time to get the completed forms to them. ALL THE NEWS THAT S IN THE WINDS (252) April will have some interesting events to put on your schedule. The covered dish social on April 14 th will feature a display of Exotic Birds from the aviary of Gay Whitney. She rescues and raises Parrots, Macaws, and Cockatoos. She did several shows about 6 years ago that were very well received. She will be assisted by your Commodore, who she affectionately calls Bird Sh Boy. Guess what his job is. April also brings the first Interclub Race competition to Blackbeard. The ECB Cup will be held on April with around the buoys races near Markers 2 and 17. The Oriental Dinghy Club always brings a strong team to this race, so we need to get as many boats as we can to the line. Cruising Class is a good way for fun sailors to get out and enjoy the racing. It is competitive, but in a fun sort of way. Some boats don t remove their dodgers, and we have seen boats competing with dinghies on their davits. Come on out and play. The cruising season is about to kick off also. I have not heard of any in April, but there are two scheduled in May. On May 14 th, 3 boats are scheduled to leave for Ocracoke Island, with a scheduled return of May 20 th. Bill Siegendorf on his C&C Landfall, ably crewed by your Commodore, is the one to contact if you want to join in. A cruise to Cape Lookout is scheduled for May 19 th. George and Carol Myers are headed out with this group, so contact them if you are interested. As many as four boats are already interested. Please post information about cruises you are planning, so that others can join in. the Website has a specific area for Cruise information or you can just post a notice in the Sound Off section. The Water Lines to the slips are all on, so now is the time to get your boat cleaned up and head out on the water. The flowers are in bloom, the Bradford Pear trees are bursting, and Dave Whitney

2 Page 2 Commodore s Big Low Blow Big blow and low water characterized the 2012 NYRA Commodore s Ball Regatta. PRO Jarvis said he would comply with race instructions specifying cancellation if winds exceeded 25 knots steady, but he must have thrown a bucket over his anemometer. Most of us showed 20 to 35 knots. On Compass Rose, I d always sworn that I would never start a race with a double-reefed main, but with Boat of the Year on the line, we did. I won t say that we were overpowered, but we still had a rail in the water a lot, so we were certainly not underpowered, even with the #3 and tiny main. Fortunately the wind was west, so there was no serious chop and things stayed under control. The other challenge for most of the racers was the low and getting lower water level. Ed Doughty s New York Times (7-foot draft) made it out of the slip and onto the venue with a large but inexperienced crew and ran aground just to windward of the starting line in prerace maneuvering. Wisely, they headed in before the start. Ted Clark was aboard and said the boat was fine, but the crew and water level made it better not to race. It was the first time helmsman Paul Lockwood had ever called for a reef on NYT! The spin fleet was spinnaker in name only. And of the five starters, only four finished the only race. Eddy Parker on his first outing with the new Brown Eyed Girl sailed beautifully and won going away. Compass Rose was second, Charlie Nelson in Water Phantom was third, and our Commodore Dave Whitney was fourth in Silent Pursuit. None of the places were close. Non-Spinnaker and Cruising were combined at the start, but three of the seven entrants declined to start. BSC s Pete Thorn was first in Charisma, Dave Ritter s new Elite 32 was second in its maiden race. Once the race was concluded, another hurdle proved to be getting home. New York Times and two boats from Northwest Creek ended up rafted to the end of C dock because the water had dropped another foot while we were out. Compass Rose (6-foot draft) plowed through a foot, literally, of muck to get into her slip. No need for reverse while docking. Quite a day! Commodore s Ball Annual Awards The dinner after the race is the venue for the annual trophies, and several BSCers faired well. Pete Thorn won Non-Spinnaker Boat of the Year in Charisma after a really dominating season. Compass Rose was Spinnaker Boat of the Year for the second time after a close call with New York Times. Crew of the Year was a couple who just joined BSC this month but have been sailing on Compass Rose for five or six years Mark and Mary Hittner. Sportsman of the Year went to Larry Learn, SJ Fleet 8 Commodore and much more. Congratulations all! March, April & May Racing Events March 31 & April 1 is the NYRA Invitational Regatta at Bridgeton Harbor Marina. This is a big event for SJ 21s sail a closed course above the high-rise bridge for the amusement of folks lining the shore in New Bern. PHRF boats race a middle-distance race under the bridge to a mark down the river determined by wind conditions. Dockage at Bridgeton is free and there is a very nice cookout on Saturday evening. Contact Bill Jarvis a t o r b j a r - vis1@suddenlink.net. This is the first NYRA BOTY event of April 14 is the new date for the Race Management Seminar in Oriental. J.D. Prosser, a well-known Regional Race Officer and USSA Judge, will conduct the session. There is a charge, of course, and details can be found on or call Ken Small at or smallkencarol@gmail.com. April 28 & 29 will be the East Carolina Bank (ECB) Cup at Blackbeard. This is an ICRC Team Event and we need to put a big and strong team on the water to defeat archrivals ODC. They ve held the cup for way too long. BSC Team Captain Arch Altman will be recruiting everyone. We need cruisers, SJs, non-spins and spins. The bigger the fleet we turn out, the bigger our lead will be in this first of two regattas that determine Neuse River bragging rights. Contact Arch at or raleighwoodcab@aol.com. May 5 & 6 is NYRA s Cinco de Mayo regatta. A new event with a novel format to encourage participation from Oriental, Hancock and New Bern. Contact Bill Jarvis. May 12 will be the New Bern High School National Junior ROTC benefit regatta at Bridgeton Harbor Marina. Sailed round robin collegiate style in Flying Juniors, this is a great chance to pair up with some really sharp kids or bring your own crew. Boats are provided. Contact Doug King at or dougking888@yahoo.com. May 26 & 27 is the North Carolina Offshore Championship (NCOC) battled out in the ocean off Beaufort. Once a huge event, it tapered off, but in recent years is gaining a larger following. Dockage in Gallants Channel is courtesy of the NC Maritime Museum. NYRA is the racing authority, but sponsorships are sought for the benefit of the Museum and the Junior Sailing Program there. Michelle Moorman is sparkplug. Contact her at or mcienek@hotmail.com. This is a great way to start a few days at the Cape Lookout Bight. Mark Brennesholtz

3 Page 3 New Members Photos by Alan Hills Charles Caulder, Clayton Columbia 26 Peter and Divis Loppacher, New Bern Bradley Humphreys, New Bern Seidlemann 34 Robert and Mona (not pictured) Jankowski, Durham, NC Calibre 40 Michael Wood, New Bern Mark and Mary Hittner, New Bern Morgan 24

4 Page 4 Hugh Nhan and Kim Nguyen, Durham, NC Precision 23 Brown Eyed Girl, Eddy Parker's new Beneteau 367 beats to windward in the NYRA Commodore's Ball Regatta in very heavy wind. Eddie won on his first outing (Zahradka photo) Scott and Jane Hager Asheboro Work day action on A dock - (Alan Hills photo) Joe and Kathy Gormley, New Bern Beneteau 36 Corrine Murphy -(Alan Hills photo) Lazy Susan gets a test sail (Alan Hills Photo)

Making Sense (and Cents) of Dinghies! Hurricane Irene left us with dinghies and tenders scattered everywhere.

On workday we made our first serious attempt at making sense of this mess.

We still have not identified the owners of approximately 60 dinghies that are on Club property.

5 Making Sense (and Cents) of Dinghies! Hurricane Irene left us with dinghies and tenders scattered everywhere. During the cleanup, without reliable records to tell us who owns which boat and in which rack it belongs, we put many in any empty slot. On workday we made our first serious attempt at making sense of this mess. Thanks to the help of a few volunteers and many cooperative Members, we now know who owns 42 of these dinks and we have assigned racks to them. But much remains to be done. We still have not identified the owners of approximately 60 dinghies that are on Club property. If you have a dinghy at the Club that was not identified on workday, please contact Ted Clark at to get a rack properly assigned to you. It is critical that you do this before May 31, Despite our efforts, we expect that there will be some small boats that cannot be identified and that, in effect, have been abandoned at the Club. Here is our plan to deal with them. Work to identify the owners of dinghies will continue for several months. To facilitate this effort, we will publish a notice in the Epitaph for the months of March through October, outlining our plans for unidentified dinghies. Beginning in June, we will move unidentified dinghies into the woods where they will continue to be available for their owners to identify and request a rack. On fall workday, October 20 th, 2012, any remaining boats will be considered to have been abandoned and will be sold at auction. The proceeds to be donated to ETYSA. Unsold boats will be disposed of. So there you have it in three bullets. Let s make sense and cents of the dinghies at Blackbeard Sailing Club. Bill Green Page 5 Dog Committee Last month, I made the observation that this may be a bad year for fleas and bugs. Well with the coming of spring also brings other unwanted critters. The snakes will soon be coming out of hibernation. Best defense from snakes is to keep the grass and vegetation short, and be alert. Snakes by nature will try to avoid you if possible. Snakes have a strong odor and my dogs have learned to hunt them out and alert me when a snake enters the yard. My dogs have suffered about seven snakebites in my back half acre of my property over the last ten years. If your dog starts acting unusual and is sniffing the ground, move on to somewhere else. Dogs and cats rarely die from snakebites. If you think your pet may have encountered a snake, watch for pain or swelling in your pet, you may or may not, but probably will not see the fang marks. If your see your pet experiencing any pain and/or swelling get to a veterinary and start treatment AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. It is helpful if you can identify the type of snake. Blackbeard s tip to responsible dog owners: Blackbeard is pleased with the response from the membership by being responsible with their four legged family members. He is pleased with dogs being on leashes with pick-up doggy bags attached to the leash. However, he does not like it when the pans from the kitchen are used to feed and water pets. Please do not use Blackbeard s kitchen items to care for your pet. Larry Sorenson No Directory This Year At the February meeting, the Board of Directors decided to eliminate printing of the Pirate s Log (aka the Membership Directory) this year. One important driver for this decision is the cost of printing which, last year, was about $2.30 each. But we also recognized that the Directory became outdated almost as soon as it was printed. So how can you keep up with the contact information for your fellow BSC Members? It s all in the Club website. From the website, Members can look up the contact information for another member. To accomplish this basic task, log on to the website and, under the Members menu, select REPORTS MEMBERS. You ll be presented with a search form into which you can enter the name of the Member you re looking for. For example, if you enter Green as the last name and Bill as the first name you ll retrieve the following. And voilà, you have my latest contact information, complete with photo. Please take a few moments to explore this feature on the website. There is a lot more it can do besides look up the info for a single Member. Take it for a test drive. I think you ll like it! Bill Green

6 Blackbeard Sailing Club PO Box 24 Bridgeton, NC Page 6 BSC Schedule for 2012 April 8, 2012 April 13, 2012 April 14, 2012 April 28/29, 2012 May 4, 2012 May 13, 2012 May 28, 2012 June 2/3, 2012 June 8, 2012 June (Date TBD) July 4, 2012 July 13, 2012 Easter Covered Dish Social ECB Cup Race Regatta (catered meal) Mothers Day Memorial Day First Citizens Cup Regatta Clark Cup/Boy Scout Regatta Independence Day Hot Dog Lunch August 10, 2012 August 11, 2012 Marine Yard Sale, 8.00am Shrimperoo and Raftup, 4.00 pm August 25/26, 2012 BSC One Design Regatta September 3, 2012 Labor Day September 7, 2012 September 8, 2012 Covered Dish/Nominations October 19, 2012 October 20, 2012 Fall Workday & Orientation November 02, 2012 November 03, 2012 Covered Dish Social / Annual Meeting & Elections November 17, 2012 SJ21 Turkey Trot / Speight Sugg Memorial Race November 22, 2012 Thanksgiving Day December 07, 2012 December 08, 2012 Covered Dish Social December 25, 2013 Christmas Day December 31, 2012 New Years Eve at BSC January 1, 2013 January 11, 2013 January 12, 2013 New Years Day 41 st Fred Latham Regatta 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.

November, 2016 Volume 44, Issue 11

November, 2016 Volume 44, Issue 11 Blackbeard Sailing Club BLACKBEARD S EPITAPH NEWS & FEATURES PAGES From the Commodore 1-2 Ensign Series 2-3 Racing Events 3 Rega