inside The Corinthian Yacht Club of Tacoma Newsletter The Huckes and First Dance Page 5 Cutts Island Pirate Cruise and Race Page 7

Transcription

1 Mainsheet The Corinthian Yacht Club of Tacoma Newsletter Volume 13, Issue 5 May 2013 inside The Huckes and First Dance Page 5 Cutts Island Pirate Cruise and Race Page 7 Blogs Abroad Page 10 Motley Crew - Page 16

2 Commodore s Comments We have one parade down and one to go. Thank you to everyone who helped make the Daffodil Parade such a success. We had plenty of help decorating the boat. Those participating were Steve and Mickie Hucke, Paul and Linda Case, Steve and Kit Ryan and of course Joy. The boat looked great. Parade day was a lot of fun with the previously mention folks, along with Brock, Janice and Brook VanRavenswaay joining us. We were brutally attacked by some of our own members as we passed their viewing area. They called us over close, and proceeded to pommel us with marshmallow guns. It was brutal. Let it be known that we had Brock VanRavenswaay on the boat. He of course is an Officer in the Reserves. He is going to make sure we are well armed next year. I think those two big grey boats along the water front in Tacoma filled full of military equipment will be on our Port and Starboard sides next year. We also had a nice little 40 birthday party for the S/V Tatoosh. Somehow around a half dozen bottles of champagne and a cake disappeared on the way back to the basin. The S/V Tatoosh is still accepting birthday presents if you feel so inclined. Let me just say that it was an honor representing our Yacht Club. It was a very proud moment as our Burgee was raised during the ceremony. I would like to thank everyone for letting me represent our club during the ceremonies, it was a privilege. It should also be noted that we doubled the number of boats there. Thank you First Dance for coming along. I thought for sure we would win a trophy for highest percentage increase over last year. We will get them next year. Isn t it great to get back out on the water racing! I m so excited every Wednesday to buckle up the old PFD and see what mother nature has planned for us. As Forrest Gump would say it s like a box of chocolates, you never know what you are going to get. Billy has done a great job of adjusting the race course to accommodate the weather conditions. Our crew is really starting to multiply as folks start to figure out how much fun it is. See you on the race course. This last weekend was our Kick off to boating season cruise. As expected, Fred and Ursula who sponsored the cruise kept things moving at a very entertaining pace. It was fun to listen to the history of some of our members families as the theme was your heritage. There was another Yacht Club there having a party. Now I m pretty sure that we were having a lot more fun than they were. I m pretty sure they were taking notes on how it is done. Thanks Fred and Ursula, it was great. To wrap the month up, Thursday we leave for the Seattle Yacht Club to participate in their opening day celebration. Again the S/V s Tatoosh and Continued on page CYCT Officers & Board Members FLAG OFFICERS Commodore: Gary Ballentine Vice Commodore: Steve Ryan Rear Commodore: Paul Case BOARD POSITIONS Recording Secretary: Joy Ballentine Treasurer: Dana Gage Membership Chair: Ed and Sue Pinkham Fleet Captain-Cruising: Brock and Janice VanRavensway Fleet Captain-: Billy Carter Past Commodore: Cheryl White STANDING COMMITTEES Club Merchandise: Linda Case Mainsheet Editor: Ken St. John Sunshine: Julie St. John Tyee Liaison: Jo Seward Web Site: Greg Sandwick & Brock Van- Ravensway Social: Ross and Barbara Demmel Education: Chuck Welter Historian: TBD Long Range Planning: Joe Salz Floating Asset Chair: Jerry Brennan Publicity: Don McAdams Trophies: Steve Wagner REPRESENTATIVES PHRF Handicapper: Eric Nelson PHRF Director: Eric Nelson PIYA Representative: Eric Nelson Dinghy Program: Brian White MAINSHEET A publication of The Corinthian Yacht Club of Tacoma 5624 Marine View Drive Tacoma, WA the editor: kennethstjohn@gmail.com 2 MAINSHEET

3 Commodore's report continued... First Dance will be representing CYCT. First Dance will be our Flag Boat for this parade. I have to admit, it is kind of nice going just to have fun and not have to think too much about the parade, thanks First Dance. And once again, it will be an honor to represent all of you at the Opening Day Commissioning Ceremony. See you all at our General Meeting on the 13th, Gary Ballentine S/V Tatoosh Photos by Gary Ballentine 3 MAINSHEET

4 Vice Commodore s Lots to talk about this month! The Daffodil Marine Parade was a hoot, with lots of camaraderie and CYCT spirit! The rains threatened, but our sailing gods (there must be several, as it undoubtedly took a lot of effort to keep the rains away that weekend!) kept the skies from falling on us, and although the e daffys tried to wilt, from a distance who could tell? Gary and Joy on Tatoosh put on a good show as CYCT s flagship for the event, and we all had a great time as we motored up the City Waterway. Joy did a super job helming all the way, keeping us out of trouble in those nasty currents and shallow waters!. Fred and Ursula? Held at the Des Moines Marina on April 27th, we had fabulous food, good conversations, and no serious precipitation. Going with the ancestral heritage theme, costumes were all the rage! It was 28 knots on the nose with whitecaps motoring home, but a few brave souls did manage to get their sails up! Carve those waves! Then there has been the racing wow the winds have been good! Anything above 10 knots is great for Obsession (I tell everyone she weighs 10 tons, just to get sympathy!), and we managed to take advantage of it in several of the races! And the rains held off too but it has been sort of cool (ie COLD). When is spring going to get here? Also, I am sure you have all heard about the recent incidents out on the water? Let s pay attention and avoid hitting each other! Steve Ryan CYCT Vice Commodore S/V OBSESSION Of course who could not mention the great cruise put on by 4 MAINSHEET

5 Rear Commodore s Comments Getting to Know our Shipmates From Tadpoles to Beneteaus: An Evening with Steve and Mickie Hucke I entered the Hucke compound at 7:06 PM on the first real spring-like evening of the year. My goal was to sit down with two of my favorite club people, Steve and Mickie Hucke, and see if I could find out what makes them tick. I knew going in that my problem was going to be deciding what to leave out of my article because I ve known the Huckes long enough to know that their history is a rich one. They ve lived a lot of sailing and been key people in our club for a long time. Ken, our Mainsheet Editor, has assured me that there is a theoretical limit to how long my articles can be and I don t want to push his limits. Just realize that I could have conveyed many more interesting facts and stories about Steve and Mickie if not for de man, Ken St John, and his iron rule over this publication. As I drove up the long driveway past a field of chickens on my right and then two cows, I was thinking about what questions I d ask. So Steve, who would you say were your sailing influences and what would you say was the closest to death you ve ever come in sailing? What am I, a Rolling Stone reporter? I had to get serious! I was about to sit down with The Chief! Now, in Jewish circles Steve is the kind of man who would be called a mensch. Look it up, but since I m not Jewish and since I love nicknames, Chief seems to fit nicely. We nestled into the family room and for the first time I noticed that Steve and Mickie s home is very much like their Beneteau First 35, First Dance. It s big, modern-looking and completely uncluttered. Unlike First Dance, however, Steve and Mickie s house has a fish pond in the middle of it! Steve and Mickie have actually joined our club twice. The first time was in 1978, but after only a few years they left and entered into a period of time that I ll call The Dark Years, which saw them experimenting with boats that did not use wind as their primary source of power. Enough said. They were with our club long enough to have at least one very exciting cruise, however! Steve and Mickie had a San Juan 24, their first keelboat, when they joined CYCT the first time and so did many other club members including, just to name drop, Ron and Connie Holbrook. San Juan 24 s were extremely popular and a big fleet was raced out of Seattle. Mickie began describing an eventful Labor Day cruise to Dockton in their S.J. I was very pregnant but the due date was ten weeks off so we went on this cruise with the club. Before daybreak I started feeling funny and so I went walking up in a grassy area. When I got back to the boat I told Steve, I think I m going to have the baby! Steve takes over: There were a lot of boats there, rafted seven deep and it was still dark. I just started yelling, We re leaving! We re leaving! and began casting off lines. As we left, I could see three boats gently floating away! Our son Tally was born a short time later. Steve and Mickie returned to CYCT in 2003 and have been sailing with us ever since. I usually like to list the various sailboats that members have had, but Steve and Mickie have owned twelve boats including their current Beneteau! Steve told me the following story about how he got into sailing and racing. On Friday afternoons in eighth grade at Sacajawea High School, our choir teacher taught a class on sailing, onboard a Columbia 22, in the Foss Waterway. I remember that we had to buy a copy of Royce s Invitation to Sailing and I thought the book was so confusing! One of the Kids in our class had a father who worked for the Clark Boat Company and had access to one of the company s 9 Tadpoles, a tiny cat-rigged sailing dingy. We very illegally made molds of the Tadpole s hull and eventually manufactured fourteen of the little boats! We d take Continued on page MAINSHEET

6 Rear Commodore's report continued... the Tadpoles down to Commencement Bay and our instructor would tow us all out in a line. We d race them and then he d tow us all back in. I guess that was my first racing! Steve and Mickie see themselves as racers first and cruisers second. I found out that the first boat Steve and Mickie had together was a Hobie 16 and that for fun they would drop it in Lake Union and run circles around other boats. I asked them, Why racing? and they both answered, the challenge and went on to define challenge as mastering the boat and racing it to its potential. Mickie described how they chose their Beneteau First 35 by researching its various high-tech features and controls. They knew that First Dance would be a challenge to learn, but it was that challenge that drew them to the boat. It is interesting that they were introduced to the Beneteau First 35 at the Seattle Boat Show where they went to look at a J-120. They were shown the Beneteau in a brochure and Steve said, Well that would just about fit the bill. They flew to the Annapolis Boat Show to see one, survived an evening with club members Lew and Bev Channing, and then bought First Dance! Besides the challenge of mastering a new boat, Steve and Mickie talked a great deal about the fun they have bringing new people into racing and said that it s one of the things they love to do. This is an aspect of Steve and Mickie that I think makes them great club members. itself is not enough; they love to share their boat and experience with others. They told me that they believe strongly in Billy Carter s Race Chair edict that No sailor will be left on land on race night! A question that I like to ask couples who submit to my interrogation is: Has sailing taught you anything that you can apply in other parts of your life? Steve answered in a very specific way by describing a time when he was getting his pilot s license. He told me that his sailing experience made the process almost simple. If you understand how sails work, then you understand how wings work. Steve and Mickie describe the experience of the Commodore s Ball, which brought Steve onboard as our club s Commodore for 2011 as the most memorable club event they ve had in their long history with CYCT. It was so special to see everyone coming together for the club and offering to help in the upcoming year, Mickie said. I know that Steve isn t much of a pomp and circumstance kind of guy and so I was a little surprised to hear that he and Mickie enjoyed the Commodore s Ball so much, but then again, the Ball is really about people and about dedicating ourselves to something more than just our individual pursuits, and that has The Chief and Mickie written all over it. Steve just retired from Boeing, and Mickie, who loves a good challenge sailing or otherwise, just completed the work necessary for her second PhD. I asked what the sailing future holds and they replied with a number of shorter term goals including circumnavigating Vancouver Island. I thanked Steve and Mickie for the great stories and for letting me pry into their lives and then said, Steve, I have just one last question: What would you say was the closest you ve come to death in sailing? Steve leaned forward and slowly began, Well, the Sea was angry that day my friend and... Emergency Editor s Note: Paul has reached the limit for this article and unfortunately must be stopped. Ken St John, Mainsheet Editor. On The Cover Dan and Karen Walker s TIGGER Photo by Steve Ryan 6 MAINSHEET

7 Fleet Report Cruising Report Presented by Corinthian Yacht Club of Tacoma Hosted by Soo & Billy Carter of S/V Discovery R.S.V.P MAINSHEET

8 Secret Pirate Information For Pirate Eyes only! (eye if you have a patch) We will embark for Mayo Cove Landlubbers call it Penrose We will there anchor and raft and Pirate Early arrival on Friday Slack at the Narrows at 1156 Max Flood at 1504 Tide turns again at 1853 But Look Out for the Cannon at Fort Defiance Saturday Arrival for Pirate Fleet Reinforcements Beware of Racers starting from Gig Harbor at Noon Narrows Slack at Max Flood at 1552 Tide turns at 1942 Land Yachts bring a whistle for shore boat Potluck Dinner 1900 Grog rations and Ale on Romeo Charlie Aaarrgh! Pirate & Tall Tales until you can stand no more 8 MAINSHEET

9 Sunday Morning rations to be dispensed aboard S/V Discovery (Coffee, Orange Juice, Sausage, Eggs, Hash browns) Cutt s Island Racers to the Mark 1200 Captain Morgan s Beer can race No rules, you re a Pirate! 1400 Pirate Hors devours Competition 1800 Potluck with Buccaneer Stew Grog Rations and Ale Booty Count & Race Results Monday We Sail on the Tide Max Ebb at 1042 Join us for a Cruise to Longbranch with Wine Tasting Hosted by Ken and Julie St. John and Trillium Creek Winery July MAINSHEET

10 CYCT Abroad Stay up on our CYCT members abroad read their blogs! Kokomo spent the month of April underway. We traveled 1283 nautical miles were under sail. We experienced seas from flat clam to equals of 28 Kts. Dennis and Becky Flannigan S/V Kokomo We left Panama on April 3rd and sailed five days without starting the motor. The seas were on the nose so we tacked our way to Jamaica. While in Jamaica we met friends from Tacoma. We then visited the Bob Marley museum, rafted a river on bamboo rafts, swam through waterfalls and enjoyed time in a swimming pool. We then sailed to Cuba and spent an incredible 4 days visiting towns, meeting friendly people and eating some of the best meals we have had on our trip. We departed Cuba worried about the notorious windward passage and how our friends would handle the bad weather. Turns out this was the only part of our trip we had to motor as the winds were light and sea flat. Once we checked into the Bahamas we started moving north and anchoring in waters that changed a 100 shades of blue. We are now anchored in Elizabeth Harbor next to George Town, Bahamas making plans for the next 1000 miles Kokomo's return to the USA. A much more in-depth account will follow. But needless to say... After 10 years of dreaming we are off. Follow along as we move about the globe fixing our boat in different cultures and exotic places. Life is good on Kokomo! Denny S/V Kokomo Rob and Carolyn Crone S/V Honeydew Bev and Lew Channing S/V Suzanne member/honey_dew/ We have started a sailblog if anyone wants to keep track of travels on Suzanne. member/channing/ 10 MAINSHEET

11 Sunshine A get well card was sent to Dan Bessmer who has been recovering from an extended illness. We rely on you to know. Sunshine requests can be forwarded to: Julie St. John juliesgarden@gmail.com Saw it on facebook Happy Birthday to our CYCT Members Georgia Lomax May 7 Michael Meyers May 7 Gene Brown May 11 Judy Anderson May 15 Ceryl White May 19 Carolyn Crone May 20 Renee Paine May 21 Sue Campbell May 29 THEY SAID WHAT? CYCT has a facebook page open only to members of the CYCT! To join, search for the group Corinthian Yacht Club Tacoma and request membership MAINSHEET

12 May 2013 Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat :00PM Seattle Yacht Club s Opening Day weekend Seattle Yacht Club s Opening Day weekend Seattle Yacht Club s Opening Day weekend PM General Meeting (Johnny s) Cutts Island Pirate cruise and race Cutts Island Pirate cruise and race June :00PM 6 :00PM 6 :00PM 6 :00PM Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Cutts Island Pirate cruise and race 1 6 :00PM :00PM :00PM :00PM PM General Meeting Potluck (At the clubhouse) 6 PM Dinner 7 PM Board Meeting (Johnny s in Fife) Fun on Fridays RACING Fun on Fridays RACING Check CYCT.com for additional information on meetings and races 12 MAINSHEET

13 Secretary s Report Month: April 2013 CYCT General Meeting Agenda 2013 Meeting was called to order at 7pm by Vice Commodore Steve Ryan (Gary and Joy on vacation) Motion was made by Marvin Fritts and seconded by Steve Wagner to approve the prior month s minutes: Reports: Vice Commodore: Steve Ryan No report Rear Commodore: Paul Case Displayed trophy for the T-town Races to be held in Aug in Tacoma. Expressed great appreciation for the current Mainsheet. Past Commodore: Cheryl White not present Treasurer: Dana Bachellerie Gage Stated that the bills are paid. No major expenses pending. Secretary: Joy Ballentine not present. Substitute Secretary Joe Salz No Report Membership Chair: Ed and Sue Pinkham Planning a membership campaign in May. Looking for input and graphics help from members. Fleet Captain Cruising: Fred and Ursula Ahrens distributed notices for the April 27 th /28 th Heritage gathering at the Des Moines marina. Lunch will be centered on Kartoffelpuffer. You ll have to attend to find out what that is! Billy Carter summarized the Memorial Day Cruise and Race to Cutts Island with overnight at Penrose State Park. Remember the July cruise to Long Branch is hosted by The St. John s. Labor Day Cruise to Poulsbo, hosted by Matt Thomas slips and slips are reserved. The cruise Oct. 19 and 20 th, does not have a destination or a host. November 9-10 Cruise to Arabella s is hosted by Gary Ballentine, Steve Ryan and Paul Case. Fleet Captain : Billy Carter Reviewed April 6 th Single hand race. Expressed for discussion the possibility that next year the event could be a true single hand race and include a double handed category as well, thus increasing the turnout. Joe Salz and Dan Walker reported on the great fun of the four TYC buoy races held in Quartermaster Harbor on March 30 th. Education: Chuck Welter planning for a Man Overboard exercise this summer. Billy C. reported an approx. 50 person turnout for the Rules of discussion held on April 3 rd. Social: Ross and Barbara Demmel No Report Club Merchandise: Linda Case Is taking orders for fleecy jackets with CYCT emblem. Guys get a choice of blue. Girls actually get multiple choices. Approximately $40. Mainsheet: Ken St. John Not Present Sunshine: Julie St. John-- Introduced a sailing guest Patti Wells. Please let Julie know when someone needs some care or cheering up. Continued on page 12 Webmaster: Greg Sandwick Not Present 13 MAINSHEET

14 Secretary s report continued... Historian: No report Long Range Planning: Joe Salz Introduced the concept of acquiring a party barge that could travel to our cruise destinations. Will do some initial looking into this idea and will report findings in the future. Any ideas contact Joe. Floating Assets: Jerry Brennan Not present. Will be shanghai d to the party barge research committee. Publicity: Don McAdams No Report Trophies: Steve Wagner. Yep. He has some to distribute. Protests: Eric Nelson Not present PHRF Director: Eric Nelson Not present PIYA Representative: Eric Nelson Not present PHRF Handicapper: Eric Nelson see above Dingy Program: Brian White/Dana Gage/Chuck Queen Not Present Commodore s Report: Gary Ballentine passed a message via Steve Ryan Be sure and consider the TYC Daffodil parade and SYC Opening Day of Boating Season events. There is a dress code to be on the boats in the parade. Contact Gary or Joy for details. Old Business--None New Business None Nice discussion by Gene Brown and Lisa Corkum concerning Pacific Cup racing San Francisco to Hawaii, and return trip back to Seattle. Motion to Adjourn Meeting was made by Chuck Welter and Seconded by Soo Carter. Raffle winners included Dan Walker, Marv Fritts, Joe Salz, Steve Hucke, Debbie McAdams, Fred Ahrens, Steve Wagner, Skip? (he skipped before I could get his last name), and one other. The IRS has been notified of your winnings. - Joe Salz Gardyloo Consulting LLC Eric Nelson - Manager gardyconsult@gmail.com Residential and Commercial New and Renovation Work Construction Management and Estimating, Constructability Reviews, Site Planning, Work Scope Development Erosion and Sediment Control Design, Review, and Monitoring 14 MAINSHEET

15 The CYCT Boatyard Basic Rules You must be a CYCT member or sponsored by a CYCT member to post an item. Each month the CYCT posting member must submit their items for sale before the last week of each month (send your post to kennethstjohn@gmai.com ). Items must be submitted each month or they will not be reposted. You are responsible to sell your item so you must include your contact information (items without contact information will not be posted). No boatyard items this month they must be saving it for the swap meet! Des Moines Cruise photos by Julie St. John 15 MAINSHEET

16 The View From the Rear (Musings of a Casual Racer) Motley Crew How the Bourgeois Subdues the Proletariat through the use of Beer A few years ago I read an article in this very publication that has troubled me greatly. In the article the author, a current officer in this very club, describes using beer to lure some hapless sailor who he called Brock away from a boat he called Tatoosh with the sole intent of dominating our friendly sport. To say I was appalled is putting it lightly. I was really appalled. Such disregard for humanity! What happens to a man who has been lured to the sea with beer? For all we know, this man Brock is lying in a gutter somewhere or worse, is crewing on a J-boat! Or perhaps he was just used up on Lucia and forced to return, broken and downtrodden, to this Tatoosh where he might eke out a few more years of crewing while drinking Budweiser light that has gone flat because the bottles were un-capped at the dock? Is this what we want for our sport, for our club, for our country? I say nay. I do have one thing in common with Rear Commodore Case and the fictitious Tatoosh in that I also find myself in the need of crew. And as a yacht owner I ask myself the very same question every yacht owner must ask him or herself, Am I going to manipulate the Brocks of this world to do my bidding through the employment of beer? Again I must say Nay. No, I propose a different way. A better way. I propose a race boat where the crew member is treated like a human being and not livestock. A boat where they are fed ideas, not beer. On Naughty By Nature the crew member cared for and loved. In return for their service, we offer a bathroom with a real toilet and a door that closes for privacy. There are cushions on the settees, lights overhead and several sources of music. And importantly, there are outlets for crew to charge their iphones. Crew on NxN are not treated as lesser individuals. They are able to expand their learning and knowledge though discussions and debates on subjects such as current Labor and Delivery practices and the superiority of Crosby, Stills and Nash to 2 Live Crew. We don t belabor them with racing strategy because we have none and we don t use confusing jargon but speak simply with commands such as left turn and duck.. Read How to Get and Keep a Good Crew, MainSheet pdf It still cracks me up! And here is the important difference. We do not serve beer on the Naughty boat. No, we serve wine. Good Washington state and California wines (with the occasional Australian wine thrown in). With that wine we serve cheese, premium grains and fruit. Nutritious, delicious fruit. On NxN we believe that to nourish a man or woman s soul, you must first nourish their body. Today s crew has a choice. They can be a beer-soaked cog in a capitalist machine called Lucia or they can be a part of a beautiful experiment in living which we call Sailing Naughty. Choose wisely crew, choose wisely. Ken St. John S/V Naughty By Nature 16 MAINSHEET

17 NOTICE OF RACE CORINTHIAN YACHT CLUB of TACOMA 2013 LATE SPRING SERIES: May 15 th, 22 nd, 29 th, June 5 th, 12 th SUMMER SERIES: June 19 th, 26 th, July 10 th, 17 th, 24 th LATE SUMMER SERIES: July 31 st, August 7 th, 14 th, 21 st, 28 th 17 MAINSHEET