Gold Country Yacht Club a little dinghy Volume 25, Issue 7 Past Commodore Offers Caribbean Cruise Soundings From The Poop-deck July Regatta Party & Race Photos Inside Or Was that you with the Lamp Shade? DON T FORGET THE MEETING THIS MONTH WILL BE AT THE CLUB HOUSE AT THE LAKE July 12th June has been a great month! I would like to thank everyone who worked so hard during our club regatta and the Catalina Nationals. Both were hugely successful and we need to take our hats off to the committees for their planning and execution. In case you were not aware of it; Pierre, Mike, Jean, Bill and Pat were responsible for the GFTG Regatta, with Don, Wayne, Tish, Lynn and Dale planning Nationals (I hope I didn t forget anyone). You guys are marvelous! I think that the club reaps benefits that go far beyond the financial gains. It is always a lot of fun working together and building the relationships that come out of these types of events. Letters to the editor: Mike Hauser 749 Maltman Dr Grass Valley, CA 95945 Or send email to: mike@gvblueprint.com Inside this issue: Soundings Jeff Lund 1 Vice Commodore Chatelain 2 Port Captain 3 Membership 4 Regatta Photos 5-6 Racing 7-9 I would also like to say thanks to Tish again for another year of supporting the Friendship Club. The event has become an important day for the girls who are moving up from Just Friends to Good Friends. It s all a learning process and we get to help out. Our skippers for the day were Don S., Wayne & Tish, Dale & Lynn, Don H., Jerry L., Dave & Susan and Ron & I. Everyone had a lot of fun spraying and being sprayed with water guns. I am even told that a few looked down the barrel end of a loaded water bucket. Needless to say, we all stayed cool despite the 95 + degree weather. Coming up soon some of our members will be enjoying a Tahoe cruise. Please be sure to call Gary Wade to find out more about it. The trip will be from July 6 th through the 10 th and it s going to be a lot of fun. It has been our experience that the winds usually make for great sailing in the afternoons. We plan to have some scheduled events and plenty of time for sailing, swimming and other fun activities along the way. Come spend time with your fellow cruisers and create memories that will last a lifetime. Alright, I might be over stating it but when it comes to Tahoe I get carried away. You can call Gary at 265-4710. And finally, I know that this will be a big disappointment to everyone but due to this year s vacation schedule I will be out of town for the July & August BOD meetings and for the August General meeting. I will miss you all, but not too much. However, you will all be pleased to know that you will be left in the very capable hands Pierre Chatelain your Vice Commodore. Go Pierre! Enjoy your summer wherever you may sail. Take advantage of Wednesday nights to raft up for twilight dinners, special things happen there. Go for a swim. Take nothing too seriously and remember you only live once. So long for now, it s time for me to burn my candle late into the evening looking for more words of wisdom for our next issue. Ah the H^$%@ with it, See you when I get back from vacation. Please contact me if you have any questions or comments. Vice Commodore Pierre Chatelain THANK YOU ALL for your great participation during the 25 th GFTG Regatta. It was a big year and our Club delivered BIG! We should have final numbers at the July 12th meeting. If you have receipts for the 25 th GFTG, please send them to Jean Cutshall at your earliest convenience..continued PG2
I would like to send a special thank you to the Regatta Committee with Mike and Jean Hauser and Bill and Pat Andrew. They worked on the event since February and spent many hours planning an event that would make the 25 th GFTG a Regatta to remember. Attached is a review of the Regatta that was presented to the BOD shortly after the event. Please review it and bring in any ideas for improvements for next year. A good measuring stick for our success is that a GFTG participant wrote to his boat Class an article and in his first paragraph wrote: the now famous Go For the Gold Regatta. Great Team Work! Observation: The Club and NID facilities could host 80 boats with better on-site communication and on-site organization To Keep: ο Communicate with Boat Classes. Post early registrations on website. ο Live Music / Themed activities / Picture projection ο Serve Wine/Beer with ABC license ο High quality food and double-serving lines ο Sponsor Banner Program ($600). Live Auction (about $700). ο Gold Themed Awards ο Volunteer participation ο Free T-shirt for early registration ο Separate Start/Finish lines and Olympic course ο Early posting of results on website ο Registration and early set up of registration packages Separation of revenue: registration, food, beer/wine, T-shirts, etc To Improve: ο NID communication of nightly rates/parking expectation. Wooden blocks for parked trailers. ο Note on NOR for overnight parking of $7.50/night for non-campers ο Add Open Class ribbon to avoid Class confusion ο Raffle to be more out of town focused and shorter in time. 6 Tickets for $5. Buy raffles based on gifts. ο Rescue Boats: need more volunteers and 3 functioning boats ο Barge: need reliable motor ο Fruits and fruit juices for Sunday breakfast. Create Saturday breakfast? ο Review spots around parking lot and launch ramp where mast can get caught. Work with NID to remove obstacles ο Provide a message board for crew needs, equipment, etc announcements. Offer $1 Sunday Lunch Recommendations: ο Timing: start the 2007 GFTG campaign now to attract Opti, El Toro, and other classes. Focus on CA Boat Classes Offer incentive for returning boats for 2007 Next Steps: ο Finish the Sponsorship thank you notices and send Sheriff a Thank you letter ο Send a thank you letter to 2006 participants with dates of 2007 regatta and incentive for 2007 participation with trophy plates ο Provide pictures to Classes ο Start GFTG 2007 Committee now to get 80 boats in 2007 ο Work with NID to remove mast obstacles ο Install a permanent message/announcement board Finalize the financials See you at the Meeting!
PAGE 2...A LITTLE DINGHY VOLUME 25 ISSUE 7 At Our Helm Port Captain s Corner - Port Captain Dave Cowell Commodore Jeff Lund 477.1208 jeff@sierranetworks.com Vice Commodore Pierre Chatelain 478.1667 pierrechatelain@comcast.net Secretary Jean Hauser 268.8866 lakeshore@gvblueprint.com Treasurer Jean Cutshall 477.1709 jean.cutshall@thomson.net Cruise Chairmen Gary Wade 265.4710 gawade1@earthlink.net Publicity/Membership Dave Bloch 477.9472 dave@sierrabusiness.net Port Captain Dave Cowell david.cowell@sbcglobal.net Race Chairman Jerry Lewis 305 0533 jml@usamedia.tv Newsletter Editors Mike Hauser 273.8835 Well, we ve all arrived at that place we want to be. Summer on the water in our boats! Relax, kick back and have no worries. Worries? One can never stop that process in one s adult life. The thoughts of did I forget to close that seacock, should I have greased the wheels, and the list of nagging doubts goes on forever. And then there s that ugliest worry, Will I get ripped off. As I was kicking back with the Catalina 22 racers during the regatta I couldn t help but see one was nervous. Upon the question he stated he was worried about his race sails sitting in the back of his truck. Wow! Who d steal sails? Not a fellow sailor. But then there s an element that seems to come out during summer months that ll boost anything that isn t bolted or locked down. And there s a new type of thief that specializes in boats. Their main target seems to be electronics. That VHF is today s equivalent of yesterday s CB and tape player; the CD player, the depth finder, the GPS, the NAV Plotter, the compass is easily carried off and fenced. And your boat can be much easier to break into than a car. But then those aren t the only things being stolen in the boat community. Outboard motors are an easy target. So are trailers. My boat was broken into a couple of weeks ago. The companionway was locked with the perfunctory chrome plated brass hasp and padlock. I never found the lock. The hasp had one of those rotating parts and that s what failed when the thief hit it. They only got some tools worth a hundred or so bucks as I ve been working on the boat and had removed all electronics. Another club member wasn t so lucky. He had his boat trailer stolen. Now you re talking thousands. I even heard of some thieves carrying off the tower from a ski boat in storage. That was gutsy (you can substitute stupid when they get caught) but shows how they are operating with impunity. BOATS ARE EASY TARGETS. So now that I have you paranoid about being ripped off take a little time to go over how you plan to secure your gear while you re having that enjoyable sail. Remember, when you re out there you re on their turf. They d love to accommodate your contribution to their economy if you don t make it too much work for them. You should establish some simple easy to follow rules and procedures to make thieves work for their booty. They really don t want to work or take any risks for anything they can t see. Keep stuff out of sight when not in use and lock, lock, lock it up. I ve a new stainless steel hasp that will be through-bolted into the hatchboards and I ve replaced the lightweight chain on my outboard. I m looking for a trailer for my friend. Good luck this summer, hope you have a great time without this affliction. It s ugly when it happens and can put a real damper on a wonderful time. The lake s starting to be drawn down. I had to move the dinghy dock out yesterday and for those of you with dinghies you should do likewise if you see it starting to bump the shore. mike@gvblueprint.com Junior Sailing Lynn Buchanan 470-0511 sailynn@comcast.net
Membership/Publicity - Chairperson Dave Bloch OK, so I figure most of this issue of Dinghy is going to be about the great Go for the Gold Regatta, and about the Catalina 22 Nationals, so seems like we don t need another article about those things. So, instead I ll tell you a couple of sailing-related experiences Speranza and I had over the past month. We were down in Mexico over Memorial Day week, on the Gulf of Mexico shore of the Yucatan peninsula. Our small seaside town of Progreso has an excellent protected harbor and a couple of marinas, and we spent some time driving around searching in vain for sailboats. Found dozens of ocean-going fishing vessels and lots of other commercial craft, but not a sailor in sight. A few days passed and we were taking our last walk on the beach before flying home. We looked out beyond the pier (Progreso s pier extends five miles straight out into the Gulf; the deep-water port facilities are out at the end) and there they were probably two dozen sailboats in what was obviously a race. It was beautiful to watch, even from at least a mile away. Next visit (in December), we re going to look harder! Our other experience was sailing Se Fue, our own little 1974 O Day 20 out of its slip down in Richmond. We re taking classes over the summer and have to practice in between, so sleeping on and practicing with our own boat is making the slip fees worth it! We d been out a few weeks earlier and had a wonderful time, just getting out of Marina Bay, staying in the protected channel over to Brickyard Cove and coming back. Smooth breezes and great sailing! But this time, the winds were up around 15 knots. We motored out of the marina and into the protected area of the harbor, and hoisted the sails. We were immediately in trouble. No matter what we did with the tiller and sails, we were unable to get control of the boat. Nothing we did could get that boat to point where we wanted it to. There was quite a bit of traffic in and out of the marina, and the winds were uneven and shifting direction. So, what do you do as a beginning sailor when things aren t going well? In our case, we decided to haul in the sails and motor back in. We d only been out for about 20 minutes and were already exhausted. This was only our second time sailing our boat in SF Bay winds, and we really had no idea of what Se Fue is capable. Disappointed, we did what any good sailor would do after such and experience headed to the local West Marine and spent some Boat Bucks. But fear not! As I write this on June 29, we re preparing to head back to the Bay tomorrow night for what we hope is two full days on the water. And we ve booked a Tradewinds Sailing School instructor to come with us Saturday afternoon for both some teaching and an evaluation of what our O Day can handle. If you re at the meeting this Wednesday, we may have some new stories to tell --Dave Bloch Enjoy the warm turquoise waters and consistent trade winds of the Caribbean with Gary and Dale Miller aboard their cruising cat "Sognare".Gary was a member and commodore of Gold Country Yacht Club in the early years and for the past 5 years he and his wife Dale have been running charters in the Caribbean. They would love to share the British Virgin Islands with you aboard their 45 foot Leopard Catamaran -"SOGNARE" italian - to dream. They are available for fully crewed charters or if you have the qualifications, you can bareboat Sognare. Check out their boat at www.bviyachtcharters.com Any further questions call: 477-7357 or 913-6405 913-5469
Racing News Race Chairman-Jerry Lewis
July 2006 Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 1 August 2006 Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 30 31 General Meeting July 12th Summer Race July 23 rd August 1st Board Meeting August 6th Race August 9th General meeting August 19th Race ATTENTION: OUR MEETINGS THIS MONTH WILL BE AT :Scotts Flat Lake July 12th -7:00pm. Meeting Members A-H bring a salad...members I-Z bring a side dish to share...everyone is responsible for their own main dish.! Gold Country Yacht Club P.O. Box 813 Grass Valley, CA 95945 Phone (530)273-7819 Email: jeff@sierranetworks.com We re on the Web! Look for us at - www.gcyc.net