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| Commodore |
I’m sure Bill Harrington has plenty in store for us at the work party. and it usually doesn’t take long with everyone pitching in. We’ll be christening the new safety and R/C boats this month, also. Don’t know when that’s going to take place, but if you’re at the Club, please come and participate. This ceremony ensures good fortune to the the boats and their crew. With that, I challenge each member who operates or rides on these fine vessels to help make them last. Make it your policy to leave the boats in better condition than when you started. This includes cleaning, stowing gear, and making sure the charger gets plugged into the shore power. Also, thank Rick Graef, Chris Cunningham, and Charlie Brehob for their work on the committee to get these boats ready for Club use.
"If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant. If we did not sometimes taste of adversity, prosperity would not be so welcome."
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| Social |
 Spring has sprung and what great weather we are having as I write this article!!! ....a preview of what our sailing season holds for us. Just a reminder that in one month we will be honoring all of the Moms of our Club on May 13th. Our annual Mother’s Day Brunch is coming. Please mark your calendars to attend. We will be starting at 11:30am with the Club preparing the eggs and sausage. Please bring your favorite side dish for everyone to share. Our Memorial Day Cookout will be at 5:00pm on Monday, May 29th. The cook’s will be flipping burgers and dogs...beverages are also provided. Everyone attending is asked to bring a side dish to share. Just a call out to all members who enjoy these events.
Above: Lady Janet checking out a new rum drink for the summer! I know I get repetitive about needing volunteers to help put on these events. The hosts need people who will help cook, decorate, or clean up. The same people step up and volunteer to head up these cookouts. WE NEED YOU!!! If you enjoy participating in these events, please volunteer a few hours of your time. You will be rewarded with getting to know and working with other Club members. You will receive work credits to apply towards next year's dues. You will also have FUN!!!!!!! The Memorial Day Cookout has an opening for a person to chair. This involves heading up the work crew, decorating, and shopping for supplies. I have all the information from past chairs to help you organize. Please consider joining our work crews this year. You can contact me at 566-0353 home or cell 502-3367.
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| Harbormaster |
 It's that time of year again that we have all been waiting for...sailing season! Several boats are in the water already and have been sailing. The weather has been great. Don't forget the 9:00am April 7th Club Opening Work Party with April 14th as a weather-related backup. Everyone is welcome...to help clean all the plant/flower beds, distribute the new mulch, clean the beach, etc, etc, etc. Also, there will be a tree/bush planting party near the end of the month, bring shovels.
Right: Our old RC pontoon leaving the Club forever.
Notes:
The high pressure sprayer has been turned on so you can wash your boat with really cold water – the heater hasn’t been hooked up yet.
The key cores were changed at the end of March. Use gate key 07 and loft keys 71/72 from now on.
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| Racing |
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It’s finally here...what we have been waiting for all winter...SPRING and SAILING! The Spring Race Series gets underway THIS MONTH! Sundays start first on April 29th with the 1st flag at 1:30pm. Two races will be run (there better be wind). This year, both Sunday races are scored together as one series. Wednesdays begin May 2nd with the first flag at 6:50pm. Race assignments will be finalized in early April and posted on the website.
Some Changes To This Year's Racing Program
With the addition of new race committee boats, we are asking everyone who will be running a race (or driving the new boats) to attend one of the two “new boat orientation meetings.” These meeting will be held on April 18th and April 25th at 7:00pm. You must attend in order to run a race and you must run a race or participate in the running of a race to be scored. We made this change to our program to help keep our new boats “New” ...we hope you will understand and we look forward to having everyone out to these meetings. We will also be serving “burnt” hot dogs so BYOB.
Right: Our new RC pontoon taking shape.
The Notice of Race (NOR) for the Spring Series Racing will be posted on the website and at the Club. The Series Sailing Instructions (SI) will be distributed at the Competitors’ Meeting on Wednesday, April 18th 7pm at the Club and otherwise available on-line or in the official Race Bulletin Board on the Race Shed. After the Competitors’ Meeting on the 18th will be the hands-on demonstration on how to use the new race boats and race equipment. There are changes to how the new boats operate. We will run through a “mock” race start...using all the flags and clocks and show how to do it the proper way. This will be good for everyone who is running a race in the spring series; whether you’ve done it before or not. Please attend!!
Smooth Sailing......
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| Bailer's Tips & More |
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I sit in the lab in my boat's rear cabin. On the stainless steel table lay the specimen. By specimen, I mean a wooden post/peg leg...or by today’s definition, a leg carved from wood in a crude fashion so as to help needy pirates who do not qualify for an HMO. They also make a great clumping noise, which inspires fear (something any pirate worth his salt just loves to do). I look up from my work at hand, light my pipe, and stroll out into the main salon. I study the pile of kindling beside my wood stove...a pile of peg legs! These are fine, what appear to be vintage peg legs...something like you would find at Pier One. Old looking, they burn well, too! Many an evening I have sat in my rocker warmed by the Franklin Stove fueled by Trouble's labors. As it turns out, I just found out they are old...centuries old if my carbon dating proves correct (odd I thought). Last year, every Tuesday and Thursday, Trouble delivered said sticks to my cockpit door and I poured my little buddy a caffeine-free diet coke. Trouble loves the diet coke and I find the mystery of the peg legs intriguing...so continues the Tuesday and Thursday ritual. I step out and take a seat at the wheel protected by my dodger from the warm spring rain. I smoke my pipe and listen to the rain...peaceful I think; the water of life! My thoughts drift...a late night reverie after a hard night in the lab. I look around and admire my boat; Queen Anne’s Revenge is her name. I won her at the 1987 World Mumbly Peg Championships (different story).
I pour myself some grog, sit back take a draw...it's time to relax. Around mid-glass, I hear a clumping sound...this clumping sound is approaching my boat. It grows louder. This sound inspires fear in my heart. I finish the grog. The fear is tempered. I stop and listen...the clumping has stopped. I sit and count my heartbeats. They diminish in beats per minute and I begin to think of rational explanations for the terrifying clumping. I laugh at my foolishness and then out of the corner of my eye, I notice what appears to be a man wearing a hat sitting on the stern of my boat...my heart rate doubles! It is a man...a shadowy figure of a man and he is missing a leg and flipping a peg-leg 360 degrees in the air like a circus act with his free hand...the hand not brandishing a cutlass! I jolt to my feet...almost spill my grog (had it not been for my quick thinking just seconds earlier to finish my mug I surely would have spilled my valuable medicine). I blinked several times just to be sure I had not dosed off and was just regaining my vision. But, the shadowy figure remained...flipping the peg and testing my deck with his cutlass. I said, “Sir, kindly do not poke at my deck with your weapon and please explain your presence. If memory serves, your presence is uninvited.” SF (Shadowy Figure) replies: "It is you sir, 2nd cousin to Tailer twelve times removed who owes me an explanation!" B (bailer or myself) replies: "I owe you?" SF: "I hope you are not getting your jollies by playing the fool, but then again, that would not be a reach for you now would it be?" B: "Jollies? Fool what in the Joshua Slocum are you talking about?"
SF: "Are you daft? You train a dog to steal my peg leg so you can take it, burn it in your stove, or to whittle on it during the summer only taking breaks to hoot and holler at the lady members. Fortunately, I paid extra for the extended warranty and insurance so I am covered if I damage or my peg is stolen. However and listen close, the insurance is going to stop covering me. So, let it be known I warned you to stop...stop or feel the steely steeliness of my sword or cutlass as the modern fool would refer to my tool of defense. What kind of man does this to a legend such as myself...a man of honor?"
Right: Who's taking a picture rather than hanging on for dear life?
B: "I have not trained Trouble to steal your leg(s). Leave Trouble out of this and besides, I just did some carbon dating and your peg legs are hundreds of years old. These things are all identical and all museum pieces. It tears me apart inside to think I took part in the destruction of history. Had I known they were museum pieces, I would have told Trouble to stop, err…Doh!"
SF: "I know Trouble was just playing fetch for caffeine free diet coke. You found the wee one's weak spot and exploited it. You, sir, are nothing but a cur!
B: "Cur? I’d look that up but I we don’t have wi-fi yet. So, I’m just going to have to let that one slide!"
Now… My head began to swim. I saw multiple Shadowy Figures and then I slid out of my chair onto the deck. I remember waking up on the deck at high noon with a throbbing head ache and a damp chamois type cloth stuffed in my mouth that tasted like the sea. I gathered my wits, went down to my lab and studied the chamois under a microscope...enough is enough!
I am a born skeptic, so I have decided someone in this Club is playing tricks on me and my pragmatic nature. This piece of leather was born from a rare species of bovine over one thousand years old and was written in cuneiform (one of my languages). It was written with invisible ink or lemon juice which is visible under ultraviolet lighting. The juice was tested and dated the same as the rare bovine leather. What it translated to was not a surprise but still a puzzle.
Still relevant after 5 years or even over one thousand years, I feel closer to Tailer...but he also has become even more of a mystery. We are becoming one and two at the same time or something like that. History repeats itself. We learn from our mistakes, so I guess this helps explain why these tips stand the test. But, I am really anxious as to who, if anyone, visited my boat and if he or it had anything to do with the Tailer gone-missing mystery…."
NUMBER ONE!) Don't sail straight out of the channel with your chute up in a gale unless Bruce Cameron is steering your boat. Well, seeing your mast in the water just has to be cool. This is a story that all of you should research at chair parties this spring.
#2) Ramp Etiquette: This year nobody knows what day will be race day. Friday nights have been suggested. There were already Sunday and Wednesday. Trick is, if all the racers are putting out, it is a bad time for you to shellac your teak at the ramp. You guys knew that already, right?
#3) New members: Come to as many events as you can fit into your schedule. You have a bunch of nice folks to meet and they will be needing your help in the way of finding new and creative ways of maxing you out on work credits that will reduce your contribution to your dues next February. Just do it and then give a bit more. Everyone you know already does this.
#4) The sailing school is a great way to make yourself go to the Club every time you have a class to attend. The Lasers on the beach are yours, after all. Try one out in the cove with some good advice and then take the thing out to the big waters of Eagle Ocean. Learn all about who you really are.
#5) Do not litter! I'm not talking about answering nature’s call with your left hand on the backstay. NO butts, NO cans, NO Nothing goes into the lake that isn't organic and worse than what the fish and geese already do to our home.
Right: Does Commodore Bob know where/who The Tailer is?
#6) Drive up to Geist and know how wonderful it is over here. No rudeness to the Geist folks, but if you haven't seen the difference, go look. Have a pizza at Puccini's and then come back home to the pirate's cove where you belong. Attend a Regatta dinner...this year it is Wayne's World. I'm scared to death!
#7) Find out who that darn Tailer guy is.
Kind Regards and tack well.....
The Bailer
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| Safety & Education |
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THANK YOU! To all of the members of ECSC who made donations to the Junior Sailing Fund this year.
ECSC Junior Sailing Team '07 This year’s team sailors are: RJ Graef, Austin Graef, Erika Williams, EJ Williams, Cody McCoun, and Jacob Hubbard. Our coaches are: Katie Williams, Rick Graef, and Ki Hickok. Team support staff: Sandy Graef, Evan Williams, Tony & Joyce Hubbard, Wayne Myers, Bob & Janet Hickok, and Dr. Bob. Our 1st practice day is scheduled for Saturday the 7th of April at 11:00am at the Club. On this day, we will be sailing and getting our boats in order for the up coming season. Please don’t forget as we will be loading the trailers and gear you will need for ISC Spring Regatta.
Above: Wayne could use this trailer this season! Our 1st race will be at ISC April 14th & 15th. The next race is the Weekend Warrior at ECSC on 28th & 29th of April (See the NOR on the website). Remember to make a copy of your regatta form and return to Wayne Myers. Cody McCoun will get 1st choice of her boat and sail rig to use at ISC. The top sailor of ISC will get their choice of boat & sail rig for the Weekend Warrior Regatta. If you and/or your junior would like to join us at one of these regattas, please call or E-Mail us. The Club will supply the boat and some funding is there.
Something To Think About What we need is to somehow get the kids sailing and loving it for the sake and feel of it. They need easy access to our clubs and facilities...being able to try out the sport and perhaps have the freedom to do it as we did when we were kids. We learned to sail by taking a boat out and tipping over until We figured out how to stay upright, and we never will forget the day, even the exact moment, we first coaxed a dinghy onto the plane. Currently, it seems, we are so over regulated that future generations are permanently denied these simple pleasures of learning things for themselves. We were able to spend whole summers down at the club on our own...half a dozen kids just messing about in boats with a sandwich for lunch and not an adult anywhere. Nobody drowned! In fact, everyone grew up quite a lot. If you want to get more kids into sailing, treat them more like adults, and let them see that not everything in society has to be regulated to the nth degree. If we aspire for our children to love sailboat racing, then we must first allow them to simply fall in love with sailing itself. If that basic love turns into a passion for racing, great! If not, then we have at least afforded them a unique opportunity to expand their own horizons and explore their own independence through the sport.
Junior Sailing Weeks
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| Membership |
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Please welcome our new members to the Club: David and Ann Marie Knapp of Indianapolis. Jim and Linda Heavin of Carmel, sailing a Flying Scott. All membership kits were mailed a month ago. If you did not receive yours, please contact me by phone at 815-8599. The Annual Directory will be distributed by Mother’s Day weekend. Membership count: 227
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| New Safety and Pontoon Boats |
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Below was the first proposal for a boat to replace our Whaler.
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| Wetslip Wait List |
| 1 | 110 | Myers | Wayne | Pass |
| 2 | 172 | Levin | Ron | Pass |
| 3 | 203 | Walther | Karl | Pass |
| 4 | 259 | Bolton | Brooks | Pass |
| 5 | 260 | Magoun | Dan | Pass |
| 6 | 271 | Andrews | William | Pass |
| 7 | 275 | Ward | Jeff | Pass |
| 8 | 278 | Gilmore | John | Pass |
| 9 | 314 | Wolfinger | Jim | Pass |
| 10 | 331 | O'Brien | Sean | Pass |
| 11 | 333 | Piepenbrink | Stephen | Pass |
| 12 | 339 | Irwin | Mike | Pass |
| 13 | 345 | Marson | Nick | Pass |
| 14 | 347 | Bruce | David | Pass |
| 15 | 349 | Morehead | Kelli | Pass |
| 16 | 352 | Tate | Phil | Pass |
| 17 | 362 | Brehob | Cassie | Pass |
| 18 | 375 | Zambrano | Mario | Sub B57 |
| 19 | 377 | Ahlbrand | Ed | Sub B55 |
| 20 | 378 | Sutherland | Hugh | Sub D22 |
| 21 | 380 | Welch | John | Sub C148 |
| 22 | 381 | Schmidt | Jane | Sub B53 |
| 23 | 383 | Combs | Pete | Sun D04 |
| 24 | 385 | Hebert | Harold | Sub C121 |
| 25 | 386 | Wycoff | Paul | Sub C139 |
| 26 | 387 | VanDuyn | Paul | Sub D23 |
| 27 | 389 | Duguid | John | |
| 28 | 390 | Lezotte | Bill | |
| 29 | 393 | Wright | Tony | |
| 30 | 394 | Wilkins | Al | |
| 31 | 395 | Kiger | Matt | |
| 32 | 396 | Wood | Rick | |
| 33 | 397 | Lehr | Joseph | |
| 34 | 398 | Menchhofer | Bob | |
| 35 | 399 | Chapman | Grant | |
| 36 | 400 | Thompson | Grant | |
| 37 | 401 | Childs | Aaron | |
| 38 | 402 | Bocock | Michael | |
| 39 | 404 | Heavin | Jim | |
| 40 | 405 | Eigenbrod | Les | |
| 41 | 406 | Anger | Dan |
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2007 Social Calendar, Click Here.
2007 Racing Calendar, Click Here.
2007 Overall Club Calendar, Click Here.
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| Click to view Sailboats, Inc's website. | |
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| Click to view Old Bob's website. | |
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| Eagle Creek Sail Club ECSC Home Page |
