• Commodore

    Commodore May 2021

    I love Spring. It is invigorating to watch our club come back to life. I love to meet new members and to catch up with old friends. But, what I love most is observing fellow members helping each other prepare for the season. When we help each other we are volunteering our services. In fact, helping each other is a central part of our sport and what our sailing club is all about.

    Worded another way, we are volunteering. But, what does that really mean? According to Merriam Webster, a volunteer is “a person who expresses a willingness to undertake a service.” Being a volunteer means that you are offering something – something that is not required nor an obligation.

    You might volunteer because the optimist inside you, perhaps the idealist, spies a glimmer of hope. You see that your time is worth it…you believe that you are capable of inciting change and making progress.

    Most of the time, to volunteer means that you are working with others which connects you as you are working toward a common goal. You are connected with both the problem and the solution, and you are benefitting others as well as yourself.

    But where to start, you ask. What special skills or talents do you bring to the table? Are you a strong communicator? Do you work well with your hands? Are you creative? Do you like to study laws and policies? Do you want to use the same skill set you use during the workday when you volunteer? Perhaps you want to go in a completely different direction.

    Quite simply, our club is run by volunteers. Remember that volunteers are busy people. They often have jobs, families, and obligations outside of our club…so please treat them kindly.

    Being a volunteer means that even the smallest gestures make a big difference. So, get out there and help to make the world and our club a little brighter and kinder. Decide what being a volunteer means to you and run with it. If you would like to help in any way, please reach out to a club officer. We would be happy to find a way to get you plugged in.

    See you at the club
    Chuck Goff
    Commodore

  • Social

    Social May 2021

    We are well on our way to planning the season events. Based on the feedback from the recent survey, our normal social events will be modified for yet another year. We are forgoing any and all pitch-in style events for the time being, and will be offering either catered or food truck options. With catering and food trucks being more costly than our typical pitch-in events, we have opted to eliminate the pig roast scheduled for July 3rd. For all other events, to ensure the safety of our members, we will need volunteers to help sanitize tables after each use. The following is the current social schedule:

    May 9th – 11:30am to 2pm – Bring your own brunch. We will have tables dressed in the upper shelter. The first 24 Mom’s receive a special gift. Please check in at the race shed to pick up your special gift.

    May 29th – 3:30pm start time – Memorial Weekend – Come at your leisure. We are finalizing a food truck so it will be best to come in waves. Tables will be dressed in the upper shelter for seating.

    June 20th – Father’s Day – Details to come

    July 17th – Beach Party – Catered – We will need volunteers who are vaccinated to be servers

    Sept 4th – Labor Day – Food Truck TBD

    Sept 18th – Lobster Fest – Working on confirming J’s Lobster Food Truck

    Oct 17th – Chili Cookoff – Tentative. Observing CDC guidelines for this type of event

    Nov 6th – Final Bash – Details to come

    We are also looking at adding some small bring-your-own picnics with music around the lower shelter. Stay tuned and keep your eye out for announcements at the club, on Facebook, and via E-Mail blasts. If you have suggestions, please do not hesitate to contact Vickie Greenough or Amy Miller.

    Happy Sailing!

    Vickie

  • Harbormaster

    Harbormaster May 2021

    As more boats go onto the water, we have more parking available. Please park your cars inside the car corral. Please do not park in front of
    someone’s boat because you don’t understand that people need to get their boat in. So, with that said, get your boats out of the car corral and into your wet slip.

    If you don’t plan on using your slip this year, please contact Dennis Robertson or me so we can help some new members get onto the water. As
    of May 1st, you will get $77 less for your reimbursement for your unused slip. It goes down $77 per month, so don’t wait too long to help others out. Please respect other members of this club…your membership number means nothing to me no matter how low it is (unless you want a slip change).

    Please understand, we are a group of people who love sailing…so don’t make it hard on others in our group.

    I am going to make some motions at the board meeting. One is: If you don’t use your slip all year (unless sublet) you lose it. The second
    is: If you keep more than one SAILBOAT out here, you will have to pay more dues for that second boat. I would like the board to come up with a number for a second boat stored all year on club property. Now, if you have a third or fourth boat, it should be an extra $400 dollars per boat…or more depending on the size and number of boats. This is up to the board of directors as far as how much members should pay for a number of boats on the property we rent from the city. This may not take effect until next year’s dues.

    Please do not forget to pay your dues on time (before the end of February each year) or you may lose your slip and membership number.

    Please respect all members.

    Kenny Chapman
    Harbormaster

  • Racing

    Racing May 2021

    If you are amongst the lucky ones at ECSC, you already know that the racing season has gotten off to a great start with good attendance at our initial two Wednesday and Sunday races. We have noticed better turn outs than traditional beginning of the year participation and this is particularly true of our Sunday turnouts. We have a spattering of both new and old members amongst the racers. There have been a lot of upgrades to the club racing equipment, and we have been operating safely under the COVID limitations. We hope you will get your boat onto the water and join us soon.

    Our first regatta is coming up the 21st thorough 23 of May…the Mayor’s Cup Regatta. This will be an invitational two-day regatta and will have traditional fleet racing formats. One-Design fleets with 5 boats or more may request their own start. There is a pre-registration requirement due by May 19th, so sign up and get others to sign up soon. Look in the ECSC website for the registration information and registration instructions.

    There is still a continued recruiting process underway for a dedicated group of race managers and racing helpers to direct the racing activities for our club. The first training session for this group will be in the last part of May after the Mayor’s Cup. This instruction will be led by Geoff Endris and will be for other interested racers as well. More information will be forthcoming. If you would like to get in on the ground floor of this program, please notify Nancy Goff or me of your interest.

    John Kohne & Nancy Goff
    ECSC Racing Committee

  • Membership

    Membership May 2021

    I hope everyone is enjoying the start of the sailing season at ECSC. We currently have 269 active memberships, with 7 new members joining the club since January 1st. Both of these numbers are higher than average. I would like to extend a warm welcome to our newest members to the club:

    Richard & Holly Doying
    Justin Rardin
    Erich Rose
    Charles & Katherine Maiers

    Everyone should be receiving their directories in the next few days as they are back from the printer and being mailed out now. If anyone would like a PDF version of the directory as well, please reach out to me at membership@ecsail.org and I will be happy to email you a copy.

    Thanks,
    Perry Cameron
    Membership Chair

  • Junior Program

    Junior Program May 2021

    Well, what do I write about this month?

    To start off with, your Junior Sailing Team and I would like to say THANK YOU to Katie and Evan Williams for the donation of a new projector for the sailing school. We will be able to video and use the DVR of the junior camp sailors on the water and show it on big screen. Also, we will have movie nights for the members. More on this next month.

    Last week was our “Go For The Gold” regatta. In that, 11 sailors on Lasers did battle on Eagle Ocean. The water was quite cold! At the skippers meeting, they were told that after a capsize and 2 minutes in the water, they were being pulled out. Only three turned over, but only in the water 45 seconds.

    “Safety is number one duty with junior’s on the water!”

    The teams came from Carlyle Sailing Club (Illinois), North Cape YC (Michigan), Leatherlips YC (Ohio), Indianapolis Sailing Club, and ECSC. Saturday’s wind was from the east at 5-7 and we got in 4 races before our phones and VFH radio gave us the high pitch tone that thunderstorms were coming. So, we picked up our marks and made for the barn. Sunday’s wind was from the northwest and 16-18 mph and very cold. 4 more races in the bag. Ohio won the Gold…Illinois Silver…ECSC Bronze. I wish to say thanks to: Ralph Merriman, Dennis Robertson, Jr., Bob McCoun, Tony Hubbard, Ray DeGrella, and Deanna Nicholas for a Job Well Done on safety and RC duties. Also, thanks to Kenny Chapman for moving members’ boats off of the beach for more room for the teams.

    The Junior Sailing Camp is just about full. This is the largest camp in history of the club! Our Junior Team is looking forward to June. Olivia DeGrella is team leader. Sam Riley, Deanna Nichols, and Dennis Robertson Jr. are instructors. I’m driving Sam & Olivia to Mentor Harbor YC, Ohio so they can finish their US Sailing certified Level 1’s and 2’s. They started them last year, but was slowed by CV19.

    So, May and June will be a very busy month for your Junior Sailing Team. Along with our Junior Sailing Camp, they start racing the weekly I-LYA Traveler Series each Saturday. Our first race is at Hoover Sailing Club, Columbus, Ohio. After that, we move on to North Cape YC in Michigan. There are 11 Saturdays and 3 major championships on the schedule for your team this year.

    So let the games begin!

    One last note, Our US Sailing Coach, Reagan Lessick was missing last week. Where in the world was she? Actually, she was in sunny Florida working at an Indy Car Race in St. Petersburg…as a hostess for the Indy teams. What a way to make money! Fun in The Sun!

    Wayne Myers
    ECSC Junior Program