• Racing

    Racing July 2022

    Racers,

    Since our last writing, we have had the ECSC Regatta.  Despite several of our sailors being out for the Mackinaw races on Lake Huron and Michigan, we were able to field 11 boats in four fleets for the regatta.  Even though the number of boats was not large, there was a lot of good competition and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves.  There were three boats from the Purdue University sailing team participating…adding a very positive element to the event.  Les Miller’s team won White Fleet, Steve Earnhart won Blue Fleet, Ms. Chan from Purdue won Green Fleet, and Jan and Nan Wishard’s boat won the Red Fleet.  Our congratulations to them.

    We are started into the Summer Series racing season and have had very good participation, competition, and winds.  When I say good winds, I mean stronger than usual – not necessarily steadier!!

    Our next racing events are the Ladies Regatta on August 6th and the Indy 200 on September the 10th.  Please join our Wednesday and Sunday Series racing schedule whenever you are able.

    Volunteers

    The Dedicated Race Committee project is still in progress and doing well.  We are finding that we are acquiring non-racer volunteers that are enjoying the racing experience as well as providing race committee help on many races instead of just one.  We still have more room for more non-racing volunteers.  If you are interested volunteering for work credits, please contact Nancy Goff or me.  If you are a racer, be sure to go to the SignUp Genius on the ESCS Racing page and be sure to sign up for race committee to get your racing credits.

    SignUp Genius (click here to sign up as a volunteer)

    John Kohne

    Nancy Goff

  • Racing

    Racing June 2022

     

    Racers and Would-Like-To-Be Racers=

    If you are a member who has been interested in trying out racing, a racing beginner, or an inexperienced racer who would like to learn more about racing or perhaps get more experience with a skilled racer, you may want to consider our next Regatta.  This year the ECSC Regatta (Saturday, July 16th) will be a special event.  In addition to being our traditional summer regatta occurring with one of our largest social events (the ECSC Beach Party), this year it will also be commemorating the 50th year since the opening of Eagle Creek Park.  In light of this, we wanted to do something different and additive to the regatta event.  Our hope was to have some sailing activity before the race that would help bring more members into the sailboat-racing community at ECSC.

    The plan is to have some racing activity in the morning of July 16th focused on members with sailboats who have never raced before or who are inexperienced and would like to learn new skills to improve their racing performance.  Experienced sailors will be available that morning to join you on your boat to act as skipper of your boat in a few short races and then to help you skipper your boat in a few races to move you along the sailing learning curve.  After these morning learning events, we then would hope everyone would join in the ECSC Regatta in the afternoon.  If you are an experienced skipper, inexperienced or a beginning sailor, we would ask you to contact Nancy Goff or me to sign up for this unique event celebrating sailing and the park birthday.

    Beginner Sailors and Experienced Volunteers please contact

    John Kohne     racing@ecsail.org           or

    Nancy Goff      cngoff6@gmail.com

    The Dedicated Race Committee effort is still moving forward with the feedback of the racing members.  Many lessons are being learned regarding race management.  Appreciate everyone’s support and information sharing required for the program’s success.

    Repairs to the RIB boat lift were just completed and allows for its continued safe operation.

    The last significant repair project for the racing program is the roof restoration on the Aircraft Carrier pontoon.  I received some recent volunteers for this project but would still appreciate anyone with experience with aluminum work to help expedite the work of those of us who lack significant experience.  Contact John Kohne at racing@ecsail.org  or 317-966-4844 .

    John Kohne & Nancy Goff

    Race Chairs

  • Racing

    Racing May 2022

    Racers and Non-Racers,

    Dedicated Race Committee

    We are excited about the great start we’ve had in establishing a Dedicated Race Committee at ECSC.  Three Wednesday night races have been run so far with this new program and we’ve had great participation by our new PRO (Primary Racing Officer) team who have been running these races (and learning to do it well!).

    The new PRO’s are:
    R Tom Moore
    John Anderson
    Linda Hukill
    John Thompson

    Alternate PRO’s:
    Jerry Brickley
    Charles Maiers
    Les Miller

    A special thanks to Tom Moore in getting this program off the ground. Tom has been the PRO for these initial races and has been helping the other PRO’s get up to speed with our specific ECSC process. Thank you to Geoff Endris, as well, who taught an initial course on Race Management and has remained a continuous advisor to us.

    We couldn’t be more excited about the talent, skills and enthusiasm these volunteers have for the program. This new system and focused talent should bring many improvements to racing at ECSC.  I hope you will give a strong welcome to these new volunteers and share feedback with them often.

    Upcoming Mayor’s Cup Regatta – May 21 & 22

    The Mayor’s Cup Regatta is coming up quick. The regatta will take place on  May 21st and 22nd.  The NOR, SI and Registration form are posted on the racing page of the ECSC website (click here).  We need racers to sign up as early as possible to help us prepare trophies, awards and food for your enjoyment.  Whether it is your 10th regatta or your very first regatta, I hope you will join us!  We very much welcome beginners to these events and will do all we can to help you learn.  Volunteers are still needed to assist on the race committee and support functions of the event.  This is a good way to earn work credits that help pay for your membership dues the next year.  Please get on the Racing page of our ECSC website and click the SignUp Genius icon to sign up to for racing or non-racing volunteer activities at this event.

    Volunteering for Racing Activities throughout the Year

    There are many racing activities and events planned this year.  A schedule for all of them is posted on the ECSC Racing page of our website.  ECSC’s normal racers participate in these but we are particularly interested in providing opportunities for non-racers to come out, observe, and become more familiar with racing.  One way to do that is to encourage non-racers to volunteer on race committee or to help with other pre- or post- race activities.  We know members that enjoy just being around the racing activities, while not racing themselves.  We hope that many non-racers will volunteer by going to the SignUp Genius on the ECSC Racing page and start enjoying their time with us!  Work Credits that help pay for your membership dues the next year will also be earned.

    This SignUp Genius site has just opened up so many slots are available to fit any schedule. We hope to see you soon!

     

    John Kohne       Nancy Goff

    Racing Chairs

  • Racing

    Racing April 2022

    Racers and Non-Racers

    Nancy and I wanted to thank all the racers and non-racers who came to the Winter Race Meeting last week. There was an excellent turnout, the pizza was great, and the company even better. Many provided input to the main agenda items to include approval of the racing schedule for 2022, determination of work credit values for the racing program, approval of Dedicated Race Committee proposal, and the major racing program work projects for this year. The proposals were all modified and improved with your feedback and suggestions.

    The schedule was approved, and two additional regattas were created. The first is a weekend focused on providing a racing experience for beginning or new racers. It would be comprised of a day of experienced skippers using their own boats hosting beginners to race with them to learn the ropes and a second day to have new racers skipper their own boats with experienced crew members from the club helping them learn to race on their own. Our main goal is to attract new racers into our racing program. The second planned regatta would be a single-handed regatta in a traditional fleet race format. These dates for these new regattas along with the traditional ECSC regattas will be posted soon on the ECSC web page.

    A consensus about work-credit values was determined for racing volunteers for major regattas and Wednesday night races. This will be incorporated into the racing work-credit process of the racing program going forward.

    The discussion of the Dedicated Race Committee program received the most discussion. Many new ideas were provided. The most central concept of having dedicated trained PROs (Primary Racing Officers) present for each Wednesday Night and Major Regatta was validated by all. The issue of how to provide the Assistant PROs to support the dedicated PROs was a more difficult problem to solve. There were several very good alternatives provided in the discussion. Nancy and I will continue to work on a final solution to this later issue and intend to launch this program with the start of the racing season this year. More to follow.

    Lastly, we updated the attendees of the purchase of a galvanized scissor-pontoon trailer to enable removal and storage of the RC pontoon and the Aircraft Carrier pontoon each year. Major racing projects this year will include the repair and upgrade of the Aircraft-Carrier pontoon, an addition of an anchor-winch device to the RC pontoon (to facilitate anchor movement and pontoon alignment in the pre-start sequence), and an addition of new buoy between buoys 1 and 6 to facilitate additional racing course options.

    Hope to see our usual racers and many new racers enjoy the fun of racing at ECSC this summer. See you on the water.

    John Kohne
    Nancy Goff

  • Racing

    Racing February 2022

    Racers,

    Have you started noticing that you are wearing your sunglasses to bed?  Started getting the mail in your shorts and flip flops? Or found yourself racing others to parking spots and shopping carts?  You have got a disease that peaks in February every year – Sailboat Racing Fever!  No vaccine nor mask can thwart its spread.  If you have a bad case, then Nancy and I have good news for you.  We have been planning a fun-filled racing season for you.  If you’re thinking we can’t start soon enough, then you will be happy to learn we are planning a racing-program get together in March to get your fever down and get you on the mend.

    Please put Wednesday March 23 at 7:00 PM onto your calendar.   Our plan is to have an organizational meeting for the racing program that evening and would hope that as many as possible interested in racing will attend.  This is whether you have raced in the past or have no racing experience at all and would be interested in learning a little more about it.  We will provide food and beverages.  Location is TBD. We will send out another notice with location in a couple of weeks.

    Our plan would be to get some feedback on the proposed racing schedule for this season, to talk about how the work credits for racing should be distributed, and how many credits should be given out for various regattas, events and activities.  We’ll also address the implementation of the Dedicated Race Committee Proposal.

    Hope we are getting some of the juices flowing again and hope our spring meeting will get you back on track for summer sailing to come.

    John Kohne
    Nancy Goff

  • Racing

    Racing October 2021

    Race Fans,

    With lowered spirits, we unfortunately are bringing to a close the 2021 sailing season. Despite our reluctance to see it go, we still are grateful for the resumption of a full racing program this year after the COVID altered 2020 season. Nancy and I have many to thank for all the help we received from every ECSC committee and from many of the member volunteers that made racing so enjoyable and exciting this year.

    The ECSC and Horback Regatta were successfully completed with the skillful race committee management and organization of Bob and Janet Hickok, Charlie Brehob, Eileen Leonard, and their volunteer teams. Their efforts were very well done and appreciated by all. There is one fun regatta to go in this season’s schedule, the Hot Chocolate Regatta on November 13th . We will have “spicy“ hot chocolate and some fun racing awards. We hope that you will join us for an enjoyable last sail and if your boat is already out of the water please jump onboard with other racing sailors.

    We hope you will be joining other members for the Final Bash on Nov 6th at which time we will be awarding the Series Racing Awards for the Spring and Summer seasons, Broken Mast Award, Party Boat Award, Sailor of the Year, and Boat of the Year awards. It should be a lot of fun.

    Lastly, we still have some regatta t-shirts for all the races this year. Contact Nancy Goff to purchase these extra shirts. They should make nice Christmas presents.

    John Kohne
    Nancy Goff

  • Racing

    Racing September 2021

    Racers

    We are fresh off the very successful and popular Indy 200 Regatta thanks to Rich Fox and his helpers.  A big thanks to all those who made this possible.  By the reading of this article, we hope that everyone is also looking back at one of our biggest social events and regattas of the season – the Governor’s Cup and Lobsterfest.  All these events depend heavily on the spirit of volunteerism and willingness of individuals to go beyond what they are receiving to serve others.  Nancy and I appreciate all the help we have received and hope to finish this season with a flurry of events and regattas that increase your enjoyment of racing and the pleasure of enjoying each other’s company.

    There are still two regattas left to come.  The ECSC Regatta (which was abandoned earlier in the year due to no wind) will be sailed on October 2nd and the Hornback Regatta on October 16th.  These will both be pursuit regattas with monohull and multihull fleets competing in a staggered start sequence based on handicap – with first to finish winner format.  We hope you will join us for these fun and exciting races.

    See you on the water!

    John Kohne
    Racing Chair