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The ABYC Archives committee is looking for volunteers to help out with three upcoming projects.

Stage 1 - Saturday, Sept. 21, 2013, 11:00 AM - 12 noon

We're looking for 2 or 3 people and the use of a truck to help retrieve 21 banker's boxes of ABYC archive material from the home of Life Member Al Stapleton.  Al has very generously housed the material to date while it awaits being properly archived.  We would take the boxes to ABYC to be catalogued.  We expect this would take about 2 hours.

Stage 2 - Saturday, Sept. 21, 2013, 1:00 PM - 4:00 PM

We're looking for about 10 volunteers to help with the cataloguing of the contents in the dining room at ABYC.  Training would be provided.  Cataloguing would take 3 hours if we get sufficient volunteers.

Stage 3 - Saturday, October 5 or Sunday October 6, 2013 - any time

Moving the catalogued material to a commercial storage site.  We would need 2 to 3 volunteers and a truck.

Please let Geoff Huck (geohuc@rogers.com) know if you can help us with this very interesting and important task.  You can also sign up using the Job Jar in the Members section of the ABYC website.

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Long time members will be sad to hear of the passing of former ABYC member Don Morrisson on Tuesday, September 10, 2013 after a long illness.

Don and Judi and their children Stephen and Daisy were members of ABYC for many years cruising and racing their CS27 "Capella".

We extend our condolences to Don's family.
 

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There was some confusion about the meaning of notifying me with respect to haulout intentions.  This was the fault of my own clumsy wording.  I need to know only if a member is not planning to haul and store with us this year.  For those members who do not regularly haul/store at the club, this applies to you as much as a member who simply opts to store elsewhere this year. 
 
CRANE HAULOUT - NOTIFICATION OF MAST-UP STORAGE
 
There were ten applications for mast-up storage.  My review is still underway and I will notify the boat owners who have been approved for mast-up storage later this week.
 

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Tempus fugit (and not just because we are down to the last sailing of the season).

 

3 months ago, I developed a platform I was willing to share, debate, discuss (and still am).  

 

I started with racing (even though Paul now has that best job on the board).  All I would do is encourage Paul, Brian, Roger and Scott to stay the course!

 

-          double the ad revenue from the Events Guide

-          make sponsorship more attractive

-          reduce ABYC regatta costs (a la PCYC)

-          set up a process sheet for any ABYC event (SC chair Brian Chapman's idea)

-          monetize scoring, naming, sign up, on-site (and follow the model for all events)

-          market ABYC presence at outside regattas, events

 

We need to take a serious look at some of our existing practices and see how they can be modified to support ABYC - specifically the F&B operation.  After years of tinkering we probably should bite the bullet and do a complete makeover.

 

We have a major project that requires better solutions immediately to support Stephen Trevitt and his team members putting in the hours on seawall repair.

 

I wanted to talk about the GAP - that time of life between JSS (when your parents pay) and your first 'we can afford this' keelboat.

 

It's a problem/opportunity shared by sailing organizations worldwide and we have to do a better job of tapping into that gap zone.

 

            - we have the space

- we have programmes that work that could be expanded - Co-op and ALTS

            - we have the ability to 'trial' programmes to see how they fit

- we need to look at opportunities that come our way be they canoes, kayaks, paddle

  boards or dragon boats.

 

We've got some creative people amongst us who can help ABYC with funding alternatives be it Corinthian, donation, Memorial, Endowment.  We need to understand the new rules for non-profits and where and how we can expand outside events to fund our sailing priorities.

 

We need to continue effective marketing/brand/lobbying at all levels - political, lake, community, event, boat market.

 

After you've owned a boat for 3 years, you start to know it.  I've been around the ABYC process for 3 years and I pretty much know where the revenue opportunities are and where the revenue leaks are.

 

With the help and guidance of the rest of the board, I intend the following as of September 24th:

 

1. no change in senior member fees 2014
2. cost of living increase only for 2015
3. zero base budgeting process for 2014
4. look for savings (not much gravy but some)
5. look for missing revenue (e.g. re-measure all boats as per our existing by-law)

Racing teaches you:

            what's possible and what's not

            teamwork

            resource management - not an unlimited budget

            thinking outside the box

            patience

            there's always another day

 

My name is Patrick Flynn and I approve this message.

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This past weekend was a great example of how quickly and completely our weather conditions change.  Saturday saw steady rain - so much so many of us discovered that our 20 year old Gill foulies don't work quite as well as they used to, or that our less expensive foulies are, well, you get what you pay for... A pair of Dubarry's are now on my Christmas list.

Queen City Yacht Club hosted the final LORC Open Regatta of the season on Saturday, ably assisted by Dave Steenbergen, Molly Asseltine and the rest of the Sarah Ashbridge crew.  The conditions were less pleasant for those on the race committee even than they were for the racers, as when the winds came in, the committee boats rocked and rolled in the waves.  QCYC was kind enough to host the Thunderbird Northeast District Championships which meant sending out a crew again on Sunday.  More of that later.

Four years ago, Mark McRae took over the running of the Open Regatta.  They decided to put a real push on getting their own members involved and out racing.  In addition, they introduced a new award, The Graham Dougall Trophy, to be presented to the club with the best overall results.  Over these last four years, QCYC has had so many of their own participants that they won it every year - until this year.  (FYI, they had 39! QCYC boats registered, including SIXTEEN white sail boats.  What is wrong with ABYC spirit that we can't do the same?  But I digress).

ABYC did have a respectable turnout (pales in comparison, mind you), but what we lacked in numbers, we made up for in quality.  In the IRC 2 fleet, Stephen Trevitt's Crime Scene was absolutely dominant with three bullets, closely followed by Calum Semple and the crew of Sona in third place with three third place finishes (including one tie on corrected time, believe it or not).  Lively, sailed by Murray Gainer and crew were fifth, while Larry Harrison and the crew aboard Merlin M2 were close behind in 6th place.  In IRC 3, Winston Beckett and the Fortitude crew were also completely dominant, winning all three races.  Winston may not be able to walk right now, but he hasn't forgotten how to sail.  Starwatch was fourth, but would have been third had they not had an injury on board causing them to miss the last race of the day.  Looney Tunes tied for fifth - wait!  They didn't race IRC - they sailed with the T-birds.

On Bravo course, Martin Gibb and the Consort crew found the weather too unappealing so went home after the first race.  Meanwhile the T-Birds battled the weather and each other, with Drew Robertson's Full On Crew with two firsts and a second leading David Holmes and the Rattle Ya Dags crew in second (a 1, 2 and 3) while Team Tunes was in third place after the first day with a second and two thirds.  Joe Konecny's team aboard Desperado were in fourth place, while Paul Angus Bark and the Who Knows team were in fifth place.

All of these excellent results meant that for the first time since the Graham Dougall Trophy was introduced, ABYC WON THE CLUB CHALLENGE!!!!  Congratulations to all.

After a fabulous party at which ABYC member Brian Chapman drew, not my name, alas, another name for the GRAND PRIZE RAFFLE of $4000 worth of sails.

On Sunday, the T-Birds headed out for day two in a northerly and beautiful sunshine.  Thanks goodness, as our foulies were still wet from the day before.  Between the first and second races, a south easterly established itself, so the short-handed QCYC RC volunteers had to re-set the course completely.  Looney Tunes was victorious in race 1, and Rattle ya Dags won the second race.  Final results:  Dags 9 points, Full On 10 points and Looney Tunes 11 points.  For the second year in a row, the top three boats were separated by two points and finished in the same order. 

Full QCYC results are at http://www.lorc.org/Results2013/2013_Results.htm.

Meanwhile at Royal Hamilton Yacht Club the Cornish Hen was held for dinghy racers.  Apparently ABYC's Martin Staadecker was the only boat to sail the correct course in one race, and he finished 11th overall in the 26 boat fleet.  Rowland Goddard was 14th, Oliver van Rossem was 16th and Paul Staadecker was 19th.

Sarah Christensen and Chloe Congourdean were 4th in the 420 fleet and Adam Gillies was fourth in the Laser fleet.  Unfortunately at the time of writing, the Radial and Opti Green fleet results were not posted, although I know that ABYC had some competitors in those fleets.

Full results can be found at http://rhyc.ca/regatta-results.htm.

Upcoming this weekend is the LOSHRS race from PCYC to Dalhousie in addition to ABYC's own Quickstep IV/Fast Lane Fever Challenge Race.  The following weekend is the Summerville, which, as you may recall, counts in the club championship offshore series.  Entry fees is a whopping $2.  Register at www.lorc.org.

That's it for this week's news.  Remember, there are only a few weeks left to enjoy your boats, so GET OUT THERE AND RACE!!!!

Wendy Loat

                                                                                                               Photo - Laura Goddard

ABYC FALL BELL BUOY RACE

is now combined with the

 

DONALD SUMMERVILLE MEMORIAL RACE

Saturday Sept. 21, 2013

 

This is your second last chance to race your boat for the 2013 season or think of it as a warm-up for the 2014 sailing season.

 

The ABYC Offshore race, formerly scheduled as the Fall Bell Buoy Race is now combined with the our club's LORC Donald Summerville Memorial Race.  Combining the two events has been forced on the club due to two issues - the scarcity of available dates in the sailing season calendar and the continuing problem of finding Race Committee Volunteers to run these races.

 

The boats normally racing in the LORC series in the IRC divisions will be in the first group of starts and then we will have the start for PHRF white-sail (JaM) division.

 

We will not be using the Gibraltar Point Buoy or the Eastern Gap Entrance Buoys this year due to an International I14 championship regatta being run south of Toronto Island.  Instead, we will be running a windward/leeward course, with the windward mark being set by the Race Committee - the compass course and the distance to be displayed on the SARAH ASHBRIDGE before the start.  There is a chance of a downwind start depending on wind direction.

 

Rennie and Albert will be hosting a Bar-B-Que at the club immediately after the race so everyone can top up on lost calories and re-hydrate after a great afternoon of sailing.

 

Adopting a tradition from the Royal Hamilton Amateur Dinghy Club in Bermuda, look for a special prize to be given to the white-sail PHRF boat finishing in mid-fleet position!  Have fun trying to engineer that spot on the finish line!

   

 

Even though this is a club race, we do require all entrants to register for the race at www.lorc.org.  The entry fee for ABYC members is a nominal $2.00.  We need to do the ABYC entries through LORC for scoring purposes.

 

Look for the promotional poster for this event posted around the club and in this issue of Ship2Shore.