We regret to inform you that Life member Norm Davies passed away Tuesday, May 26, 2015 after being hospitalized in Belleville, Ontario.

Norm and his wife Dale joined ABYC in June 1982 and enjoyed many years of sailing their C&C 30 "Glen Walter".

Norm was made a Life Member in 2007 after serving in many club positions including Senior Vice Commodore and was one of the original crew members of our harbour maintenance boat "Irish Rose".

We extend our sincere condolences to his wife Dale and their family.

Final arrangements will be announced when they are completed.

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As I am writing this article the weatherman on the telly is forecasting 30 degrees and a humidex advisory, summer must be just around the corner!  This past weekend we hosted the first of the LORC 2015 Open Regatta Series.  It was a resounding success, great racing on Saturday, not so great on Sunday but a good time was had by all.  Thank you to all the organizers and sponsors of this event.

 

As many of you may know we have had some personnel changes in the food and beverage department. Chef Paul Arrifa has left our employ to pursue other interests.  During Paul's four years with us he raised the standard in the kitchen to a level I have never seen in our club.  Thank you Paul and all the best in your future endeavours.   

 

This past weekend you may have seen a couple of new faces at the BBQ and in the kitchen.  I would  like to welcome Jan van Gijsell as our new chef.  Jan brings many years of experience in fine dining and catering and I look forward to working with him and the kitchen crew.  During the transition we did run a bit short staffed over the long weekend.  Other than the fact that we did not have full breakfast service you would not have known we were short staffed.  I would like to thank kitchen staff ,Brayden and Nico who kept the service going and making it seem like we were fully staffed.  THANKS GUYS!  The membership and I really appreciate your efforts and it has not gone unnoticed.  Even Rennie got in on the act and prepared dinner for our guests from Lakeshore Yacht Club.

 

A food service like ours is a bit different than a public venue.  There is much more interaction between staff and customers (members) and a certain familiarity develops.  We must maintain a good relationship with the staff and not undermine the authority of our manager or supervisors.  If you have any issues with the staff or service, I ask that you do not direct comments or suggestions to the staff, please direct them to the immediate supervisor or Rennie.

 

That's have for this week, see ya at the club!

 

Mike Macdonald   

 

 

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Did you join the club or get a new boat in the last year or perhaps missed out on ABYC's 2014 New Boat Owners' Party?  All new-to-the-club boat owners are invited to sign up to be host boats in the ABYC New Boat Owners' Party on Sail Past Weekend:
 This is a fun-filled, time-honoured tradition at our club!

How does it work?
As a registered host, you can simply invite members onto your boat for a tour and refreshments and/or you may want to do something more elaborate involving decorations, costumes, themes and games.  It doesn't matter whether you offer chips, dip and pop or host a full-scale luau, the point of this event is to have a lot of fun and get to know more ABYC members. 

Prizes (gift certificates from the Rigging Shoppe) will be awarded for the Best-Dressed Crew; Best Decorations; Best-Dressed/Decorated Family Boat and Best Cocktail.

Depending on the number and location of boats that participate, we will stagger hosting times, for example, boats on: Red Dock - 2 to 3 pm.; > Green Dock -3 to 4 pm; Blue Dock - 4 to 5 pm.  We will keep you posted once we know who is registered.

If you have any questions, just send us an email or give us a call.

Please let us know if we can sign you up!

Happy Sails!

416-315-9989
 

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What a glorious weekend for a sail (or a motor, since the wind was a bit spotty).  Fifteen boats from ABYC set off for the 5nm trip to CBYC after a brief skippers meeting on Saturday morning.  As always, the staff and members of CBYC were very welcoming and helpful.  The group met for starters under the balcony (perhaps the coldest and windiest place at the club).  Several members drove in from nearby to join in the fun.

Diane Schulman and Peter Woodall, cruise hosts, provided a tribute to the Carnegie Deli, one of the most famous in NYC.  Pastrami and corned beef sandwiches, along with the obligatory kosher pickles, cole slaw and potato chips, were followed by the essential NY cheesecake.

A group of AB's met for a lovely breakfast in the CBYC restaurant before sailing (or motoring......) home on Sunday.

Another successful and really enjoyable cruise, if we must say so ourselves!

Diane Schulman and Peter Woodall

Chris Pappas / Jean Gap / Nancy Ogden

ABYC 2015 Cruising Captains

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The long weekend in May saw the TS&CC Icebreaker taken over by the Pan Am Games Trials for several fleets, including the J24's, Hobie 16's, Snipes and Lightnings.  Alas, ABYC had no competitors in this event, but we were well represented on the RC side of things.

This event was also used as a run-through or practice for the Pan Am Games courses, so the Sarah Ashbridge, Jack Cameron and Robert Humphrey were all present along with several RC personnel including our Commodore, Bob Hedley, Rear Commodore Paul Brennan, former Rear Commodore Dave Steenbergen and of course, Liz MacIntyre.  There may have been others I didn't see, so I apologize if I have left you out.

The Laser / Radial course struggled all weekend to find wind, so managed only 3 races in three days. ABYC boats included Radials sailors Quinten Beelik (11th), Ian Doell (returning this year to represent ABYC, 13th), and Shawn Gershman (14th).  None of our full rig sailors were intrepid enough to brave the cold.  The Lasers and Radials held their trials earlier in the year kin a much warmer, and no doubt windier climate.

This past weekend ABYC hosted our annual Open Regatta and One Design event, sponsored by Skipper's Plan, Bristol Marine, Mount Gay, Steamwhistle and UK Halsey Sailmakers.  To entice PHRF racers back to this event, a "Coastal" race was held on Saturday only.  To describe the winds on this course as "fickle" would be an understatement.  The closer you sailed to shore, the bigger the hole with NO wind.  On the Spinnaker division course, the only way to keep moving was to stay out in the lake. Alas, the start-finish line was inshore, as was the rounding mark, so the goal was to watch for wind lines and hope that you could get to them before the competition.  Interesting racing indeed, with Looney Tunes battling it out with EYC's Distant Thunder all around the course. To quote Tunes sailor Nick Bailey, "When the going gets weird, the weird get going" and thus it was that Looney Tunes prevailed, winning the spinnaker division just ahead of Distant Thunder.  Other ABYC boats were Joe Konecny's Desperado (5th), Larry Harrison's Merlin M2 (6th - he also chose to hang around the finish line), Regatta Chair Roger Van Vlack in Umi Taka (8th) and Martin Gibb's Consort, who gave up on ever reaching the wind line ("you can't get there from here").

The "No Flying Sails" division saw equally fickle winds.  Carolyn and Ralph Weckesser prevailed finishing first in Latis.  Sam Robbins on Double time, liked the finish line so much he hung out there for about an hour, refusing to cross the finish line until many of the others had gone by, finishing in third place as a result.  Dan Gregory and Hazel Wood were fourth in Satori.

Meanwhile the other two courses sailed in ever increasing 12-18 knot winds, at least on Saturday.  Sadly, the wind was a no-show on Sunday, so no races were completed that day.  On Saturday, Course Alpha managed to get in four races, with Murray Gainer and the Lively crew finishing third in IRC 2, and new Sailing Committee Chair, Calum Semple and the crew of Sona placed fifth in that division.  Crime Scene placed 7th under the helm of Paul-Angus Bark.

IRC 3 saw the Flynn family on Starwatch  take victory in all four races.

Bravo course featured many ABYC boats, especially in the J24 fleet, including Black Pearl, Eriks Kalvins (5th), Black Swan, Eli Gershman (6th),Humidor, Tim Connolly (7th), Excalibur, Wes Shera (8th) and Slipstream, Ian Koster,( 9th).

In the J80 Fleet, Bart Smit and crew placed 2nd in Nautical Symphony.

Full results of ABYC's Regatta can be found at: ABYC Regatta
(Select Course Alpha, Bravo or Charlie)

Friday night marks the start of PCYC's Susan Hood.  I note that several ABYC boats have registered.  Be sure to bundle up as the lake is still VERY cold.  Good luck and safe sailing to all.

That's all for the first race report of 2015.

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This past weekend, seven of ABYC's Opti racers, and two radial sailors headed to Hamilton to compete in the annual Lilac Festival Regatta.  There were 30 competitors in the Opti fleet and the Race Committee was able to get off seven races.  The sailors were faced with challenging racing conditions due to the huge wind shifts and gusts.  The team learned the importance of playing the shifts, especially in the sixth race, where Hunter Dejean was able to steal first place from Martin Staadecker by catching one big wind shift.

 

The Opti racers performed very well, with three ABYC sailors in the top ten.  Oliver van Rossem, Hunter Dejean and Martin Staadecker finished in seventh, eighth and ninth respectively.  Bridget Latka came in 22nd and Davis Dejean, Kate Evans, and Annabel Gravely finished in 25th, 26th and 27th respectively.

 

 

 

A total of 16 radials raced on the laser course, completing eight races over the weekend.  Ian Doell and Clara Gravely sailed outstandingly, and especially so, considering how new they are to the boat.  The shifty wind conditions showed how quickly things can turn around, with Clara making a huge comeback in race 6 after a capsize.  Clara came just for Sunday, and came close to a top ten finish in one of the races.  Ian came just shy of the podium in fourth place, and only three points from second place!

   

Thank you to the Royal Hamilton Yacht Club for hosting such a well-run event.  The team will be spending the next few weekends training at ABYC in preparation for the upcoming events:  RCYC Open on June 20th to 21st for the Optis, and Laser Canadians on the same weekend.  Also, there are a couple spaces still available in the Junior Sailing program which we would be glad to fill!