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AMYA Bulletin
Volume 8, Edition 5
| August 12, 2015
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Need to Update Your Information?
In an effort to make sure that your information is updated in all of the appropriate places for the AMYA please log in to the AMYA Membership Center. This is where you can update your addresses both e-mail and mailing. If you would like to remove yourself from this e-mail list please do so at the link found at the bottom of this e-mail. If you are leaving we would certainly appreciate feedback as to why you are leaving us. Click HERE.
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I would like to take this opportunity to thank Mr Doug Hemmingway for his continuing hard work with our AMYA database. We now have the opportunity for all of us to now take another leap into the future with the new "Online Ballot" Voting process. This will compliment our already existing "paper ballot" that you will be receiving these next few weeks in Model Yachting, issue #181. As Doug mentions in his introduction instructions, this will hopefully allow another way for you, members of the AMYA, to exercise your right to vote and participate in the process. I have always said that it doesn't matter who or how you vote, but that you actually participate, and have a voice on issues and individuals every year at our election/voting period this time of year. Please take advantage of this process and please feel free to send us any suggestions to help improve your experience in supporting the AMYA!
Good Winds!
Ray Seta - President AMYA
Online Voting added to the 2015 AMYA Election
AMYA Executive Secretary
This year, we have added the ability to cast your AMYA ballot online.
Click the button to go to the ballot.
The on-line ballot looks almost exactly like the printed one found on the back of your Model Yachting mailing label. The main difference is, offices for which you are not eligible to vote (Regional Directors for regions other than your own, or Class Secretaries or motions for classes you are not registered in) will be dimmed. Attempts to check those ballot lines are not allowed.
If you think that you have a boat registered in a class which the ballot does not allow you to vote, please contact your Class Secretary. He is the only person who can update the class registration information in the AMYA database.
Only the first ballot received from each member will be counted. Please do not duplicate ballots by mailing a paper ballot after voting online, or voting online after you have mailed a paper ballot.
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2015 USA Nationals Report
(Hood River Marina in Hood River, OR)
By Bob Wells
This annual ranking regatta on Hood River Marina at The Gorge was elevated to the IOM National Championship this year, as Class Secretary Fred Rocha wanted to have Nationals outside of California, where it has been the last few years. We felt honored and were happy to accept, although we were new to hosting Nationals. This was also Regatta #3 in our annual COW CanAm Pacific Northwest series.
Attendance was down for an IOM Nationals though, which I think is mostly due to USA Worlds in Foster City burning up everybody's vacation time. Still it looked like a brilliant venue choice on the day before the regatta as three Cali boats practiced in upper 2-rig conditions - just what we travel here for. Of course it was also honkin' the day after the regatta. Unfortunately during our regatta the wind and wind direction was so bad that 60% of our racing was postponed. No wind at the Gorge, an LA Angels baseball game rained out in Anaheim, and thunder and lightening to start TransPac - freaky stuff this weekend.
Day 1: We measured the boats in the morning and raced in the afternoon as planned. Unbelievably our first day was light wind in lower 1-rig range. It was the prevailing westerly we want, and we had great light air sailing. After 6 raced (12 heats) John Ebey held a slim lead of 2 points over a hot Mark Golison with three wins and a 2nd place. Promotion-relegation was 6 boats, so a number of skippers on the bubble sailed a lot of races. We used one observer at the windward and one at the leeward marks from the fleet not sailing.
Day 2: I thought the one thing that I could count on, as Organizer, was the Gorge's wind. Yet this day was a sailing bust - no races even started due to light fluky wind from the wrong direction. For stretches there was no wind at all. Finally at 1:30PM PRO Barry Fox mercifully canceled racing for the day. There is no shade on the elevated spit we sail on, and temps abnormally rose to over 100o in the afternoon making it stifling. Windfinder says that the wind blows from the NE only 2.3% of July, yet this was what we mostly had over most of our regatta. (In other words, 17 hours of 744 in July on average blow from the NE, and they all happened during our regatta - what are the odds?) Unfortunately we can't set a fair course with an unstable NE wind.
Day 3: Our nice forecast for westerly's beginning at 7:00AM was a bust also until about 12:30, when the westerly established itself in the top of 1-rig, and then our last three races finally were in 2-rig. It was very hot again too, but the higher winds made the heat more tolerable. This is easily the hottest Hood River regatta we have ever experienced in five years.
After 11 races over two afternoons of sailing our well-deserved 2015 IOM USA Champion is John Ebey from San Rafael, CA, his first one. John was also our 2014 Hood River Carnage Champion, an endurance contest with 41 races, so he knows this venue. Fellow Californian Mark Golison finished a strong second, and the difference between them was Ebey's consistency. Golison had five first place finishes to Ebey's two, but Ebey's worst finishes were only two 5ths. Joe Damico didn't just haul his RIB dinghy hundreds of miles for our buoy boat; he also picked up two 1st place finishes himself. Unfortunately for Joe and the rest of us not named Ebey, championship consistency was not to be in this regatta
Everybody has to travel to get here because there are no active IOM skippers living here. We appreciate those that travel the farthest, and Jon Elmaleh wins the farthest distance prize, coming from New York. It was great that Nick Allen got up here for his first time from LA. I met Nick at last year's Foster City Nats, and he is a much more competitive one year later with his new pink Britpop and a little more IOM experience. From our SMYC club we had three first time IOM travelers: Jim McCaa, Scott Thomas, and Daryl Ruff. Jim is very new to IOMs and starting to figure it out with the advantage of a racing background. Scott has seriously blown-out leeches (ease the vang for storage!), with new sails on order and I have some old ones I'm giving him in the interim that are much better. Daryl had his drum unwind early on, but resolved that issue. Daryl has new sails on order too, and is improving. Traveling to multi-day regattas speeds the learning curve, and they'll all be better at our next club race.
Two guys stand out because they are sailing their own custom designed and built IOMs, and both look and sail great. Steve Toschi is sailing his sweet Micro Brew 5. He tells me his latest iteration, MB 6, is in plug form now. Toschi is a pro sailmaker nearing the end of his career, and I look forward to visiting with him every year as I always learn something. Elmaleh has a long history of designing and building his own IOMs (and Ms), and another top 5 finish. Top five has been elusive for him recently, but were common over a decade ago. He's an interesting guy to talk with too, who approaches design more from the technical side.
Thank you to our PRO, Canadian Barry Fox, who (no surprise) did a great job under challenging wind conditions. Barry was scheduled to assist PRO Fred Rocha, but Fred canceled his plane ride at the last minute due to upper respiratory illness. This is the first USA Nats that Fred has missed since 2003, a remarkable run. I marvel at the high quality PRO's and race management we attract in IOMs. Also thank you to Jerry Brower, who sacrificed sailing to man the rescue boat. And thank you to Ron Blackledge who was everywhere assisting race management before and during the regatta. Ron arranged the Saturday outdoor evening dinner at Divots restaurant, once again a most appreciated oasis after a long hot day. At Divots we raffled the option-to- purchase three Bruce Andersen custom mast drill guides, and raised $100 for the class from three very happy 'buyers'. Thanks to Bruce your new masts will have accurately aligned spreader and forestay holes. The regatta also collected $10 per head on the entry fee, for an additional $230 going to the class. Someday we will have class dues of some kind, but in the interim this will help.
This year Seattle MYC joined forces with Oregon MYC to co-organize this regatta, and we worked well together. We plan to continue organizing this great annual regatta as a team. Next year the Hood River Carnage will be another PacNW ranking regatta in mid-July, and we expect to be back to the higher winds inflicting 'Carnage' on our fleet. You need to book early though if you want the convenience of being in Hood River, and we will try to reserve a block of rooms again at the Best Western for "radio sailing regatta". The 'Carnage' did not live up to its name this year, but we did have one boat almost sink. Some fool named Bob Wells tried to race without his hatch cover after a hurried rig change.
Summary of the 2015 IOM USA Nationals & COW CanAm Series #3:
Class: IOM
Date: July 17-19, 2015
Location: Hood River Marina at Hood River, OR
Host Club: Oregon MYC & Seattle MYC
Entries: 23
Winds: 2 - 18 knots plus gusts.
Races Completed: 11 (22 heats)
Scoring System: 2014 HMS
Regatta Committee & Valuable Assistants: Bob Wells - Organizer; Barry Fox - PRO & Scorekeeper; Larry Stiles and Bruce Andersen - Measuring; Jerry Brower - Entries, Finances, and Rescue Boat; Morgan Dewees; Joe Damico - hauled and provided buoy boat; Ron Blackledge - Lunches, Dinner, and Race Management.
Jerry Brower images:
http://www.ibextrax.com/RC2015/0717USN/
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2015 FGRCYC Soling Mini Mack Regatta Report by Rob Crawford For 91 years the Port Huron, MI to Mackinaw Island MI sailboat race on Lake Huron has been held. Sailboats from around the world have sailed in this 235 mile race. Fort Gratiot MI is the next community north of Port Huron along Lake Huron where the Mackinaw Race where the start line is. So it is only natural that we RC sailors have a regatta after the big boat race named the Mini Mack. July 25th and July 26th were the dates of the 2015 Fort Gratiot RC Yacht Club Mini Mack Regatta. This year we sailed the Soling. Ten boats raced 24 races with one throw out for every 6 races. Fifteen races the first day and nine races the second day allowed four high scores to be thrown out. The race committee can not be thanked enough for making things run smoothly. Ken Pond and his grandson Austin Dunn (Austin sailed his 2nd Mackinaw this year. He's 16 years old) help every regatta showing up with cooler of ice and water and providing a shade canopy for the scoring crew. Pete Irland (sailed in more than 20 Mackinaw races) sets marks for the race course. Mike Vanover took entries and measured boats. Mike also selected the awards, ordered them and picked them up. George Cinci helped wherever needed, whether it was loading the row boat to helping keep score. Everyone helped out that what makes a regatta run smoothly and not over burden just a couple people. Ginny Irland was our RD for the regatta with Barb Crawford and George Cinci helping with the scoring. We don't have a regatta without bake goods and Ginny and Barb both made sure there were plenty.. Lunches were ordered and paid for the day before the regatta. Dolly's Pizza for Saturday and Jimmy John subs for Sunday. Both were delivered to the pond which makes for a finish the race and then have lunch. Our weather treated us very well with sunny skies and wind. Saturday the wind had some stronger puffs coming out of the south west. Sunday morning we sat around and visited for an hour waiting for the wind to build from nothing to nice breeze coming from the north east. This made course changes minimal with only realignment of the start/finish line. The results of the 2015 FGRCYC Mini Mack are as followed:
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John McKinney
| WMSC | 41 | | 2 | Mike Vanover | FGRCYC | 43 | | 3 | Wayne Westendorf | FGRCYC | 65 | | 4 | Rob Crawford | FGRCYC | 87 | | 5 | Keith Burnham | DMYC | 102 | | 6 | Frank Vella | DMYC | 105 | | 7 | Pete Irland | FGRCYC | 106 | | 8 | Austin Dunn | FGRCYC | 108 | | 9 | Ken Pond | FRGCYC | 140 | | 10 | Gary Baker | FGRCYC | 174 |
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Update Your Club's AMYA Website Information!
By Mike Wyatt (Region 4 Director)
The most important thing to get out of the AMYA Club Directory is new contacts who might become members. When a potential new sailor does a Google search, he is likely to get referred to the AMYA website (www.theamya.org). Once in the AMYA site he can click on a wide variety of information, from the various available RC boats, to Clubs, to the Regions. In the AMYA Club Directory, a potential sailor needs to find your club, and find the right information to make the right decision. In order: he needs the traditional marketing information leading to a contact; the "W"s- Who, What, Where, and Why.
WHO should he contact?
WHAT do you sail?
WHERE are you located?
WHY should he consider you as a possible source of recreation?
First, you have to be in the AMYA Club Directory in the first place. If your club info is inaccurate, not specific enough, or WORSE is not there at all, a potential member may be lost. Is your club website up-to-date?
Please update your AMYA Club Profile! Make it accurate, so you can be accessible to potential new Members!
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For all up to date regatta information, head over to the AMYA Regatta page!
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Gotta Regatta??
Regatta Directors - Please send your regatta information to the AMYA to have your regatta published on the AMYA calendar. If you send me a link to your regatta information I will include your link in this calendar of events. Once the regatta has concluded please send us your regatta
results and photos.
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IMPORTANT: Your annual membership renewal form will now be delivered with your copy of Model Yachting the month before your membership expires.
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