| Greetings!
Even on weeks where we have 'not much going on' there is a whole lot going on. Our first "Free Skate" in honor of Summer Sailstice was a huge success. The Acorns and Saplings had an intense week and our 'new-to-us' Farr 47 has arrived. Read on for the reports as well as to plan your 'get out of the heat' sailing this week.
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Free Skate Success!
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 By my back of the napkin calculations we had just about 75 people out on the water on various boats on Sunday for our first Free Skate. Some of the feedback included:
George Franke and his daughter. "Thanks for letting me take out the match 40 with Heidi on Sailtice Sunday! She had a blast and wants a "rewind day" so maybe we have a future acorn!"
Thomas and Catherine Patch as well as his brother Peter wrote a lovely thank you note and repeated their lasting opinion of Oakcliff: "Oakcliff = Fabulous! One of those days you remember forever...."
Madeline Mare Johnson posted on Facebook:
Supporter Rita and Acorn Ollie get the MVP awards as both of them were on the water and in full steam ahead through all three sessions. They stayed on board working the foredeck through three different groups of sailors in the back of the boat - no breaks and no downtime.
I think that we may have to do this every year and hopefully it will be 85, sunny with a building sea breeze every year!
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Visit Dolphin At Mystic
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 Mike Smith along with Saplings James Downer and Charlie Singer and Acorn Oliver Shenberg left Oyster Bay onboard Dolphin at 1am and are quickly approaching Mystic Seaport as this is written. Dolphin will be on display at the Wooden Boat Show starting Friday. She is a star of the show and was even their poster boat this year. If you haven't been to Mystic this is a great excuse. I have fond memories of days spent there as a kid... and as an adult.
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Visit Oakcliff's Table at Block Island
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 Jay Kehoe has been at the tent at Block Island Race Week for the past few days. He's been spreading the Oakcliff message and to show how welcoming we are, giving out free hugs. We have to thank the Storm Trysail Club for allowing us to be there.
We also have saplings and grads including, Sarah Ragel, Dan Flanigan, Pat Murphy and Ervin Grove using the Oakcliff table as home base and chatting about their experiences. We invite all supporters to stop in and say hello. Oh and bring your friends too! They may not be giving out hugs but they do have tattoos and some cool Oakcliff schwag.
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Week One - Session One - Full On
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 A great group of 10 Acorns showed up one week ago. Week one programming included: Introduction to accounting and HR policies, boat shop tour and tools etiquette, offshore disaster control and a very interesting session on nutrition, menu planning for athletes and food safety presented by French Chef and sailor Herve Riou of the New England Culinary Institute.
They have also been to the gym to work out with a our professional trainer Steve Gourlay at Hammer Human Performance and Sport and followed up with daily workouts.
On the water, they have match and fleet raced on the Match 40s. On Saturday we spent the day on the Farr 40 working on best practices from the moment we leave the dock until we return and were challenged with jibing a spinnaker in super light winds. The most difficult of maneuvers. Sunday they were ... everywhere including Lasers.
Socially a handful accompanied me to the Friends of the Bay fundraiser and came home with goldfish... as you do. On Saturday night I had them all over for a BBQ and a tour around the town of Huntington where I bought frozen yogurt for everyone. After which I went to sleep and they went bowling!
So on Sunday, I took it as personal success when at the end of the day one Acorn admitted to being exhausted. Success! :-)
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Crazy busy - and this week we have Andrew Campbell showing up for a Grade 4 clinic. Next week Safety at Sea and then the boats head up for Halifax. But we still have time for our supporters - come down tonight, tomorrow or Thursday for sailing.
Sincerely,
Dawn Riley
Oakcliff Sailing Center |
