Charlie Clark, Commodore March 1999
The 1999 sailing season at Sandy Bay Yacht Club is likely to be a
memorable one. SBYC will host seven major regattas this year in addition to our regular
racing season that begins on Memorial Day weekend. Our invited guests will learn what we
already know - that Sandy Bay and its surrounding waters is a fantastic place to race and
sail and that the natural beauty of Rockport is hard to surpass anywhere. We look forward
to the coming season with hope, energy and enthusiasm.
This past winter, the Board of Governors has been working to make sure
that the coming year is a success and that our physical plant and financial condition
remain in good shape. Again the Board passed a budget with minimal increases in order to
maintain our existing level of services without losing membership. In fact, at the end of
1998, SBYC had 900 members - the highest ever. The new crane proved to be a major success
with all sailors. With continued effort by all members to contribute to this major asset,
the Club stands poised to retire this original $75,000 debt this year. Please contribute
what you can in order to make this a reality.
Two new Board members were elected last September - Debbie Hale and Tom
Hoerner. Debbie will take over from Molly Clark as Social Chairwoman and be responsible
for all events and dinners beginning with the Spring Dinner. Our thanks to Molly and her
crew for years of dedicated service to the Club. Tom Hoerner will be the Board's liaison
to the Sailing Program replacing Dick Wilkinson. The program is looking forward to the 12
new Optimists which were delivered this winter to replace our initial fleet. Please give
your ideas to Debbie and Tom and support them in the coming year.
To our new members and to our old members who have been sitting on the
sidelines - we need you! Please take the time to volunteer for something - race committee,
social events, work weekend, the sailing program. The Club does not operate on is own but
only by the efforts of its small staff and volunteer corps. If everyone takes his turn the
Club will continue to be a fun place for all.
The following pages of this newsletter contain important information
about Club activities as well as reports from Board members about plans for this year. Any
questions may be directed to our Club Manager, Ron Petoff, who can be reached at the Club
beginning in early April.
See you on the racecourse and in the Clubhouse.
Charlie Clark
Commodore
Website - SBYC's website continues to be updated, and now has a
new web address (thanks to Ronn Lustig, we now have our own domain name) We hope you'll
have a look! This site provides a lot of information, which should be of use to all of our
members. To date, our site has attracted over 35,000 visitors from more than 90 different countries. New this year are regatta pages,
detailing the upcoming events, with the hope that these pages will evolve into ongoing
fleet pages. Another new feature is an interactive Sandy Bay Yacht Club "Forum/Message Board". This will allow users
to post announcements, look for crew, list boats for sale, get another opinion, find
answers to boating questions, etc. So please change your bookmarks and visit often.
E-mail address sbyc@sandybay Website address www.sandybay.org
Ron Petoff
Treasurer - The club ended 1998 with a surplus of over $10,000
in our operating budget due to careful planning and tight management. This will enable the
Board to consider using some or all of these funds to help retire the crane debt. The
Board passed a conservative budget for 1999 which should enable the Club to continue its
capital program without harming existing services. Continuing to plan for expected
replacement of equipment and scheduled maintenance of our facilities will be a priority
for the Board of Governors.
John Harper
House Committee - The House Committee will be reviewing the
condition of the Club in preparation for the upcoming season. Given the number of events
currently scheduled, and the number of anticipated visitors, we want the Club to look its
best.
The House Committee is preparing for a volunteer work weekend to be
held on May 15-16, 1999, with rain dates of May 22-23. We will be doing general cleanup
and painting and repairs to fences, porch decking and porch rails. We will supply most
tools, but a spare paint scraper, hammer or saw is always welcome (we could use a nailer
and paint sprayer). Anyone who has suggestions for additional projects should get them to
me as soon as possible. Everyone is welcome. We expect to have jobs for all. Volunteers
should try to arrive by 8:00 AM. Coffee and snacks will be provided.
Although we have no major projects planned for this year, we are still
hoping to complete the locker siding within the next year. Completion of this project is
dependent on retirement of the crane debt. We encourage everyone to assist in the
fundraising effort for this extraordinary expense, so that we can finish the locker
project and continue to maintain and upgrade the club facilities.
We look forward to a busy year ahead with many activities and visitors.
We hope that everyone can find a little time to help out during the work weekend, and
throughout the summer with the many regattas, etc...
Stephen M. Ouellette
SBYC Fleet Captain - With all of the sailing fleets hosting a
regatta, we will have a very active and interesting sailing season in 1999. We expect
almost 500 boats and 2,500 guests to attend these regattas over the course of the summer.
To minimize the impact on the club, your Fleet Captains have been working diligently since
last December on an integrated and coordinated approach to conducting the regattas. Most
of the fleets are well along in completing their regatta plans and there is a significant
amount of inter-fleet support. These plans also include working with the Town, Chamber of Commerce and the Granite Pier Committee. The success of
these regattas will require our cooperation, patience and participation.
To showcase the Club at these regattas, the Fleet Captains proposed and
the Board of Governors agreed to use the Club's race committee boat as the race committee
boat for each of the regattas. This approach will be on a one-year trial basis. The Board
budgeted funds to charter a substitute race committee boat for those weekends when our
usual committee boat is with the regattas. Since the Club now has two complete sets of
equipment to conduct a regatta, the substitute race committee boat will retain all of the
features of the normal committee boat.
With Ron Petoff's assistance, each of the fleets is working on their
own respective web pages. You can look for links to the fleet web pages from the Club's
web page.
Ed Desmarais
Race Committee - I can still hear the last cannon of the 1998
racing season ringing in my ears. Now the new season is almost upon us. And what a summer
it is going to be! Besides the usual racing series and special races, every fleet will
host a major regatta at SBYC this year. Included elsewhere in this newsletter is the
complete schedule of sailing events.
For the first time we will use the club committee boat in each of these
regattas. Our intent is to make the best possible impression on visiting racers. This will
create additional constraints on our equipment requiring substitute committee boats and
support boats each regatta weekend to run the regular club races. If anyone has a
surrogate committee boat to donate, please let me know.
I am looking forward to the return of last year's Race Committee
personnel. However, with this year's busy schedule, we can certainly use more volunteers.
I urge anyone who is interested in helping run races to please contact me. Training
sessions are being contemplated. There will be an organizational meeting of the Race
Committee sometime in May. The exact date will be announced later.
The Race Committee is looking forward to an exciting season and hopes
to see you at the skippers and crews meeting on May 29 at the Club.
Steve Engel
Mass Bay Sailing Junior Olympic Regatta - This year SBYC will be
hosting the Mass Bay Sailing Junior Olympic Regatta at
Granite Pier during the third week of August. This three-day midweek event will be a
massive undertaking. We are expecting up to 275 boats (420s, Lasers and Optimists), 350
junior sailors and half as many adults. The off-site location will present some special
challenges. Planning for this major regatta has already begun. Needless to say we will
need all the help we can get. The full support of the club, the town and Granite Pier is a
must. Besides recruiting volunteers we are also actively looking for sponsors. So if you
are interested in helping or being a sponsor (or know of one), please contact my
assistant, Greg Wilkinson or me.
Steve Engel
Junior Yacht Club - All are anticipating an exciting summer. We
plan to continue building the improving relationship between the Seniors and Juniors
started last summer. On that note, we have been contacted to help provide baby sitters for
the Regatta and hope to do so when things get going. The Juniors contributed a $1000
donation to the Crane Fund last year and will continue to help in that direction.
The Junior Club is again in good hands. We are very lucky to have as officers:
Olaf Aprans
Commodore
Marissa McKinney Vice Commodore
Andrew Greely Secretary/Treasurer
Jean Brown-Bakrow
Sailing Program - Building on last year’s record
enrollments in both the junior and adult programs, we're confident that the 1999 season
will be a success. But we need your participation
The purpose of the SBYC Sailing Program is
to give our students a broad exposure to the sport of sailing. Our primary goal is to
develop safe, independent sailors by offering them an active and exciting experience that
builds camaraderie, sportsmanship and self-realization. Our secondary goal is to offer
exposure to racing through our racing classes and teams to those students who have become
independent sailors. The desired result of the program is students with a love of the
sport of sailing and the SBYC experience.
The first area in which we need your participation is the Junior
program. If you know of returning or potential Opti sailors, you can give them the good
news and the not-so-good news. Good: we've bought all new boats. These, coupled
with the racing rigs we purchased last year, will make sailing more fun for beginners and
will provide a performance challenge for older (11-13 years) kids. Not so good: our
capacity will be no higher than last year, so beginner slots are likely to again be filled
soon after registration day, May 15. So please urge those planning to register these kids
to make sure that they come to registration day (preferred) or mail their forms and checks
to arrive by then.
For older (12-17) sailors the 420 program promises to be exciting.
We'll put emphasis on sailing as a fun sport in which you meet great people, as well as a
competitive sport in which you can enjoy ample challenges. We welcome beginning sailors
and urge you to encourage experienced ones to return. We also expect our Laser program to
expand, so if anyone owns one, she/he is welcome to sign up.
A highlight for all juniors will be the Junior Olympic Regatta that the
Sailing Program is hosting August 17-19. If you know of a junior sailor who likes
competition, or just enjoys being with loads of like-minded kids, this is the
year to participate in the Program.
The adult program is the second place we need you. We plan to expand it
significantly, particularly by offering a standard US Sailing curriculum, so students of
all levels will have the satisfaction of completing courses that are universally
recognized. We particularly hope to attract students who can sail during the day (9-5).
To make the adult program a success, we need your help in two ways.
First, we welcome you as a student. Even if you've been sailing for years, there's always
a lot more to learn in our advanced courses, and you're bound to meet some interesting
people. If you're new to sailing, you'll feel perfectly comfortable in our stable Rhodes
19s and are very likely to be sailing independently by the end of the session. Also,
please make sure that any possibly-interested non-SBYC people you know are on the brochure
mailing list by giving Ron their names and addresses. Second, if you're a skilled sailor,
we may need you as an instructor. Please let Ron, Greg Wilkinson (546-7348) or me
(546-9209) know as soon as possible.
The final way you can help the whole program is to donate to it. Thanks
to your help, admissions were need-blind last year. That is, we admitted in order of
application without heeding ability to pay. We want to continue this powerful service to
the community. But it means that we must finance 10-15 scholarships. Your tax-deductible
donation of $150 will pay for one term's scholarship.
We negotiated a great deal on both new and our used Optis, and thanks
to your prior generosity we had reserves to finance the purchase. However, we must
generate about $9000 per year to put our fleet-renewal program on a businesslike
amortization footing. Please consider "buying" and naming one of the new Optis
after a friend, loved one or mentor. Your tax-deductible donation of $2000 will cover the
cost. Please make out your check to SBYC Sailing Program and Scholarship Fund and send it
to the club. Or call me.
Cameron Smith
Power Boat Committee - The Power Fleet Committee will be
organizing two events for the 1999 season. The first will be the 2nd Annual
SBYC Fishing Tournament scheduled for Saturday, July 24th and the second will
be a Family Outing at Wingaersheek Beach on August 7th. Last Summer's Fishing
Tournament was a tremendous success, and it is hoped that this year's will be even better.
Members willing to help with the organization of either event are urged to contact Ron
Brown at 283-8817 or e-mail: sailrk@massed.net
Ron Brown
Membership - "Open House" coffees in June will again
be advertised to give potential new members an opportunity to visit with us. On the Membership Committee this year are Dick
Aprans, Scott Folger,
Stephen Fritch, Cheryl Keating and Shelley Vasallo.
Ron Brown
Social Committee - The '99 season has started off with our
winter potluck suppers. Molly wants to thank all who have helped her over the past two
years. Your help was invaluable. She has turned over her chairpersonship to me. I will be
soliciting new helpers this year, as well as hoping that some of the old timers will stay
on. Please let me know if you would be able to spend an occasional hour or so to help.
Your help makes our social activities the success they are and we do have fun! We are also
looking for an early riser to get the coffee ready for Sundays. George and Dottie have
retired.
The Social Calendar (elsewhere in this letter)
includes the family cookout that was so very successful last year. We will need everyone's
help to make all of the sailing and social activities a big success. SBYC will be very
busy this summer. Make sure you watch the bulletin board for signup sheets so you don't
miss out. We look forward to seeing all of you at the spring dinner on April 16.
Debbie Hale
Super Summer Raffle - The year's auction has been
postponed to the year 2000 so that everything you donate will have been made in the
previous century! This year Super Raffle will offer several prizes including a Long
Term Membership as First Prize. Tickets will be available throughout the season for $25
each or three for $50. The goal is to pay off the remaining debt for the crane. The
drawing will be held on Labor Day.
But do keep the auction in mind for the following year. Call John or
Marilyn Thompson for pickup and/or storage.
John Thompson
THE REGULAR JULY MEETING OF THE SANDY BAY YACHT
CLUB
MEMBERSHIP WILL BE HELD AT THE CLUBHOUSE AT 8.00 PM ON
FRIDAY, JULY 9, 1999 FOLLOWING THE BUFFET DINNER.
ELLIE STEVENS
SECRETARY |
Harbormaster Department - NEWS FLASH from
the Rockport Harbor Department. The left
hand T on T-Wharf will be under construction during the spring months. Work on this
project is scheduled to begin March 1, 1999 with a completion date of May 31, 1999. We
will all have to deal with the comings and goings of heavy equipment, a trailer, stones
and related equipment that goes along with a project of this type. There will be access to
SBYC, but we will have to be patient and work with the construction crew to make things
run as smoothly as possible. It won't be as glamorous as last year's movie production, but
once the work is completed, it will be with us a lot longer.
With all the spring activity, keep in mind your mooring gear below and
above the waterline, mark your buoys properly and check your chain and pennants. If there
are any questions please contact the Harbor Department at 978-546-9589. Harbor offices are
Thursday evening (7 pm -8:30 pm) starting in April at Town Hall. We will be glad to
arrange to meet with individuals or groups at any time for questions or concerns.
Have a safe boating season!
Rosemary Lesch/Scott Story
Harbormasters
rkpthbr@tiac.net
