1WYC Nautical News (2014 01Jan) · 2015-02-25 · WYC Nautical News pg 6 (Every Wednesday Jan-Apr)...

WYC Nautical News pg 1

A Picture is Worth A Thousand Words

We need your help.

We would like to upgrade our web site with some newer pictures of our Clubhouse, both inside and out. As you know, last year the Clubhouse received a lot of attention outside with new paint, new signs and lighting. On the inside, the recent 2nd floor renovation with surrounding views are awesome.

We want to show off our second floor with some pictures of that great room set up for a wedding or special event. We don’t necessarily need people in the pictures.

So if you have good pictures that might fit the bill, please submit them for use on our website.

Please note: pictures submitted are assumed to be the senders, and permission to use on our web site is assumed.

AND…

“Learn from the mistakes of others, because you will not live long enough to make them all yourself!”

Do you have an embarrassing boating story, or experience you learned from that others can learn from too? Please send them into Danae! She will forward to Editor Kelly for consideration!

We thank you for your contribution!

TELLTALES Whitby Yacht Club Monthly Newsletter

January 2014

IN S I D E T H I S I S S U E

Commodore’s Corner …...…...………….……..….…...….....…..……page 1

A Picture is Worth A Thousand Words ………………….…….…….page 1

From the Desk of Rear Commodore, Memberships .…….…….….…page 3

Upcoming January and February Events …….……….…….….…..…page 4

Winter Sail 2014 Program ……..………..……….……….…….…..…page 6

More Monkey Business …………………………….….…………..…page 7

Never Too Old ……………………………………………………....page 8

Marine Facilities Update ………………………………………..…….page 8

Commodore’s Corner Ahoy all!

January is here! How exciting is that?!

You've heard it all before. January is a time of renewal, of rebirth, of a time to look forward and a time to look back... Well I say "blah-blah-blah"!

BART! WHEN DO WE LAUNCH?!

The GREAT thing about January is that when it's over, we will have just 3 months to go 'till launch! Now THAT'S what January is all about!

At the half way point of winter and with the days getting ever longer (Did you notice?) we will soon be on the downhill slide to Launch Day! (May3rd). Come on Spring!

It was a great pleasure to see so many WYC family and friends at this year’s Boat Show.

C O N T I N U E D O N P A G E 2


Can’t Wait for the Boating Season!

Photo Courtesy of Kelly Drew, Editor of Telltales Newsletter

Although the show has come and gone, it provided many of us with (much needed) mid-season therapy. A 'nautical-hug' if you will. All that new equipment, new boats, new methods and new technologies are always drool-inducing. Every year I go to the show and wish for the bigger, the better and the 'more'. Then Georgina (The Commodore-able) reminds me that "you don't really need that do you"? Or the killer phrase "you already have one-you bought it last year". "Yes dear" says I. "I mean...No dear". Oh dear. (sigh).

The past few months have been great around the club. As your new Board begins to develop its stride there are great things happening and even more being planned.

You know how I feel about Committees. Committees are the life blood of all dreams dreamed, planned and executed. Our Committees continue to form with many projects underway. Dock re-furbishing, main floor bar renovations, Social Event planning, Winter Sail programs, Knife and Fork events, TGIF dinners etc. etc. Man, the list goes on and on!

To say nothing of Weekend Work Parties, the Membership Committees efforts, the building of the 2014 budget and this summers’ “Learn To Sail” programs for racing and cruising! Layer on to this, the I.T. Committees efforts, the efforts of our Safety Officers and the Adult Sail program development and well, there's a lot to do! You can see how Committees are needed to drive these efforts!

And let's not forget the By-law Committee, the Accessibility Committee and well, there must be more but you get the picture. Committees are the 'Great Enabler' of our Club.

Again, I urge you all to get involved in your club. It is easier to make a difference when you are involved. Our strength, IS our membership!

So yes, it's January! Yuck. Get over it. How? Get going! Start dreaming, start planning and get involved in making WYC the best Club on the Lake!

See you on the downhill slide to launch!

Commodore, John Berry

C O M M O D O R E S C O R N E R … C O N T I N U E D F R O M P A G E 1


From the desk of…….Rear Commodore, Membership So you may be curious as to what the committee has been up to over the last month...well, lots....and

I hope you will be as excited as we are. The Committee was established and the kick-off meeting was held on Dec 19th. The focus of the committee this year is to: Attract and Retain Members along with Enhancing member experiences. We looked at a number of initiatives and broke them into categories. Here is a sampling of some of the things we are now working on.

Whitby Chamber of Commerce:

WYC has joined the chamber the 1st week of Jan/14. This membership has offset benefits which will more than pay for its modest cost. By the end of Jan WYC will be highlighted in Member to Member and Member to Public advertising - both in print and websites along with various events. There are many benefits from this affiliation for our club to reduce some costs too.

Harbour Days:

We had our 1st meeting with the City of Whitby regarding the upcoming Harbour Days tentatively scheduled for July 26th. We are in the early stages of idea sharing with the City and more to come as info unfolds so stay tuned...

Social Media and Facebook accounts for WYC: We will be working to develop the two sites with the gracious assistance of Kay Kierstead. Many

yacht clubs have these at no cost and we think it is a great idea too. We hope these will be tools to attract potential members and a place for existing members to enjoy the posts.

Member brochures and orientation packages: With the assistance of Kelly Drew, we will be developing new membership brochures to provide to

potential members. Additionally, we are working to enhance new member orientation with a robust orientation binder and sessions.

Member Stewardship/mentorship:

We are exploring the idea of having a formalized program to assist members who could use some help with caring for or sailing/motoring their boats. This would be through the volunteering of members to assist within the WYC community. Additionally we are exploring the idea of having existing members volunteering to be mentors to members who may not have a boat or want to enhance their skills. In both scenarios, it would be an opportunity for members to foster the feeling of community we so love at WYC.

Merchant Discount Programs:

We are going to be exploring the possibility of obtaining discounts from local merchants for our members. As an example, did you know WYC members get a 5% discount on all in stock merchandise at Martin - Port Whitby Supply?

So, this is just a small sampling if what is underway, so stay tuned!!

Our next Membership Committee meeting is Thursday January 30 at 7:00 pm.

Warmest wishes to all....how many days to Launch???

Rear Commodore, Membership, Sue Gadsby


Wed. Jan. 22nd • Social: Knife and Fork Club (5pm)

Fri. Jan. 24th • Social: TGIF dinner • Social: Robbie Burns and Scotch Nosing – Scotch,

Bagpipes, Haggis – a perfect evening.

Wed. Jan. 29th • Social: Knife and Fork Club (5pm) • Fleet: Winter Sail Program (7pm)

Fri. Jan. 31st • Social: TGIF dinner

Wed. Feb. 5th • Social: Knife and Fork Club (5pm) • Fleet: Winter Sail Program (7pm)

Fri. Feb. 7th • Social: TGIF dinner • Social: Wayne Farrant’s Band “Off the Hook”


Fri. Feb. 14th • Social: TGIF dinner • Valentines Day Dinner and Dance


Continue on page 5.

Join us

Every Fri. Night

for

TGIF Dinner

Join us

Every Wed. Night

for

Knife and Fork Club

& Winter Sail

Program


Fri. Feb. 21st

• Social: TGIF dinner • Social: Ballroom Dancing Night (TBC)


Fri. Feb. 28th • Social: TGIF dinner

Mark your Calendar: Two events just around the corner is a “Blue’s Night” with Brian McCuaig on March 7th and St. Patricks Day party with Ugly Horse on March 14th. Watch for more details coming soon. Monitor the weekly e-blasts and WYC website for changes and new additions.


(Every Wednesday Jan-Apr)

With thanks to Fleet Director Bart and to Mike H for his able assistance, here is the schedule of events for Winter Sail 2014. It looks pretty exciting!

January 29th – Simon Dexter (topic: Great Lake Salvage)

February 5th – Dave Sandford (topic: Marine Diesel Maintenance)

12th - John Scurr/Jim Sadler (topic: Atlantic Crossing on Freebooter)

19th – Harvey Ostrander (topic: Offshore Special Regulations Appendix N – First Aid)

26th – Bill Harrison (topic: Interlux Paints)

March 5th – Arnold Brody (topic: Durham Region Astronomy Association)

12th – March Break (no session)

19th – Brian Townsend (topic: Lake Ontario 300)

26th – Ed Botterell (topic: Doyle Sails)

April 2nd – Ron Bianchi (topic: Weather Fundamentals)

9th – Shawn Brayman (topic: WYC Cruising Program)

16th – Gary Gibson (topic: Toronto Harbour License)

23rd – Bart Bies with Andrew Sensicle (topic: WYC Racing Program with PHRF Update)

30th – Pre Launch Meeting

May 3rd – Launch

Monitor the weekly e-blasts and WYC website for changes and new additions.


More Monkey Business Sharing Our Boating Stories with Friends at the Club

A long time back my family explored the thousand islands for the first time. All summer long I practiced anchoring in every condition prior to our maiden voyage. We were excited at the prospect of dropping the hook and taking in the peaceful and non stressful life style we all dream about.

We went to what became our favorite anchorage and were received by a host of WYC boats. We were the last boat of the day to show up. As such we were under everyone's radar and were the entertainment of the moment.

My wife took the wheel and we dropped anchor and with great pride Sue backed the boat between two other boats as I signed from the bow making sure we had a good grounding of our CQR (anchor). We backed in as if we were parking a Mac truck into a loading bay and I was thrilled at the way we slipped in between the other vessels under windy conditions.

I walked back to the stern and slipped on my sandals and was ready to dive in for a swim back to shore to tie off our stern. At that time we were received by a friend of ours in his zodiac. Sue handed him the line and off he went. My ego was slightly shattered but like docking, it is always a comfort to receive a lending hand. Mission complete.... Almost.

I watched as he landed the zodiac and climbed up the hill to tie off on a tree. First mistake (NEVER TIE OFF TO TREES) but I thought no problem I will swim over and tie off to a rock on shore once we were settled in. Our friend was in bare feet fending off zebra mussels, hard shrubs and sticks but secured our stern and waved as to his success. Well that summer there was a restriction on fires as we had a drought that summer. Poof! Our friend in his bare feet was doing a rain dance engulfed in flames yelling fire!

I was impressed by the flotilla of zodiacs that came to the rescue and how quickly a bucket brigade was put into action. All of this seemed like a nightmare. Our friend trying to stomp out flames and a bucket that took the effort of what seemed like an eternity to splash the flames and pass back and forth from the shore up the hill and back down for refill. The fire was winning the battle. Flames started to wick up our stern line. I unleashed from our cleat and then proceeded to bounce off our neighbours who were out in their zodiac for an evening cruise. I was half way to the shore to help when my wife calmly called me waving two fire extinguishers at me. I swam back and fetched the two bottles trying my best to keep them above water. I wasn't sure if they went below water that they would work. I managed to pass them along and the flames and my line were extinguished in quick order. I looked back at my wife and kids and the dog thinking, how do I convince them to stay?

I was impressed as what seemed like minutes the island was being pumped from a fire pumper from the mainland soaking the island. Our friend fessed up and saved a fine by stating it was a cigarette that he dropped and it ignited the dry brush and wasn't a camp fire . Luckily he wasn't hurt outside of his ego as he was the WYC Safety Officer at the time and faced having to explain to everyone back at the club. It's amazing how news travels as one of our other members was anchored at main duck and relayed to another member at Cobourg via VHF and again was relayed on down the lake to WYC within minutes of the fire. Well buy the time the info hit WYC it was translated that I burnt down WYC's favorite anchorage.

I secured the stern line to a rock, thanked everyone for their efforts and settled in for a glass of comfort and looked at my wife and stated well our anchoring went well.


We have since then had many years of enjoying the islands but I will always remember the rain dance and our first experience at anchoring.

Secretary, Chris Mace

Never Too Old Several months ago, I read an inspiring story

about a couple who had recently sailed their homemade thirty foot sailing vessel across the Atlantic Ocean to the Caribbean. Crossing the ocean in a small boat isn’t all that uncommon; what makes this particular story especially interesting is that the couple consisted of a 92 year old woman and her 68 year old son. Their voyage was inspired by a cruising dream the woman and her late husband nurtured more than forty years prior. The husband was in the process of building the boat that he and his wife planned to sail around the world but he died before the vessel was completed. Since the dream was as much the woman’s as it was her partner’s, she commissioned a boat building company to complete the project however the company went bankrupt before the boat was completed. Undeterred by this stroke of misfortune, the woman bought back the boat from bankruptcy trustees despite having paid in advance for refurbishing that was not completed. Several years later her son decided to finish the vessel and in doing so enabled his mother to live at least a portion of her dream.

I’m intrigued by stories like this one and like to reference them on those occasions when I hear someone lament ‘I’m too old to learn to sail…live on a boat…go cruising… When the spirit, heart and mind are willing, age knows no boundaries. It’s only when we succumb to limitations that are usually the creation of those around us that we succeed in convincing ourselves we are too old to pursue our dreams.

If you’re thinking, ‘I can’t move

Marine Facilities Update

Saturday 4 January was our first work party day of the New Year working in the shop. The day was spent cutting material for the new bollards that will be placed on the docks that will be getting rebuilt over the winter. The docks being rebuilt are all 17 of the basin docks and all 7 docks of dock 3.

The original structure of the docks will remain the same with repairs and upgrades done where needed. The docks will have new flotation and new decking placed on them, similar to what was done last year.

This project should move along without too many foreseeable problems but will require people power to move it along.

The docks will have to be striped and made ready for the new material to be placed on them and this will require your help.

Over the winter try and come out and lend a hand and if you are new at this there will always be somebody there to show you what to do. Some of the best people we have started out on these work parties and the tradition still continues today.

I like to take this time and thank those that have come out in the past to help out and look forward to seeing you again along with some new faces on this project.

Facilities Director, Gary Gibson

M O R E M O N K E Y B U S I N E S S … C O N T I N U E D F R O M P A G E 7


around as quickly as I used too’, I don’t have the strength required to operate a sail boat’, ‘my arthritis is too immobilizing’, or, ‘my knees can’t take the steep descent into the cabin of a boat…’ then move slowly – what’s your rush? Getting older doesn’t mean you stop moving; it simply means you move slower. If strength is a concern, consider electric winches and in-roller furling or, buy a trawler. Remember also the adage: ‘use it or lose it’. No one is ever too old to get fit; weight training and a regular exercise program will benefit your land life as much as your life afloat and alleviate many of your concerns about strength and endurance.

Today, once-debilitating arthritis can usually be controlled by medication and climate so pick your destinations carefully - head south. The Caribbean is a natural tonic for those afflicted with arthritis. As for your knees, don’t buy a boat that requires you to descend a steep ladder into the cabin or re-configure what you have. Alternately, consider knee surgery – it’s been perfected in recent years as have hip replacement procedures so ignore complaints from those who had either surgery a few or more years ago. And yes, you might have a year-long recovery period after which you’ll kick yourself for having waited so long to live pain-free and thinking you could never go cruising. If the heart and mind are willing, the body will comply. Yes, it really is as easy as all this or as difficult - depending on how you look at things.

It’s easy to succumb to age related barriers in our North American society; just consider for a moment how we segregate the old from the young and in doing so suggest to the elderly that their opportunities to realize their dreams have long since passed. Yet, hardly a day passes when we don’t read or hear about someone in their later years who has learned to read and write (at age 98), returned to school and acquired a university degree (at age 84), written a best seller (at age 87), paddled a canoe across Lake Superior (at age 72), climbed Mt. Everest (at age 78), and so forth. Realizing your cruising dream very much depends on how badly you want your dream to become a reality.

One of our cruising friends, André, personifies agelessness better than anyone we know. Recently turned 92, André lives on his forty foot ketch six months of every year in the Caribbean, and in the summer months returns to a home in the south of France. André is as radiant and self-sufficient as men half his age. By his own admission he moves slower than he used to and his reflexes aren’t as quick as they used to be. “So…” he says “I don’t put myself in situations where I might have to act quickly”. André did not learn to sail until he was 74 years of age. He explained: “Before that I was too busy…I had a power boat because it was fast and I was a busy man…I had to get places fast, something a sailboat cannot do…but when I retired [at 74] I had more time so I decided to get a sail boat…”.

We have met many men and women who like André are not letting old age prevent them from living

N E V E R T O O O L D … C O N T I N U E D F R O M P A G E 8


their cruising dream. They live their lives a day at a time, and don’t rush from one port to the next, choosing instead to linger longer in many places and savor the moment. Consequently, they derive more pleasure from their discoveries than younger cruisers who are more inclined to hurry along from one port to the next. With age comes the belief that every day is a gift, and the journey becomes more important than the destination.

If you’ve had moments when you’ve wondered whether or not you’re too old to realize your cruising dream perhaps it’s time to rethink your decision. After all, every day that you don’t pursue your dream is one less day to live your dream – regardless of what that dream may be. Here are ten tips to inspire you that inspired the cruisers who shared them with me:

1. Surround yourself with people who share your dream and believe in your potential to make your dream come true; dreaming is contagious!

2. Stay clear of people who constantly tell you that you are too old for anything! These naysayers use old age as an excuse to retreat from life and the living;

3. Hone your sailing skills: join a club, and/or take a refresher course;

4. Buy a GPS and discover how easy navigation has become;

5. If your current vessel is more than 20 years old and in need of refitting, consider trading it in on a newer model that will require less maintenance;

6. If your current sailing vessel is taxing your physical capabilities consider trading it for a trawler or other motor vessel that is much easier to handle;

7. Arrange a bare-boat charter on a sailboat or a trawler to re-assess your skills and capabilities. You may be pleasantly surprised to discover just how capable you are;

8. Focus on what you can do and not what you cannot;

9. If you do not own a boat and don’t think you can afford one due to financial constraints, consider a partnership with another couple who share your dream and might be interested in cruising half time,

10. Just do it!

If you want something badly enough, all the forces of the universe will conspire on your behalf. So…what are you waiting for? Go for it!

Deb Cantrell, author of the bestselling book, Changing Course: A Women's Guide to Choosing the Cruising Life.

N E V E R T O O O L D … C O N T I N U E D F R O M P A G E 9

1WYC Nautical News (2014 01Jan) · 2015-02-25 · WYC Nautical News pg 6 (Every Wednesday Jan-Apr)...

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Transcript of 1WYC Nautical News (2014 01Jan) · 2015-02-25 · WYC Nautical News pg 6 (Every Wednesday Jan-Apr)...