AA

W

June Schedule

Sat 6th & Sun 7th

Sat 13th & Sun 14th

Sailing Seminar

Tommy Glenn

Instructor

Skippers needed to

take students

sailing.

Sat. 20th Club Race

4 PRO? Assisted

by Jim Ferrell

The RIB rescued its

first boat at the

Confederate Admirals

Regatta.

Thanks Bob.

June 2015 http//mssclub.org 1350 CR 411 Killen AL 35645

CONFEDERATE ADMIRALS REGATTA A Collection of misfits bonded together for a mutual purpose

I've always enjoyed coordinating this regatta, particularly after learning that the original founder of the regatta was British! It was his definition of “Confederate” (that I finally learned from Nolan) that really rang true. The correct description really fits us, it is: A collection of misfits bonded together for mutual purpose! We have a group of boat skippers that each has a unique way of being in charge of their own craft, their lives and others around them. However, as a club, we are also a cooperative group and depend on others to help “run the ship” so to speak. In the weeks prior to putting together any regatta, there is always a lot of planning and preparations. We (I in this case) have to plan the event by depending on others to help, without the many volunteers; this would really be a lot of work. But, in preparations, we can choose the food, refreshments, trophies, entertainment and everything but the participants! Some years we have a crowd of participants and boats and some years, not so much. The most unpredictable thing is the wind! A weekend before the regatta, several members were at the club for the First Annual Lawn Game Day and found the kitchen was pretty much trashed, dirty pans and dishes, food crumbs on the counters, trash cans full, nats and flies buzzing around, etc. that all had to be cleaned up, by us, not whoever left the mess. Please read rule 15 of the clubhouse rules: wash all the dishes that you use, empty the trash and leave the clubhouse clean, please. The cleaning service only cleans the floors and bathrooms and “your mama don't live here”.

On the weekend of the regatta, we had, for the first time in a long time, great weather! Saturday was cool, sunny and we had light to moderate winds and completed 3 races. MSSC has been using this regatta as a Flying Scot Invitational Regatta to boost participation, so we had an additional 6 boats that we wouldn't have had otherwise. The Social Hour started as soon as the sailors were off the water and the band was getting warmed up. Randy Myers provided the best refreshments I've had in a long time and I guess everyone thought the same; the kegs were empty before the band quit playing! The boys in the band “Bourbon and Shamrocks” are a lively bunch and really put on a good show with a variety of tunes. Nolan didn't dance this year, but I've seen him shake a leg in the past!

Thanks to Steven Peeples, the pavilion looks great with the lights and even better with the tiki torches around the edge of the pavilion and sidewalks. The dinner was catered by the Shoals famous “Chefs to Go” headed by Robbie Brown that owns the Louisiana Bayou Food Co. restaurant in Tuscumbia. We sold 50 dinners and 11 lunches with Sunday breakfast and lunch provided for the racers and race committee. The racing Sunday almost had too much wind, as a front was coming in and a beautiful day otherwise.

Here are the stats: 15 boats total including 8 Flying Scots, 3 Dinghies and 4 Cruisers racing. The results are, for the Flying Scots: in first place, Ed Craig;

second place, Charles Fowler and third place,

Willson Jenkins.

For the Dinghies: in first place, Nolan Richards;

second place, Phin Jones; third, Dave Seborg.

For the Keel boats: in first place, Tom Brown

second place, Jim Farrell; third place, Tom Cromer. The Race Committee was Bill Parkhurst as PRO, Wes Brown and Rick McAdams. Wes manned the new RIB (Rigid Inflatable) and helped with a rescue and setting the marks. The indispensable Clubhouse Committee consisted of Peggy Jacobs, Kathy McAdams, Judy & Andy Keenum, with Kathy Mohr and John Sworm standing by to help. Steven Peeples ran odd jobs to help and John Glasscock did an incredible job of taking registrations, book keeping and accounting and

not stopping till every penny was accounted for! George Makowski helped me cook breakfast on Sunday and was always the first to ask if we needed any help with anything. I asked for volunteers and ended up with a great crew to help put this together. This is truly what a “co-op” group does, help each other out and guess what, we had fun doing it! With a great number of hands, the work is light! New members, just show up or better yet, volunteer to be on different committees so you'll learn how to make all of our events easy for all of us.

Beautiful sunset to end a great day

Thanks for everyone's help, see you

next year!

Steve Blazier, Regatta Coordinator

RESCHEDULED WILSON DAM

AL SELLERS RACE

News flash! Weatherman wrong again! The winds

were predicted to be light from the southwest for

the Al Sellers Wilson Dam Race, and at first it

looked like that might be the case. At the skippers

meeting we (again) decided to sail the shortened

course – go to Turtle Point and back to the first red

nun at Wheeler Dam then back to the club. And at

the start the wind was definitely light. But as we

drifted downstream something strange happened –

the wind filled in from the northwest, and gradually

built to about 10-12 mph – enough for whitecaps!

Turned what we thought would be a long leisurely

beam reach into an on the rail beat. I thought “we

should have gone to the dam” but as it turned out

we wouldn't have made it all the way back.

Tommy hamming it up

Jan Bijvoet in his X-99 and I in my Thistle (with new

sailor Dwight Smith crewing for me) made it back

from Turtle Point and continued up the lake to the

first red nun below Wheeler Dam, then sailed back

to the finish line in front of the club. The total

distance was close to 17 miles which is close to the

24 miles we would have sailed had we gone all the

way to Wilson Dam.

Closest I ever came to Jan

Unfortunately for the other competitors, not long

after we finished the wind shut down and we were

the only two boats to finish the race. Everyone else

either motored back to the club, or in the case of

the intrepid Phin Jones he sailed back under jib

alone, having had a failure in his main halyard part

way down the lake.

Phin on jib only

After the race we enjoyed a nice dinner with about

30 attendees, including Joyce Sellers who has

been to nearly every Wilson Dam Race since the

beginning.

Congratulations to Jan for what may be his first win

in the Al Sellers Wilson Dam Race. His X-99 sure

was fast with a new bottom paint job

Some raced; some enjoyed a sail with the family

Final Results:

1st Jan Bijvoet – X-99

2nd Tommy Glenn – Thistle

3rd - 6th DNF

Phin Jones – Coronado

Wes Brown – C&C 25

Rick McAdams – O'Day 27

Jim Farrell – Beneteau 26.5

TOM’S LAWN 7 FIELD GAMES

Commodore Tom, turned Grill Master, started the

afternoon cooking us Hot Dogs and Hamburgers

and plying us with beer.

Then the games began. We learned how to play

Boca ball, at least Tom’s version. We think he was

making up the rules as he went. However in a short

time George became very good at playing with

Tom’s rules and won

The Bean Bag Toss was another story. All

had trouble hitting the mark until Nick had a

great idea and moved the targets closer

together. This improved everybody’s aim.

Ashley improved the most and she won this

one. Did I mention she & Nick brought the

game?

Kathy made a dramatic comeback during the

croquet game and edged Nick and Ashley out

at the last post to take home this prize.

All the winners received a free dinner for the

Regatta of their choice

While this was going on, Steve ran the new

chase boat up and down the river and pulled a

log away from the new docking ramp. That 30

HP 4 stroke Honda is a beaut. Starts on the

first turn of the switch.

PLEASE REMEMBER, IT’S A 4 STROKE NO

OIL NEEDED.

All in all it was a fun afternoon.

WELCOME NEW MEMBERS

Ben and Becca Phillips

They own a Chrysler 20 ft. and have reserved

dock space. Ben is an engineer and Becca is

an elementary teacher.

DOCK REFINISHING

The pressure washing and refinishing of docks A and B has now been completed and looks very good. I would like to thank Rick McAdams, Joel VerPlank, Keith Hudson and Brock Gordon for their help over the past month in completing this work.

The next order of business is to continue the work on docks C and D. To accomplish this I would like to have more volunteers than we had on docks A and B. Please let me know if you can help or any suggestions you may have. Thanks,

Jim Farrell

UNA/MSSC SAILING CLASSES UPDATE

Two steps forward, one step back. We really thought it was finally going to happen. After many years of trying to hammer out a mutually beneficial agreement with UNA, we finally came up with a solid workable plan. Essential parts of this plan required due diligence on insurance issues, instructor training/certification, boat preparation and class scheduling. We had hoped to have our first class just after UNA’s graduation this May during the three week interval between the end of the spring semester and the beginning of the 1st summer semester in June. Tom Coates - our UNA contact and Health and Physical Education Professor - advertised the class and had 4 sign-up and a 5th person interested. Even though we had both hoped for a larger class, we thought 5 or even 4 students would be a good way to get our feet wet, so to speak. However, on the day of reckoning, Tom found that all 4 of the previously registered students had dropped the class. The 5th student actually showed up at the UNA pool to do a swimming test but it was a no go at this point. UNA, in the person of Tom Coates was to join MSSC as a Class A Member as part of UNA’s “buy in” to MSSC and each of the students would become MSSC Student Members. UNA would do the paperwork and MSSC would do the teaching. For the interim period, the students were to come to the Club on three-weeks of consecutive Tuesdays and Thursdays for 3-hours of afternoon instruction for a total of 18 contact hours. MSSC remains committed to seeing this through and we hope that UNA will have the Sailing Class included in their catalogue this coming year and will be subject to more thorough and consistent promotion on the part of UNA. So, there you have it. A noble attempt on the part of both sides but nothing, as of yet, to show for it. The Old Salts, Bob Kuehlthau, George Makowski, Tommy Glenn, Joel VerPlank and Bill Parkhurst spent a great deal of effort to have MSSC ready to go. On the positive side, MSSC will have three 420s ready to launch off of the party dock for our Sailing Seminar. We hope

that we can again revisit this effort with Tom Coates and that our collective efforts will eventually be rewarded. Bill Parkhurst, Past Commodore

MSSC BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Commodore Tom Cromer

256 527 3952

tomcromer@outlook.com

Secretary Wes Brown

256 881 3676

j.wesley.brown@gmail.com

Treasurer Paul Jacobs

256 534 2822

ppjacobs1@gmail.com

1st Vice Comm. Paul Hill

256 479 0124

jpaul0113@gmail.com

Contact Paul for Clubhouse rentals

2nd Vice Comm. John Sworm

256 433 4735

Johnsworm33@hotmail.com

Contact John for a space in the boat yard

Harbor Master Jim Farrell

256 394 0200

jffarrell@comcast.net

Contact Jim for slip availability

Fleet Captain Joel VerPlank

256 766 3652

joel@verplank.com

Sail Master Tommy Glenn

256 883 4709

tbglemm@gmail.com

Lifted Tack Editor Rick McAdams

richardmcadams@comcast.net