Roger Gamache - Macatawa Bay Yacht Club

Transcription

January-February 2009
www.mbyc.com
MACATAWA BAY YACHT CLUB • 2157 SOUTH SHORE DRIVE • MACATAWA, MI 49434 • 616-335-5815
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CO M M O D O R E ’S REPORT
As I am writing this, it’s
hard to visualize summer in
Macatawa. We’ve had three
times our “normal” snow
fall, and currently we’re in
a blizzard that’s forecast to
extend through the
Holidays. However, your
Bridge and Board are
confident that winter will
pass, and have been spending a significant amount of time
planning and preparing for the 2009 season.
staff for finishing 2008 strongly “in the black.” As reported
at the fall shareholder’s meeting, last year began slowly, however
with a lot of “hustle” and careful cost controls, the club begins
2009 in a strong financial position. Looking ahead, our new
slips have “permanent” assignments, and we’ve been able to
accommodate a number of members who have been on the
slip waiting list, so we have a “full house” going into the season.
So with all this going on, you’re probably wondering what
I’ve been contributing… Well, as you read this, the 2009
social schedule is also posted on the Webscoop. Drafting the
schedule has been an interesting exercise. We really do have a
lot going on! And while the emphasis is definitely on having
Congratulations to Commodore John Donnelly and his team fun, it’s “important” fun that creates our unique membership
for creating an exciting schedule of sailing events for 2009! experience. Check out the schedule, and please consider
Check out our schedule on the web at www.mbyc.com, and helping out with one or more of our events.
make plans to be involved next summer. Over a number of
years and a number of events, I constantly hear from visitors Additionally, I’ve been working on some longer-range issues
that we have one of the finest racing venues in the country. relative to our membership. Analysis of the distribution of
Our facility makes sailing easy, our conditions are challenging, ages of our current members indicates a strong concentration
and the quality of our race management program compares in the 45 – 55 and 55 -65 age groups. While there are a
favorably with literally any event in the country. Over the number of reasons for this, including the effect of the “baby
past several years your race committee has made a commitment boom”, it points out our need to look ahead 10 years and
to quality racing with the theory that “if we build it, they will develop the next generation of “active” members. Developing
come…” Well, it’s built. So please take a look at the schedule actively engaged members in the intermediate and junior
and make a plan to take advantage of our sailing programs categories will provide the level of active members that will be
needed to provide for the long term stability of the Club.
during 2009.
We’re currently looking at the most effective ways to introduce
Commodore Bob DeJong has been at work fine tuning the the value of membership to a “younger” group. Stay tuned
operational side of the club (Dock and Grounds, House) to for more on this as 2009 unfolds.
improve the overall value of the member experience. Bob is
building on his experience in 2008 and I’m pleased that we’re We’ve got an exciting year planned. Anne and I look forward
able to have his continuity in the guidance of these critical to seeing you at our Club!
aspects of our club. Speaking of 2008, congratulations to
Commodore Brown, Manager Marilyn Baker, and our club Roger Gamache
New Board Member Appointed
At a time when filling an “unexpired term” is often fraught
with controversy, please extend congratulations and thanks to
Jack Knoblauch for his willingness to undertake the remainder
of John Donnelly’s term on the Board of Directors. Jack and
his wife Linda co-own Capricious, and are active sailors, race
committee members, and part of the Nauti Shop crew.
Thank you Jack! rg
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Front Cover Photo
This month’s wintry club photos for the cover
were taken by Anne Gamache, Tom Slanec,
and jb. Thank you to all for answering the call
to walk out to the docks in the snow and get
some snowy pictures. The Wind Scoop’s front
cover needs entries for future issues. Please
email your quality photos to Wind Scoop editor Jon Bontekoe at: jonbontekoe@gmail.com
Macatawa Bay
Ya c h t C l u b
MBYC Flag Officers
Commodore
Roger Gamache
Vice Commodore Bob DeJong
Rear Commodore John Donnelly
Board of Directors
Immediate Past Commodore
Paul Brown
Treasurer
Larry D’Haem
Secretary
Michael Hill
Director
Beth Egge
Director
Jack Knoblauch
Director
Tom Slanec
Director
Lisa Ruoff
Director
Joel Krissoff
Director
Mitchell Padnos
Director
David Sligh, Jr.
Judge Advocate JD Stone
MBJA Youth
Youth Sailing News
Happy 2009 to all! We will be doing a few shifts with our MBJA Learn to Sail
and Learn to Race classes in the 2009 season. Please stay tuned to the MBYC
website later this month for more details. Because of the success and energy
created by last summer, we will also be expanding the West Michigan Youth
Sailing Association to include more teams and potentially bigger regattas. It looks
to be an exciting summer for everyone!
Congratulations to Caroline Sisson, who has been busy competing Optis in
Florida. At the Naples Cup in November, she finished 47th out of 90 in the Opti
Green Fleet. In early December, she competed in
the JO Regatta at the US Sailing Center at Jensen
Beach. She finished 30th out of 50. Coming up in
January, Caroline will participate in the O’Pen Bic
Miami regatta. BEST OF LUCK, CAROLINE!
We would love to share racing news of our other
junior sailors in this column as well. Please pass along
information to Marie for next month’s issue.
See you on the water… one of these days!
Marie Mell
Management
General Manager
Executive Chef
Outside Manager
*
*
Wind Scoop Editor
Web Scoop
Marilyn Baker
Jim Ruehle
Douglas Knapp
*
*
Jon Bontekoe
Bob Standish
www.mbyc.com
MBYC 2009 Logbook is in prepress production: There is still time
to send in a new picture for the
2009 Logbook. (Email pictures to
editor Jon Bontekoe or mail a glossy
to the club office.) Too many member photos are at least five years old
and we desperately want to replace
them with more recent photos. And
so many members are missing in
the photo section. Family photos
with kids are fine but must include
parents.
Caroline Sisson sailing her Opti at
the Jensen Beach JO Regatta held
in Florida this Fall. Photo by Steve Sisson.
Holiday Orange Bowl Regatta
Several MBYC youth members will be
traveling to Miami for the Orange Bowl
Regatta. Alex Kiss, Alex Post, and
Mitchell Kiss will be sailing in the Laser
Radial Fleet. In the Club 420 class Louis
Padnos is sailing with crew Ben Spector,
and Morgan Kiss with crew Laura
McKenna. Graham Post will be sailing
with the Optimist Green Fleet. A record
breaking fleet of over 700 junior sailors
from 24 countries and 26 U.S. states and
territories will convene for the 32nd an-
nual Orange Bowl International Youth
Regatta based at the Coral Reef Yacht
Club in Miami, Fla. on December 2730, 2008. The Orange Bowl Regatta is
the culminating event of the USA Junior Olympic Sailing season. This regatta
is the largest youth sailing regatta in the
country, with racing held on Biscayne
Bay, featuring fleet racing on four
courses for Club 420, Laser, Laser Radial, Laser 4.7 and Optimist classes.
Results were not available at press time.
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Sailing the Greek Islands in November: Sailing season
Another sailing adventure by Lisa Ruoff
Enter the Blue Cup regatta, an annual
race in Greece in the Argosaronic Gulf,
during the first week of November-MBYC members Lisa & Bill Ruoff, Bob
Nepstad, Paula Mutrynowski, and their
regular race crew Douglas VanderKam
shared a Beneteau charter and a two week
vacation in Greece to experience it all.
Approximately fifty Beneteau yachts
from the Vernicos Yachts fleet, with crews
from many different countries participate
every year in this event. The ever-growing
spirit of this race is the mixture of
competition and sportsmanship with
cocktails, dancing and partying at every
port of call. Every island visited has a
special welcome for the participants with
receptions, parties and prizes for each
day’s racing. Can devoted Dufour and C
& C owners survive a race/cruise on a
Beneteau? Add Greece, perpetual
sunshine, 52 sailboats and crews from 10
different countries, wine and Ouzo… we
will survive! After five days in Santorini
and three days in Athens seeing the sites,
the five of us set forth to Alimos Marina
southwest of Athens to get on our boat.
What an organization Vernicos Yacht
Charters is! We arrive by taxi and are met
at the car by a fine young Greek man with
requests to move our luggage to their
office and Bill and Bob to go check in.
Paula, Douglas and I are whisked to a car.
Feeling confident, we hop in, not really
knowing why. We’re told we are being
taken to a shop to purchase
liquids…hmmm… so off with yet
B
A
another fine young Greek man who
brings us to a ware house of sorts to pick
out what we want for “drinking” the next
week.
Ouzo, wine, more wine, perhaps we will
need some bottled water. It is all labeled
with our boat name “Felicity” and they
tell us it will be delivered to the boat. I
pay and off we go in yet another car with
another fine young Greek man “to the
grocery store”. We wander through this
very lovely gourmet store and fill the
basket with yummy foods. We spot some
other sailors so we follow them and see
what they are picking: toilet paper, paper
towels … maybe we should ask them so
we strike up a conversation. They are
from Ireland and have done this race
before and fill us in on the shopping for
food program. Seems we will need more
tzatziki, more lunch meats, more wine,
olives, cheese, bread, salad stuff, coffee.
Wow, we filled a shopping cart, giggled a
lot and had the time of our life, and we
were only two hours into it!
Yet another fine young Greek man (see a
trend here?) whisks us and our 20 bags
of groceries into yet another car and we
return to the Marina to see what Bill and
Bob are up to. Felicity is a 2003 Oceanis
473.3 with four cabins and three heads
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and just lovely. We load the groceries and
wine and Ouzo (it was all delivered!) and
then walk about the docks checking out
the other boats and crew. We say hello to
the other sailors and ask about the
agenda. The folks next to us are a lovely
group of Swiss men on a sister ship. This
was a repeat event for them. We are to
spend the night on the boat at the Marina
and then sail/motor 30 miles to the
starting venue on Sunday. We will follow
them.
After a great dinner that night at “Jimmy
and the Fish” for lobster spaghetti, Ouzo
and wine, we head back to the boat to
get a good nights sleep. We do learn that
the boats in the charter fleet tend to build
up barnacles and we can get an ice scraper
and jump in to scrape the barnacles off
the hull if we would like the boat to “go
faster”. At the same time Bill is inquiring
about holding tanks and water and we
learn that the boats here have no holding
tanks. It’s overboard discharge. OK who
wants to go in and scrape barnacles? No
takers! That’s ok, we will sail slow.
We are not even 12 hours into our
adventure! Our delivery to the starting
venue in Epidavros was, as deliveries go,
pretty typical, 30 knots on the nose! No
kidding. It should be a great race with all
n does not have to end when the snow begins to fly
of this wind! Our first experience with
stern-in Med-mooring went pretty well.
Bill at the helm, Bob at the windlass and
Lisa, Paula and Douglas with stern lines
and fenders. Success! tied up and ready
for the party. (Suffice it to say not all the
med-mooring experiences went as well).
Our kickoff dinner was just fabulous,
cloth napkins, actual wine glasses, wine
on the table, and a phenomenal feast of
Greek food. Each boat and crew were
introduced and then music and Greek
dancing into the wee hours of the night.
We learned, over the next 5 days, that
racing was secondary to eating, drinking
and dancing. Note to self… we will need
to buy more wine and Ouzo.
So off to the start, our Oceanis looking
as slick and race savvy as any 15+ ton
sailboat can look. Little did we know that
our 2003 boat was the oldest boat in the
fleet. Who would have thought a 2003
boat is old? A racing yacht she was not!
Our competition you ask? They were in
Beneteau 40.7’s ; Oceanis 40’s even a
Beneteau 57… You get the point, we were
not in a competitive boat, quite a lovely
boat, but NOT competitive. As pointto-point race starts go it was yet again
typical conditions. NO WIND! And so
it goes in yacht racing.
The race stops included: Methena, a geo
thermal area in Greece with sulfur baths
and royal spas; Poros Island, a lovely and
quaint island with yummy restaurants
and bars; Soupia, which offered nothing
much other than shopping, easy medmooring, great sites, and great bars; and
then the final venue, Porto Heli where
the final ceremony and banquet were
held. Three of the four nights were
fabulously catered meals with wine and
dancing and even fireworks one night!
Our second night we were greeted at the
pier with two more bottles of wine. It
was a good thing as our supply was
already getting low. We are proud to say
that, after 2 races we were tied for
second! Perhaps I should tell you that the
whole fleet was tied for second as only
one boat was able to finish before the rest
of the fleet was timed out. There was not
a lot of wind for the other races as several
were even cancelled. We finished only two
races and were careful to calculate time
so that when we couldn’t finish in the
time allotment we could turn on the old
iron genny and get into port to explore.
We won many of “those races”.
Although there was not a whole lot of
wind and what little wind we had was
not enough to move a 15+ ton Oceanis
across Greek waters, the crew of Felicity
had one fabulous time. The scenery along
the way was just delightful. Meeting so
many wonderful people from so many
different countries and forging new
relationships along the way was reason
enough for the trip. Perhaps you all will
meet some of the Hungarian crew next
year at Mac Bay!!
D
Greece photos by Lisa and Bill Ruoff.
A Rounding a mark
B Sailing into Poros Harbor
C Regatta welcome port
D Doug Lisa, and Paula staying afloat.
Three MBYC 7.9’s competed in
the National Championship on
Percy Priest Lake outside of
Nashville, TN. Doug Padnos’s K2,
the Bergman’s Second Wind, and
Scott Derby’s S’macd competed
in the 7.9 National Championship
on October 22nd thru the 25th in
breezy conditions. Spike & Brad
Boston won the eight race event
convincingly with K2 placing
third and Second Wind closely
behind in fourth.
C
Photo above: Jeff & Doug Padnos’ K2
(432) and Don & Jean Bergman’s
Second Wind (507) charge off the
starting line at the recent S2 7.9
National Championship Regatta in
Tennessee.
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REAR CO M M O D O R E ’S REPORT
The 2009 race program at
MBYC will be a busy one.
We will have our standard
five MBYC offshore
Saturday races: May 23,
June 6, July 11 and 25, and
August 29. We also expect
more out of town sailors to
come to MBYC to race
than in any year of our
100+ year history. We will
be hosting the following regattas: Laser Great Lakes (June 13/
14), Catalina Rendezvous (July 11/12), West Michigan Youth
Champs (August 1), Commodore’s Cup (August 8/9), 420
North Americans (August 13-16), M20 Nationals (August 2123), Farr 40 Great Lakes (August 29/30) and the S2 7.9
Nationals (September 17-19). We have a great sailing venue
and sailors from around the Great Lakes and beyond are
looking forward to visiting us this very busy upcoming
summer.
keep our boats right side up...With hearts racing and muscles
exploding we stayed focused one boat length at a time in sailing
downwind in 35 knots. It was scary, but such a rush.. I was
feeling pretty good about surviving and finishing until a
monster wave broke right on top of me. After capsizing a
couple of times, a safety boat told me it was best if I sailed in
taking a dreaded DNC. I still had fun hydroplaning to the
jetty. Upon reaching the dock Kiersten showed me her main
that was shredded near the foot. We felt it necessary to give
her a hard time for her blond moment, all in good fun! We
had a blast meeting girls from all over the country and look
forward to representing BCYC again in this regatta. It was an
amazing experience and we were very proud to have been part
of it.”
A new fleet is starting at MBYC - the Melges 20, a new boat
(pictured at right). We expect at least six M20s to hit our
starting line this summer. A fleet organizational meeting took
place at MBYC on November 22 and a number of new and
prospective owners got a look at the boat. The only thing that
prevented people taking a sail in the boat were temperatures
in the 30’s and winds in the 20’s. The not-so-easy to please
editor of Sailing Anarchy had a ride recently on the M20 off
of Fort Lauderdale and gave it a very favorable review “The
boat (M20) feels very high performance to drive up and down.
The bow penetrates the waves very well upwind and I did not
notice the bow wanting to bury downwind. The ergonomics
of the cockpit are spot on. It has a big boat feel. My guess is
the Viper and M20 will thrive as the sport of sailing finally
decides to modernize the equipment it uses.”
John Donnelly
MBYC hosted the U.S. Junior Women’s Single-Handed
Championship regatta in August. In the September, 2008
Bahia Corinthian Yacht Club (near Newport Beach,
California) newsletter, there was an article titled “BCYC Girls
Take On Lake Michigan”. It is about two BCYC sailors, Chloe
and Kiersten McDonald, and their participation in the USJWS
regatta at MBYC with an emphasis on the windy Thursday
afternoon. I would like to share some quotes written by Chloe
McDonald from the article: “We got back on the race course
Thursday afternoon, but the wind had gone CRAZY! Sailing
a Laser in those winds is the greatest feeling in the world.
Kiersten and I are really aren’t that big, so it was difficult to
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It would appear that Chloe McDonald has a bright future not
only as a sailor, but also as a writer. We look forward to hosting
many other sailors this summer, and I hope that they will be
able to share exciting and positive tales back at their home
clubs about racing at MBYC.
Melges 20
Life Lines
(Assembled by Melanie Aves to help members track member
news of interest to many. Please submit entries to Melanie at
writeaway.mta@gmail.com)
John and Melanie Aves welcomed 3 new grandbabies in
2008, one from each of their daughters, Pirrie, Amy and
Alison. The total count is now 7!
Jon and Shae Kobs’ son Jon Kobs IV married Andrea
Cartmill on October 18 in Menomonie, Wisconsin. The
couple lives in Boise, Idaho.
Members wishing to read about or correspond with Peter
Kok following his recent surgery may visit the blog: http://
www.carepages.com/carepages/peterkok You may have to
create a temporary user name to view entries.
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Special Dates:
Friday, Jan 23: Winter Blues Party
6:00 - 10:30
Friday Feb 20: Mardi Gras Party
6:00 - 10:30
Friday, March 13: St. Patrick’s Day Party 6:00 - 10:30
Saturday, March 28: Basic Race Management Seminar
9:00 AM - 3:00 PM
Wednesdays in April: Learn to Race Seminars
7:00 - 9:30
Sun.
Mon.
Tues.
Wed.
Thurs.
Fri.
Sat.
January - February 2009
Race Events
Social Events
Private Parties
JANUARY
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FEBRUARY
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Winter Blues Party
6:00 - 10:30 PM
Limited menu
22
Strictly Sail
Chicago
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29 Strictly Sail 30 Strictly Sail 31
Chicago
Chicago
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16 Windscoop 17 Grand Rapids 18
Copy Due
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Boat Show
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Mardi Gras Party 20
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Grand Rapids
6:00 - 10:30 PM
Boat Show
Limited menu
Grand Rapids
Boat Show
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May 2009
www.mbyc.com
MACATAWA BAY YACHT CLUB • 2157 SOUTH SHORE DRIVE • MACATAWA, MI 49434 • 616-335-5815
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Be on the lookout! As we
begin the new season and
spend more time around
our club, be on the lookout
for “strangers” visiting our
club. We’ve all seen them
before. They’re people who
drive in hesitantly, not
quite sure where to park.
When they get out of their
car, they don’t seem to
know where they’re going, or seem to wander around our
property with no apparent purpose. “Strangers” appear more
on sunny weekend afternoons, but can appear at any time, so
it’s important to be prepared.
Be prepared! When approaching “strangers” remember to
smile. Be ready to offer a friendly “Hello!” and introduce
yourself. Usually, after as simple introduction, “strangers” will
offer an introduction and explain why they stopped by.
However, if you meet a particularly reluctant “stranger” be
prepared to say “I don’t believe I’ve had a chance to meet you
before…” One of two things happens at this point, both of
which are good. Either the “stranger” turns out to be a fellow
member, or, they are, in fact a “stranger,” which leads to the
next step, an opportunity to be helpful by sharing a bit about
our club and our activities.
Be helpful! “Strangers” stopping by our club are at least mildly
interested in learning more about our sport. They may not
know much about yacht clubs (except that we are likely to be
“snooty”) and they most probably know very little about our
club. So don’t hesitate to ask some friendly questions (e.g.
“Where else have you sailed?), and provide them with some
general information about our club. Good examples of that
information would include our “Everyone Goes Sailing”
Macatawa Bay
Ya c h t C l u b
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commitment for Wednesday nights, and the availability of
adult sailing lessons. Whatever their interest, be open to
helping the “stranger” get involved with our club.
I’ve consciously practiced these habits over the past year. By
meeting “strangers” I found a young man who was in town
for a summer internship at Hope. He was a member of the
University of Wisconsin varsity sailing team, and really
appreciated being introduced to a member who needed crew
for the summer. In another instance, I met a young man who
had just taken a job in the area, and he ended up joining our
club and joining a member’s crew. Being aware, prepared and
helpful, assisted these “strangers” in becoming active members
of our community.
On a separate, but related, topic. I’ve been thinking about
what might happen at our club if each member committed to
introducing one new member to our club during 2009. Now
I know that many of you reading this are immediately thinking
“membership doubles and things get crowded.” But, in fact,
a number of our activities would benefit from an increase in
participation. Compared to our own history, none of our
fleets currently have the participation that we saw in the 110
or Ensign fleets of the 1960’s. Additional members make
resources available for renewal and improvement of club assets.
And, additional members will soften the “demographic shock”
that all organizations are facing as the “boomers” age.
So as we begin a new season, be on the lookout for
opportunities both “on campus” and in your daily life to help
introduce our club to potential new members. Be prepared
to describe the benefits of membership, and be helpful as they
begin to explore how MBYC should be a part of their lives.
See you at our club!
Roger Gamache
Commodore
Roger Gamache
Board of Directors
Paul Brown
Treasurer
Larry D’Haem
Secretary
Michael Hill
Director
Beth Egge
Director
Jack Knoblauch
Director
Tom Slanec
Director
Lisa Ruoff
Director
Joel Krissoff
Director
Mitchell Padnos
Director
David Sligh, Jr.
Management
General Manager
Executive Chef
Dining Room Manager
Outside Manager
*
*
Wind Scoop Editor
Web Scoop
www.mbyc.com
Marilyn Baker
Jim Ruehle
Irena Miller
Douglas Knapp
*
*
Jon Bontekoe
Bob Standish
What’s Happening at the Yacht Club?
The US Coast Guard Auxiliary will be conducting Vessel Safety inspections at the yacht club on Saturday May 30, starting about 11:00 AM.
With four officers of the CGA there should be plenty of time to inspect
the boats of all who are interestred. These safety inspections check that
the basics of boating are up-to-date and current on your boat. Tickets
for non-compliance are NOT given. Inspections help you see what you
may have neglected. The CGI looks at all the things the US Coast Guard
would inspect if they pulled you over on the water. They will check flare
dates, operating lights, safety equipment, polution warning stickers, and
documentation. Their safety check sticker prominently displayed on
your boat is like a seal of good boating practices on your vessel. All
MBYC boat owners are encouraged to participate.
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MBYC 2009 Social Calendar
Cut off this
page and hang
it on the Frig’
May 2009
10 May Sunday...............Mother’s Day Brunch
23 May Saturday...........Music Under the Tent
23 May Saturday.......MBJYC Hobo Bon Fire
25 May Monday......Memorial Day Breakfast
25 May Monday..........Blessing of the Fleet
29 May Friday..........Stock Holders’ Meeting
30 May Saturday.........Coast Guard Auxillary
Inspections
Memorial Weekend in Bold
June 2009
6 June Saturday..............Summer Kick-off Party
(formerly the “New Member Party’)
13 June Saturday...................Regatta Party
20 June Saturday.....Dueling Hors d’oeuvres Party
(formerly the ‘East Meets West Dock Party’)
21 June Sunday..Father’s Day Fishing Tournament
21 June Sunday..........Fathers’ Day Cookout
27 June Saturday......MBJY C Bowling Party
28 June Sunday.............Mini Rendezvous
July 2009
4 July Saturday................Golf Tournament
4 July Saturday....................July 4 Picnic
4 July Saturday.............MBJYC Ice Cream Social
11 July Saturday......MBYC Rock N’ Roll Party and
Happy Daze Catalina Party
25 July Saturday........MBJA Fund Raiser Dinner
26 July Sunday........... ..Family Pool Party and
MBJYC Pool Olympics
July 4 Weekend in Bold
August 2009
8 August Saturday.......Commodore’s Roast Party
9 August Sunday..............Family Carnival
9 August Sunday...............Scavenger Hunt
22 August Saturday.......VanderLeek Cup Party
All members invited
28 August Friday........Stock Holders’ Meeting
29 August Saturday.........Commodores’ Ball
September 2009
5 Sept Saturday........End of Summer Blast Party
6 Sept Sunday............MBJYC Hobo Bon Fire
7 Sept Monday.. .......Labor Day Breakfast
7 Sept Monday........Junior Sailing Awards &
MBJYC Elections
13 September Sunday..........Rendezvous
19 September Saturday........Whine Party
Labor Day Weekend in Bold
October 2009
17 October Saturday......Sailing Awards and
Change of Watch Dinner
30 October Friday...........Halloween Party
December 2009
13 December Sunday.......Holiday Brunch
18 December Friday....Holiday Cocktail Party
MBYC 2009 Social Calendar
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Change the
BATHROOM codes?
After all these years? How
ARE we going to remember? Yes - following an executive decision by docks
manager Doug Knapp and
encouraged by the Flags,
MBYC has a new code for
the bathrooms:
see Doug
Shhhh! Don’t tell unauthorized persons.
Stockholders Meeting
FRIDAY, MAY 29TH
5:45PM
(Note time change!)
Eat at the Club afterwords!!!
Make your dinner Reservations
Front Cover Photo
MBYC sailors love to sail fast and
they love to sail something new.
On the cover we see John
Arendshorst sailing the latest addition to the MBYC sailing fleet,
one of the brand new Melges 20s.
And he’s sailing with friends Adam
Hollerbach, and George Peet on
a cold April weekend, delivery day
for the first three M20 boats with
three more ordered and delivery
promised. With Laser racing
started already, Peter Schwarz doing some ice boat sailing in March,
and now a new small and very fast
Melges, MBYC builds its reputation
for great sailing. It must be almost
summer. Photo by Tovi Kiss. Please
submit your MBYC photos to Wind
Scoop editor Jon Bontekoe
(jonbontekoe@gmail.com) We’re
always looking for great cover
photos.
MBYC Nauti Shop presents:
THE “TEAM 1 NEWPORT/MBYC
Merchandise Gear Online”
The Nauti Shop is proud to expand our available merchandise.
Team 1 Newport will now provide their sailing gear products for
all members with the Macatawa Bay Yacht Club logo and burgee.
You can access our exclusive MBYC website at MBYC.COM or at
the Team 1 Newport website www.team1newport.com under
“MERCHANDISE GEAR”. Sailing jackets by Henri Lloyd,
Patagonia Pullovers and more. The price on our “exclusive
website” includes the burgee logo with the words Macatawa Bay
Yacht Club. When you order items from Team One Newport with
the MBYC logo the yacht club receives a 15% royalty fee. When
ordering if you have any questions about your order: email –
embroidery@team1newport.com or call 1.800.847.4327 and ask
for the Sales Department.
Or if you want to order anything on the website outside our
“exclusive website” with the MBYC logo, just add $10.00 to the
price of the items and MBYC will receive the 15% royalty fee. To
order anything other than what is on our website, you must call the
Sales Department directly 1.800.847.4327.
Or if you find something on the website that you want to order for
your whole crew or family, please call Annie Gamache’s cell phone
at 1-616-836-3861 or email me at abholland@aol.com. Special
Discounts available on larger orders.
We will still have our great merchandise for sale right at the Yacht
Club starting Spring Fling Friday nite – April 24th!
THANK YOU FOR ALL YOUR PAST AND FUTURE
BUSINESS
5
Mid-Winter St Patrick’s Day and Mardi Gras Celebra
A
B
A Christine Drew & Pat Fox & at the St.
Pat’s party.
B Spring TenKley, Jim & Anne
Stuursma celebrate St. Pat’s.
C Mardi Gras table decoration.
D Nate Bryant, Cleo Venhuizen, June
& Dick Walker celebrating a total of
189 years of MBYC membership!
E Peter Julius brought a bunch of
friends to the St. Pat’s party.
F Jack Grates & Bill Malane wearing
jewels at the Mardi Gras Party.
6
C
H Don Thinschmidt, Bob Standish, Tom
Slanec & Jack Knoblauch went stag
on St. Pat’s day.
St. Pat’s photos by Annie Gamache.
Mardi Gras by Tom Slanec.
F
ations at the club
G
THINGS ABOUT OUR WEBSITE YOU MAY NOT HAVE KNOWN
D
E
Did you know:
· That current and past Wind Scoops can be retrieved on-line?
· That you can order your MBYC logo clothing, foul weather gear, etc.
directly on line with direct shipping to your address?
· That you can also order on line MBYC logo clothing WITH your boat/
cottage or other personal name?
· That you can get real time pictures of the water/weather conditions of
the Holland Channel from a webcam on-line?
· That you can get real time weather/wind/wave/water temperature reports
of locations throughout Lake Michigan on –line?
· That at no charge you can advertise your boat or equipment on MBYC’s
own WebScoop?
· That you can advertise your company on MBYC’s WebScoop at very
nominal expense?
· That you can see photographs of yourself or your family or your friends
at recent Yacht Club social events on MBYC’s WebScoop?
· That when you cannot find the last issue of your hard copy of the Wind
Scoop, you can get all the same information at MBYC.COM on the social
calendar and highlights of the next scheduled events?
· That you can RSVP to club events directly from the online event flyer?
· That you can get the entire club racing schedule and the latest NOR’s,
enrollment information and race results online?
· That you can post your need for crew or your availability to crew on the
club’s message board? (This is a great way for you Wednesday night racers
and racer “wannabes” to get connected!)
· That you can get the latest information on sailing lessons for adults and
children on line?
· That, as an accommodation to your guests, you can find maps to the club
and information on area hotels/motels and local restaurants on line?
If you could not answer “YES” to all of these questions, then you may want to
spend a few minutes exploring the volumes of information and services that are
available to you on our ever-growing MBYC.COM website. And when you see
how accommodating and convenient all of this information is made available at
your fingertips, please be sure to give Bob Standish (“Brigadoon” in Slip 28) a
HUGE thank you for the uncountable hours of time that he donates to the Club
in setting up and maintaining our WebScoop. This is a huge gift to our Club.
Thank you, Robert, from all of us!! Bob DeJong
7
VICE CO M M O D O R E ’S REPORT
As I write this report on the
weekend of Easter and
Passover Celebrations,
West Michigan is blessed
with gorgeous blue skies
and lots of sunshine. And
even with temperatures
hovering around 50
degrees, I know that many
of our members and friends
are preparing their boats for
launching within the next
few weeks!! Happy Boating Season!!
When you receive your 2009 Logbook, please confirm the
accuracy of the information about yourself, your family and
your boat. If there are any inaccuracies, please inform Marilyn
while you are thinking of it. Marilyn and Jon work very hard
to include the most updated information that you provide to
the Club, but it can only be as good as the information you
provide.
Update your Email Addresses
If you do not receive emails from the Club regarding special
events, it is almost certainly because you have not provided
your current email address. Past-Commodore Paul Brown
implemented email “blasts” last year in a continuing effort to
remind our members of events, and any other news or
information that could not wait until the next Wind Scoop.
Dining Room Manager
Welcome to Irena Miller, MBYC’s new Dining Room This is a list that you want to be on! Just call the Club or
Manager! Irena began assisting our General Manager on email cluboffice@mbyc.com and your email address will be
March 30. She comes to us with extraordinary experience updated. Some spouses and significant others have observed
having worked for the Holland Country Club for thirty years. that emails do not always reach the social director of those
As she puts it, “I started out as a server, and ended up as households. This is easily resolved: supply BOTH email
banquet coordinator and assistant to the general manager.” addresses!
We have every expectation that Irena will be of tremendous
MBYC House Rules
assistance to Marilyn and Jim, and we are very pleased that
When you receive your new 2009 Logbook, please take a
she has joined our Club’s team!
minute to review the MBYC House Rules located on page
#88 and the Docks and Ground Rules immediately following.
Missing Your Wind Scoop?
Approximately forty of you did not receive your March/April While most of these are common courtesy, others will remind
Wind Scoop. We know that because they were returned to us how we have agreed to treat each other and conduct
the Club as undeliverable. We suspect that most were returned ourselves at our Yacht Club.
because of “forwarding addresses” for temporary seasonal
mailing. But because the Wind Scoop is sent “Standard Rate” The only significant change: these rules implement the
to save significant mailing costs, the mailing is not “forwarded” shareholder decision of last year that all of our buildings are
as would be first class mail. Each copy returned to the Club now smoke-free.
costs $1.08. So each of you could help put a dent in our
Private Parties and Memberships
$6000.00 annual postage costs by letting us know to which
address to send your Club newsletter. Let us know also Remember to encourage your friends and family to consider
whether you would like different addresses used at certain using our facilities for their special celebrations—weddings,
times of the year. We are working on building a better database birthdays, engagements, or just office celebrations. Our staff
to serve our members, and we can change your mailing address receives rave reviews from those who decide to host their
functions at MBYC and it helps to moderate pressure on dues
at specified times.
increases.
2009 Logbook
Our Logbook editor, Jon Bontekoe, will complete editing and Also remember to inform your boating friends that we have
compiling the 2009 Logbook soon. We expect that it will be no waiting list for slips, and that now would be a PERFECT
mailed within about two weeks. Because it costs $3.50 more time to join. In fact, it is a great time to join this great club
to mail these first class, we send them by standard rate. If we even if one did not have a boat! We eagerly anticipate seeing
do not have your current mailing address, your Logbook will the slips filled and the Clubhouse busy! See you soon.
be returned to the Club - another good reason to make sure
the Club has your current mailing address. Please remember Bob DeJong
to pick it up on your first visit but also let Marilyn know your
current mailing address.
8
Chicago Yacht Club Challenge:
Looking for Fast MAC Race Boats!
For the 101st edition of the Chicago
Yacht Club “Race to Mackinac”, there’s
a new twist – Yacht Clubs are competing
for “team trophies”. Every club that has
5 or more entries may enter. MBYC has
already registered, based upon our past
number of entries. Each yacht registered
from MBYC will be scored. Scoring is
basically the average of the club’s
divisional finishes. This means that it’s
not only important that our fleet leaders
do well, but folks who are in “the back
of the pack” will play an equally
important role in our success. There will
be trophies for the first three places
(which would make a nice addition to
our trophy case.) At MBYC we have a
history of success in this race. The overall winner in 3 of the past 6 years has
been an MBYC boat. We’ll keep you
posted on our results this year! rg
Did You Know...
·
You CAN reward great service!
Our bar and food servers share the 18% tips on your bills. If you
just Loved the service you received, let your server know by
adding an additional tip to your bill that goes directly and only to
your server.
·
You CAN reserve a table on Wednesday nights!
o Call 335-5815 at least an hour in advance of your arrival and
a table will be reserved for you in the Dining Room. Look for
your boat name on a Flag on one of the tables in the Dining
Room. (Buoy room tables remain “first come-first serve.”)
·
You CAN help MBYC be Green!
o All items placed in the trash and dumpster are sorted and
recycled by CHEF CONTAINER. This includes all
Styrofoam cups and containers!
DRYSAIL PARKING NOTE
For those of you who use our east
parking lot for parking your one-design
sailing yacht, your dingy, your run-about
or any other craft, PLEASE NOTE: like
most years, every craft will have an
assigned parking space. The space will
be assigned by our outdoor manager,
Doug Knapp, upon your supplying our
Club office with your signed contract.
Doug will then affix a 2009 sticker to
your trailer. TRAILERS WITHOUT
A 2009 STICKER THAT REMAIN
ON CLUB PREMISES FOR MORE
THAN ONE WEEK WILL BE
REMOVED. The owner will end up
paying a towing and storage charge to
retrieve the item.
We know that this may sound draconian,
and we wish that this were not necessary.
But last year’s experience in trying to
collect drysail fees makes these steps
necessary. Thank you for your
understanding and for your cooperation.
Bob DeJong
LAKE M ICHIGAN LAKE LEVELS
579.5
579.0
FEET
578.5
578.0
577.5
577.0
576.5
576.0
Jan
Feb
Mar
Apr May Jun
AVERAGE
2007
Jul
2008
Aug Sep
Oct
Nov Dec
2009
As can be seen in the accompanying chart prepared by Bob Standish, current water levels (red) are
about 3/4 foot higher than a year ago (orange), and 1/2 foot higher than in 2007 (light blue). The
creek still causes problems in our small boat area with the large amount of runoff again this year. The
photo by Annie Gamache, shows Roger standing on dry ground forward of the small boat dock.
9
Racing has already started
at MBYC as the Laser
Spring series is underway.
It has been a very busy
spring:
RACE MANAGEMENT SEMINAR
The best thing a race committee can normally hope for is
that nobody talks about them. When a race goes off without
problems, the sailors love to rehash the race. When things do
not go smoothly, the RC is the center of attention. The RC is
usually the underappreciated cog in the racing wheel. Smooth
race management can take place, and it requires a well trained
and experienced RC. It starts with training.
A highly informative USSailing race management seminar was
held at Anchorage Yacht Club on March 28. The instructors
- Andy Kiener (Chicago YC, regional race officer) and Peter
Blacklock (Muskegon YC) - were excellent. There were 18
participants including members of Charlevoix YC, Boyne City
YC, Grand Rapids YC, and Edgewater YC (Cleveland). Six
MBYC members took the training: Janet and Steve Magennis,
Linda Knoblauch, Paul Brown, JD Stone and myself.
APRIL RACE SEMINARS
Commodore Gamache led a number of very successful race
seminars on Wednesday evenings in April. Roger promised
an “open kimono” presentation and he delivered. The
centerpoint of Roger’s discussion was North U materials, but
he also described many of the techniques that he has
successfully used in his long career of racing. Thanks again,
Roger!
MBYC LASER FLEET
Our local Laser fleet, led by Fleet Captain JP del Solar
Goldsmith, will see a great deal of activity this year. MBYC
will be hosting the Laser Great Lakes (full and radial) on June
13/14. This will be our first regional Laser event. Some great
sailors will be coming to town to mix it up with our sailors, so
we expect some exciting racing. If you do not have a Laser of
your own to race, please come out to the Big Lake to lend
some support to the home team.
MBYC ETCHELLS FLEET
The participation in our Etchells fleet has been like the stock
market: great numbers a few years ago, but pretty weak of
late. Have we hit bottom and is there a recovery in sight?
Fleet Captain Mitch Padnos thinks we have. With the able
assistance of Tracy Brand, deals are being cut and arms are
We all learned a great deal about the rules governing race being twisted. While no one is promising an Etchells bull
management, the need for extensive communications on the market - alright, maybe Tracy is, activity in 2009 should be
water (did you know that many RCs use cell phones to up.
communicate with each other to avoid eavesdropping from
competitors and judges?), the need for extensive equipment DANI GAMACHE
(flags, ground tackle etc) and back-up systems eg whistles if
Dani is nearing the end of her very successful career on the
horns do not work.
college racing circuit. Dani is a senior at SUNY Maritime in
Most participants took a test at the end of the day. The test is NYC. Dani crewed in the college national championships last
year in Newport and we wish her much success in her last few
a requirement for moving up the race management ladder.
weeks of college racing. Roger and Anne went east to see Dani
Jack Knoblauch and Diane Rodenhouse (Anchorage YC) race in late March in Boston.
organized this very successful event. Thanks again, Jack!
Wireless Internet at the Club:
Wireless at the club should be up and running by
early May. The SSID will remain MBYC08 unless we
see abuses. Monitoring on weekends last summer
10
John Donnelly
showed access by members only. See Marilyn if
you need the WEP password/access number.
Computers connected last year will not need to
be updated.
“Hey Buddy! Can you
‘spare’ a Laptop?”
With the internet going to “devices” and
“laptop” computers giving way to
“notebooks,” it’s possible that somewhere
in our membership there is a forlorn,
neglected, “surplus” laptop. Your Race
Committee would like to give your
laptop a renewed purpose, serving on
Recovery. Speed and memory aren’t
important (insert joke about race
committee here), but a USB port is
required. Windows office suite would
be nice, but not essential. The purpose
of this donation is to assist the Race
Committee in delivering “real time”
event scoring to our Club website.
Imagine being able to come back to the
dock and checking your results as you
dock. This is a common amenity at
many national events, and we’d like to
add this service to our race program. If
you have a candidate, please contact Jack
Knoblauch at jrknobby@comcast.net.
Ice Boating Last Winter
Peter Schwarz provided the WS editor
with some shots of what sailors do in
the winter on “hard water”. They were
taken at Muskegon Yacht Club on
Saturday March 1, 2009. The yellow
boat as well as several others are owned
and being sailed by MBYC member Jon
Gronberg. Peter sat as passenger.
“Incidentally,” Peter writes, “the yellow
boat and the “stern-steerer” (last picture)
were both built locally in the 1930’s by
former MBYC members Carl
Harrington and Chris Smith
respectively.
MBJA Sailing Lessons Begin June 15
Welcome spring! Just around the corner old site! You will find it much more
is the beginning of our 28th season of interactive and useful! Not only will you
youth sailing instruction.
be able to register online (YES!) and read
about the happenings, but there is a
Leading our teaching and racing staff is photo gallery that will be updated
recent MSU grad Casey Ray, a veteran weekly!
of 420 collegiate racing and former
director of the St. Joseph Junior We will be hosting Black River Public
Foundation. He competed at Michigan School for their spring term starting May
State University and was Commodore 11. There will be middle and high school
his senior year. We welcome his students learning to sail optis and 420’s.
experience and leadership to our staff. Take a moment to greet Casey and Shari
He has a number of travel regattas lined if you are at
up for our racers and is looking forward the
club
to renewing Team Mac! Shari during the
MacDonald returns for her fourth year day.
of instructing. She is a junior at the
University of Michigan and was an active Registration
part of the MBJA sailing and racing has already
program while a youth in Holland. Hope begun for our
grad former collegiate sailor Marc Palma s u m m e r
will also be returning as our Adult Sailing classes which
instructor. These three will be our core begin June 15. Please check out the
instructors. We are very fortunate to have revised class guidelines on the
such great experience on our staff!
registration link as well.
CHECK OUT OUR NEW WEBSITE!
Webmaster Ben Harkema has revised our
Looking forward to seeing you on the
water! Marie Mell
Adult Sailing Lessons
Looking for a little adventure this summer? Want to learn to sail or refine your
skills with other adults? We have revamped our adult sailing lessons! They will be
offered on Tuesday evenings from 5:30-8:30 in a 4 week session. The first session
runs June 16 to July 7. Session 2 is July 14 to August 4. Take a look at the NEW!
MBJA sailing website and the adult sailing lessons link for more information. Don’t
worry! We’ll update our photo gallery with photos from your class as well! Marc
Palma returns as lead adult instructor and is looking forward to teaching you how
to sail “double handed” on JY-15’s! mm
11
Buoy Room Limited Menu
Mother’s Day Brunch - Sunday May 10
Friday - May 6
Club Opens Wednesday May 13 - Regular Hours
MAY 2 0 0 9
Mon.
Sun.
Wed.
Tues.
Thurs.
Race Events
Social Events
3
4
5
6
7
11
12
Regular 13
Club Hours
Resume
Bayshore S S
14
18
19
20
21
Spring Laser Racing
10
Mother’s Day
Brunch
Spring Laser Racing
17
Spring Laser Racing
31
12
1
2
8
9
15
16
Saturday
23
29
30
Bar & Grill
Open
Private Parties
Laser Racing
Opti Racing
Sat.
Fri.
24
Windscoop
Copy Due
Bayshore
Spring Series
Bar & Grill open
Bayshore
Spring Series
25
MBJYC Memorial
Day Breakfast
Blessing of Fleet
26
27
Bayshore
Spring Series
28
Bar & Grill
Open
22
MBYC #1 & PHRF #1
Music Under The Tent
Hobo Bon Fire
Stock Holders
Meeting 5:45 PM
Coast Guard
Auxillary
Boat Inspections
June 2009
MACATAWA BAY YACHT CLUB
www.mbyc.com
•
2157 SOUTH SHORE DRIVE
•
MACATAWA, MI 49434
•
616-335-5815
1
Maybe it is caused by our
late Spring, but it seems like
Summer just got here and
the sailing season is just
racing along. I sincerely
hope that you’ve gotten
some time out on the water,
and that you’ve got more
planned for the coming
month. One great reason
to get out on the water will
be to watch the Laser Great
Lakes Championships on June 13 and 14. This event will
bring Olympic quality sailing to MBYC and, with a little
breeze, the boats are exciting to watch! After watching the
racing, plan to come back to the club and mingle with the
sailors. We have a special dinner offering including live music
for members and racers on Saturday night. The awards
ceremony on Sunday will also be an opportunity to meet and
interact with some of the best sailors in the country.
Speaking of “getting out,” keep in mind that JY 15 fleet will
be racing on Friday nights this year. Don’t have a JY 15?
Consider chartering a boat from the MBJA at a nominal cost.
Unsure of your abilities in a small boat? The MBJA has several
sessions of adult lessons available for those of us that need our
skills “updated”. The JY 15 program is a great opportunity to
get involved with some fun, low intensity (unless you’re
leading…) sailing with a great group of people. Contact Marie
Mell or Mike Stewart for more information.
Nights.” Here’s how it works: show up at the club dressed
appropriately for sailing (soft sole shoes, appropriate jacket or
foulies, and your favorite life jacket). Seek out myself (Tyrant
at the end of the West Pier) or Jack Knoblauch (Capricious at
the end of the East pier) and indicate you’d like a ride, and
we’ll find someone in fleet who could use an extra hand. No
experience required. Races take approximately 60 – 90
minutes. The only risk is that you’ll have a great time, and
want to come again next week!
Finally, plan to get the most out of your membership by
actively participating in our 4th of July Celebrations. The
schedule of events actually starts with the Mini Rendezvous
on Sunday, June 28. Then on Saturday, July 4th we have our
Golf Tournament off the front lawn of the club, followed by
our Picnic, finishing with the Macatawa Fireworks and a Junior
Yacht Club Ice Cream Social (the Junior’s plan is to party
after the adults “crash” after the day’s activity…). On Sunday
we have the 2nd Annual Ladies Offshore race. Last year we
had more prospective skippers than we had crew, so interested
ladies should contact Marie Mell or Linda Knoblauch for more
information.
A final note. One review of my last column indicated that it
was “cheezy, ridiculous, and stupid.” And that was from a
family member I’m still supporting. So in case my point was
missed due to bad rhetoric: clubs do better when the
membership is growing. Membership grows because members
are open and enthusiastic when they talk to people about their
club. So, who do you know who would enjoy being a member
of our club? What should you (we) do this summer to make
Another way to “get out” is to hitch a ride for a Wednesday that happen? And please let me know if I can help this process.
night race. While the competition on Wednesday nights can
get serious, the overall point to “beer can racing” has always See you at our Club!
been to have a fun evening. In that spirit, we have, for several
years, had a policy of “Everybody Goes Sailing on Wednesday Roger Gamache
Macatawa Bay
Ya c h t C l u b
2
Commodore
Roger Gamache
Board of Directors
Paul Brown
Treasurer
Larry D’Haem
Secretary
Michael Hill
Director
Beth Egge
Director
Jack Knoblauch
Director
Tom Slanec
Director
Lisa Ruoff
Director
Joel Krissoff
Director
Mitchell Padnos
Director
David Sligh, Jr.
Management
General Manager
Executive Chef
Dining Room Manager
Outside Manager
*
*
Wind Scoop Editor
Web Scoop
www.mbyc.com
Marilyn Baker
Jim Ruehle
Irena Miller
Douglas Knapp
*
*
Jon Bontekoe
Bob Standish
What’s Happening at the Yacht Club?
3
An Arendshorst tale of a new perspective of Fort Sumter and
the best way to get really fresh bay shrimp in Charleston.
This past April, I again had the opportunity
to visit Charleston, South Carolina, an
historic American city, pivotal during the
Civil War years and today a proud
representative of its citizens’ feelings of place
and home. The city has beauty, charm,
mystery and hospitality and sits on its grand
peninsula surrounded by low-country
villages, rivers, marshes, fairways and the
coastal wonders of Charleston Bay. In this
bay, the Charleston Race Week commenced.
The three-day regatta of sport boats and
larger PHRF divisions, was superbly run and
supervised by a great race committee. We
had a ball with the variety of sailing
conditions, the well-organized off-shore and
on-shore activities, the most convenient and
comfortable accommodations, good music,
and new friends. Even before we’d sailed one
leg of a race, we’d pretty much all agreed
we’d be back.
Michel Kiss’ boat with crew John
Arendshorst, Morgan Kiss, and JP del
Solar Goldsmith. Photo by Tovi Kiss.
The first day of racing brought breeze
building to 25 knots in the lulls. (The next
two days were more moderate and “usual”).
Currents and tides, a worry of us sweetwater sailors, were minor considerations in
the windy, flat, choppy waters. Our team,
we had decided, was the most scientific and
fun at the same time, amongst the 6 boats
in our new fleet at the inaugural event of
the Melges 20s in the US. Our Melges 20
crew consisted of our helmsman and owner,
Michael Kiss, his daughter Alex, the multitalented pro-sailing instructor JP del Solar
Goldsmith and me. In the course of the first
day of sailing four races, we had amassed
what we thought was the life experience of
anyone in blunders and mal-events. Our
4
first start was very good, until we snagged
the anchor line of the pin-end committee
boat with our keel. Our second race was
better, until we snagged a lobster-pot line
with our keel. The third race was somewhat
better, but we got “pounced” regardless.
Our fourth race was going quite well - we
were motivated to improve! With good boat
speed and tactics, we rounded the weather
mark, in the first group, in a building breeze,
set the kite and rocketed away, avoiding the
up-coming fleet of Vipers. Our first jibe to
clear our air was in a bit of a puff, and we
rounded up crisply. I decided that standing
up in the tilted craft was a good idea in my
quest to get the main sheet under control,
and that is the last thought I had prior to
doing a back-flip off our boat into the bay.
When I looked up, without the glasses I was
wearing when I disembarked, I blurrily saw
our boat quite a distance downwind. At least
I had elected not to wear foul weather gear
or boots in this day of 60 F air, 25 knots
breeze, and 65 F water. I had worn deck
shoes, shorts, and a buoyancy-neutral floatjacket. (Fine, and better than a usual margin
of safety for a licensed Red Cross Waterfront
Safety Instructor level swimmer, as I was. I
like water, and swim rather well. Spitz,
Phelps, and Seals excluded, I can hold my
own in water.
After a short while, I could see minimal
recognizable response from my team’s
distant, small, blurry craft. They were
frantically “crashing the boat”, pointing out
the MOB, and coming back for me as
efficiently as they were able. As this process
seemed to me to be taking a considerable
amount of time, I considered alternative
transportation. A Viper, in our division, on
its way to the starboard layline saw me
waving, and deftly popped me into their
boat. The rescue was remarkable: the
efficiency of recovery was a product of
taking me from their windward side, and
grabbing me by the life-vest, rather than by
the hands or feet, as I used those appendages
to get on board helped along with their
lifting strength. Upon getting to the
starboard layline, surprisingly, the Viper
crew asked if I would like to get off, and be
picked up by the nearby windward-mark
committee boat. I thought the suggestion
was one of keen interest in jettisoning extra
baggage (me) and an opportunity for me to
not sail the remainder of 3 legs with these
folks.
I jumped off the boat, and started swimming
for the committee boat, waving every few
strokes, assured that they would see me and
respond quickly. Quickly, and surprisingly
to me, I became aware that I was very
fatigued, and that the large committee boat
was not observing or interested in my
situation. I was surprised at how the cold
water and the neutral-buoyancy floatation
made things so challenging. I waved at
another up-coming Viper, as I was now
positioned in a very busy starboard layline.
I was grateful that helmsman John Porter
from Savannah noticed me. His crew
grabbed me by the arms and legs. After
ingesting most of the Bay, several shrimp,
and who-knows-what in this rescue effort,
I was transferred to the low and open
transom of my second Viper of the day. John
said no one was leaving his boat under any
circumstances. That was reassuring to me,
sitting as I was, heaving and gasping.
I finished the race with John and his
competent crew and was picked up by our
support boat after the completion of this
last race of the day. I took a long, hot shower
after thanking and talking with the various
crews I had sailed with that day. Each Viper
crew received a form of redress by the R.C.
I recollect these rare experiences on request
of the Wind Scoop editor. I do not relish
reliving them. To any one, young or old, I
recommend reviewing these 10 safety
observations, most of which are familiar to
all.
1.
Pay attention to and over-estimate
the potential hostility of water conditions,
especially water temperature. It can cripple
quickly and without much warning.
2.
Fatigue from a long hard day of
racing adds to the complexity of a situation.
3.
PFD – wear one appropriate for the
conditions
4.
Jump in a pool and swim 50-100
yards in what you would wear in “foul
weather gear” conditions. It may make you
re-think what you would like be wearing
when you fall overboard.
Continued on Page 4 ------->
DOWN THE RACE COURSE
DATES TO REMEMBER
PLEASE PLAN TO ATTEND
Fri July 3rd - Sun July 5th
4TH JULY
WEEKEND PICNIC
Saturday, July 11th
50’s Party &
Catalina Rendezvous
Zenda: we have a problem
The scene: The spring fling party. Sun
is still up (hooray!). People are at the
bar, and in the dining room. Mike Kiss
has his new Melges 20 out, and it’s
blowing 10-15 from the Southwest with
some big gusts sweeping eastward down
the lake. Mike has sailed east past the
club several times with the spinnaker up,
on a full plane. Spray is flying off the
stern, and the sheriff would have been
chasing him for violating the speed limit
(big time). Well, during one of the
spinnaker runs down the lake, all of a
sudden Jack Knoblauch notices
something strange (it initially looks like
they have wiped out, and capsized the
boat). Upon further inspection, it
appears that the rig has collapsed after
the bow tried to act like a submarine and
stopping the boat on a dime. Matt
Eldean happened to be out “touring” in
his Tiara, and helped Mike back to the
club. Mike reported that the Melges
company replaced the mast at no cost
and has since reinforced the masts of all
the Melges 20s with a sleeve.
Thank you Matt for the pictures and the
tow!
Front Cover Photo
The Saturday of Memorial Day
weekend featured the first racing
for Optis and kids. Our cover photo
features Ali Swets running the line
just before the start of the second
race. Photo by editor jb. Please
submit your MBYC events photos to
Wind Scoop editor Jon Bontekoe
(jonbontekoe@gmail.com) We’re
always looking for great cover photos.
Arendshorst continued.
5.
Never go into the water on a race
course voluntarily.
6.
Look at the Chi-Mac regulations
for safety procedures when racing, especially
applicable to night and evening sailing or
adverse conditions.
7.
Practice and communicate Man
Overboard Routines. They really do make
things easier. Grab folks in the water by the
clothes/PFD, not by the arms and legs.
8.
Learn to like shrimp at high speed.
9.
Remember that redress by the race
committee is uniformly and generously
applied to those who help those in distress.
10.
Be aware, and be eager to lend a
hand to anyone you see in distress at any
time. Sailing is life.
By John Arendshorst
Instructors Casey Ray and Shari MacDonald and a crew of
high school helpers are anxiously awaiting June 15 and the
beginning of session one. Thanks to the generosity of many,
we have 7 new Optis this summer! We can’t wait to get them
in the water and racing! We have three regattas scheduled
with the West Michigan Youth Sailing Association in July
and August. The last one will be hosted by MBYC on Saturday
August 1. We look forward to great participation from our
club as we defend our championship title!
We have a new website! Check it out! It has information on the staff, schedules, maps,
WMYSA and MBYC links, and more. Also, once the summer becomes active, we will
also be updating the photos on a weekly basis. Stay up on the great fun we’re having on
the water! Want to get involved as an adult? We have learn-to-sail classes for you too. This
year we will be doing four week sessions on Tuesday evenings beginning June 16. Check
out the website for more information and to register.
See you on the water! Marie Mell
5
Memorial Day - A great Weekend
6
Memorial weekend was blessed with
great cool weather, lots of picnics and
cookouts, a sun-filled Blessing of the
Fleet, although strong wind conditions
moved many boaters to accept their
boat’s blessing at the dock along with the
VanTols pictured. Of special note was
the return to MBYC of Bill & Judy
Stellin with their boat Jay Walker. They
have cruised Europe and the Caribbean
for nine years and visited about 32 countries. Their boat is pictured, flying flags
representing each place visited.
Pictures by Jon & Mary Bontekoe.
7
Tales from the Race course: A Short Thirty Years Ago...
This month is the 30th Anniversary of the
MBYC yacht Aries after finishing first overall
in the Queen’s Cup sailed from Milwaukee
South Shore Yacht Club to Macatawa Bay
Yacht Club.
The year is 1979. Bill Tripp, a long-time
MBYC sailor, had purchased the 41’ Aries
after her original owner had failed to qualify
for the Admiral’s Cup team in 1978. Aries
was a “state of the art” Ron Holland design
optimized for medium distance racing.
Typical of boats of that era, she was heavy
(roughly 2x the displacement of a Farr 40),
and had “pinched” ends (narrow bow and
stern, flaring to considerable beam – think
water melon seed). But unlike many designs
of the time Aries was stiff, and had enough
rudder to be manageable in higher winds and
power reaching conditions. No expense had
been spared in putting the boat together. She
had a 3 spreader Stearns rig with hydraulics
on the backstay, headstay, baby stay, and
vang. Oversized winches made adjustments
and sail changes easy. The boat had a flush
deck, slightly “bubbled” so that the
windward deck was level and easy to work
on when the boat heeled. The electronics
package was state of the art including B&G
sailing instruments (their competitive
advantage was that they actually worked) and
a new navigational device, a Trimble Loran,
that actually read out in Lat/Long. From
the dock her most obvious features were her
‘huge’ 60" steering wheel which stretched
completely across the back of the cockpit,
and a very distinctive dark blue hull with a
“rainbow” graphic, which became the motif
for Perrigo Trucks for more than 20 years
(Bill was CEO of Perrigo at this time).
Our crew for this race was a mixture of folks
from MBYC. Joining Bill from prior boats
were long time friends Bob Hayes and Royal
Klein. Bruce Van Dyke and John Getz had
sailed together on John’s Blitz and were
currently between boats. Rick Kraai, Steve
Kubicka, and Anne Bryant were active sailors
at that time. I was invited along as the “guest
expert” in my role as a representative of Hood
Sailmakers in the Midwest. The scratch sheet
placed us in the bottom of Class A. Memory
fades a bit here, but I know that we were
racing against John Neadeau’s C&C 52
Windancer, and Midge Ver Plank’s Petersen
8
42 Sleeping Bear. I seem to recall at least one
C&C 61, Ranger sailed by the Welsh family
from Spring Lake, a Frers 53 Encounter from
Milwaukee, and a converted 12 meter
Heritage, from Chicago. But our most
important foe was a near sister-ship, Agape,
owned by Terry Kohler from Sturgeon Bay.
Terry had spent the prior summer competing
to be the Bayview Yacht Club defender for
the Canada’s Cup (currently on display at
MBYC). After an entire summer of sailing,
he won the honor to defend, only to be swept
by Stuart Green’s Evergreen. Needless to say,
Terry had “something to prove” and believed
that he had a clear advantage over Bill in boat
optimization and experience. Both were
owners of successful corporations and weren’t
afraid of a hefty wager. So, Tripp and Kohler
struck a wager that a “case of booze” would
be the prize to the best boat.
The Friday of the race dawned overcast with
intermittent showers. The crew spent most
of the day recuperating from the crew dinner
at Karl Ratzsch’s the prior evening. As we
began to prepare to leave the dock, the wind
was picking up from the north west with a
line of dark grey clouds that promised a wet,
windy, bumpy ride across the lake. Bill was
in a particularly foul mood because Anne
Bryant had not understood how the jib sheets
had been hung on the stern rail, and by
untying one, had managed to drop the other
one into the drink, whereupon it sunk
immediately. Luckily, Aries was well
equipped with spares, so after a few “words
of encouragement” from our skipper we
completed rigging and headed out. Getting
Aries off the dock was always an adventure.
One of the less effective features of her design
was the hydraulic drive system, which had
the advantage of putting the propeller on the
aft edge of the keel, significantly reducing
drag, but had the distinct disadvantage of
reducing the thrust available. Imagine
maneuvering a heavy 41’ boat with a 5 hp
outboard. But, with some work, we got off
the dock, paint intact, and headed out to
the course.
course. As with all Northwest breezes, there
are puffs that came through, and in the peak
of the puffs, we noticed that some boats were
even having problems controlling their
biggest genoas. Onboard Aries we quickly
understood our problem. Under these
conditions the larger boats in our fleet would
quickly move away from us based on their
much longer water lines (in the case of the
12 meter, a 25’ difference giving them a 3-4
knot speed advantage). However, we did
have a couple of advantages. First, we were
stiffer, and had a hull that was optimized for
heavier air. Second, the big wheel gave our
helmsman a lot more control than many
boats of the day. Third, we had a small,
“bullet proof ” spinnaker designed for just
these conditions. So the plan evolved that
we would start to the right of the main fleet,
pop the kite, and try to sail as high as
possible. Our hope was that we would be
able to generate enough speed to “hook a
tow” off the quarter wake of one of bigger
competitors and hang on to it for period of
time.
Every once in a while a plan “comes
together.” We started well, hoisted the kite,
keeping the #3 up to help keep the bow
“down”. We found a “tow” from the C&C
61 for about 30 minutes, until a big puff
knocked us down and they slipped ahead.
After that one broach, we got the boat sorted
out, back in balance and roared off into the
night, with hands on the spinnaker sheet,
mainsheet, and vang, and rotating helmsmen
every hour. As night fell, we could see Agape
struggling to hold their biggest genoa several
miles astern and about a mile north of our
course.
Over the course of the night the breeze began
to clock. Our navigator, John Getz (who
was thoroughly enjoying playing with
Trimble), indicated that we were now sailing
consistently low of course, and were about a
mile south of the “track”. So we dropped
the kite, headed up to course, but really didn’t
like the drop in speed. After a little fiddling,
we set the genoa staysail underneath the #3
Class A was the last to start. Watching the and, finding a great groove, continued
smaller boats start we saw that with a roaring through the night. Later in the
building Northwest wind, a few stalwarts in evening the wind continued to clock and
each class hoisted spinnakers, only to broach
uncontrollably or be forced to sail well below Continued on Page 7
Memorial Day Weekend,
2009 is now history—but
what a great weekend to
jumpstart the summer!! It
was great to reunite with
friends that we don’t often
see in the “off-season,” of
celebrating the return of
several of our voyagers, of
celebrating the healing of
friends who have had
challenging medical issues
over the winter, and, yes, of mourning the loss of several of
our members who have left us with many good memories. For
those who were able to dine at the Club on Friday evening,
you know that it was a very busy evening for our staff! Imagine
receiving 36 RSVP’s to your party, but having 196 guests show
up at the front door. That’s exactly what our staff had to deal
with. While we know that plans can be very uncertain during
summer evenings, to the extent you are able to do so, please
call or email your reservations. It helps our staff to better
plan for adequate staffing of servers and support crew for Jim
so that each of you can experience the kind of service you
want to see. Thank you.
summer time picnics. Remember that almost all of the items
sold through the Nauti-Shop have a very minimal mark-up
from our actual cost of goods sold. And don’t forget the online shopping of MBYC-logo garments available for you at
Team One by way of “What’s New” at your MBYC.com
website.
Thanks to Dock and Grounds Committee (Dave Sligh “Jr.”,
chair) and Doug Knapp for directing the patching of the
parking lot, and for coordinating the leveling of the sidewalks
around the Club that were starting to look more like hills and
valleys. Tripping on the sidewalks was conspicuously absent
It is a credit to our staff to hear our returning members report
that the “Club looks fantastic!” Thanks in part to rising lake
levels and through accommodation by our dredging contractor,
we were able to hold our dredging expenses to under $5000.00.
And one final reminder: if you have a one-design, a dingy, a
trailer, or anything else occupying a dry-sail slip, and you have
not signed a contract, please do not be surprised or upset when
it has been moved off-site and you have to pay towing and
storage charges to retrieve the item. While most of our
members have made the necessary arrangements, there are still
those of you who have forgotten or overlooked this important
piece of business. Thank you for taking care of it right away
Nauti-Shop has experienced brisk sales already this season. and helping to avoid unnecessary unpleasant consequences.
Some items have already sold out. If you have not seen the
fun variety of clothing selected by Anne Gamache and Linda Our General Manager reports that business was more brisk
Knoblauch, take the time to do so! You won’t be disappointed! this Memorial Day weekend than the same corresponding
(And be sure to thank Anne and Linda for all the time and weekend last year. The Club is off to the start of a great season!
work in ordering, displaying and selling MBYC products!) Enjoy it!
Among the new items available for purchase this year are
MBYC’s coffee—specially roasted and blended for our Club Bob DeJong
— and even our serving napkins—a great addition to your
Tales from the Race Course...continued
moderate, so eventually we changed to our the race committee it became clear that we
Heavy #1 genoa slightly eased, sailed on, handily saved our time on the bigger boats.
We confirmed that Sleeping Bear and Agape
pointed directly at the finish line.
had not finished, and we began to enjoy the
As daylight emerged Holland appeared on thought that we have won class A (and that
our bow, which was reassuring. Not so “case of booze”). Approximately an hour
reassuring, is that there were no other boats later, our sister ship Agape, hit the dock.
in sight. Hopeful that this was actually a Kohler, always a great competitor came over
good thing, we pressed on to the finish line to congratulate Tripp, and asked directions
across the mouth of the channel (a practice to the nearest liquor store (Bernecker’s).
that the Coast Guard has since prohibited). Shortly later, Kohler returned with the case,
Sails down, we motored into the club. and the crew of Aries began a celebration on
Coming into the club we saw the rigs of the the front lawn of the club that lasted well
“big boats”, but no sign of Agape or Sleeping into the afternoon. As time went on, it
Bear. After tying up and checking in with became clear that with daylight, the breeze
has clocked fully into the northeast and that
smaller boats were hard on the wind in much
lighter conditions. Gradually the time ran
out for the smaller boats, and Aries was
confirmed the overall winner of the race.
That day ended with Tripp sponsoring a
victory dinner for the crew at MBYC. I left
MBYC at the end of that weekend impressed
with the quality of the sailing, the hospitality
of the club, and not suspecting where this
experience would eventually lead. But that’s
a story for another time….
Roger Gamache
9
Racing activity at MBYC
moved into full swing in
May. The first Laser race in
the Spring Sunday series
was held on May 3 and had
seven racers exchanging
leads in a number of closely
contested races. The first
Wednesday evening race
was held in light air on
Lake Mac on May 6 due to
no air on Lake Michigan. Two M24s and two M20s moved
out to significant leads on the rest of the fleet.
M20 AND M32 CLINIC ON MAY 9
MBYC hosted a great on the water clinic for M20 and M32
racers on May 9. A number of well known coaches/tacticians
were involved with the M32 fleet: Scott Nixon, Harry
Melges, Wally Cross and Tac Boston. Winds were forecast
to be in the 30s and the fleet wisely chose to stay on Lake
Mac. The RC was busy resetting starting and windward
marks as the wind clocked from SW to W to NW to N.
The crews were busy as the legs were short. Near the end of
the morning, the forecasted high winds finally arrived and
it was exciting for spectators to watch leeward mark
roundings. The leeward mark gate was finally set 30-40 yards
off the south shore of Lake Mac near the Tiara compound.
There was no margin for error for the three M32s as they
barrelled in with chutes up to the leeward gate just off the
shore in 20kt breezes. The M32 class is considering MBYC
as the location for its 2010 Great Lakes championship.
The M20 fleet had six boats take part in the clinic. Mike
Kiss, John Arendshorst, and the Post boat with Jeff Padnos
at the helm all took part. They were joined by Eric Wynsma
from Grand Rapids and two Detroit area teams. As the breeze
built, it became apparent that there is a large premium for
skilled boat handling, particularly downwind, in this exciting
class. There is a lot of enthusiasm in the new fleet as they
gear up for the first M20 Nationals to be held at MBYC in
August. Our local M20 teams will be travelling to Muskegon,
Detroit and Chicago this season for races. They also have a
busy schedule of local racing.
A NEW TROPHY: THE RUDY VEDOVELL AND DON
HILLEBRANDS ANNUAL BLUE WATER CRUISING
AWARD
Rudy Vedovell has a passion for sailing. Rudy has been a
MBYC member since the 1960s and he spans the racing and
cruising worlds. He has a distinguished record of racing
achievements and extensive cruising experience around the
globe. Rudy has donated to MBYC a new trophy that is aimed
at recognizing our members who have taken long distance
cruises.
The award will be given each year at October Awards banquet.
It will be presented to the club member who has taken the
longest cruise - sail or power - in the twelve month period
ending on August 31 of that year. The cruise does not need to
either start or end at MBYC in that twelve month period.
There will likely be a minimum distance required (eg 1000
nautical miles). Club members who want to be considered
for the prize should submit info about their cruise to the Rear
Commodore by September 15.
Retroactive awards back to 1995 will also be given. We are
granting the first award to Rudy Vedovell and Don Hillebrands
for their 15000 nauical mile cruise that ended in New Zealand
in 1995. If you have a past cruise (post-1995) that you want
to have considered, please email me info at
jdonnelly977@yahoo.com. If you have any questions about
the trophy, please also email me.
The new trophy will be displayed at MBYC in the near future.
The club extends its gratitude to Rudy and Suzy Vedovell for
being great, longstanding members and for their creativity
and generosity in starting this annual award.
John Donnelly
Island Goats Sailing Society speakers, each of whom related one or organization’s Annual Dinner on April
Elects J Kunze Commodore two of their favorite Mac stories. Others 25, and will serve a two-year term. The
MBYC was well-represented at
the Chicago Yacht Club Mac Stories
night on March 6, which honored the
50th anniversary of the IGSS. Dave Sligh
and Jack Kunze were two of the eight
10
in the group included Past President of
US Sailing, Janet Baxter, a third
generation goat.
MBYC member, Jack Kunze, was
elected Commodore of the Island Goats
Sailing Society (IGSS) at the
IGSS is an organization for those who
have competed in 25 or more Chicago
to Mackinac races. Currently, MBYC
has more active IGSS members than any
yacht Club outside the Chicago area.
Memorial Weekend featured kids at the hobo bonfire, racing, & serving breakfast
Kids photos by Pam Koch and Jon
Bontekoe.
11
Main Events in June
June 6:
June 14:
June 20:
June 21:
Summer Launch/New Members Party
Laser Regatta
Dueling Hors d’oeuvres
Father’s Day Fishing Tournament
JUNE 2 0 0 9
Mon.
Sun.
Wed.
Tues.
1
Race Events
Social Events
Thurs.
2
3
Bayshore
Summer Series
Private Parties
7
8
9
Laser Great 14
Lakes Racing
South Haven Invite
15
21
22
Father’s Day
Fishing Tournament & Cookout
28
Mini
Rendezvous
12
16
Windscoop
Copy Due
23
Bayshore
Summer Series
30
5
Melges 20/JY 15
Racing
Laser Racing
12
11
Melges 20/JY 15
Racing
Laser Racing
17
18
Laser Racing
Opti Racing
24
Tripp Memorial
29
4
10
Bayshore
Summer Series
Sat.
Fri.
Chicago Nood
Melges 20/JY 15
Racing
25
Opti Racing
19
26
Queens Cup
MBYC #2 6
PHRF #2
2009 Summer
Launch Party
Laser Great 13
Lakes Racing
South Haven Invite
Regatta Party
Chicago Nood 20
Dueling Hors
d’oeuvres Party
27
MBJYC
Bowling Party
Queens Cup
Fourth
of July!
Picnic
July 2009
www.mbyc.com
•
•
MACATAWA, MI 49434
•
616-335-5815
1
To provide a compelling program with great instructor
resources, we need a suitable number of kids. Instructor wages
are a fixed cost (i.e. they are paid by the hour, whether they
teach one kid or 15). One of the problems the community
instruction aspect of the MBJA was designed to solve was this
problem of scale. By including community kids we lower the
cost of instruction for member kids, and make more
instructional programs available. Now I understand that class
size is a critical determinant in the quality of instruction, and
that the MBJA has, at times, not delivered instruction at the
level that some (including me) would find acceptable.
However, the simple economic/demographic facts are that an
“exclusively club member” program would significantly
increase the per student cost of the program. It has been the
long-held policy of the MBJA to pay all operating expenses
(including instructor salaries and maintenance) from
participant fees, and to hold those fees to a “break even” level.
MBYC has not had to assume the direct costs of providing
junior sailing instruction for over 25 years. This is not to say
that MBYC hasn’t incurred expenses related to the MBJA. It
is fashionable in a corner of the bar to allege that “this club
doesn’t support junior sailing.” As a Commodore who has
been involved in organizing and approving over $25,000 of
dredging in our “small boat basin” over the past 3 years, I
don’t think that argument is valid. While the club doesn’t
But first, I offer a disclaimer. The “institutional memory” of account for MBJA occupancy costs, there are both “hard”
our Club is amazingly short, so I am constantly surprised to and “soft” expenses that our club incurs by the MBJA being a
find club members who are unaware of my involvement with tenant. Now, I’m not suggesting that these expenses aren’t
the junior sailing and the MBJA from 1983 through 1997. highly beneficial to our club, but simply mentioning that “no
During most of those years, Anne Gamache served as Treasurer support” isn’t a valid observation.
of the organization, and I provided oversight and leadership
for the development of the program. During that time we And so we come to the question of capital. Unfortunately,
participated in the growth of our program and observed the sailing is a “capital intensive” sport. The “required” equipment
growth of highly structured, nationally-oriented junior sailing is expensive, and, quite frankly, a barrier to “introductory
programs at a number of clubs. The following is based upon experimentation.” The ski industry learned a long time ago
our years of participation and observation of junior sailing. that if they had to sell skis, boots, bindings, poles and suitable
clothing, the number of people trying skiing would be
I believe that the long-term vitality of MBYC rests in a pro- insufficient to support growth. Their solution? Equipment
active program that recruits and retains younger sailors. The rental programs that makes modern equipment, in good
case for this is difficult to directly quantify, in part because condition, available for people “exploring” whether this sport
the true impact of underfunding junior sailing won’t be felt fits their needs and interests. At the MBJA, we have
until years later, when the next generation of “core members” introductory and intermediate level equipment available to
fails to emerge. Critically, if that happens, it will take yet encourage introductory exploration and skill building. The
another generation to rebuild the “pipeline” that leads from funding for this equipment has been provided through
Travis Aiken winners to future board members and flag occasional donations of boats (for resale) and cash, as well as
officers. During our discussion, some members asked for a occasional “capital fund drives”. The last large capital drive
direct correlation between community kids in MBJA and new was the “Perfect Storm” campaign led by Jeff Elhart in the
members acquired. And, while that might be one measure of early part of this decade. Within the past year, approximately
immediate success, I’d suggest a much more telling metric of $15,000 was raised during a dinner at the club.
the value of our junior program is to stand in our
Commodore’s room and count off the number of flag officers Steve’s insight is that we need to embrace a model of capital
who were introduced to our way of life through a junior sailing formation that creates a stream of capital, so that the fleet can
program.
be managed in a pro-active and more cost-effective manner.
Continued on Page 3 ----->
Stockholders meetings are,
by-and-large, peaceful
affairs.
In fact, as
Commodore, there is a
strong tendency to hope
that the meeting goes
“according to script” and
that you can escape to the
dining room (and bar)
without having to engage
in any “heavy lifting.” Our
Spring 2009 Stockholders
meeting followed “the script” so well that it might be possible
to overlook the one piece of new business that was presented
by club-member and Director of Macatawa Bay Junior
Association, Steve Sisson. Steve made a presentation regarding
the work of the MBJA and their current need for an infusion
of capital. His proposal for raising the capital was, essentially,
that MBYC make an institutional commitment to providing
capital on an ongoing basis to the MBJA. Some good
discussion ensued, and the Flag received his report for further
consideration. And, in the spirit of continuing that discussion,
I’d like to offer the following analysis.
2
Macatawa Bay
Ya c h t C l u b
Commodore
Roger Gamache
Board of Directors
Immediate Past Commodore: Paul Brown
Treasurer
Larry D’Haem
Secretary
Michael Hill
Director
Beth Egge
Director
Jack Knoblauch
Director
Tom Slanec
Director
Lisa Ruoff
Director
Joel Krissoff
Director
Mitchell Padnos
Director
David Sligh, Jr.
Management
General Manager
Executive Chef
Dining Room Manager
Outside Manager
*
*
Wind Scoop Editor
Web Scoop
Marilyn Baker
Jim Ruehle
Irena Miller
Douglas Knapp
*
*
Jon Bontekoe
Bob Standish
www.mbyc.com
Commodore’s Report continued
His estimate is that $15,000 per year
would allow for regular replacement of
equipment while it still had some market
value, reducing the overall cost of capital
and increasing the overall quality of the
fleet. Steve’s proposal was direct, and
simple: $50.00 of every member’s dues
would be allocated for a contribution to
the MBJA capital account. Needless to
say, the proposal met with “some
resistance”. From my point of view, the
fundamental logic of underlying Steve’s
proposal is sound, but the funding
mechanism should be improved in the
following way: if we need $15,000 / year
then I suggest that 30 members (having
both the motivation and means) pledge
a $500.00 / year donation over the next
10 years to the MBJA capital fund.
July 4 Weekend
Weekend
Friday, July 3:
Melges 20 & JY Racing
VanAndel Fireworks on the Beach
Saturday July 4:
9 AM Golf Tournament on the Lawn
6:00 - 8:30 July 4 Picnic at the club with
ribs, chicken, shrimp, hot dogs, cob
corn, etc
Cost: $15.00. Children: $8.00 (+ tax/tip)
After dinner starting 7:00: MBJYC Ice
Cream Social. $5.00 adults, $3.00 kids.
Fireworks at Kollen Park
Sunday July 5
Laser/Opti Patriots Race
Ladies PHRF Race
What’s Happening at the
Yacht Club?
Saturday, July 11
MBYC 50’s Party combined with Catalina
Rendezvous Party. Buffet: $16.00 + tax/tip
Entertaining under the Tent: Peter Trappen
Sunday July 26
Family Pool Party and MBJYC Pool Olympics
These “investors in the club’s future” can the team.” I look forward to hearing
receive suitable recognition, and receive your thoughts!
the individual income tax benefits that See you at our Club.
come from a donation to a IRC section
501 c 3 charitable educational Roger Gamache
institution. So far, I’ve gotten
commitments from 2 members to “join
3
Fathers’ Day Fishing Tournament successful despite the storm
Fishing Tournament pictures by Paul
Brown & jb.
4
June 6 featured the second MBYC
PHRF race of the season. Bottom
photo shows the three Melges 20’s
sailing close in a line. Photos by Tom
Slanec and Doug Slade.
June 6 Saturday Racing PHRF #2
5
When you receive this
edition of the Wind Scoop,
Father’s Day and summer
solstice of 2009 will be in
the history books. And we’ll
be staring in the face of
Fourth of July weekend
with all of its celebration.
How quickly summer finds
its way to mid-way when it
feels as if it has just begun!
We are reminded to make sail while the sun shines—to borrow
from an old farmer’s proverb.
While the weather has been cooler than normal by more than
just a few degrees (where is that global warming??!!), activity
at the Yacht Club has been brisk. Our dining room sales are
higher than the same time last year. Our General Manager,
Dining Room Manager and Executive Chef continue to work
hard to provide fine dining at affordable prices, and our
membership seems to be recognizing these opportunities.
(Remember to make reservations to help accommodate your
plans.)
dining experience and fill out the cards. Let us know what you
like, and how things could be improved for you. You are
reminded that there is a comment card box on the bar side of
the door leading into the dining room so that you can share
your comments anonymously.
The Club appears to have weathered the Friday, June 19 storm
with a minimum of damage—certainly compared with many
of our Holland neighbors! Our roof is missing a few shingles
and it appears that we may have some erosion occurring under
the lawn near the sidewalk close to Eldean’s property line. Over
all, for sixty mile an hour straight line winds and seven to
eight inches of rain in less that twenty four hours, we faired
quite well. The cost of repairs should be modest.
A conservation reminder: our supply of hot water is not endless.
Some of our kids seem to like standing under the warm pool
showers and do so for a very long time, and occasionally walk
away leaving the showers running. Parents, would you please
help monitor this? Not only is this good conservation of water
and natural gas, it also helps to assure that there will be adequate
hot water for those using the showers for bathing. Thank you
for your cooperation on this.
If you have not already noticed, you will soon see that the Please keep us informed of anything that requires our attention.
House Committee has revised the Comment Cards. Your And enjoy the summer—just as hard as you can!
Bridge and Board, with the support and cooperation of our
Staff, look for your input on how we can better meet your Bob DeJong
expectations. So please take a moment at the end of your
Did You Know...
Boats:
• You CAN get assistance
docking your boat at the club?
• Radio in on Channel 9 ! Our
dock staff will assist you with
dock lines as you come in.
Please allow 10 minutes for
them to get to your slip. include
in your message your slip # and
if you are in the East or West
Bay.
Dining
• You CAN eat healthy at
MBYC!
• Jim Ruhle and our club
management care about our
6
Down the Race Course
health! In lieu of chips or
French fries, you may substitute
a fruit cup or side salad.
Pool
• You CAN help with safety
at the pool!
• Signing in when you arrive
helps our Dock Staff and
Lifeguards keep us and our
club a safer place. There is a
sheet at each entrance where
you can sign in so that our
lifeguards know who is in the
pool area.
From MBYC House Committee
Saturday, August 8th
COMMODORE’s ROAST
Sunday, August 9th
FAMILY CARNIVAL
Saturday, August 22nd —
VANDERLEEK CUP &
REGATTA PARTY
Saturday, August 29th —
COMMODORE’s BALL
Cover photo taken by Doug Slade during MBYC’s June 6 PHRF racing. Pictured is Willie J, Doug Petter’s 43’ boat
sailing on a spinnaker run. Please submit
photos to Wind Scool editor Jon
Bontekoe at: jonbontekoe@gmail.com
Past Commodores’ Annual
Luncheon (pictured left to right):
Paul Brown, Jack Smith, Jack Siebers,
Phil Ragains, John Stevenson,
Seymore Padnos, Robert Sligh, Clark
Weersing, Steve Ratliff, Kevin Dolle,
Herb Eldean, Sam Martin, Charlie
Sligh III, Rod VanTol, Rudy Vedovell,
Rick Kraii.
INTERNATIONAL TEAM BUILDING AT MBYC
Member Gregg VandenBosch was
confronted with a challenge of hosting
fifteen international business travelers
from the United Kingdom, Italy,
Germany, Spain, and Australia with a
dozen “locals.” Gregg’s employer,
Dematic (f/k/a Rapistan), was bringing
conveyor teams from all over the globe
to Grand Rapids for three days of
product release. Gregg’s goals were
threefold: provide an evening of
relaxation, provide an opportunity to
develop relationships among business
colleagues who would be working
together around the world, and show off
some of the prettiest parts of West
Michigan. So Gregg called on fellow
club member sailors and the Club staff
for the solution to his challenge.
Answering the call for assistance, Rod
and Annie Van Tol, Bob and Janet
Standish, Bill and Lisa Ruoff, John and
Linda Stephenson, and father-in-law
Bob DeJong made their sailboats
available for a pleasant evening cruise
into Lake Michigan—reaching on the
puffs of an easterly breeze on Tuesday,
June 17. Returning to the docks at 8:00
p.m. one of the sailors observed, “no sun
or sunset tonight, but then no rain or
flies either.”
relationships with your team, I would
highly encourage you to consider MBYC
for your needs. If you’re not sure whom
to contact to arrange a fleet, you could
start with anyone on the Bridge. I was
amazed by the willingness of our club
members to show off our location, our
With excellent planning and even better passion for sailing, and our hospitality. I
execution, executive chef, Jim Ruehle also found the cooperation of the staff
and his team, and Irena Miller and her overwhelmingly positive. Marilyn, Jim,
team served each guest her/his selection and their team exceeded my expectations
of beef filet, tuna, specially prepared and their attention to details was
chicken dishes and other great selections impressive!”
while the bar served its usual great
selection of cocktails and wine or beer. The next time you are considering a
Gregg reports that for the rest of the venue for a business meeting or
business conference, he continued to entertainment, you would serve your
receive compliments about the great business colleagues well by making
hospitality and friendliness served with arrangements at your favorite Yacht
fine food and drink. He and his business Club. In fact, virtually every special
colleagues considered the evening a huge occasion hosted by our Yacht Club
success.
results in unsolicited compliments about
the food, service and location. Is there
In reflecting on the evening, Gregg anything better anywhere in the area?
reports: “If you’re looking for a unique by Bob DeJong
venue to both entertain and build strong
7
Dueling Hors
d’oeuvres or East
Meets West: The
food was great!
East Meets West took on a new twist this
summer as we expanded to include all
of the club in this traditional coming
together of the docks. Members from the
“pool” crowd, as well as racers and dry
dock boaters, joined in for Dueling Hors
d’ Oeuvres under the tent. With around
50 members attending, it was nice to see
the camaraderie and competitive spirit
over all of the interesting and great
tasting appetizers. The judges had a hard
time picking as they claimed everything
was great. But prizes were eventually
awarded to: Jeanne Marie Rifkin best
presentation, Michael Nagelkirk most
unique, Tom DeRoseau best overall,
Lenore D’Haem best taste, and Janet
Magennis ease of preparation. Below we
print the winners’ recipes direct from their computerized cookbooks. by Janet Standish
Raspberry Cheese Surprise (DeRoseau): 1 C shredded cheddar cheese, 1 C shredded cojack cheese, 1 C mayonnaise,
½ C chopped green onions, 2 C chopped pecans. Mix and form into a flattened cheese ball. Cover with raspberry
preserves, top with fresh raspberries and pecans. Serve with Crackers
Grilled cream cheese (D’Haem) On a sheet of aluminum foil, place one stick of Neufchatel cream cheese. Top with 23 tbs of pesto, 1/3 c. chopped tomatoes, sundried tomatoes to taste, and 1/3 C shredded five cheese blend. Place on
grill and cover with a lid. Heat until cheese on top is melted (or simply use a microwave dish). Serve with Triscuits.
Breadsticks (Rifkin): 1 box Skinny Italian Breadsticks, Vegetable Cream Cheese: Blend in food processor: ½ red pepper,
¼ red onion, 3 sprigs fresh basil, 1 carrot, 1 glove garlic. Stir in: ½ tsp. Tabasco sauce, 3 – 8oz pkg. cream cheese, 1 lb
thin prosciutto, 25 green olives, 25 peppadew (red African peppers cut in half). Assembly: spread one end of breadstick
with vegetable cream cheese, roll on slice of prosciutto around cream cheese, put an olive or a peppadew on the
end, and chill.
Baked Brie (Magennis): Preps in just five minutes. Use a ready piecrust or puff pastry or a can of crescent rolls
(unseparated). 1 Pillsbury Ready Crust (or store brand) brought to room temp, 1 round or wedge of Brie cheese, 1 cup
cherry preserves (or other fruit preserves), ¼ cup brown sugar, ¼ cup maple syrup, dried Michigan cherries if desired –
one/two handfuls. Use a quiche pan or pie plate and spray with cooking spray. Open and lay out the pie crust. Place
Brie round or wedge on top of pastry. Spread preserves on Brie, add dried fruit if desired. Fold crust up around Brie and
pucker the top. Drizzle maple syrup over top and place brown sugar on top. Bake at 350º for 30 minutes. Let cool for 10
minutes before serving. Serve with crackers or tart apple slices.
Tuna Nicoise Ficelles (Nagelkirk): 3 large eggs, 2 tbp red wine vinegar, 5 tbp xtra virg olive oil, 6 flat anchovy,chopped,
2 tbp capers, drained, 1 med shallot, minced, Kosher salt & fresh gd pepper, 12 oz chunk white tuna, drained & flaked,
2-24 inch thin baguettes, 1 small red leaf lettuce, 10 oz plum tomatoes, quartered & oven roasted, 3/4 cp oil-cured
black olives, pitted & chopped. 1. Place eggs in med pan cool water & simmer 10 min. Drain & cool. Peel & thinly slice.
Set aside. 2. Place vinegar in small stainless steel bowl. Slowly whisk oil. Add anchovies, capers, shallots. Season w/salt
& pepper. Add tuna & toss. 3. Split baguette lengthwise without cutting through. Fold loaves open. Arrange lettuce
along the inside. Spoon tuna mix evenly onto lettuce, top w/egg slices, tomatoes, olives. Close baugettes & cut into
twelve 2-in sandwiches. For roasted tomatoes: 1. Quarter tomatoes. Toss w/ 1 tbsp olive oil. Add salt & pepper. 2. Place
on parchment paper on flat baking pan. 3. Roast 1 to 1-1/2hr at 275.
Photos by Annie VanTol
8
The Winners
The Food
The Judges
9
New Member Party
launches the summer with friendly
smiles for new faces
D
A
E
B
F
A Larry & Lenore D’Haem with new
members Justin & Kristen Salava.
B New member Gina Attee (red
name tag) talks with Nick Honor,
Coreen Slanec and Judy Stellin.
C Bill and Lisa Ruoff talk with Steve &
Nancy Steketee.
D Nate Bryan with granddaughters
Lauren Brand & Dani Gamache.
E Coreen & Tom Slanec with grandson Andrew.
G John Stevenson, MaryJane & Paul
Schoenherr with Lenore D’Haem
Photos by Annie VanTol
10
D
110 Fleet Racing In front of the Club on a Blue Sky Day
110 photos by Mary Bontekoe.
11
LASER GREAT LAKES have access to a JY, please join in the fun Friday evening.
CHAMPIONSHIP: A Without Jan and Mike’s extensive efforts, the portion of Lake
Mac in front of MBYC would be quiet this summer on Friday
GREAT SUCCESS!
evenings. Thanks go to Jan and Mike for the JY 15 renaissance!
MBYC hosted its first
regatta of the season on M20 FLEET: ENTHUSIASTIC ROAD WARRIORS!
June 13/14 and a big
thanks is given to Laser Mike Kiss, John Arendshorst, and Erik Post are enthusiastic
fleet captain JP Del Solar new owners of the M20. Starting in early April, MBYC has
Goldsmith! JP did a been the venue for a lot of M20 activity: practices, Wednesday
tremendous amount of night racing, as well as our offshore Saturday series. Mike,
work prior to the event and John, Erik and their crews are rapidly moving down the
it paid off. JP focussed on one on one marketing of the event learning curve and a lot of tuning info is being exchanged
and sailors from as far as Toronto, Texas and California traveled amongst the three teams. The three teams are also travelling
to MBYC to compete. Top national youth sailors such as Laser to compete with other regional teams taking part in regattas
Full rig competitor Colin Smith and Laser Radial competitor already at Muskegon Yacht Club and twice at Bayview/
Annie Haeger took part. The race committee led by Barb Crescent Yacht Clubs in Detroit. All this activity is leading
Gamache and including Commodore Roger Gamache and up to the first ever M20 Nationals to be held at MBYC: August
Doug Slade did a great job in light and shify conditions on 21-23.
both Lake Michigan and Lake Macatawa. Two races were held
Saturday on the Big Lake and three on Sunday on Lake Mac. CONGRATULATIONS TO DANI GAMACHE:
46 sailors took part with 32 in the Full rig including JP, Mike COLLEGIATE ALL-AMERICAN!
Kiss, Steve Sisson and Don Bergman and 14 in the Radial rig
including Sam Padnos (1st), Mitchell Kiss (2nd), Alex Post, Rona Sisson was the first MBYC sailor to win college Alland Armaan Dandavati. Surplus funds from the regatta will American honors. She did so representing Stanford University
as a crew in 1984 and 1986. Dani Gamache is the second
go to building a stronger MBYC Laser fleet.
MBYC sailor to win college All-American honors. Dani
competed for SUNY Maritime (NYC) in the 2009 college
MBYC JY 15 FLEET: A RENAISSANCE!
national championships in early June in San Francisco and at
JY 15 activity declined in 2007 and 2008 and many believed the conclusion of that event the 2009 All-Americans were
that the fleet was dead. Fleet captains Jan and Mike Stewart announced. Eight women skippers won AA honors along with
disagreed. They did a lot of marketing of the fleet during the 20 women crew - including Dani. Congratulations to Dani
winter and enthusiasm for Friday night racing has returned for her great college racing career!
with 10 JYs taking part in the first evening of racing. This is a John Donnelly
greater number of racers than has been seen for years! If you
2010 Logbook Family Photo Service
MBYC volunteer photographers
are available almost anytime to
take a new family or individual
photo for the Logbook. Your flag
officers would love to have all
families pictured in the 2010
Logbook member photo section. Photographers are willing to
take photos anywhere on club
property or on your boat, during
12
club events or just when you
happen to be here. You can call
one up to make arrangements
or just ask them if you happen
to see them at the club. Volunteering to take your picture are
Annie VanTol, Doug Slade, Ed
Kita, or editor Jon Bontekoe.
We’ll even email you a copy of
the picture!
Laser fleet of 46 boats crosses the
start line in the June 13-14 Great
Lakes Laser Championship Regatta
held at MBYC. Photo by Tovi Kiss.
MBYC Commodores’ daughters make successful sailors!
St. Francis Yacht Club in
San Francisco honors
Morgan Kiss
Morgan Kiss’ sailing partner Laura
McKenna of the St. Francis Yacht Club
in San Francisco was recently featured in
their news letter. McKenna, having
finished high school, is ready to attend
Boston College and join their top ranked
sailing team, and has one more goal for
her junior sailing career. With her
younger partner from MBYC, Morgan
Kiss, their goal was to be the US
representative team in the 420 world
sailing championships. Their preparation
for the world championships includes
summer travel to regattas and training in
Europe and Brazil. The following
paragraphs regarding Morgan and Laura
are taken from the St. Francis newsletter:
Dani Gamache elected College All-American
The Inter-collegiate Sailing Association
of North American has selected Danielle
Gamache ‘All American’, a major
National Sailing Award, as a result of her
success during the national sailing
championships in May and for her
successful college sailing career. Dani has
just completed a 4-year BS in
Oceanography and Meterology at SUNY
Maritime College in The Bronx, New
York. Dani elected to attend SUNY
Maritime because of its high-level sailing
program and her interest in studying at a
Maritime college. She was on the sailing
team all four years and completed her
college racing career participating with
the SUNY team at the National
Championship Regatta. In her senior year
she sailed as crew in both team racing and
on the co-ed team. Both Dani and her
skipper Todd Hawkins were given the All
American award. In both divisions she
represented SUNY Maritime at the
Regional and National Championships,
sailing against top-sailing teams from
Harvard, Yale, Georgetown, Stanford,
Boston College, and other top sailing
“After a couple of championship seasons
sailing with her Chicago-based”…
partner who “aged out of youth
competition … Laura still yearned for a
shot to represent the US at the prestigious
ISAF Youth World Champtiopnships.
Another Midwest connection paired
Laura with 15 year old sailing prodigy
Morgan Kiss from Holland, Michigan. Pictured below: Morgan Kiss
Laura’s extensive crewing experience
combined with the raw talent of Kiss (a
nationally ranked Opti sailor) were a
quick match for success.
schools. Upon graduation she received a
3 rd Mates License with unlimited
tonnage. She is currently hoping to start
a career on the ocean and ship out on a
ocean tanker or container freighter.
Dani, whose father is MBYC
Commodore Roger Gamache, started her
sailing experience in the MBJA lessons
program. After completing 8th grade she
raced on Jack Knoblauch’s ‘Capricious’
and was invited by Bob Hughes to crew
on ‘Heartbreaker’, then a 1D35 and later
when he moved his racing program into
the Farr 40. Dani participated in one of
the earlier Canada’s Cup regattas on
Heartbreaker, but was not able to
participate while in college. She credits
her ‘big boat’ experiences with giving her
a feel ‘for how well the boat is sailing’
that lead to her success at the college level.
It was not until college that Dani became
heavily involved in small-boat sailing,
where competition is sailed on Flying
Juniors and 420’s. The Nationals took
place in San Francisco. They were hosted
by Stanford University and the St. Francis
Yacht Club and were sailed on FJ’s. Roger
and Annie Gamache flew out to San
Francisco to watch her last college races.
jb
Pictured below: Dani Gamache
“After being named to the US Sailing
Team under-18 development team, the
pair sought out the coaching services of
Dave Dellenbaugh (of America’s Cup
fame) and quickly rose to the top of the
420 fleet. At the ISAF qualifiers in Long
Beach in December, Kiss and Mckenna
bested the other teams from across the
country to give them the berth to
represent Team USA at the Youth Worlds
in Buzios, Brazil in July.” jb
13
Another June ‘storm of the
century’ dumps 8” of rain on
Macatawa. Mac the Sailor
gets to go to sea again, cars
have to wade down the
street, lights do out during dinner, the creek overflows with
water & debri and sewage
systems overwhelmed again.
Photos by jb. Lights out in the club
photo by Lance Baker.
14
VanderLeek Cup
Hospice Regatta
August 22, 2009
Open to the public - Come &
bring your friends
• To race– FUN comfort cruisers
class (no tech sails)
• AND to race competitive classes
• For ice cream social after the
races
• For dinner - pig roast buffet
& auction, awards &
• Music by Peter Trappen
Honor the memory of past
commodore Paul VanderLeek
and support Hospice of Holland
patients in need
www.mbyc.com for event details,
NOR & entry form
MBJA lesson season up and running: a report
from director Marie Mell
your calendar for the final event of the
West Michigan Youth Sailing
Association season. MBYC will be
hosting five yacht clubs from West
Michigan and help will be needed in
refreshments, race committee (including
boats!), awards, and general assistance.
Even if you are
available for
only 1 or 2
hours, we will
have a role for
Don’t forget about the adult learn to sail you. We will
need
classes Tuesdays as well. This year, we also
c
o
m
m
i
t
tee
changed the format to a four week,
Tuesdays only format. Classes s run from boats for race
5:30-8:30. The second session begins c o m m i t t e e .
July 14 and there is plenty of room still Contact Marie if you are available to
help.
available! It’s not too late to sign up!
Hard to believe that we are already into
our second session of sailing lessons this
summer! The kids (and the staff!) have
really been enjoying their time on the
water. We still have spots available in 3rd
& 4th sessions. Let your friends know
what a hidden treasure we have! You do
NOT need to be a member to take
classes. Come down or check the action
in the photo gallery on our NEW
website (www.mbja.org) !
Independence Day races will be Sunday
July 5. Juniors, come out for club racing
in your 420. Opti or Laser! We’re
looking to finish off the holiday weekend
with a BANG! (and to show our club
how super the future looks in sailing!
Are you interested in helping with a
youth regatta? Put Saturday August 1 on
Thanks for all of your support this
summer! See you on the water!
Marie Mell
Pictured below is the first MBJA afternoon sailing class with instructors and
director Marie Mell on the floating Opti
dock ready for the first lesson in rigging
and safety. Photo by jb
Weekly Email reminders help members
keep up-to-date on events at MBYC. If
you would like to be added to our email
list,
send
an
email
to
cluboffice@mbyc.com and you will get
added to our weekly broadcast.
15
Main Events in July
Sat July 4
Picnic & Ice Cream Social
Sat July 11
50’s Party (with Catalina)
Sun July 26
Family Pool Party & Olympics
JULY 2 0 0 9
Mon.
Sun.
Wed.
Tues.
Thurs.
Laser & Opti
Racing
Private Parties
5
Laser & Opti
Patriot Race
Ladies Offshore Race
12
6
7
19
13
14
20
21
26
27
15
22
Bayshore
Summer Series
28
9
Laser & Opti
Racing
Bayshore
Summer Series
Windscoop
Copy Due
MBJYC Pool
Olympics
Family Pool Party
8
Bayshore
Summer Series
Catalina Rendezvous
16
2
1
Race Events
Social Events
29
Bayshore
Summer Series
Sat.
Fri.
16
Golf Tournament 4
3
Melges 20/JY15
July 4 Picnic
VanAndel
MBJYC Ice Cream Social
Fireworks
Kollen Park Fireworks
MBYC #3
10
11
Melges 20/JY15
PHRF #3
Racing
Rock ‘n Roll Party
Catalina Rendez..
Catalina Rendezvous
17
Laser Racing
Opti Racing
23
Laser & Opti
Racing
30
Laser & Opti
Racing
18
Chicago Mac
24
Melges 20/JY 15
Racing
31
Melges 20/JY 15
Racing
25
Port Huron-Mac
Race
MBYC PHRF #4
August 2009
www.mbyc.com
•
•
MACATAWA, MI 49434
•
616-335-5815
1
I am writing immediately
prior to the ChicagoMackinac Race and before
our July Board of Directors
meeting. By the time
you’re reading this, both of
those events will have
occurred and you’ll have
the benefit of knowing how
it all turned out. But
without that knowledge,
here’s some highlights for August.
discussion is to improve operating efficiency while at the same
time improving the quality of our members’ experience. There
is clear consensus that our current system is inadequate. There
is less consensus on how to address the problem, although a
suitable solution is emerging. As always, the amount and
timing of the funding for this project remains a concern. A
related issue under discussion is explicit formalization of
policies regarding member privacy. This becomes a critical
issue as we gather member information into a single data base,
and enhance the ability to use that information. We are
working on By-Laws, policies, and procedures to protect the
privacy of all members.
Carpe Diem (“seize the day”). The MBYC season builds to a
crescendo in August. Our sailing program includes the West
Michigan Youth Sailing Association Championships,
Commodore’s Cup, the Club 420 North American
Championships, the Vanderleek/Hospice Regatta, and the first
national Melges 20 regatta (with participants from as far away
as Italy). There’s a “whole lot of sailing going on” at MBYC.
Make sure you take some time to participate or spectate. On
the social calendar, the month begins with the “Commodore’s
Roast” at poolside, and ends with the Commodore’s Ball, a
long celebrated tradition honoring our past commodores.
Check out the specific events, dates, and times in this
Windscoop and at our website.
Another source of concern/discussion is a more stable solution
for the eastern side of our riparian boundary. A second “storm
of the century” has threatened our access to our small boat
harbor. We are working through a number of ideas, evaluating
each against considerations of cost and feasibility. A final
project has been evaluating the feasibility/cost of converting
the primary restrooms in the clubhouse to “barrier free.” As
the demographics of our general population (and our
membership) ages, the issue of access becomes progressively
more critical to our club. The forward planning committee is
researching the optimum solution to this challenge. Of course,
the amount and timing of the expenditure becomes an
important consideration for our continued financial security.
Meanwhile… Your Board has been working on a number of Overall, it’s been a busy year, and it’s going to be even more
projects this year which are moving along toward completion. busy in August. Hope I see you at our club!
One project has been to evaluate our current club information
management “system” consisting of accounting, membership Roger Gamache
data, and club communication systems. The goal of the
An island fit for the birds has
formed in the East Bay just
outside the creek where, despite increases in water depths,
the sand deposits are limiting
access to the small boat
docks. Dredging will in all probability have to be planned for
next spring. Photo by jb
2
Macatawa Bay
ON DECK FOR FOR
AUGUST 2009
Ya c h t C l u b
Commodore
Roger Gamache
Board of Directors
Treasurer
Larry D’Haem
Secretary
Michael Hill
Director
Beth Egge
Director
Jack Knoblauch
Director
Tom Slanec
Director
Lisa Ruoff
Director
Joel Krissoff
Director
Mitchell Padnos
Director
David Sligh, Jr.
Management
General Manager
Executive Chef
Dining Room Manager
Outside Manager
*
*
Wind Scoop Editor
Web Scoop
Marilyn Baker
Jim Ruehle
Irena Miller
Douglas Knapp
*
*
Jon Bontekoe
Bob Standish
www.mbyc.com
ATTENTION WINGS FANS!!
(not as in hockey)
Executive Chef Jim Ruehle knows that
we have many wings fans here at the
Club. But Jim has received a few mixed
signals about your preference of this
year’s model versus last year’s. We know
that we cannot serve everyone’s preferred
style, but Jim will “net” the model
receiving the most votes. So call or email
the Club (cluboffice@mbyc.com) voting
for the 2008 or 2009 style. She/he who
voteth not, complaineth not. (Famous
ancient maxim—attributed to ancient
Greece)
COMMORDORES’s Cup and
“All Club” COMMODORE’s ROAST
Sunday, August 9th
FAMILY CARNIVAL
Thursday, August 13th to Sunday August 16th
420 NATIONALS
Saturday, August 22nd
VANDERLEEK CUP AND “All Club”
REGATTA PARTY
MELGES 20 NATIONALS
Friday, August 28th
STOCKHOLDERS’ MEETING
COMMODORES’ BALL
Friday, September 4th to September 7th
LABOR WEEKEND
Saturday Nite– End of Summer Blast
Monday – Labor Day Breakfast
LOOK FOR EMAIL BLAST AND FLYERS for FURTHER
INFORMATION FOR EACH EVENT!!!
3
July 4 Breakfast,
Breakfast, Golf, Fire
Fire Works
Works & Fun
4
Did You Know...
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You CAN help shape the food and bar service at the club?
· We are always striving for continual improvement so please fill
out the comment card presented with your bill when you are
dining at the club. You can return it with your bill or place it in
the suggestion box at the doorway between dining room and bar
area.
You CAN learn to sail?
· Go to MBYC.COM and click on Sailing schools and then MBJA
sailing schools. You will immediately be connected to http://
www.mbja.org/ Click on sailing lessons 2009 and you can sign
up! If you have an interest in sailing on a boat for the Wednesday
night races you can also contact our Commodore Roger Gamache
at rogerdgamache@aol.com.
You CAN get food and drinks at the pool or at your boat?
· There is a portable phone at the sign-in sheet by the pool. Just
pick it up, dial the club’s number (located conveniently on the
food order form by the phone) and place your order. To help
facilitate delivery, inform our staff where you are located. Using
your cell phone, you can also order from your boat! Please be
understanding if all of our staff are busy serving other guests and
members inside that you may be asked to pick up your order.
July 4 Photos by Doug Slade, Annie Van Tol,
Jon Bontekoe
5
As I write this, we are
quickly approaching the
end of July. So quickly the
summer flies by. But by all
reports, and in spite of the
weather providing some of
the coolest July days in
recorded history and in
spite of a less than
flourishing economy, your
Club is doing well. Our
sales are at or above last year,
and we have seen more inquiries for membership information
than many of us can recall for many years.
Remember that our bar is willing to stock your favorite wine
and liquor if it is not already carried in stock. So please
remember that if our bar does not have your favorite bourbon,
vodka, gin or other drink, you only need to let our bartenders
know, and it will be ordered. Thank you for your constructive
comments on your dining comment cards. This feedback is
used by our general manager, dining room manager and master
chef in helping to respond to your needs and desires. Keep
them coming.
DOCK AND GROUNDS:
We continue to explore needs and costs for additional dredging
that may be required as a result of our seemingly now-annual
one hundred year rains. We want to accommodate our junior
sailors while using our resources frugally. There are no other
known significant expenses on the horizon for this year—at
HOUSE COMMITTEE:
Marilyn reports that our dining sales for June are up least none that are planned. While we try to minimize
approximately 15 percent over last year. You may recall that unpleasant surprises, we cannot eliminate them.
Commodore Gamache extended invitations of reciprocity for
dining to our neighboring yacht clubs, and our boating friends SUGGESTIONS?
at those clubs have been taking advantage of our dining services. Please let us know your thoughts on how we can better serve
We are happy to accommodate them, and the additional our members. Sometimes these are little things. For example,
revenue is good for our bottom line. As many of you know, so someone noticed that we had a number of nice chairs stacked
much of our dining related expense is fixed, such that the more by the swimming pool for those extra busy days, and suggested
dinners and cocktails we serve, the better we can spread those that they might be better utilized under the tent. As the
weekend morning “brain trust” can attest, the chairs were
expenses.
relocated under the tent within two days of the suggestion. It
Over all our beverage sales are about the same as last year: beer was a little thing, but it made things nicer.
and wine sales are up over last year for June, but liquor sales
were down correspondingly. Most of our members know by Hint: The Commodores’ Ball will be here before you know it.
now that our wine markups are very modest in comparison This event has become THE EVENT of the year as Jim shows
with markups by most restaurants. Our beer selection includes off his and his team’s talents in creating dishes for extraordinary
mostly premium beer with local on- tap favorites like Oberon dining. I am guessing that this event sells out this year: so get
and Founders. Marilyn and Jim continue to work hard to your reservations in early; and please do not be upset with our
deliver good value for our members, and our restaurant and staff if you call last minute and there is no more room available.
bar prices reflect that. And your comments indicate your Thanks for your understanding.
appreciation.
Bob DeJong
Custom Painted Crystal
MBYC Wine Glasses
Through special arrangements with Leena Sullivan of Grand Rapids,
MBYC members can now order custom painted wine glasses
featuring our club burgee, Big Red, and/or the name of your boat
or cottage. Samples of the art work are located in the Nauti-Shop
display case along with order forms. Price: $28.50 each. Allow
three to four weeks for delivery.
6
The Bergmans won the
grueling Annual MBYC
Independence Day
Wooden Canoe Race on
Lake Macatawa against
much younger competition. After the first heat
other potential competitors bowed out. Photos by
Annie Van Tol.
MBYC.COM RE-DISIGNED
Thanks to the continued work of Bob Standish, our newly designed
website now has a section for “members only,” new links including
“Sailflow” and a new home page. In order to help restrict certain
information to our members, our site now allows members only to
access certain parts of the site. Each member will be allowed free
registration as another benefit of Club membership. Be sure to allow
twenty four hours (or so) for approval of your registration to confirm
that only members are allowed to register.
Many of our members have discovered already that our website is a fast
and convenient way to confirm dates and times for the next social
event as well as race schedules. Nearly everything you want to know
about MBYC can be found with just a few clicks on your computer. If
you haven’t already done so, you will want to include this site among
your “favorites” list.
7
July 5 Ladies
PHRF features 3
MBYC racers
Three boats participated in the July 5
Ladies PHRF race (second annual!). Capricious captained by Linda Knoblauch
took first over all in the three races, Second Wind (AKA Winch Wenches)
steered by Jean Bergman placed second,
and Hot for Teacher under Marie Mell
placed third. All three boats raced Spinnaker division. There were no boats entered in the JAM division. Race chair
Jack Knoblauch would love to have more
boats participate - come on ladies - show
your skills!
Small pictures in center show the three
crews at the awards ceremony or on
the boat. There were even a few spectator boats! Pictures by Doug Slade,
Grant Chaney, Joe Bonadies, & Jack
Knoblauch.
Roast Commodore Gamache at the
Commodore’s Roast
Saturday Evening, August 8, 2009
In a casual pool-side post-race party complete with
grilled fun-food, poolside bar. 4:00 PM - 8:00 PM
Join with Commodore’s Cup racing crews and
MBYC club members.
Open microphone to get in your digs.
8
9
MBYC’s own Saturday PHRF racing has
come to be a time for the Melges Fleets
to shine as M-20s, M-24s, and M-32s
compete regularly in addition, of course,
to any and all PHRF boats. And of
course The Wednesday night Bayshore
Summer Series brings out upwards of 50
boats from around the Holland area and
features both Spinnaker and JAM sections with different starts for various boat
sizes. There is always room for more
boats to participate and joining up is
easy. Just check out the racing section of
the club website at mbyc.com or
Bayshore’s
website
at
bayshoreyachtclub.org.
COMMODORES’ BALL
Saturday evening, August 29, 2009
Reservations Required
Be sure to reserve early to assure a place for you
at the highlight of the club’s social year.
And dance the night away!
10
Racing photos submitted by Doug
Slade and Tom Sanec.
Sat PHRF Racing & Wed Bayshore Series
11
MACKINAC: GO WEST, balance of the boats from the Turbo class and the lead GL
70s. Zoom finished just after 11pm on Monday and the next
YOUNG MAN
boat in her class did not finish until nine hours later. She was
Horace Greeley, the 19th the 9th boat to cross the finish line - beating one turbo and
century newspaperman, five GL70s - and was the overall winner of the Chicagohad this straightforward Mackinac Trophy division.
advice: “Go west, young
man.” Henry David A number of MBYC boats competed in the race: Windquest,
Thoreau,another great Tyrant, Heatbreaker, Willie J, Sufficient Reason, Gauntlet
19th century American, (also doing the Super Mac), and Whitecap. Two of those boats
talked about “marching to had corrected time finishes in the top three of their sections:
the beat of a different Doug Petter and his Willie J crew were 3rd in section 2 and
drummer.” All this advice benefited those who followed it in 4th overall in the Chicago-Mackinac trophy division while
Don Thinschmidt and his Tyrant crew, including
the 2009 Chicago- Mackinac race.
Commodore Gamache, were 2nd in section 1 and 15th overall.
In the last few years, the installation of GPS transponder Both of these boats followed the normal route along the
devices in 80% of the Mac race boats has been a great addition Michigan shore and simply outsailed their competition.
for those on shore who want to follow the race and those Congratulations to all MBYC sailors who competed in the
competitors who want to reconstruct what worked well and race!"
what did not.
JUNE RACE HIGHLIGHTS
Over 300 boats competed in the 2009 race. All but two (at
least of those who had GPS devices) followed the general track The Chicago NOOD was held June 19-21. It started with
of heading NNE to the Michigan shore. Two boats marched strong thunderstorms Friday morning, which delayed racing,
to a different drummer and went NW to the Wisconsin shore. and ended with a number of MBYC sailors posting strong
The two boats were Flash Gordon 5, a Farr 40 from Chicago results. In PHRF-2 two Melges 32s from MBYC finished in
the top three: Doug DeVos 1st and Ted Etheridge 3rd. Two
YC and Zoom, a Farr 395 also from Chicago YC
MBYC S2 7.9s also finished in the top three: Jeff/Doug Padnos
Late Sunday afternoon when nearly all the fleet was drifting 1st and Peter Schwarz 3rd. Sam Padnos was 3rd in the Etchells
along the shore between Pentwater and Ludington, fifty miles fleet.
to the west,Flash Gordon and Zoom were moving in sight of
the Wisconsin shore with great pressure north of Sheboygan. The Queen's Cup was held June 25/6. Doug DeVos and
Late Sunday Zoom peeled off the Wisconsin shore and headed Windquest finished first in PHRF-1 and 1st overall. Tom
with strong pressure towards Fox and Beaver Islands. Flash Slanec and the Talaria crew were victorious in PHRF-10.
Gordon stayed along the Door Peninsula heading towards
Manistique, Michigan in the UP. She ran into light air Monday The Laser Radial North American championships were held
June 26-29 at the Buffalo Canoe Club on Lake Erie. Mitchell
afternoon and lost much of her lead.
Kiss finished a very stong 5th in a fleet of 121 Laser Radials.
At 10:30am on Monday Zoom, after passing north of the The winner of the event was Lisa Ross from Canada who
Manitous, was just east of South Fox Island and moving with sailed the Laser Radial for her country in the 2008 Olympics.
good pressure 30 miles ahead of her nearest competitor in
section 3 and 50 miles ahead of the bulk of section 3 who MELGES 24s
were in light air off of Frankfort. Zoom had taken a great
circle route to Grays Reef - a route at least 30 miles longer The MBYC M24s were out on the Big Lake in full force for
than that sailed by the other 300+ boats , but she had sailed it the July 11 offshore races - congratulations to fleet captain
Darren Lance! Four M24s were on the line and it was the
with much better pressure.
largest turnout ever for M24s at MBYC. Three races were
Windquest finished at 3:15pm on Monday. Zoom, the Farr sailed and the weekend winner was decided in the last race
395 and lead boat from section 3, passed through the Grays with Merrill Tutton beating Jack Vandenberg by a foot. We
Reef channel around 7pm on Monday together with the
Continued on Page 13 ------------->
12
Catalina sailors came to MBYC
for their yearly rendezvous,
complete with a Friday Shrimp
Boil, Saturday 50’s party and
dance, and Sunday boating
skills tests. Several MBYC members joined the Catalina Group
in their 50’s fun Saturday night.
Photos by Annie Van Tol
Photo above: Wind Scoop photographer John Stephenson caught this
photo of Windquest at Gray’s Reef.
Donnelly continued
hope to see this many M24s out for every MBYC Saturday regatta!
MORGAN KISS REPRESENTS USA
AT YOUTH WORLD CHAMPS IN
BRAZIL
The International Sailing Federation
(ISAF) holds an annual youth world sailing championship. There are seven
classes: ( Intl.420 boys, Intl. 420 girls,
Laser Radial boys , Laser Radial girls,
Hobie 16, windsurfer boys, and
windsurfer girls. Each country can send
one team for each class. Morgan Kiss and
Laura Mckenna (California) won a qualifying regatta in January and were the USA
team at the youth world champs in the
Intl. 420 girls. Morgan and Laura had a
very strong regatta and were third overall
going into the the final race. Their final
finish was 5th out of 24 teams. The teams
ahead of them were: Brazil 1st, Italy 2nd,
Singapore 3rd and New Zealand 4th.
This was the best result for any USA
team!
John Donnelly
Sunday, September 13th
RENDEVOUS
Saturday, September 19th
WHINE PARTY
Thursday September 17th to September 20th
7.9 NATIONALS
Saturday, October 19th
AWARDS DINNER and
CHANGE OF WATCH
Friday, October 30th
HALLOWEEN PARTY
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MBYC small boat racing happens every week
The Wind Scoop cover photo was taken
by Joe Bonadies during MBYC’s July 5
Ladies PHRF racing. Pictured is Jean
Bergman’s Second Wind, renamed
‘Winch Wenches’ for the day’s special
event.Two additional boats, Capricious
and Hot for Teacher participated in the
all-ladies annual race. See pages 8-9 for
more Ladies PHRF pictres. Please submit your club photos to Wind Scoop
editor
Jon
Bontekoe
at:
jonbontekoe@gmail.com
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VANDERLEEK CUP AWARDS & BUFFET
Saturday, August 22, 2009 at 6:00 PM
Pig Roast $25.00 adults, $10.00 children 3-10.
Adult price includes tax, tip, and $10.00 donation to
Holland Hospice.
Music by Peter Trappen
Everyone is invite, not just racers!
RSVP by August 17
(616-335-5815 or cluboffice @mbyc.com
MBJA Report
Lasers and Optis photos by Doug
Slade & jb. Junior Olympics winners
photo by Marie Mell
It has been a great summer so far at our
sailing school! Our students have been
excited about being on the water and
have been learning so much about safety,
boat handling, on the water strategies
and having lots of fun in the many
varying conditions during the month of
July. We’ve had many success stories,
including kids who were hesitant about
being in an Opti and out on the water
at the beginning of their session, and by
the end of the session asking their parents
to sign them up for MORE! Kudos to
our instructors Casey, Shari and Jon, as
well as our helpers Genni, Alex, Jay, Lexi
and Anthony for their excitement and
love of sailing that they are sharing with
the kids. It is obvious that we have a core
group of kids coming up that are going
to be good sailors and racers in the
Midwest in the very near future!
their finishes at the Detroit Junior
Olympics July 18 & 19. Graham
finished 2 nd in the Opti White and
Anthony finished 2nd in the Opti Red
divisions. In the Laser Radials, Alex
finished 1st, while Jay finished 2nd in the
Laser division. At the second WMYSA
regatta, we had three of the top 10 Opti
finishers. Congrats to first place Alex
Brown, third
place Casey
Tutton and
ninth place
Na t a l i e
Brown. Ryan
Tutton and
Michael
Calistri
finished
second in the 420 fleet. WAY TO GO
TEAM MAC!
At this writing, we have been busy with
the West Michigan Youth Sailing
Association regattas and are on track to
defend our 1st place title on Saturday
August 1 here at Mac Bay. Clubs from
Grand Rapids, Muskegon, Saugatuck,
Spring Lake and St. Joe will be here
giving us their best challenge! We would
love to have you come out and support
us and be part of the awards ceremony
following under the MBYC tent.
Looking ahead to October, we are proud
to again be hosting the Junior Olympics
October 10 & 11 with some of the best
of Michigan, Indiana, Illinois and
Wisconsin junior sailors. Come join the
fun! Contact Steve Sisson or Marie if you
are available to help with race committee,
safety, hospitality, registration or to let
us borrow your boat for the weekend!
We will need some larger power boats
to help in Lake Michigan.
Congratulations to Graham Post, See you on the water! Marie Mell
Caroline Sisson, DJ Litts, Anthony
Norris, Jay Mitchell and Alex Post for MBYC team winners.
15
Main Events in August
8
Commodore’s Roast Party
9
Family Carnival
22
VanderLeek Party
28
Stock Holders Meeting
29
Commodores’ Ball
August
August
August
August
August
AUGUST 2 0 0 9
Sun.
Mon.
Tues.
Wed.
Thurs.
Sat.
Fri.
West Michigan 1
Youth Championship
Harbor Springs
Race Events
Social Events
Private Parties
2
Harbor Springs
Regatta
Family Carnival 9
Scavenger Hunt
MBJYC
Commodore’s Cup
16
Verve Cup
Chicago
420 Nationals
23
3
16
5
Bayshore
Summer Series
10
11
12
Bayshore
Summer Series
17
18
24
19
Bayshore
Summer Series
Windscoop
Copy Due
25
26
Bayshore
Summer Series
Melges 20 Nationals
30
4
31
6
Laser & Opti
Racing
Laser & Opti 13
Racing
420 Nationals
20
Laser & Opti
Racing
27
Laser & Opti
Racing
7
Melges 20/JY15
Racing
8
Commodore’s
Roast Party
Commodore’s Cup
Verve Cup 14
Chicago
420 Nationals
Verve Cup 15
Chicago
420 Nationals
21 VanderLeek 22
Hospice Regatta
VanderLeek Party
Melges 20 Nationals Melges 20 Nationals
Stock Holders 28
29
Meeting
MBYC Series #5
Melges 20/JY 15
Commodores’
Ball
Racing
September 2009
www.mbyc.com
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MACATAWA, MI 49434
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616-335-5815
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MACATAWA, MI 49434
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616-335-5815
1
Our club is a truly amazing
group of people. If you
think about our annual
cycle, the first 90 days of
the year we’re in
“hibernation.” Many of
our members are physically
(and for the most part,
“mentally”) removed from
the club. In the next 90
days, we shake off the
torpor of the winter and
begin to see signs of activity at the club. During this period
our challenge is meeting the needs of “early bird” members
with restricted staff and resources.
caring stewardship. Mike Hill “re-upped” after 3 years on
our Board to help keep the Board organized and “on-task” as
our Secretary.
Your Board of Directors: A special thank you to all of our
Board members: Dave Sligh, Jr, Lisa Ruoff, Tom Slanec, Jack
Knoblauch, Mitch Padnos, Joel Krissoff and Beth Egge. Board
participation this year involved extra meetings and extra work.
We’ve spent the year focused on the future of the club, and
members will begin to see some of our results in the coming
months.
Event Sponsors: Our club is all about events. Sailing events.
Social Events. Kid’s Events. The following members made
sure that an ambitious schedule took place in fine fashion:
Michelle Dolle, Mary Jo DeJong, Jay Mitchell, Jack
The next 90 days “hit” with the force of a Lake Michigan line Knoblauch, Linda Knoblauch, Martha Walker, Pat Walker,
squall. House and Restaurant, Pool, Docks and Grounds, Banba Donnelly, Crystal Helbing, Annie VanTol, Janet
Racing, Junior Sailing, Social Events and Junior Yacht Club Standish, Bob Standish, Mitch Padnos, Karen Padnos, Dave
are all working at, or above, capacity. After the squall abates, Sligh Jr., Rachel Sligh, Mike Hill, Colleen Hill, Jim Lilly, Sara
we enter the final 90 days of the year, scaling down the club Garlow-Lilly, Gwen Post, Rod Schmidt, Joanne Schmidt, Tom
while meeting the needs of the members still present, and Slanec, Coreen Slanec, Nancy Andreano, Larry Andreano,
preparing the club for the winter and the start of the next Mike Kiss, Tovi Kiss, Steve Sisson, Larry D’Haem, Lenore
season.
D’Haem, Janet Magennis, Steve Magennis, JD Stone, Dick
Becker, Dave Sligh Sr.
As your Commodore, I’ve been able to watch this entire
process for 3 seasons, and have now experienced being at the Club Communications: Our club’s “central nervous system”
helm during the height of the “summer squall”. I’m proud of is our Wind Scoop and Webscoop. I was recently approached
the job that our club has done this year, and thankful for the by another club asking “who have you hired to do your
efforts that all members of our “crew” have put into making newsletter and website?” They were amazed that these
this a great year. At the risk of overlooking someone, I’d like professional publications were produced in-house, by
to make special notice of the following contributors.
volunteers. Congratulations and tremendous thanks to Jon
Bontekoe and Bob Standish for their special contribution to
Professional Staff: Marilyn Baker, Jim Ruehle, Doug Knapp, the life of our club.
Irena Miller, Lance Baker, and their teams have the difficult
job of anticipating member’s needs, wants, and delights while In closing, please help me recognize the contribution of Anne
all the while reacting to sudden changes in plans (Storm of Gamache to the life of our club. Not only has Anne
the Century? No problem! Extra participants for an event? contributed directly through her work in the Nauti Shop,
No problem!) In fact, “no problem” seemed to be the theme Social Committee, and as the author of our email “blasts”,
of the summer.
flyers and table tents, but as many of you may know, she’s also
needed to pick up a number of my duties in our business, to
Flag Officers: You are not Commodore alone. Paul Brown, make time available for me to “play Commodore”. The old
Bob DeJong and John Donnelly have been constantly axiom of “behind every successful man…” was never more
available, responsible for their respective areas, and more true than in my case.
importantly, providing good counsel along the way. I also
need to recognize Past Commodores David Sligh and John Fall is a great time of year at our club – I look forward to
Stephenson for their continued council and encouragement. seeing you at our Club!
Larry D’Haem has performed as Treasurer with grace and Roger Gamache
2
Macatawa Bay
Ya c h t C l u b
Commodore
Roger Gamache
Board of Directors
Treasurer
Larry D’Haem
Secretary
Michael Hill
Director
Beth Egge
Director
Jack Knoblauch
Director
Tom Slanec
Director
Lisa Ruoff
Director
Joel Krissoff
Director
Mitchell Padnos
Director
David Sligh, Jr.
Management
General Manager
Executive Chef
Dining Room Manager
Outside Manager
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Wind Scoop Editor
Web Scoop
Marilyn Baker
Jim Ruehle
Irena Miller
Douglas Knapp
*
*
Jon Bontekoe
Bob Standish
www.mbyc.com
Friday, September 4th to September 7th
LABOR DAY WEEKEND
Saturday Nite–
End of Summer Blast for the Family 5:00-8:00pm
Sunday –
MBYC Jr. Yacht – Hobo Bon Fire
Monday –
Our Traditional Labor Day Breakfast 8:00 -10:00 AM
Junior Sailing Awards Immediately after!
Sunday, September 13th
THE RENDEVOUS
Join the fun down in Pine Creek Bay (3:00 - 6:00 pm)
Hosted by our new 2009 – 2010
Commodore Robert De Jong
and Commodorable Mary Jo De Jong.
Bring an appetizer to pass
Saturday, September 19th
WHINE PARTY
Thursday September 17th to September 20th
7.9 NATIONALS
Saturday, October 17th
AWARDS DINNER and
CHANGE OF WATCH
Friday, October 30th
FAMILY HALLOWEEN PARTY
Sunday, December 13th
HOLIDAY BRUNCH
Friday, December 18th
ALL MEMBER HOLIDAY
COCKTAIL PARTY
Rod & Jo Schmidt hosting
3
Arendshorst M20
M20 from Italy
M20
Ruoff’s Bearly Movin’
Capricious
4
Drumbeat & Capricious
reaching
VanderLeek sailed in big
winds, rain, & dark skies
The third annual VanderLeek Cup
Hospice Regatta was held on Saturday,
August 22 under what could be best
described as a typical October day. With
6 to 8 foot waves on Lake Michigan, the
Race Committee wisely set up a course
on Lake Macatawa. The course took the
fleet east 3.5 miles to the R-14 can and
back to the start/finish line in front of
the Club. Of the twenty boats entered
fifteen took on the challenging
conditions of continuous wind shifts
and velocity changes.
The top three finishers in each division
were: Spinnaker 1: 1. Drumbeat
(Etheridge). 2. Delta (Dalton DeVos).
3. Capricious (Knoblauch). Spinnaker
2: 1. Hot Tamale. 2. Second Wind
(Bergman). 3. Hot Tuna (Louis Padnos).
Jib & Main: 1. Kaboom. 2. Shillelagh
(Malone). Comfort Cruisers: 1. Talaria
(Slanec). 2. Bearly Movin’ (Rouff ). 3.
Seranata (DeJong).
M20
DeVos’ Melges
32
The VanderLeek and Melges 20
Regattas were sailed on the
same day in very blustery and
cloudy conditions. The Melges
20s were sailed on the big lake
but the friendly VanderLeek Regatta stuck to Lake Mac. Our
pictures show the dark skies,
misty views, and challenging
sailing experienced by both regattas. All photos were taken by
cooperative professional photographers: Scott Diamond
(Melges), Cliff Williams and Angela Lynch (VdLeek).
The crew of the overall winner in the
Spinnaker Division, Drumbeat, will be
invited to compete in the Hospice
Regatta’s National Championship next
June in Rochester, New York. New this
year are trophies awarded to skippers and
crews that contributed additional funds
to Hospice. Scored separately, corrected
times were adjusted 1.5 seconds per mile
for every $100 donated. The winners are:
1: Drumbeat, Hot Tamale, Shillelagh,
Talaria. Once again a special thank-you
goes to Barb Gamache and her race
committee, David Sligh Sr., mark set
boat and Jack Knoblauch, registration
and scoring. Thank-you too to all the
skippers, crews, individuals and
businesses that contributed over $15,000
to the Hospice of Holland Tulip Tree
Fund. From all reports and smiles a great
time was had by all competitors. We can
only wonder what next year’s weather
will bring……..Snow? Tom Slanec
5
Family Carnival & Pool Olympics Two great summer days of fun!
6
Pool Olympics & Carnival Pictures by Dan Mitchell & Jon Bontekoe
7
Commodore’s Cup
Sufficient Reason
Hiestand’s Gauntlet
Drumbeat
Capricious
8
MBJA report
Our summer season ended Friday August 7
after a HIGHLY successful season.
Congratulations and many thanks to our
instructors and helpers Casey Ray, Shari
MacDonald, Jonathon Kladder, Genni
Perry, Alex Post, Jay Mitchell, Lexi Petter,
and Anthony Norris for your daily hard
work and for sharing your love of sailing
with the future sailors of our club. Despite
a slow start in attendance, we finished with
strong numbers in the last two sessions,
including our biggest 4th session in recent
memory. We look to 2010, and continue
growing our program.
Drumbeat
Thinschmidt’s
Tyrant & Fleet
The Wind Scoop cover photo was taken
by Doug Slade during MBYC’s August
8 Commodore’s Cup regatta. Pictured
is Ted Ethridge’s Melges 32 Drumbeat
reaching at the windward mark in strong
windy conditions and closely pursued by
Tyrant. Your Wind Scoop is always looking for photos taken by members. Please
submit your club photos to Wind Scoop
editor
Jon
Bontekoe
at:
jonbontekoe@gmail.com
MBYC volunteer photographers
are available almost anytime to
take a new family or individual
photo for the Logbook. Your flag
officers would love to have all
families pictured in the 2010
Logbook member photo section. Photographers are willing to
take photos anywhere on club
property or on your boat, during
club events or just when you
happen to be here. You can call
one up to make arrangements
or just ask them if you happen
to see them at the club. Volunteering to take your picture are
Annie VanTol, Doug Slade, Ed
Kita, or editor Jon Bontekoe.
We’ll even email you a copy of
the picture!
We hosted the second annual West
Michigan Youth Sailing Association
(WMYSA) Championship regatta on
Saturday August 1, during one of our semifrequent rainstorm and 25 + mph wind days
of the summer. Although we stayed on Lake
Mac, we were only able to get two races in
on the three courses because of the high,
shifty winds. On shore, we had tired kids
with huge, happy smiles. I am so proud of
our Team Mac, who won the season team
competition for the second year in a row.
Check out our BEAUTIFUL crystal trophy
in the club trophy case! MBJA fleet winners
were Graham Post (Opti), Jay Mitchell
(Laser) and Michael Calistri & Ryan Tutton
(420’s). Way to go!
We also had steady participation in our adult
learn to sail JY-15 classes on Tuesday nights.
Next year we will be adding a Learn to Race
session as well to enhance our adult racing
program.
Looking ahead to October, we will be
hosting the Junior Olympic Regatta on
October 10 & 11. Weather permitting, we
will be using Lake Michigan for the Laser,
420 and Opti Red/White/Blue and Lake
Mac for the Opti Green course. We will
need volunteers for race and safety
committees, as well as help with registration.
Do you have a power boat that we could
use for the weekend? Maybe you would be
interested in driving it for a race committee
member? We will make sure that lunch is
provided for you. Please let Marie or Steve
know if you (and/or your boat) are available!
We greatly appreciate all of your help! Many
thanks to all of the parents, families and
friends that have supported our program
this summer!
See you on the water! Marie Mell
9
The summer racing season
is ending with a crescendo
of activity for MBYC
sailors. Here are the
highlights.
COMMODORE’S CUP
Saturday’s racing was
scrubbed due to morning
thunderstorms, but it was
a beautiful and breezy day for racing on Sunday and two races
were completed in all three classes. The top three finishers in
large boat PHRF were: Capricious, Drumbeat and Gauntlet.
The top three finishers in small boat PHRF were: Second
Wind, and Muskegon YC boats Trim and Rampage. Three
MYC boats were in the top three in the S2 9.1 class. Overall
winners for the Commodore’s Cup trophy were Capricious
and Second Wind.
420 NORTH AMERICAN’S
Fifty-six teams from all over North America converged on
MBYC in mid-August for four days of exciting and close
competition. Racers from as far as California, Florida, and
Nova Scotia took part in our first ever major 420 event. The
weather was outstanding - sunny with moderate breezes - and
three races were completed on each of the four race days. The
top five finishers were: 1st Taylor Canfield (Boston College/
2009 Sailing honorable mention All-American), 2nd Marlena
Fauer (New York City), 3rd Deidre Lambert (Portland,
Maine), 4th Shone Bowman (San Diego), 5th Connor Brady
(Hilton Head, SC). Five MBYC boats took part with top
finishers Sam Padnos in 16th and Alex Post 22nd. A special
thanks is owed to Mitch and Karen Padnos who led the
organizing committee for the regatta. MBYC received a great
deal of positive feedback from competitors and parents.
M20 NATIONALS
The first Melges 20 Nationals were held at MBYC from August
21-23. An unususal weather system led to high winds and
cool temps for the outset of the regatta. Thursday saw a few
crews head to Lake Michigan for practice, but high winds
saw a boat break its rudder in Lake Michigan. Friday was to
be the first day of racing, but winds were above the class ceiling
of 23 kts, so racing was canceled. Saturday was windy with
steep waves, and three races took place. Sunday was very light
and one race was completed. Eric Wynsma from Grand Rapids
YC finished first with JP Del Solar Goldsmith and Wally Cross
as crew. Marc Hollerbach from Bayview YC was second and
John Arendshorst was the top MBYC boat with Eric Ash and
Dani Gamache as crew. Two teams from Italy competed and
a few local teams hope to travel next year to race M20s in
Italy. The new fleet is off to a great start and next year’s nationals
will be held on Lake Geneva.
VANDERLEEK CUP
High winds kept the charity fundraiser Vanderleek Cup racers
off of Lake Michigan on August 22, but a successful race was
held on Lake Mac. The fleet of 15 boats raced to Kollen Park
and back with gusty winds and rain squalls. Drumbeat
(Etheridge) was the top boat in Spin 1, the 7.9 Hot Tamale
(Vanderveen) was first in Spi 2, Kaboom (O’Keefe) won Main
and Jib, while Talaria (Slanec) was victorious in Comfort
Cruiser. Congrats to the Slanecs for leading the organizing
effort again this year!
MBYC YOUTH : WORLD COMPETITION SAILORS
A number of MBYC sailors have been traveling and competing
against the best in Europe and Japan this summer. Mitchell
Kiss and Alex Post competed in the Laser Radial Youth World
Championship in Japan in early August. Mitchell qualified
for the gold fleet and Alex finished near the top of the silver
LAKE MICHIGAN PHRF RACING
fleet. Louis Padnos and Morgan Kiss have been competing
against the top Intl 420 sailors in races in Italy and Hungary
The Verve Cup regatta was held in Chicago in mid-August. since late July. In the European Youth Champs, Louis qualified
Standout results by MBYC boats were achieved by the two for the gold fleet while Morgan finished 1st in the silver fleet.
DeVos M32s which finished 1st and 2nd in PHRF 3. The The Norris family moved to the Phoenix area three years ago,
Clipper Cup is held also in mid-August and is a race across but they have returned during the summer and have remained
Lake Michigan from Muskegon to Port Washington. Rod Van active MBYC members. The stay in the desert has not hurt
Tol and Bill Ruoff were divisional winners while Rod was the the sailing expertise of Phillip Norris. He finished 5th of 61
overall winner. Congratulations to all who participated! In in the highly competitive Laser Radial fleet at the Buzzard’s
the July Hook Race from Racine Wisconsin to Sturgeon Bay, Bay regatta in early August.
Steve Magennis’ Alchemist took 3rd in its division, and 13th
John Donnelly
overall.
10
420 National Regatta
www.layline.photoreflect.com
photos@laylinemktg.com
773-368-3094
See & buy online - Layline pho- 420 Photos by Doug Slade and
tos of Melges 20 and 420 regat- professional Scott Diamond of
Layline Photography
tas.
11
MBYC Post-it Note
Main Events in September
Sept 5
End of Summer Blast
Sept 6
MBJYC Hobo Bon Fire
Sept 7
MBJYC Breakfast & Elections
Sept 13 Rendezvous
Sept 19 Whine Party
SEPTEMBER 2 0 0 9
Sun.
Mon.
Tues.
Wed.
1
Race Events
Social Events
Thurs.
2
Fri.
3
M20/JY 15
Racing
Private Parties
Labor Day
7
MBJYC Breakfast
MBJYC Elections
Junior Sailing Awards
Laser/Opti 6
Governor’s Cup
MBJYC Hobo
Bon Fire
13
14
8
20
15
21
28
10
11
16
22
23
17
18
S2 7.9 Nationals
S2 7.9 Nationals
24
25
12
S2 7.9
19
Nationals
Summer’s End
Whine Party
26
Bayshore Frostbite
& Awards
Bayshore
Fall Series
29
5
Governor’s Cup
End of Summer
Blast Party
Anchorage Cup
Bayshore
Fall Series
Windscoop
Copy Due
27
9
Bayshore
Fall Series
Rendezvous
12
4
Sat.
30
31
October 2009
www.mbyc.com
•
•
MACATAWA, MI 49434
•
616-335-5815
1
It is with some sadness that
I’m writing my last column.
Writing for the Wind Scoop
was one of the surprises of
my past 3 years. What
started as a bit of chore has
become an opportunity
that I approach with
anticipation each month.
And, I’ve been encouraged
by the positive feedback
I’ve received over the years.
Thank you all for your comments and friendly corrections.
For my last column, I’d like to comment on two apparently
unrelated topics. My first topic relates to the role of
Commodore. One of the aspects of our Club that I’ve come
to appreciate is the diversity of interests represented by our
members. Each of us has a specific set of reasons for choosing
MBYC. For some, it is the availability of the pool. For others,
it is the availability of attractive, secure dockage. For some
members, it is our restaurant and social schedule. For other
members, it’s our active racing schedule. Personally, my reason
is that we race sailboats. As I’ve thought about this, without
our active racing program, my passion for sailboat racing would
have taken me (and my family) to some other club. That
having been said, the process of becoming Commodore causes
one to set aside your personal interests and become a leader
for the entire Club. As Commodore, I’ve been called on to
solve problems for all aspects our Club. Many times the issue
is balancing one aspect of Club life against another. It’s a
challenging job, and I’ve found Stephen Covey’s admonition
“Seek first to Understand” very useful in the process. I hope
that one of the contributions that I’ve made to life of our club
is that each member feels that their particular interests have
been seriously considered during the past year.
the next 10 years. Who will replace members who retire and
relocate? One opportunity could be to increase recruitment
of younger members through a focus on sailing smaller boats.
We already have a number of advantages in executing this
strategy. We are blessed with a very versatile location, offering
both lake and “blue water” sailing. We have a substantial drysail
area, well equipped with launching ramps and hoists.
However, there are a couple of “pieces” missing.
First, we need to devote management time and talent to this
issue. We once were a club where volunteers mowed the grass.
However, as the size and complexity of the task grew, it made
sense to have some professional assistance. The same thing is
true for our sailing program. It appears that we’ve taken the
program to the logical limits of a purely volunteer organization.
A properly designed and compensated “sailing manager”
position would allow our volunteer-members more time to
participate in events with somewhat less time spent in critical,
time consuming administrative functions. However, the role
of “sailing manager” doesn’t make sense for a “90 day” club.
Second, we would need to have a location that could offer
sailing 7-8 months per year. Small boats, sailed with
appropriate clothing, are sailed in similar venues from April
through November. Our barrier is that our facility is not
organized to support this type of activity. To make this activity
attractive, we’d need to have proper locker room facilities to
put on, take off, and store gear. And, it would assume that
the club would be open (at an appropriate scale and cost) to
support the social, après sailing activity.
The result of a thoughtful development of our remaining
“fallow” asset would be a vibrant, attractive club that would
be a magnet for sailors throughout Western Michigan.
In conclusion, I realize that the analysis above will not
immediately appeal to a number of our member segments.
My second topic relates to the future of the Club. We have a However, I invite you to “think like a Commodore” and join
challenge, and a related opportunity. The future challenge me in the next step in the development of our club.
for our Club is the continual aging of our membership. To be
fair, this is a problem facing all clubs, churches, and other See you at the Club!
social institutions. However, the demographic shift caused
Roger Gamache
by an aging “boomer” group will be the ongoing challenge in
Calling all MBYC Melges 20 Sailors:
Your recent National Championship event was
significantly supported by 5 sailors from the 110
Class. Those sailors now need your help to run
their 2010 National Championship in August.
Please consider how you and your fleet can as-
2
sist the 110 Class and your Club run a first class
event. I would appreciate an initial indication of
your support by October 17. It just seems that if
each class understands that its both give and
take, we'll have a much easier time generating
race management staff. rg
Macatawa Bay
Ya c h t C l u b
Commodore
Roger Gamache
Board of Directors
Treasurer
Larry D’Haem
Secretary
Michael Hill
Director
Beth Egge
Director
Jack Knoblauch
Director
Tom Slanec
Director
Lisa Ruoff
Director
Joel Krissoff
Director
Mitchell Padnos
Director
David Sligh, Jr.
Management
General Manager
Executive Chef
Dining Room Manager
Outside Manager
*
*
Wind Scoop Editor
Web Scoop
Marilyn Baker
Jim Ruehle
Irena Miller
Douglas Knapp
*
*
Jon Bontekoe
Bob Standish
www.mbyc.com
Cover Photo
The photo on the cover this month
shows Tom Slanec’s Talaria sailing to a
first place division win in the Anchorage Cup. Photo by professional photographer Paige Beard. Please submit photos to Wind Scoop editor Jon Bontekoe
(jonbontekoe@gmail.com). The Wind
Scoop is always looking and hoping for
member photo submission by email,
CD, thumbdrive, etc.
Mackinac Race Yacht Club Challenge
REMINDER TO MEMBERS
FOR CHANGE OF ADDRESS
For the first time in the history of the
Chicago to Mackinac Race, there was an
opportunity for clubs who have 5 or
more entries into the race to compete
for “Best Club” status. Points for each
club were determined by averaging the
divisional placing of each of the boats
racing for a specific club. This year, 12
clubs competed. The winning club was
the Grand Traverse Bay Yacht Club.
MBYC came in 5th, tied with Milwaukee
Yacht Club. Congratulations to our
Mackinac Race sailors!
Members who have two addresses
should inform the club when they
move to an alternate home. We save
a lot of money sending the Wind
Scoop with ‘standard’ class mail, but
the post office will not forward mail
with less than first class postage.
Please send your updated address to
the
club
and/or
to
webmaster@mbyc.com. Tell us
your alternate address and which
dates mail should be sent there.
3
By the time you read this
report, most of the boat
slips will have been
emptied, the boats hauled,
and final winterization of
boats and cottages well
under way, if not
completed. But what a
September it has been!!
Record setting consecutive
days of sunshine, summer
like temperatures, and great
cool sleeping nights. It almost makes up for the eleven
consecutive Saturdays with measurable rain this summer.
It is difficult to believe that this is already my last report as
Vice-Commodore. But that seems to be a common theme
for those who have accepted the opportunity to serve the Club
in one capacity or another. Frequently, past commodores will
encourage me to enjoy the experience as much as one can
because before you know it, one is past-commodore. I know
that Commodore Gamache can vouch for that.
(Puffin) Van Dyke. Dredging issues were handled efficiently
and economically –even with our second annual “one hundred
year” flood; and our parking lot was patched to give us a few
more years of service.
Annie Gamache and Linda Knoblauch handled the Nauti
Shop responsibilities of ordering, displaying, promoting, and
selling with great dedication. While still in the trial stages,
Nauti Shop added direct on-line shopping with MBYC logowear with Line One. (You early bird Christmas shoppers
should remember this when you begin Christmas shopping!—
great gift ideas from the convenience of your own computer.
Remember it is linked from mbyc.com.)
And, as most of you know, the folks who really make it all
come together are our General Manager, Marilyn Baker,
Executive Chef Jim Ruehle, Irena Miller, Restaurant Manager,
and Doug Knapp, Dock and Grounds Manager and their
respective teams.
Thank you to each of you for making this a “job” where the
time flies.
But the sweet message underneath this fleeting time syndrome
is this: serving the Club is a lot more enjoyable than it is
work. And it is all of you who make the experience such a
joy!! I have already had two years of teaming up with a great
board and bridge and with great committees.
Between this report and the next report, another change of
watch will have occurred and I will begin trying to fill the
shoes of those who have served so well as Commodore over
so many years. I only have to walk around the Commodore’s
room to look at my predecessors to be awed, if not a bit
intimidated. But my confidence comes from all of you who
You should know that your house committee was well served have been so generous and supportive in offering your support
this year by Co-chair Lisa Ruoff and my wife, Mary Jo, and for 2010—our 111th Anniversary. So thank you, fellow
their members, Michelle Dolle, Maggie Greydanus, Mary Jane members, in making this yacht club THE place to be.
Schoenherr, and Rod Van Tol. Coordinating and supporting
our General Manager and Executive Chef with ideas, I look forward to working with our new Rear-Commodore
suggestions and feedback, the House Committee has helped Jack Knoblaugh new Treasurer Tom Stanley, and other new
to identify and share your ideas on how to provide great board members Eric Ash, Scott Bernecker, Robert Malone,
member value.
Robert Standish, as well as Vice Commodore John Donnelly,
and returning board members Beth Egge, Lisa Ruoff and Tom
You should also know that Docks and Grounds Committee Slanec.
also ably handled by Chairperson David A. Sligh (Jr.) and his
committee Rod Schmidt, Peter Schwarz, and Catharine
Bob DeJong
Pictures Opposite:
A Annie VanTol, Karen Nagelkirk, Jack Kunze.
B Bill Ruoff, Rod VanTol, Annie VanTol, Paul & Mary Jane
Schoenherr
C Janet & Steve Magennis, Jo Schmidt, Kathy Cusimano,
Janet & Bob Standish.
D Clark Weersing & Cotter Tharin.
4
Whine Party mourns the end of
summer with too much joy and
some wine. Lots of friends wearing name tags without needing
them shows MBYC’s reaching
out to new friends and old. Oh there were great hors d’oeuvres
too. Photos by Ed Kita.
B
A
D
E
SEPTEMBER BOARD MEETING HIGHLIGHTS
On September 21, 2009, chairing his
final meeting as Commodore, Roger
Gamache welcomed incoming members
of the board (noted in Vice Commodore’s
report), and thanked outgoing Treasurer
Larry D’Haem and members Joel
Krissoff, Mitchell Padnos, and Dave
Sligh. Thanking Immediate Past
Commodore Paul Brown, it was noted
that one of Paul’s children was four years
old when Paul came to the Board and she
is now in the sixth grade—a confirmation
of many years of service to the Club.
Reports received: Financial report
showing increased restaurant and bar sales
over last year and a fine job of our General
Manager and Executive Chef holding on
costs. Banquet reports on two September
weddings resulting in high accolades for
extraordinary food and service.
Actions taken: The Board approved a
new five year mortgage in the amount of
$349,275 at 6.7% fixed interest with
Bank of Holland that continues to
amortize at about the same rate as we have
been reducing our loan balance. Without
additional borrowing over the next five
years, the loan will be nearly paid off at
the end of the next term.
The board approved a contract with Bill
Monhollon Builders, Inc. to upgrade the
House bathrooms to barrier free for
$11,608 with work to be completed over
the winter.
Approved two new
member applications: Andy and Amy
Dailey, and Ronalynn Sisson. Gave
conditional approval for adding link from
Webscoop to Hunter Ratliff ’s website
used for his Olympic campaign (see Rear
Commodore’s report). rdj
5
Commodores’ Ball
A
C
B
Commodores’ Ball 2009
We must have had a great time
at this year’s Ball. Largest attendance ever, at least in Marilyn’s
memory, $3000 worth of wine
consumed, and smiles on
everyone’s faces.
Photos by Annie VanTol, Ed Kita, Jon
Bontekoe, Lisa Ruoff, and Lance Baker.
A Former commodores and spouses
B 2009 ice sculpture
C Commodore Roger Gamache, Annie
Gamache, their guests Bayshore YC
Commodore Cyndie Hartman and
James Hartman.
D Helen Ash, Claudia Scharlow, Josie
Cheney, Karen Padnos, Kathy Keegin
6
D
E
F
J
G
K
L
H
E Clark & Shirley Weersing, Jack &
Helen Smith.
F Don & Barbara Thinschmidt.
G Ben Jangula, Seymour Padnos,
Kathy Day, & Suzy Vedovel
H Commodore Kathy Getz, Mary
Devries, Commodore John Getz, Bob
Hayes, Kathy Tripp, Charlie Devries.
J Commodore Roger Gamache
welcomes us all.
K Dotty McManus, Annie VanTol, &
Brian McManus.
L Bob Nepstad, Jack Kunze, Paula
Mutrynowski.
7
S2 7.9 Nationals
A
B
C
D
C
A note on photography
This edition of the Wind Scoop again features great pictures thanks to MBYC’s many
supporting photographers. Our greatest
appeciation goes to Doug Slade whose constant presence on his markset boat Tatoo with
camera in hand has supplied us with hundreds of pictures for two years now. His photos dominate the S2 regatta photos on this
page as well as dozens of picture stories in
many issues again this year. But MBYC’s
2009 photo coverage also featured regattas
with professional photographers out on the
water. All of these pros made their photos
available at no cost to your club’s publications. Many thanks to professional photog-
8
raphers Scott Diamond, Cliff Williams, Angela Lynch, and Paige Beard of
ImagesByPaige.com (including this months
cover). Many members have complimented
your Wind Scoop editor but it’s really the
photographers who deserve your thanks. jb
A Second Wind (Bergmans)
B Scott Derby’s first place finisher
SMAC’D.
C Spike Bostons crew with Gamache
X 2.
C Mike Sewart’s Scirroco leads a spin
run.
D Doug & Jeff Padnos’ K2.
E Doug Slade works his magic with
the wind and with a new camera.
E
Anchorage Cup
Anchorage Cup results
The Anchorage Cup, after a nearly windless start for the first two divisions, was
sailed in perfect temperatures and perfect 7 to 12 knot winds out of the Northwest allowing spinnaker runs throughout
the whole race. It is a straight-line race
from Grand Haven to Holland raced the
Saturday after Labor Day. MBYC racers
participated in large numbers and won
many top honors. Tom Slanec’s Talaria
took first in the Spin 5 division. Willie J
(Petter), Alchemist (Magennis), and Sec-
ond Wind (Bergman) took second in
their respective divisions, with Tyrant
(Thinschmidt) taking a third. Overall
Willie J placed second in fleet. jb
Top photo on this page showing the
wide range of Anchorage Cup spinnakers taken by Paige Beard sailing with
her sister Lisa Ruoff on Bealy Movin’. Below right is MBYC spinnaker participant
Ben Jangula on Premier Cru. (Photo by
Paige). Steve Magennis’ Alchimist flies
its spinnaker, and on the bottom a spin
run, both photographed by Tom Slanec.
9
Pine Creek Bay Rendezvous and End of
10
Summer Bash top off 2 big weekends
Photos by Jon Bontekoe except top
left by Ed Kita.
11
Labor Day Weekend: Kids’ Bon Fire,
Photos by Dan Mitchell & Jon Bontekoe
12
Breakfast and Sailing Awards
Youth Sailing Awards & Junior Olympics report
As the summer winds down, we are headed
into one of our biggest events of the year…
the Junior Olympic Regatta, to be hosted by
our club October 10 and 11. Hopefully this
wonderful fall weather will hold and will be
as great for our junior sailors! If we haven’t
already contacted you and you are interested
in helping, please get in touch with Marie
Mell or Steve Sisson. The more adults, the
better! Many congratulations to Matthew
Greydanus and Caroline Sisson! At the
summer awards program Labor Day
weekend these two enthusiastic junior sailors
received two of the highest club honors
available. Matthew received the
Commodore’s
Award
for
Good
Sportsmanship and Caroline received the
Travis Aiken Award for overall sailing
competition, improvement and promotion
of our sport. They join the company of some
of our club’s greatest adult sailors, and not
surprisingly many of which have taken on
leadership roles at MBYC, including
Commodore. CONGRATULATIONS to
these two outstanding youths!
If you have an extra space in your garage or
storage area, we are looking for space for
some of our power boats and JY-15’s and
420’s for the winter. Please let us know if
you are able to donate some space to help us
save storage costs.
See you on the water! Marie Mell.
13
Hunter is competing in an Olympic class - the 470, and his
goal is to represent the US in either the 2012 or 2016
Olympics. The 470 is a specialist boat drawing primarily sailors
While the interest in some
pursuing Olympic spots. Thus the competition is high, but
fleets rises and falls, the
the number of competitors in the US is limited. The highest
activity of the 7.9 class has
level of racing occurs each summer in Europe. Hunter’s crew/
remained strong at MBYC
partner in the campaign is Chris Williams from Chicago.
since racing started in
1982. The Nationals were
Hunter and Chris finished tied for second with Brendan Kopp
held at MBYC from
- previously a top 420 sailor -in a six boat fleet at the 470
September 17-19 this year.
Atlantic Coast Championships in Connecticut in August. The
The glorious weather that
winner of this event was Erin Maxwell and Isabelle Kinsolving
began at the beginning of the month continued through the
- 2008 470 Women’s World Champs.
regatta with sunny skies and light to moderate winds. MBYC
provided 6 of the 23 boats with skippers Jeff/Doug Padnos,
A major stumbling block for most Olympic campaigns is
Don/Jean Bergman, Peter Schwarz, Mike Stewart, Scott Derby
fundraising. Travelling to regattas and utilizing coaches,
and Eric Bert.
paricularly overseas, requires a substantial budget. Hunter is
pursuing help for his campaign. You can learn more about
Jeff and Doug Padnos opened with two bullets in Thursday
the Hunter and Chris campaign by visiting their website:
racing with long time class champion Spike Boston from Sarnia
www.RWin470.org.
Yacht Club second in both races. Commodore Gamache and
daughter Dani were onboard with Spike. Friday’s races saw
Good luck to Hunter and Chris from your friends at MBYC!
some big wind shifts upwind and Jeff/Doug scored an 8 and
5 while Spike scored a 15 and 1. Thus the stage was set for a
THANKS TO OUR VOLUNTEERS
Saturday showdown when a throw-out would kick-in if two
more races were completed.
A great season of racing is coming to a close. There has been a
long list of volunteers who have made this season possible. I
Jeff and Doug won Saturday’s first race giving them three
would like to recognize the most active ones.
bullets in five races. Spike was third. Going into the regatta’s
last race, after a throw-out, Jeff and Doug had eight points
We are very fortunate to have an outstanding PRO - Barb
and Spike also had eight. As long as they finished in the top
Gamache - to orchestrate our race committee efforts. She
third of the fleet, whoever beat the other would win - match
brings a high level of knowledge and expertise to our racing.
race conditions. Spike finished 4th and Jeff/Doug were 5th.
Doug Slade did yeoman’s service with windward marksetting
and wind checking all year. JD Stone provided extensive pinset
Spike Boston is the 2009 S2 7.9 national champ, Jeff/Doug
and judging support. Jack and Linda Knoblauch, when not
Padnos finished second, Paul LaTour from Nashville was 3rd
racing Capricious, were always available for support on
and Don/Jean Bergman were 4th.
Recovery and organizing the RC tools onshore. Bill
Vandenberg, Roger Gamache, Charlie Mawby, Janet
Congratulations to regatta chair Scott Derby and all the
Magennis, Dick Becker filled in numerous times.
volunteers who made this another great sailing and social event
in this very active year at MBYC.
Thanks very much to all who made this a great year for racing
at MBYC!
HUNTER RATLIFF OLYMPIC CAMPAIGN
S2 7.9 NATIONALS
Hunter Ratliff has a passion for high performance sailboat
racing. Hunter, age 25, is the son of Steve (1996 Commodore)
and Kathy Ratliff. Hunter is the head sailing coach at Lake
Forest Sailing.
14
John Donnelly
Wed nite racing
There is a lot of beauty when you’re on
a race boat in the fall. Tom VanTol, Mary
Bontekoe, and pro photographer Mark
O’Brien found opportunities for great
sunsets. Thanks for submitting them.
15
Club Social Events
MBYC Post-it Note
Saturday, October 17: Change of Watch/
Sailing Awards Dinner
Friday, Oct 30: Halloween Party
Sunday December 13: Holiday Brunch
Friday, December 18: Holiday Cocktail Party
OCTOBER 200 9
Sun.
Mon.
Tues.
Wed.
Thurs.
Race Events
Social Events
Sat.
Fri.
1
2
3
8
9
10
Private Parties
4
5
6
7
Junior Olympics
Regatta
Laser Fall Series
11
13
14
15
19
20
21
22
23
24
27
28
29
30
31
Junior Olympics
Regatta
18
Laser Fall Series
25
Laser Fall Series
16
Change of Watch 17
& Sailing Awards
Dinner.
Reservations Required
12
16
Windscoop
Copy Due
26
Halloween Party

Roger Gamache - Macatawa Bay Yacht Club

Transcription

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