Last month the Board issued a statement requiring racers to follow Covid guidelines when racing was added to Thursday Night Racing Sailing Instructions. The Board is happy to report that members with vaccinations will not be required to wear a mast in most circumstances. Hopefully this will encourage all members to get their vaccine. This will be a huge step into getting the club back to normal.
There is a work party schedule for tomorrow, May 15 and there are additional work parties planned. If you are unsure where you stand on work party requirements, please contact Club Rich Aaring.
Katie Bloom O’Brien has big plans for our combined deck opening, 2020 award ceremony and Commodore Rob’s thank you event that will be held on Saturday, June 19. It will be the club's first large scale post-Covid event. Look for more details later in this Bulletin.
On Thursday May 6, the club had its first sanctioned sail boat race. JRC chairman Ted Walkup ran the Race Committee. Strong winds out of the west with gusts over 10 note greeted eight Santana 20’s, three Thistles, a Wavelength 24, and your Commodore’s Harbor 20. It has been a long 18 months since the last time a Race Committee participated in a club event. Rich Aaring posted a great picture of the race with a fantastic rainbow in the background on the EYC Facebook page (see above).
Speaking of Race Committee, last Saturday, Glen Hughes and Rich Aaring had a power boat training session and I held a seminar on how to run a race. Apologies to my wife Marie as I missed part of her birthday that day. Special thanks to Paul Morrow who has volunteered to be an almost permanent rescue boat driver for Thursdays.
Rob Moline has been active working on, among other projects, getting a new trailer for our club host Dan Merritt. Currently Rob is working on financing. While the club has the funds to fully purchase the trailer, the Board is rightfully concerned about our ability to handle an unforeseen emergency if we exhaust the capital fund on this one project. It appears that getting a loan is not as easy as one might think, so we may be asking some of our members for a loan.
Gary Powell and Rich Aaring met with Corps representatives recently for our annual inspection. I can comfortably say that they were pleased wiht our facilities and the efforts we are taking as members to keep our grounds safe. The Board has voted on a new ground rule change regarding the new floating laser docks (N Dock). As most of you know, this was large investment by the club. No alterations are to be made to those docks without prior approval from the Port Captain. Most of us have not hesitated with adding something to our slip using a nail or screw, but that will not be the case for these new docks. The club has invested a large sum of money to purchase these docks and we want them to last a long time. And we are confident they will: Paul Stephens showed me a photo of a EZ Dock (like ours) he saw on the East coast that could have been 30 years old, still doing the job it was design to do.
The recent trend appears to be positive for the club. Projects are getting completed and more are in the process of being started. The vaccine is becoming more accessible to more people. And with last Thursday’s rainbow there was rain—not much, but every little bit helps.