Wheeler Yacht Club The Tell-Tale January/February 2016 www.facebook.com/wheeler.yacht.club www.wheeleryachtclub.com Commodore s Corner Here we are in 2016! Been a little quiet from here, but we have been pouring through surveys, checking the officer ballots and working on the 2016 schedule adding some new events based on some really good ideas that came from the survey. We had an officer and board meeting on the 19th of January to discuss the schedule and agreed that we wanted to wait to get the Rogersville event schedule, Wheeler Park s schedule and our own sailing schedule together before we committed to event dates. We want to have everything that is happening on one schedule for you each month so that we have considered all other happenings in the area so that we can leverage those that make the most sense. We will have most of the input in shortly and hope to have a firm schedule to you very soon. First thing to announce is our new officers for 2016. We certainly thank you for voting as part of the survey. Note: a few folks either missed the last page or just did not vote, but we had enough votes to consider the election complete and here are the results. The board will not change in 2016. We were fortunate, and retained all our board members from last year. Frank Kiger, Bob Locklear and Ken Winfree will continue to mind the tiller for our club through the year with Joe Benson continuing as Rear Commodore. Our officers for the coming year are: Karen Cushman Treasurer, Harrison Brown Secretary, Robert Bijvoet - Vice Commodore, and Bob Cushman - Commodore. The other positions we have on staff are our Sailing Director - Jerome Petritsch, and Social Director - Karen Cushman. That is our newly elected Board, Officers and Directors for 2016. Thanks again for your vote and confidence in the slate of officers proposed and duly elected by mail this year. WYC Officers Bob Cushman Commodore commodore@wheeleryachtclub.com Robert Bijvoet Vice Commodore vicecomm@wheeleryachtclub.com Karen Cushman Treasurer/Social Chair socials@wheeleryachtclub.com Jerry Petritsch Sailing Activities sailing@wheeleryachtclub.com Harrison Brown Corresponding Secretary TellTale@wheeleryachtclub.com Jerry Petritsch Web Master webcrew@wheeleryachtclub.com Joe Benson Rear Commodore 931-580-1533 Board Members Frank Kiger Bob Locklear Ken Winfree 1
Commodore s Corner (cont.) I would also like to thank our outgoing Vice Commodore, Jerry Petritsch, for his hard work both as an officer on our staff last year, but also as the prime coordinator for the 3-day Tennessee Valley Challenge Cup (TVCC) event our club hosted in September. The TVCC was a fantastic success and was very carefully scripted and planned under Jerry s leadership by a fantastic group of volunteers from the sailing and power boat community to pull it all off. It was quite a piece of work and planning, and it was all executed and was lauded as the best TVCC ever by many of the visiting sailing club members that participated in the event. Quite the job, and thank the lord we had Jerry at the wheel on that one. Jerry will also be serving the club this year as our Sailing Director. Paul has stepped down after many years as our sailing director and Jerry will pick up the reigns in 2016. Thank you Jerry! Paul has worked with our sailing community for years. He teaches sailing and has worked within our sailing group, and many thanks to Paul for his selfless volunteer effort, for keeping the sailing segment of our club viable, and for developing a sailing program that has served the club very well. Paul steppeddown to support another group he is engaged with and will be too busy this year to continue the sailing activities he loves and has supported so thoroughly. Thank you Paul, we know your engagement in the new activities you will support this year will result in strong and positive growth while being a new challenge for you that you will support to the max. I also want to thank Amy Gonzalez. Amy put the Tell Tale together from the many inputs provided by club officers, volunteer club members who wrote several articles last year and schedules that had shifted too much last year. For more than 2 years Amy has pulled diverse inputs together and does the hard work of lacing them together in a nice read with plenty of pictures and illustrations that fit like a glove. That is very hard work and is as thankless as doing the dishes. So let me be the first to say that I very much appreciate what Amy has done for at least two years. Amy also registered every TVCC boat and crew, got their t-shirt orders delivered, collected entry fees and played a significant role in the TVCC event. She did a really great job, pulled it together as required, volunteered and took leadership roles, and did the hard work of making every newsletter professional, finished, and very well done. Thank you Amy! This year our new club Secretary will take over the Tell Tale and we appreciate Harrison s volunteer effort to edit and manage the Tell Tale in 2016. 2
Commodore s Corner (cont.) Finally I want to congratulate the members of our club who won prizes and plaques for the Parade of lights. Best Overall for 2015 was Joe and Carol Benson. Best in the over 50 foot class was Dan and Phyllis Montgomery. In the mid-sized class was Karen and Bob Cushman, and the small boat prize was won by a person that is not in the club or on the lake. The most creative prize was won by Tom and Sandy Davis, and the Sailboat class winner (a new category this year) was won by Freddy Davis. Congratulations to all the winners! The process of decorating for this event is a challenge and all members that won did the hard and thankless work to simply enjoy a great night on the lake. And a great night it was. This year broke all attendance records for the park and this year s event was also was the biggest boat parade with the most boats participating ever. What a night! In conclusion, the last year was a good year for the club and we hope to put together a better year this year. We will also release a summary of the club survey soon. It is quite extensive and would require more space to publish in the Tell Tale than the newsletter takes, but in response to the surveys, we will do more on-the-water events, schedule further in advance and stick to the schedule and we will leverage every event the park will have this year to extend it in a positive way for our members and the park. Major targets this year will be Marina day, the 4th of July, Handy Fest and Rocking on the River. More on this as the schedule and plan takes shape, but for now, thanks for your participation and support of the club and we look forward to kicking-off the 2016 schedule with a sock burning in March. Bob Schedule-At-A-Glance February 26 3 rd Annual Focus on Nature Photography Weekend Joe Wheeler State Park For activities and full schedule, see the Joe Wheeler State Park web page: http://www.alapark.com/joe-wheeler-state-park-focus-onnature-photography-weekend or call 256-247-5461 27 CPR / AED / First Aid Class Hosted at Muscle Shoals Sailing Club - Fee: $20 - Call or email Steve Blazier: (256) 810-0836 or CaptainSteveBlazier@aol.com March 5 Race Program Orientation 8:30 in WYC Clubhouse 12 Distance Race #1 9:30 Skippers mtg in Marina Store lobby; 11:00 1st race; Racing over ~4:00 19 Race Committee Course Hosted at Muscle Shoals Sailing Club 26 Buoys Series #1 9:30 Skippers mtg in Marina Store lobby; 11:00 1st race; Racing over ~4:00 3
40 th Annual Parade of Lights Thanks to Amber at AB Photography for the excellent pictures of the parade! www.abphotographystudio.com 4
See you on the water soon! 5