EBLADE May 2016 Page 2 COMMODORE’S REPORT by Walter Lewandowski
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The official electronic newsletter of the Sebago Canoe Club in Brooklyn, NY kayaking, canoeing, sailing, racing, rowing May 2016 Vol. 83, Issue 1 A New Season - 2016 TABLE OF CONTENTS: Commodore’s Report By Walter Lewandowski - page 3 Sea Kayak Report By Tony Pignatello - page 4 Sail Report & Event Pictures By Jim Luton & Holly Sears - pages 5-7 Kayak Event Pictures - pages 8-13 Canoe Paddle Workshop By Jim Luton - pages 14-25 The Point Comfort 23 - Spring 2016 By Jim Luton - pages 26-40 Building a Shavehorse By Chris Bickford - pages 41-42 photo courtesy of Bonnie Aldinger The Kevin Rogers Memorial Chair Project By Chris Bickford - pages 43-45 The Sea in Ralph Vaughan Williams and John Luther Adams with Some Observations on Literary Affinities By Denis Sivack - pages 46-47 Board of Directors, Committee Chairs & Contact Information page 48 photo courtesy of Chris Bickford A New Dock photo courtesy of John Wright photo courtesy of John Wright EBLADE May 2016 page 2 COMMODORE’S REPORT By Walter Lewandowski Hail Sebago, A spring report from the outer banks of North Carolina. Later in this Once again, we successfully completed our annual dues collec- issue you will read about all the projects, trips and activities planned for tion well before our on-water activities commenced. Thanks again for this season. Here we will talk about all the business of Sebago. everyone’s cooperation. This has put us in position to better plan and Thankfully our dock is finally back in shape just in time for our May budget for our ambitious range of programs, including those that let us events. Special thanks to Vice Commodore John Wright and New York serve the community in addition to having fun. Please remember dues City Parks for staying on top of all the construction coordination. Plus will be collected in mid-October, the beginning of our Constitutional the crew of carpenter volunteers whose additional work helped get us fiscal year. shipshape. One more improvement to our administrative management is a This season most of you are aware of our new automated waiver new Google membership listserv. This will enable us to better welcome system, a great way to reduce the behind-the-scene paperwork and fil- our new members. A shout-out to Beth Bloedow for updating our list. ing done to keep Sebago running. This new insurance has given much Please make sure you use this new list to share information. more robust coverage for all activities on site or remotely. Thank you Sebago places great emphasis on community service. We have our everyone for submitting your waivers so promptly! Please be aware you summer youth program, open paddles and now an adaptive paddling will be asked to sign a new waiver every March. Do remember if you program. Over the winter we won a grant valued at more than $80,000 plan on visiting the Lake you need to maintain your ACA membership. for training and equipment to help us provide for this incredibly reward- We encourage all members to maintain your ACA memberships; they ing experience. We are at the cutting edge of this paddling discipline. are the only national organization advocating for human-powered boat- Anyone wishing to volunteer, and many on-land and water opportuni- ing and water access - www.americancanoe.org ties are available, please contact me by email. Many of you have noticed the iPads mounted in the clubhouse for Finally a shout-out to all our incredible members that make the use in waiver collection. These iPads are secured in such a way as to only Club so great. Welcome to all our new members. Hope to see you on the allow use of the Smartwaiver app. It is the last piece of our new insur- water! Check the calendar and come join us. ance and risk management program. Please do not tamper with them. Don’t forget to come to our General Meeting in September; we like Thanks to Beth Eller, Luis Matallana, John Decker, Lori Gralnick and to hear from all our members. Carlos Negron for all their hard work to help us manage our transition to electronic membership management. [email protected] EBLADE May 2016 page 3 photo courtesy of Bonnie Aldinger SEA KAYAK REPORT By Tony Pignatello Ahoy, We have been preparing for the coming season while the new dock is These are a good way for beginners to learn kayaking and have fun. being built. On 3/19 we had a very well-attended kayak committee Starting on 5/21 Vicki Moss and Anthony Abagnalo will lead moon- meeting where we made plans for the coming season. Cindy Louis and light paddles monthly on the night of the full moon. Laurie Bleich will friends had a kayak repair day on 4/10. One or two more of these will be lead several paddles on Thursday evenings. Check the calendar for exact required to get the fleet completely ready. The club put out new paddles, dates. We have a 3-day camping trip to Cedar Point L.I. on 8/12-14. spray skirts, PFD’s, and float bags that were purchased last year. Dottie Throughout the year there will be instructional classes in Jamaica and Walter Lewandowski managed an instructor meeting on 4/24 and Bay and up at the lake. We celebrate “City of Water Day” on 7/16. That’s set up the training classes for the year. That’s enough looking backward; the day you want to invite your friends and family down to share a fun let’s look ahead. day on the water. In addition to these special events we’ll have member Our first big event is the All-Club Invitational on 5/28. It will fea- paddles being announced every week. ture a “Brooklyn Clam Bake” and for the first time ever, races between All of these events are made possible by people just like you. So if the metropolitan clubs. Once again Steve Heinzerling, Melanie Lorek, you are new to the club, consider volunteering by joining a committee. and Milton Puryear will lead evening paddles every Tuesday night. It’s the only way to enjoy the full benefits of Sebago. Starting on 6/1 we’ll have open paddles every Wednesday and Saturday. EBLADE May 2016 page 4 photo courtesy of Lindsay Hewitt Sebago sailors frostbiting at Seawanhaka Yacht Club. SAILING COMMITTEE REPORT – SPRING 2016 By Jim Luton and Holly Sears It is spring once again. Normally we would be on the water by now with have all helped with new ideas to accomplish these goals. So sailors, be our Spring Race Series. But as we all know, the dock has been removed sure you are up-to-date on the new procedures. We have sign-in sheets, and replaced, and as I write this I see a glimmer of hope that we may repair sheets, lists of certified sailors and checklists for each boat type. actually have it installed and in working order to at least do some im- Everyone should sign up for at least one work area to help main- promptu racing by this Sunday. tain our program. These areas are: 1-Boat repair and maintenance, In the meantime, we have been working hard to get the fleet up and 2-Grounds maintenance, 3-Prospective and new member tours and ori- running for the season. We’ve had a lot of work to do but I’m hoping entation, 4-Sailing mentors (must be a level 4 instructor-level sailor). I’ll we will get through the bulk of it so that we can focus on our scheduled be posting links to information documents online through the sailing events and get out on the water. I’m sorry to say that we have retired the page of the club website once I get them completed. first boat we ever acquired for our dinghy sailing program - the Sunfish In addition to our usual scheduled events which include the Lovechild. She took her final blow this winter flying off the overhead Monthly Cruises, the Annual Sailing Class, and the Fall Race Series, we rack. RIP Lovechild, we loved you dearly. hope to have at least an organized event every weekend. Possibilities A big thanks to all of you who have pitched in to help with our include: Impromptu Cruises; Racing, Docking, and Launching spring workdays, but a special Thank You goes to Pat Daniels who has Workshops; Double-Hander Workshop (scheduled for July 9 with really been working hard on the boat and board repairs. He’s gotten David Cripton); Intermediate Sunfish Sailing- Instructor, and Two-in- quite good at it too! We’re still plugging away at repairs but my hope is a-Boat Workshops (scheduled for May 21 and June 5); Laser 101 (boat that soon we can put our energy into the on-the-water activities. handling, tuning, racing strategy, etc.). We’ll be posting these events on We have been revamping our program to get more people involved the sailing list, so keep up with your club emails and the Club Calendar. in the day-to-day maintenance of our boats and facilities, to better mon- [email protected] itor the use of our club boats, and to provide more ways for our sailors to review the set-up, rigging, and methodologies particular to our club. Pat Look for us on the water soon! Daniels, Hans Liebert, Tracy Kornrich, Miles Green, and David Solnick Happy Sailing! EBLADE May 2016 page 5 Sebago sailors frostbiting at Seawanhaka Yacht Club.