Lake Michigan Surf Newsletter
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Volume 24, Number 2 February 2014 Lake Michigan SuRF Official Newsmagazine of the Lake Michigan Sail Racing Federation All The News That Fits ... SHOULD YOUTH PROGRAMS BE FOCUSED ON Youth Program Focus? .................................. 1 FASTER, HIGHER, STRONGER? Revolution-What's Your Part? .................... 2 by Glenn McCarthy Skyway Announces Two New Events ...... 2 In the past two weeks in the international sailing daily email newsletter LMSRF Youth Racing Scheduled ................ 3 Scuttlebutt, Geoffrey Emanuel, a lifelong sailor (http://tinyurl.com/lnbf4hh), LMSRF Youth Strictly Sail Roundtable .... 3 and John Arndt, founder of Summer Sailstice (http://tinyurl.com/ko9dqjt), After School Matters Crew Connection? . 4 wrote thought provoking articles about what is taught at Youth Sailing LMSRF Adaptive Sailing Committee 1st ... 4 Schools. With a nudge from Leslie Kohler at Sail Sheboygan, I added to LMSRF Grants-In-Aid 2014 Funding ........ 4 John and Geoffrey’s thoughts with the following that was also published in Online Sailing Videos with Text Crawls .. 5 Scuttlebutt. Visit with an Aussie ........................................ 5 When You Buy a Boat ..................................... 6 Back to the numbers – of the 350,000 kids in (sailing) programs today, 2014 Strictly Sail Chicago Lookback ........ 6 95% quit by age 25. One out of 10 adult sailboats on the water race, the 2014 Inshore One-Design Scheduling ..... 7 others day sail, cruise or are waterfront condominiums. For adults who Hey, You!! Yeah—You!! ................................ 7 put their kids into sailing, do all of them want their kids to be the national Free Promotion ................................................ 7 champion (of which there is only one annually)? Or, are they cruisers Will 2014 be the Year for Change? ........... 8 wanting their child to learn sailing, as well as navigation, arranging No Way Communications ............................. 9 mooring in away harbors, tying a boat to a dock or slip with spring-lines, Vayu 2 Wins Key West Race Week ............ 9 watch rotation choices, onboard firefighting, rebuilding a marine head LMSS Race Dates Set ..................................... 10 (you can never learn too early), engine mechanics, seamanship, nautical Endowment Fund Update .......................... 11 arts, etc.? 2013 MCSA All Conference Team ............ 11 Skyway Mobile Interface ............................ 12 When I was in sailing school 40 years ago, we were taught to race and that was it. We were Judd Goldman Adaptive Sailing ................ 12 put into the US Sailing championship ladder Lake Geneva Iceboating Report ............... 14 events. On days when there was no wind or S.E.A.S. Established ....................................... 14 too much wind in the early part of the year Scoop the Lake Set ........................................ 14 we would practice our knot tying. Later on in Share your Summer Sailstice Plans ........ 14 the season, we went to the park and played Neenah-Nodaway Regatta + Jobson ....... 15 baseball. Why not navigation? Why not take Port of PHRF Schedule Released ............. 16 us on a big boat and teach us jumping Columbia Remodeling .................................. 16 halyards, wrapping a winch the right way, New CYC Opti Clinic ...................................... 17 good footing for grinding winches, making 2014 Midwest High School Sailing ......... 17 sure the winch handle is locked in, setting up 2014 LMSRF Youth Regatta Schedule .... 18 a jib or a spinnaker for a raise, etc.? 2014 Charleston Advanced Clinic ............ 19 North & Trim & Tactics Seminar ............. 19 Charts were never shown to us. There was Sailing Apprenticeship ................................ 20 another harbor close by, but we never took Heard on the Rail ........................................... 21 the boats into a different harbor exploring Grants-In-Aid Reports ................................. 21 or adventuring. Once a year they loaded all Mark Your Calendars ................................... 23 of us on the club’s committee boat and took 2014 Midwest Women's Conference ..... 24 us downtown for us to walk around the big USSARegional Symposium-LakeMichigan.. 25 Mackinac boats tied up to the docks. Again, US Sailing News .............................................. 25 the focus was on racing. Letters to the Editor ..................................... 28 Help Wanted .................................................... 28 At the recent Strictly Sail Chicago boat show, I learned that the Royal What Happened ............................................. 29 Yachting Association has a list of activities to do at sailing schools when About Lake Michigan SuRF ......................... 32 there’s no wind. I think I found the list and on those off days the Royal Yacht Association recommends games, not skill building (http://tinyurl.com/RYA-Games). Lake Michigan SuRF Newsletter The 900 pound gorilla in the room is that Optimist, Laser Radial, 420, Sailing School, High School and Collegiate sailing programs are all growing in size. The money is coming in. The kids are coming in. They are very successful within their demographic silos. If it ain’t broke, why fix it? Why would any of them want to jeopardize their successes? Their business models work. Going back to the original question: if the goal is to create top flight sailors for youth championships, then leave the current sailing instruction and sailor development model alone. If the goal is to create lifelong sailors, then listen to Arndt and Emanuel and change the 95% failure rate into a 95% success rate. THE REVOLUTION IS UNDERWAY – WHAT’S YOUR PART? By Glenn McCarthy At the 2014 Strictly Sail Chicago boat show, many clubs and sailing schools announced that they are getting their Youth sailors onto adult boats in 2014. The marriage made in heaven – adult boats that need crew, matched with highly trained, many having had coaching, young sailors. The young hopefully won’t come off too head strong on board, and the adults hopefully keep cool heads and understand their position of role model, peer, and mentor to these impressionable, experienced sailors. One club has committed to taking at least one senior youth sailor on each of their member’s boats in the Chicago-Mackinac race this year. College student Christina McCarthy Morgan Kinney, Membership and Marketing Manager at Columbia Yacht trims the spinnaker on Pororoca as she Club explains their sailing school connection to adult sailing on Wednesday passes South Manitou Island to nights through this video link: http://tinyurl.com/mrl989c. Pay attention starboard in the 2013 Chicago-Mackinac race. Photo by Gail M. Turluck. because this approach can help your club! SKYWAY YACHT WORKS ANNOUNCES TWO NEW EVENTS IN 2014 Join the first annual Dash to the Dock on Saturday, May 10, 2014, a fun family race day from the Calumet Harbor breakwall to a finish off the Shedd Aquarium, and then come to the Columbia Yacht Club dock to celebrate. Non-members are welcome for this event! Even if you only use your boat a few times a season, you're definitely going to take at least one trip- from your yard to the harbor. If you are at Skyway Yacht Works, this could be one of the highlights of your summer! We will have helpers on hand at the yard to get you rigged, activities in the yard to keep the kids busy, and experts at Columbia to help resolve any minor issues that may arise on your first shake down of the season. Day sailors, cruisers, and racing newbies sought to enjoy this lighthearted, fun excuse to get your boat where it belongs for the 2014 season! ―Three Crib Fiasco‖ on September 13, 2014. You may be familiar with San Francisco Bay's "Three Bridge Fiasco," a free-for-all pursuit race where all sorts of boats race each other on a course that is only defined as three marks that can be rounded in any order in any direction. We're not going to lie, we think it's a great idea and we're stealing it. Skyway Yacht Works will be hosting the first annual Three Crib Fiasco on September 13th. This sorry excuse for a "race" is open to anyone-day sailors, dinghy sailors, cruisers, racers. Want to play with your J/24? Great! Want to come out with your TP52? Awesome! Want to go around the cribs in a Vanguard 15? More power to ya! Windsurfer? OK! Thanks to Columbia Yacht Club, we'll provide a starting line, a safety boat and a party. The mayhem is up to you! More details coming as these events get developed at www.skywayyachtworks.com. Lake Michigan Sail Racing Federation 2 February 2014 Lake Michigan SuRF Newsletter 2014 LMSRF YOUTH RACING SCHEDULED AT STRICTLY SAIL CHICAGO by Brian Bartley, LMSRF Youth Council Chair Many organizations who run youth regattas around the Midwest attended the 2014 LMSRF Youth Scheduling Meeting on Saturday, January 25, at Strictly Sail Chicago. The draft schedule was projected on the screen, everyone reviewed it, amended it, added to it and finally approved it. Shortly the season's calendar will be put on the LMSRF website. The meeting went very smoothly and finished in 35 minutes. If your club or organization has Youth sailing events being held in the Lake Michigan area and wants them added to the calendar, please contact me: [email protected]. Thank you to Judd Goldman Adaptive Sailing, Lake Forest Sailing, Chicago Yacht Club, Chicago Park District, South Shore Yacht Club, Milwaukee Community Sailing Center, Grand Rapids Yacht Club, Little Traverse Sailors, Michigan City Yacht