The official Newsletter of the Ninnescah Sailing Association THE Vol. 47 No. 11 November 2018 Flooding October 13, 2018 uuu Message from the Commodore It’s hard to believe that another sailing season has come to an end and in most unusual fashion! In my 8 years with the club, I can honestly say this is the first time I’ve seen it flooded in October! IN THIS ISSUE: Serving as Commodore has made the year seem like a blur. With things Boatswain’s Locker 3-4 happening all the time, the club has never been far from my mind. Now here we BOG Minutes 6-7 sit a year later already. As I reflect over the past year, the club has accomplished Thanksgiving Dinner 7 some good things. Things that will serve the membership for years to come. One 2018 Annual Meeting Minutes 8-17 could say that the things we’ve done this year were not done just for the NSA Classifieds 18-19 members, but also for the members that haven’t joined yet. NSA Contacts 20 It began early in the year with refinishing the floor in the Afterdeck. Who would have ever thought that it could look so good! That was followed by prepping the east side of cove for planting new trees and replacing the three cabanas that were destroyed by the high winds a couple of years ago. Next year we will be planting Afterdeck Reservations trees, and will strive to make the area even more beautiful than it is today. If you are interested in reserving" We have continued our renovation of the docks by completing the replacement of the Afterdeck for NSA activities or the foam with new encapsulated foam. We owe a great debt of gratitude to our renting the facility for a private Property Manager, Patrick Adams, and his crews for saving us a considerable amount of money by tackling this project themselves. A great job that has function, please contact Past extended the life of one our most valuable assets and revenue stream. Commodore by e-mail at The replacement of the beam under the deck of the Afterdeck in late summer [email protected] could have been a real game changer for the Labor Day Celebration. However, thanks to the great coordination between the NSA and the Friends of Cheney, it was done in time for things to go on the same as always. From the Editor: As everyone knows, our membership is an aging demographic, and the need to Please note the deadline schedule. inject some new life into the club is paramount to our ability to continue as a club. • Announcements of scheduled events The efforts of our Learn to Sail Programs and our Marketing Committee have begun to take hold as we have enjoyed an influx of new members over the last (such as dinners and races) and ads, couple of years. We owe Kent Carter, Peyton Adair, and Curtis Gibson a big must be received by the first thank you for their long hours and efforts in making this happen. Thursday of each month. Lastly I would like to thank the membership for your support and feedback • Email will be accepted until 6:00 p.m. throughout the year. You make this club what it is. All the things that have been the first Sunday of each month. accomplished this year were done with the forward thinking efforts and contributions of all of you. Thank you very much for a wonderful year. And as • Any late material will be published always, may your sails always be full! the next month. Norm • Email your material to Doug Perry at " Commodore (actually Past Commodore now) [email protected]. !1 • Ninnescah Sailing Association • November 2018 ninnescah.org 2018 ANNUAL MEETING !2 • Ninnescah Sailing Association • November 2018 ninnescah.org The Boatswain’s Locker Why Do We Sail? “I can only say here that much comes to one in practice, and that, with such as love sailing, mother-wit is the best teacher, after experience.” - Joshua Slocum, Sailing Alone Around the World “We are tied to the ocean. And when we go back to the sea, whether it is to sail or to watch - we are going back from whence we came.” - John F. Kennedy Many have offered explanations of why they love to sail. And I suspect that for each of you reading this, there is a different and personal reason why you sail. We may all share certain reasons, but everyone has their own unique story about what first drew them to sailing – and, more important, what motivates them to continue sailing. Dr. Allison Smith, a freelance writer, sailor, and counselor in private practice on St. John, writes in Tradewinds, a health and wellness supplement: “The draw of sailing goes beyond the obvious fresh air, balmy breezes, the discovery of remote islands and deep blue seas. From a health and wellness perspective, the opportunity to avoid the smell, noise and pounding of fuel driven "go fast" powerboats is grasped by those who appreciate the beauty of gliding with the wind over the waves, in tune with the wonder of nature, quietly filling the sails with warm, balmy breezes, and gently skimming across turquoise seas with billowed sails, easing into isolated, pristine anchorages at the day's end, resplendent with the colors of a magnificent sunset. “Of course, the reality of sailing is that it doesn't always follow these Chamber of Commerce scenarios and often involves the challenge of overcoming the forces of nature and the complications of marine mechanics and high seas, failing engines, howling winds, broken lines or ripped sails. Hard core sailors embrace the adventure of reefing sails, repairing underway, pulling on foul weather gear and winning the game of dead reckoning or heavy weather sailing. Charting a course, weathering the storm, outsmarting the elements and exhibiting your seamanship are all a part of the exhilaration of sailing. “But the most important and universal theme among all sailors young and old, in yachts or more simple boats, on an island hop or a voyage around the world, is sailing's amazing sense of freedom, the call of "mother, mother ocean" that pulls us beyond the horizon, that stretches our abilities and our need for security, that feeds our restless souls and satisfies our yearning for solitude and peace. “The love of sailing answers mankind's deepest innermost needs of wisdom, adventure, responsibility, resourcefulness, competence and respect in a remarkable and profound experience of freedom that heals our minds and challenges our fears, that speaks to our souls and transforms our lives.” So, is there a common theme in all of this that tends to draw us together as sailors? Can we boil some of our reasons to sail down to such simplistic ideas as tradition, sense of pride and achievement, solitude, to socialize, to discover new places, or to find new adventures? Or all of these? Some sailors might take a more visceral approach in their assessment. Claire Shefchik, a sailor and travel writer says in her memoir, Princess of Pirates: How I Ran Away to Sea: “The reason I sail is why most people travel. Because of the terror, and the joy, of leaving the known and passing into the unknown; the idea that what you may find might be better than what you left behind. It might be uncomfortable; it might be scary; it will certainly be un-perfect. But it will be magnificent.” An anonymous sailor was quoted as saying: “A ship in a harbor is safe, but that is not what boats are built for.” That sailor took a more philosophical approach. And I could not agree more. Whether we are leaving safe harbor in a Caribbean island for the open !3 • Ninnescah Sailing Association • November 2018 ninnescah.org The Boatswain’s Locker seas, or leaving our small harbor on Cheney Lake for a lovely day sail, there is some compelling force or reason within us that brought us to that particular moment at the tiller or wheel of our boat – whether on the ocean or our beautiful lake. For me, that reason is what the great mariner and writer Joseph Conrad called “the community of sailors – our fellowship in the craft and mystery of the sea.” The “craft” that Conrad referred to is seamanship. It’s an ever-expanding set of skills, and much more. John Rousmaniere, in his book, “The Annapolis Book of Seamanship,” says: “Seamanship is an attitude, a hope, an ethos. It’s a quest that guides us, if we are willing – sometimes pulling, sometimes pushing – in the right direction. In other words, seamanship is both a technical discipline that you will never stop mastering and a caring, alert state of mind we must never cease developing and improving.” Another pioneer cruising sailor, Richard T. McMullen, compares the mixed joys and discomforts of sailing a boat to picking roses off a thorny bush: There is the occasional bloody finger, yes. But our calling as sailors is to attempt to master the skill and attitudes of seamanship that help identify those thorns and avoid them – in other words to be sailors who are better, safer, and also happier because we know the thorns are there, alongside the roses. Rousmaniere goes on to say: “We are always one bad decision away from disaster. The quest for a voyage free of mistakes goes on. Time on the water, training, humility, and constant vigilance are the keys to being safe.” Conrad expressed the idea a little differently: “A seaman laboring under an undue sense of security becomes at once worth hardly half his salt.” Herman Melville wrote in Moby-Dick that the good mariner “feels just enough trepidation to sharpen all his faculties.” In my article in last month’s Mainsheet, I described my advice to NSA sailing students at the end of each class concerning the key attitude to safe sailing – and that attitude being essential to returning to shore safely at the end of each day on the water.