Lakeshore has graciously offered to sponsor our first annual “Round the Island Challenge.”  The challenge will run for approximately a year and prizes will be gift certificates for meals at the Captain’s Table at the resort.  See the following link for details.

In the past we had a “Commodore’s Challenge”, but multiple fleet winners were not determined and no prizes were offered.  Hope to see you out on the water giving it a try!

Lakeshore Round the Island Challenge

We have finalized the Fall Race Schedule.  We will employ a committee boat for these races.  The link to the schedule is shown below:

Fall Schedule Link

Many thanks to Bill Murdoch for “manufacturing” and installing our range markers.  These will be used as the “start line” for our Fun Races and other related events.  We will still use a committee boat for Spring and Fall races series.

The following link shows how the marks are employed as a starting line.  The major difference is that the person steering the boat is the starting point for the boat and not the bow as is the standard in previous Fun Races.  To keep the line somewhat narrower, one must be able to clearly discern the red lines on the markers with the naked eye.

Range Start Line Instructions

 

 

I have routinely over the years noted a very nice east wind in the morning on Watauga Lake.  Especially in the area near Lakeshore Marina.  It is a wind formed from differential heating of the hills and the water.

The wind is from the east and fairly constant from ~7:30 am to around 9:30-10:30 pm.  After that, it normally either dies until after lunch and/or changes to the prevalent wind for the day.

In the summer, it is a delightful time to sail from temperature point and significantly decrease in motorized traffic.  A nice time to have a quiet sail, tune ones rigging, or even race.

Give it a try sometime!  Hope you will join me.

Links to Lake Breezes:

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While looking for marine electrical systems info I ran across this site.  Its a full service marine electrical/electronics outfit in Vancouver that has generated an extensive how to video library on all aspects of marine electrical systems.  They cover a lot of ground but lectures are geared toward the technically oriented boat owner and not necessarily electrical engineers and technicians.   I thought others in the club might find it worth a look.

Greg Henry

Pacific Yacht Systems

Sail Course Offered

WHEN:  

Monday evenings between June 29 and August 17, 2020

from 6:00 PM until dusk

WHERE:

The Sail Dock at Lakeshore Marina on Watauga Lake

WHO:   

Anybody with a desire to learn about sailing

COST:   

$125 per student

The textbook and exam are included with the cost

This course will include both a classroom and an on-water component.  Each week we will meet to go over the course work and then take to the water in USPS approved sailboats to practice the skills just learned.

Students will need to bring and wear their own

approved Personal Flotation Devices (life jackets)

during the on water portions of the class.

Sail is a course created to serve the needs of the novice and experienced sailor, as well as the non-sailor, for basic skills and knowledge. The course starts with basic sailboat designs and nomenclature, rigging, safety, and sail processes and then tackles the physical aspects of sailing forces and techniques, sail applications, marlinespike, helmsmanship and handling of more difficult sailing conditions, navigation rules, and an introduction to heavy weather sailing.

2020 Sail Flyer

2020 Sail Syllabus

For more information contact:

swbrumit@gmail.com

View this email in your browser Thanks to Brandon Bragg for serving our club as Member at Large. There will be no Sunday Race, the weather forecast looks poor. We had 8 boats for the Friday race.  We sailed from the point outside Lakeshore Marina to the area near Watauga Point (~1.6 nautical miles round trip).  The wind was good at times, but often dropped to a very small breeze.  However, most boats finished the course in less than an hour. Captains finished the race in this order when times were corrected for boat handicaps: Greg Henry, James Little, Bob Henber, Bill Becker, Marc Nachman. Many thanks to Bill Murdoch for setting the marks, Bill and Adair Murdoch plus Sandra Little for committee boat, Brandon Bragg, Dave Gurysh, and Bill Murdoch for retrieving the marks. The WLSC schedule has been drastically altered this year, but it was very nice to be out on the water with friends today!

Several changes were approved at the Fall Meeting in 2019.  I have put copies of the constitution on the website in both PDF and Word format.  The latter will be useful if new changes are made in the future.

PDF Format:

wlsc_2020_update

Word Format:

wlsc_2020_update

Below are the changes requested from the minutes:

Attached are subject minutes submitted today by Monika Boggs.  Please note and take action on the motion by Bill Murdoch shown at the bottom of page 1 to add “John and Billie Middaugh” to the Honorary Founders Lifetime Membership list in the Constitution, Article III, Section 2.  This motion was carried unanimously by the 42 members present.

We should also effect a motion in attached minutes from the 2017 Fall General Meeting to add the Outgoing Commodore to the Executive Board.  After I became Commodore for 2019, Bob Hebner, Commodore in 2018, asked me to have this done during my tenure. Therefore I asked Jeff in a recent email on Nov 6 to amend Article VI of the Constitution with wording according to the motion as follows:  “The outgoing Commodore will also serve on the Executive Board as a mentor; this position would be voluntary, not mandatory, and non-voting.”  This wording should be added right after the first sentence “The officers and Member-At-Large shall constitute the Executive Board.”

Dave Gurysh
Commodore 2019

 

As from a previous post, my Seaward 32RK left CYC marina in Knoxville on 4/1, with goal of making it to Walker Lake in AL and return. Rob Remme and I completed that half on 4/15, 2 days sooner than expected due to how fast we could move the 5 Ton boat with a month of provisions with 3 to 5 knot downriver currents pushing us at 7knots. We had never sailed this boat before, and we had some epic lake sailing, hitting more than 7 knots a couple times. We even had several 4 mile runs without a single tack on Guntersville Lake.

Marinas have been either closed or offer only limited items. We got diesel and water where we could,  and carried lots of extras lashes to the topside, including 2 solar showers. 

Joan changed out with Rob in Decatur, AL, for the upriver “half” of the 726 mile trip.  We knew it would be harder, but we had no idea. The worst was going through the gorge in Nickajack due to the epic rains in the TVA system this month. With my 30hp Yanmar maxed, we were doing 1.3 knots in a 9 mile stretch.  We got the coast guard warning about 4 miles into that. We were stranded in the Chattanooga area for nearly 4 days, as there is a fixed railroad brigade that was too short until the water dropped 2 feet,  which it eventually did.

We are now hunkered down in 30 knt winds anchored in 6 feet, having crossed a 2.8 foot sandbar to get back here. We have fully utilized the raising keel feature of this boat,  where it drops to 6.5 feet and raises to about 26 inches by pushing a button.

We have seen one daysailor and not another sailboat on the water in nearly a month. Not a single “looper”. In 8 locks, only once did another boat lock thru with us. The two marinas we stayed at (all the other nights on the 35 pound mantis hook) were flooded and otherwise deserted. One didn’t even charge us.

We hope to lock thru to Watts bar tomorrow afternoon and enjoy some sailing, and get back to Corona-land in several days.

Lots of lessons learned.  It beats sitting at home and watching bad news on TV. 

Hope all of you are well and safe, and if anyone wants to know anything else about what worked and what didn’t,  we would be happy to share.

All the best,

George R. Brown 

Joan Koelbel

I have created a new Gmail account for sending club announcements.  Unfortunately, many users have settings that block emails from this address.

Be sure to allow wlsc.announcements@gmail.com to be viewed.  Note there is a “period” in the address.  One can also send me email at this address.

We don’t have any activities currently planned, but hopefully, things will change in the near future and we will inform you of updates.

Due to family and business conflicts, Scott Fagley has stepped down as Commodore.  We hope that he will have more time in the future and will join us for races and other activities.

Billy Becker, Vice Commodore, has assumed the responsibilities of Commodore.  We really appreciate Billy being willing to serve in this capacity as “Acting Commodore.”

I am taking over the email distribution for the club, so be sure to tell me if there are any problems.

James Little

Race Captain