While Friday is the actual Summer Solstice – the longest daylight of the year, as the earth’s axis is most directly tilted toward the Sun – Saturday June 22 we’ll celebrate the Summer Sailstice, an informal event at which saily folks do away-from-the-dock boaty things in watery places.

This year’s event will be a relaxed, informal, family-friendly day sail and overnight raftup, anchored or tied off in a secure cove.

What’s in it for you? Some good sailing and a great evening under the stars (or clouds). Need something more tangible? Sign up at the Summer Sailstice site https://www.summersailstice.com/2019/event/windwards-watauga-lake-sailing-summer-sailstice-celebration and be eligible for their prize drawing.

It’s a BYOE (bring your own everything) – your food, beverages, stories, boat, porta-potty…   It’s quite common to share some or all of the first three, though.  Apart from something to eat and somewhere to sleep, all you’ll need is a good attitude, some fenders and dock lines, possibly a suitable anchor and rode (talk to me if you are not sure), the ability to come up alongside another boat without ramming it, ideally a VHF radio, a jaunty swagger in your stride and a song in your heart.

If you want to come raft up but have no experience doing so, don’t sweat it.  We can talk you in and help secure your boat. No overnight experience needed!

Communication is best on VHF.  Hail on 16 (Windward, Windward, Windward, this is .  Respond and switch to 6-8), working on 68, alternate 69 if 68 is tied up.

Actual raft-up location won’t be determined until Saturday, due to weather, projected boat density, what areas are already occupied, whim of Windward’s skipper, etc,  but plan on someplace east of the marina, west of the bridge, with enough space to accommodate those planning to raft, plus the few others who decide all spur-of-the-moment like that it sounds like fun and they can maybe wait to wash their hair until Sunday night, thus freeing them up to attend.  We may be anchored, shore-tied or a combination of the two.

Even for informal events some planning is useful, so if you think you might be coming email me at windward@lizards.net to let me know either “see you there” or “maybe” or “I’m interested but nervous” so I can narrow down suitable sites.

Fair Winds,
Jeff, s/v Windward

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Ahoy WLSC Sailors!

This is to let you know that rain or shine the Veterans Regatta is still a GO tomorrow!  We have a lot of food prepared and entertainment too, so the Regatta is a GO.  Registration still starts at 12:00 noon and depending on the weather, Anita may need to re-arrange when we go out sailing, eat the dinner, and listen to the band.  Hopefully there will be a window of opportunity to take the veterans out sailing in good wind (10 kts) for an hour or two.

Anita has received numerous phone calls and she is plenty busy, so please don’t call her to see if the regatta is on or not.  It’s ON!

Sail On My Friends!

Commodore Dave

The final race of the Spring Series races was Saturday. With little to nothing winds and 80 degrees. A total of 7 boats competing.

Many thanks to Russ and Gayle for volunteering to do committee boat. The committee boat called the race short due to dying winds. All 7 boats finished this years short series course in under a hour thirty minutes.

A Class

1st Skip Greene

2nd Pete Catoe

3rd Rob Remme

 

PC Class

1st Clarke Lucas

2nd Tommy Willis

3rd Le Bateau David Wolons

4th Scott Fagley

WLSC Race Captain

Rob Remme

Sailors take warning the last Spring race is

Sat May 18^th
Skippers meeting 1:00
First Horn 2:00

If you want to crew be at the Skippers meeting.

Hope to see you there.

WLSC Race Captain
Rob Remme

Weather permitting, we will try to make up the last race

 April 27^th  First Race   8:30 Captains meeting first horn at 9:00
Potluck at 12:00 approximately
Second Race Skippers meeting 1:00 first horn 1:30

If you want to crew please be at the Skippers meeting.

Hope to see you there

WLSC Race Captain
Rob Remme

Mark your calendars: WLSC’s next events are the Race Clinic and Spring General Meeting, both to be held on Saturday March 30, tentatively planned to be on the event deck.

1. We currently have 52 memberships for 2019 which is ~30 less than in 2018.  So if you are interested in joining the club this year, and we hope that you are, please send a check for $40 asap to:  WLSC, P.O. Box 342, Hampton, TN  37658
   

OR, for those of you who would like to pay via PayPal, Treasurer Kim Richards has recently created a PayPal account for WLSC.  Now your payment can be sent to SailWatauga@gmail.com . Here is a link if you need to learn how to use PayPal.  https://www.paypal.com/cy/smarthelp/article/how-do-i-send-money-using-paypal-faq1684 . There will be a convenience fee of approximately $2 for the user.

2.  23 members attended the Winter Blah’s dinner party on Saturday evening Feb16 at the Bonefish Grill in Johnson City.  The food and service was very good, and everyone had a great time getting together and mixing it up.  Unfortunately we learned that two members of our club recently fell while skiing and suffered injuries.  Speaking for the club, we wish both of these sailor/skiers successful surgeries and a speedy recovery!!

3. All 7 members of the WLSC Executive Board met before the dinner and had a very good discussion on many topics.  Anita Remme was elected Member-At-Large, as the 8th member of the Board; she will represent the membership well.

4. The 2019 WLSC Calendar of Events was agreed upon and has since been updated to include the Lower Chesapeake Cruise in late May-early June.

5. Next Event:  Race Clinic and Spring General Meeting, both to be held on Saturday March 30, tentatively planned to be on the event deck.

So, don’t miss out on all the FUN in 2019.  If you haven’t already, send in your dues and JOIN the WLSC!

Sail On My Friends!

Commodore Dave Gurysh

Cruise Captain Russ Veldman asked me to send his write-up below of the results of his survey and his subsequent Plan for the 2019 WLSC Cruise of the Lower Chesapeake between May 30 thru June 7.  Seven (7) sailboats from 33′ to 51′ long are available for charter from Norton Yachts out of Deltaville, VA.  If interested in this cruise adventure, you will need to contact Norton Yachts directly (phone # in website below) to make arrangements for your specific charter dates, boat selection, provisions, etc. and submit a Bareboat Charter Application to Norton Yachts to see if they approve you as a captain for a bareboat charter.

As I understand, the boats will be chartered on a first come-first served basis once approved.  As per below, Russ and Gayle have reserved one of the seven boats, from May 31 to June 7.  If you desire, you could start a day earlier and charter for a minimum of 3 days or 4-7 days if you wish.  It’s up to you.  Russ advised me that the price range shown below for each boat is for a 3 day to 7 day charter.  Please call Norton Yachts to confirm pricing, including that for number of charter days between 3 and 7 days.  After you confirm your reservation with Norton Yachts, please contact Russ Veldman (rveldman1@aol.com) so he knows who plans to go on this cruise.  And thanks to Cruise Captain Russ for setting up this cruise plan for our club.

Sail on my friends,
Commodore Dave

From Russ:

Just about everybody’s choice was the Chesapeake in late May/early June. With that in mind, I contacted Norton Yachts (http://www.nortonyachts.com) and spoke to Lynn. (Be sure to identify yourself as part of Sailing club in Tennessee.) She will give us free sleep aboard the day before and the day after our cruise.  Depending on the number of boats chartered, she will give additional discounts (probably 5%).

My plan is to charter for seven days, but You can charter 3, 4, 5, 0r 6 days.

Dates — arrive on May 30 for free sleep aboard and begin charter on Friday, May 31.  End charter on June 7, 2019 with enough time to return and participate in Veterans regatta on June 8, 2019 (if that is in your plans) or earlier if that is your plan.

All their sailboats are available on the 29th through the 8th except Func349. Func 349 is only available until June 5, 2019.

I have reserved Audacia for May 30 thru June 7.

WLSC SAVE THE DATE Veterans Race, Cruise & Potluck

Saturday, June 8th 12:00 PM

On the WLSC Deck

Please Confirm How You Can Help?

• CAPTAINS FOR RACE & CRUISE
• CREW
• POTLUCK DISHES
• SETUP, CLEAN UP, CHECK IN
• SERVING FOOD & DRINKS

When ask last year after the event what we could do to make this event better we received the suggestion of a home cooked meal and a cruise of those that do not want to race.  This effort is funded by the generosity of our WLSC volunteers, as a very simple way to say thank you to our Veterans. We rely on WLSC generosity to make this happen, so if you would like to help us make Veterans feel appreciated this year, in honoring the men and women who served us. I encourage each of us to open our hearts and each WLSC family to help make this event wonderful for the Veterans. If you will each please respond with how you can help to

Anita Remme doevalley@comcast.net or 423-341-3123.  It takes a lot of people to have an event like this and it is much appreciated!

Ahoy WLSC Sailors!

In unusually mild 55F weather for New Year’s Day, we had an excellent turnout for the 2019 Frostbite Race with 12 captains and their crew racing to and around the island and back.  Winds were light for the staggered-race start and at the finish line (the marina buoy line), but picked up nicely to 5-8 kts out on the lake, with a couple boats flying their spinnakers.

After the race, a great turnout of ~40 people gathered on the deck to enjoy a potluck spread of several kinds of soups, cuts of meats, salad, desserts, etc and just enjoy being together at the lake on the first day of the New Year.

The race results for the first 5 finishers (all within 10 minutes) were as follows:

1st    Skip Greene – J24
2nd   Billy Becker – Catalina27
3rd    Wayne Catoe – Hunter 30
4th    Bill Murdoch – Tanzer 22
5th    Oleg – Hobie Cat 16

Other racers included Jeff Arnfield, Scott Fagley, Bob Hebner, Warren Lamb, John Middaugh, Tommy Willis, and Mike on the Lancer 28.

Too many people to mention helped with the setup and clean-up, and it was much appreciated.

Next WLSC event:  The Winter Blahs dinner on February 16 at the Bonefish Grill in Johnson City.

Sail On My Friends!
Commodore Dave