Ahoy, sailors!
It’s time for our very last regatta of the season, and also time for our fall work party where we put the club to bed for the season. Since we have quite a few new members this year, I’ll give everybody the full lowdown on our traditional last weekend:
For Saturday (weather permitting) we’ll have a casual, single-day regatta. In recent years our tradition has been to run an “old-school ASC” race, which means setting a single mark out bast the end of the dock and then picking a couple of islands to use as marks for an out-an-back course. We’ll aim for a 2:00 PM skippers meeting to allow folks plenty of time to get there and rig boats. If the winds are decent at that point we’ll start immediately, so that means that everybody should have boats rigged before the skippers meeting.
Note that the forecast is calling for pretty cold temps. That means two things:
- You should bring warm clothes!
- We’re going to be extra conservative about the weather. If the breeze is strong we won’t hold the race. Capsizing and 40-degree weather are a bad mix!
Normally we’d have a potluck in the clubhouse featuring a variety of warm foods, but given Alaska’s Covid-19 crisis (sigh…) we’re going to skip that activity for the year.
And on Sunday we’ll have our fall work party. If you can’t make the regatta for any reason, I still hope that everybody will make an effort to be at the work party. The work party will start at 10:00 AM and will continue until all tasks are done and the club is nicely buttoned up for the season. That should go quickly if we get a decent turnout, and I’d guess that we’ll have a wrap-up time of around 3:00 PM.
You don’t need to be there for the whole time. We’re happy for whatever time you can give. And when you arrive look for Cathy Wright. She’ll have a clipboard with a list of all the work party projects and honchos for various efforts. She’ll do her best to match you up with tasks based on skills and interests. In terms of equipment you really only need work clothes and gloves, although if you have a decent set up tools that’s always appreciated. I expect that we’re going to have a little unanticipated dock repair work after today’s windstorm!
Speaking of which, here’s a video that TL took this afternoon that give you an idea of what a fall wind storm on Big Lake looks like:
Oh, and normally the Commodore would serve everybody breakfast on Sunday as a thank-you for being awesome club members. But again … COVID. I do promise to make it up with an extra awesome breakfast next year!
I’m hoping to see all you guys for one last wonderful-if-chilly weekend. Oh, and I promised the Black Clan that I’d go for one last swim with them, so hopefully somebody can jury-rig the batter charger as a defibrillator in case my heart stops when I hit the water!
Oh, and the awesome header image is from the Buccaneer 18 Nationals at the Solomons Island Yacht Club in Maryland. It sounds like Team AK had a blast, and you can find more pictures in the #photos channel on the ASC Discord server.
Leave a Reply