Commodore’s Log Marilyn Allen
With only 2 more sailing days on the calendar, I guess we can say the season is over… at least in Colorado. There are lots of warm weather places that are welcoming us, with some restrictions, so keep your eyes open for charter opportunities, and bring your mask and ever present hand sanitizer.
Twelve of us intrepid Salty Dogs joined Andrea Lewis for her latest Dry Land adventure — GO-KARTING! It was a ball and we maneuvered and occasionally slammed around each other, trying for the best time.
Earlier in October, Shane organized an end of season sail at Chatfield… a beautiful day and a fitting end for a good season, IN SPITE OF our friend Covid. We usually have 10-15 participants at the sails and everything from howling gales to glass flat lakes. Hopefully, next year we’ll be a little less restricted, but considering the Covid challenges, I think we had a very good season.
Much thanks to all the coordinators and boat owners who shared their time and boats with us and thanks to Gary Kieft for putting the sailing schedule together.
IMPORTANT –
By the time you get this, I will have sent out ballots for our 2021 Board. Our November meeting will be back to the Zoom format and the new board will be announced at the meeting.
PLEASE EMAIL YOUR VOTES BACK TO ME NO LATER THAN NOV. 3
(should be an easy day to remember)
There will be no voting at the meeting. We need to have a quorum and we need to have votes, so please don’t overlook this.
And ‘Thank You’ to the fine Salty Dog members who have offered to serve next year.
IMPORTANT #2 –
We have two members competing for the On the Water Position. They are Shane Brouillette and Gary Kieft. Please vote for 1 of them on the ballot.
HOLIDAY PARTY –
We had hoped to be able to have an in person gathering, but with the spike in Covid cases, it’s just too risky. Let’s plan for a Zoom get together on our December meeting night. Bring your food, beverage, and some funny holiday attire from the waist up and we’ll visit and catch up.
Wishing you all a good Thanksgiving.
We ALL have things to be grateful for, even though perhaps this year won’t be the ideal.
Be sure to attend our November meeting.
We’ll announce the new Board, talk a bit about plans for 2021 and have a great guest speaker.
Vice Commodore’s Log Bobby Olsen
November Meeting Agenda
6:30 – Meeting called to order / Greeting and review of the Agenda
6:35 – Business meeting
- Election of Officers
- Officer Reports
- Ideas for meetings and events in 2021
7:05 – Speaker – Jim Schoendaller, Author and sailor
7:25 – Announcements
7:30 – Adjourn meeting
About Our Speaker – Jim Schoendaller
Jim is your typical active Colorado native. He is a former national skating champion, an expert skier, a certified scuba diver, a world traveler (5 continents so far), an accomplished ballroom dancer, and a gourmet cook.
Like all of us in landlocked Colorado, he is also into sailing.
He is an ASA Certified Instructor and has been teaching with Victoria Sailing School on the J22’s for 12 years.
Unlike all of us, he is a published author. His first book, 180 Degrees Magnetic, was published in December 2019. It is an action, adventure, sailing, sci-fi thriller set in the Bermuda triangle.
Book number two in the trilogy, Repel All Boarders, is at the publisher and will be available shortly.
Jim is going to share with us his experiences in sailing, writing, and mixing the two. It will be an informative and enjoyable presentation.
Membership Report Ronni Willcox
The Salty Dog Sailing Club happily welcomes four new members! We say a warm hello to Justin M and Colleen I, along with Andi O and Gino M. Our club membership tops out currently at 56 sailors.
Our presence on Meetup, the Salty Dog Meetup Group, is also adding sailing enthusiasts who are interested in joining us for an outing.
If you have never received a Salty Dog complimentary tee shirt, please let me know and I’ll get one to you promptly. Every member is deserving of a tee shirt!
If you haven’t already joined or renewed, please do so soon at our On-Line Payment link: https://www.saltydog.org/membership/
Or, if you prefer, you can send a check to Ronni Willcox, Membership, 2955 Blue Sky Cir #6-206, Erie CO 80516.
Have any questions about membership? Send them to membership@saltydog.org.
Dry Land Event Recap Andrea Lewis
What do frustrated sailors do when it is too cold to sail ? They do the next best thing and get into their go-karts and drive as fast as possible against their fellow Salty Dogs!!
Friday 23rd Oct was one of those freezing cold days, and so we were not sure how many Salty Dogs would brave the cold and come and join us at K1 Go Karting in the evening – but lo and behold … everyone who said they would, turned up and played!!
One race involved driving the course 12 laps and the object of the exercise was to do the fastest timed lap – it was not necessary to get past the flag first .. there were a couple of near collisions, as a few riders were more antsy than others ( no names mentioned 🙂
Great fun was had by all and the winner of the pack was Dan closely followed by Mathew.
After all that hard work we reconvened at “Living the Dream Brewery” for a well deserved beer!!
Sailing Schedule 2020 Gary Kieft
Great Job Everyone !!
It’s been a GREAT 2020 Sailing Season …
Sincere Thanks to our Generous Boat Owners, Our Skilled Captains
Kudos to our On The Water Coordinator – Gary Kieft
Great Job under VERY Challenging Circumstances !!
MOB — A Cherry Creek Reservoir Instructive Sail Tale Michael Mason
I went sailing with my friend Marilyn, Commodore of the Salty Dogs Sailing Club. Sailing was great. We had good wind, good company, and a beautiful afternoon. We had a bit of adventure late in the day.
Placing fenders on the port side of the boat in preparation for returning to the dock, I somehow managed to violate the first rule of sailing, “Don’t Fall Overboard”. We were about a quarter of a mile from the dock.
I tumbled in and lost my new prescription glasses and my car keys. My inflatable PFD inflated immediately. I was now at the surface and in no immediate danger.
Although this sounds amusing, MOB ( Man Over Board ) is actually a very life threatening situation.
The MOB is often injured, scared, disoriented, in saturated clothes that weigh much more than normal, and is unable to climb the slick sides of the boat or stern to get back in.
Marilyn is a very experienced sailor, as am I. About a month ago we had discussed and practiced a few MOB techniques on an earlier sail on Cherry Creek Reservoir. One technique we had discussed but not practiced involved removing the main sail from the mast while leaving it still attached to the boom. The main sail halyard is eased (loosened) enough to allow the top of the now loose sail to be lowered in to the water next to the boat.
One of the first things Marilyn did was to return the boat near me and turn off the engine to reduce the chance of my being chewed up by the propeller. She threw a large 20 foot dock line (rope) to me, and after a couple of attempts was successful. Since I was being blown away from the boat, I tied the dock line around my waist with a bowline hitch to prevent my drifting away. So now I was very safe…. temporarily.
No other boats at Cherry Creek were nearby in spite of it being a busy Saturday afternoon. I blew my very loud rescue whistle with the international distress signal of 3 blasts many many times. . . . no one heard or responded.
I attempted to climb back into the boat using the engine mount as a ladder but even with Marilyn’s assistance, I was unable to get back on board. I have read that that is very common.
Marilyn was able to lower the main sail into water rescue position with minimal coaching from me but undoubtedly with a few curses from me. With the loose main sail lowered into the water, I was able to swim into the hammock-like pouch of the mainsail without much trouble. I did need to undo the dock line that was securing me to the boat, and that was somewhat concerning.
So there I was in the wet pouch of the mainsail. It felt very comforting to be in the hammock-like folds of the sail where I would not sink or drift away. The sail also offered wind protection! Marilyn proceeded to hoist the mainsail halyard up using the winch, and the mainsail sort of rolled me up the port side of the boat, as we had seen in the you tube videos but had never practiced. Then the halyard jams! By doing a sort of pull up on the side of the boat, I was able to unweight the sail enough for Marilyn to lift it about a foot more. That gave me enough height to crawl onto the deck of the boat, wet, cold, shaking, and near hypothermic. The rescue was not elegant but it worked!
Here is a video of a commercial product that illustrates how the sail rescue lift works. Note that we left the mainsail attached to the boom: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-z4MU-uUAYY
I finished rigging the fenders on the port side of the boat and Marilyn drove us back to the dock. As we proceeded, I found that I had packed a fleece coat in my sailing bag and changed into that. I enjoyed the warmth!
We properly secured the boat at the dock and walked up to our cars. Oh poop! My car will not open as my keys and fob are at the bottom of Cherry Creek Reservoir !
Marilyn drove me back home and neighbor Gail had keys to unlock my house. I now had access to a spare car fob and house key. Marilyn drove me back to get the Toyota and all is now well (after pizza and wine).
Both Marilyn and I are safe due to experience, cool heads, a bit of luck, and training.
Wear that PFD, Salty Dogs!
More adventure than I had expected on Cherry Creek Reservoir!
Fair winds and following seas,
Michael Mason
Announcements
Like to Coordinate a 2021 Sail ? Contact Gary Kieft – onthewater@saltydog.org
November 2020
**** VOTE 2021 Board Members VOTE ****
Tuesday November 12 – Annual Meeting … 6:30 PM, via ZOOM – Link to be provided
Saturday November 21 – Indoor Bowling – Punch Bowl Social
65 Broadway, Denver CO 80203 303-765-2695 $12 per go
We will pay at the door, but please let me know if you intend on coming so I can provisionally reserve enough lanes.
Please call or text Andrea Lewis email dryland@saltydog.org
December 2020
Tuesday December 10 – Holiday Party, Time TBD, via ZOOM – Link to be provided
Interested in Buying A Yacht in San Diego?
The Membership Director has recently received this message from a yacht salesperson based in San Diego:
“I just moved out to San Diego from Denver and have embarked on a new career in the yacht brokerage business. A lot of Coloradans like to buy boats in San Diego to use as a warmer weather winter getaway in the marinas that are walkable from the airport. With that I can help!
My office is right next door to West Coast Multihulls and Seaforth boat rentals in Sunroad Marina, which have charter and educational opportunities your members might enjoy whilst I help them find the perfect yacht!
If members are interested, I can send a business card to any member that might want to look into owning?”
Cheers,
Nathaniel Barré, Yacht Consultant
619-313-3664
nathaniel@aglyachtsales.com
www.aglyachtsales.com
