PSYC 2023 - Issue #4
Port Sydney Yacht Club 2023 - Issue #4
Commodore's Corner
Edward Gledhill, Commodore
Ahoy, members!
Welcome to this week's issue of the PSYC Newsletter. The season is now in full swing...!
After a lot of deliberation, last Saturday's inaugural race went ahead. The race/meteorological teams were vindicated, though, as there was enough wind to race! Despite shifting and unpredictable conditions, eight boats made it out onto the course, with seven finishing. What followed was a very well-attended sailing party at the Johnson property with 50 or so members meeting up after a long winter (a reminder at this juncture that we go ahead with the sailing party on the scheduled Saturday, even if the race is postponed due to unfavourable conditions.)
As ever, huge thanks go to Sharon Vance and Mary Ann Hand, Crash Boat Officers, for their stewardship of last week's race - and thanks, in advance, for this season! Also, to Greg Crawford and new member Larry Onisto for running the Crash Boat - please sign up below if you are able to help out in future weeks. Finally, to Sharon Vance, Ted and Stephanie Johnson (Co-Commodore) for - what I'm told was - a fantastic opening party. Thanks to VC Dean for taking on a new role as Scorekeeper, and for writing up minutes of last week's skippers' meeting (see below). Please also see the scoring tracker with the 'Sailing & Racing' link further in this email. Thank you all - and also to anyone who I'm missing!
This week, we've got a jam-packed issue for you. Read on for:
This week's race/party info
Volunteers needed!
Attention all sailors!
Race #1: Race report & standings
Membership information
Phew! All that remains is to wish captains, crew and volunteers 'good luck' in the upcoming race. I look forward to being back at the lake myself!
Cheers!
Edward ⚓
P.S. Questions/feedback on the newsletter? Get in touch.
This Week
⛵ - Race #2 will be held in the usual format on Saturday, 8th July. See you for the (prompt!) start time of 2:15pm.
🎉 - Sailing party #2 - Mark & Stephanie Beadle are very kindly hosting the second sailing party of the season, after racing on Saturday 8th.
Address: 1116 Muskoka Rd 10. By water we are on the east side of the lake between Rocky and Forest Island. If it is a strong West wind, we do not recommend coming by boat as we get a lot of waves at our shoreline. If you do come by boat it is a 154-step climb to our lower deck. Choose your transportation method wisely.
By car we are between Hawkes Rd and Down Memory Lane. Look for address signs for 1116/1120/1130 at the black mailbox. There is also a realtor sign out front....not ours!
Enter the property and take the first left. There is lots of parking near the log cabin and near the propane tank. Late arrivals are welcome to drive down the laneway to our front door; you just won't be able to leave till others go!
Looking forward to seeing you.
Thank you for hosting, Mark & Stephanie!
Volunteers needed!
Commodore Team
We still need party hosts for the following dates:
Race Week #3 - Saturday, 15th July
Race Week #5 - Saturday, 29th July
A huge thank you to all those who have volunteered so far. Please consider volunteering, especially if you have not hosted in the last year or two. Click here to volunteer.
We are always in need of volunteers to 'Crash Boat' - a huge thanks to Tom & Nancy Laurie for volunteering this week. If you have a suitable boat and are free, please click here to sign up.
PS. we are working on getting a 'crash boat kit' together to help - stay tuned!
Attention all sailors!
We have started a sailors/"Crew Pool" WhatsApp group for sailors to join. Captains and crew can liaise about who is free and make new pairings. Please join here if you are interested.
The minutes of the skippers' meeting following the first race (1.7.2023) have been published in the sailors' section of the website. Here you will find racing & boat maintenance information, meeting minutes and scoring. The password is: psyc
Dean (VC, Scorekeeper) has begun a scoring tracker (see picture). It will be kept up to date all season for 'at a glance' race result tracking by boat.
Race #1 (July 1st): Race Report
Ted Johnson, Club Meteorologist
Saturday July 1 dawned gloriously sunny - an ideal beginning to a holiday weekend. Except for sailers. There wasn’t a breath of wind.
There was much phoning about as skippers - most of them busy doing what they should have been doing days earlier: raising masts and rigging their boats - fussed about race/no race, but the hot air over the phone lines did nothing to ripple the surface of the lake.
(A note here about when a race may be cancelled:
it’s up to individual skippers whether they choose to race or not race. The club and its members take no responsibility whatsoever in this regard;
we normally race on Saturday afternoons. The Committee Boat may decide that it doesn’t wish to help with the start/finish for any reason but in the writer’s experience races don’t happen if (a) the wind is forecast to and does remain below 4kts, and (b) thunderstorms or extremely high winds are going to occur.
the Committee Boat may chose to postpone or shorten a race depending upon circumstances.)
Back to Saturday July 1. The aviation forecast had called for a light to medium southwest wind by 2:00 and much to everyone’s relief the wind showed up.
It was the first outing of the year for everyone, so the start was a bit ragged both for the Committee Boat- with its new very loud horn - and for competitors.
But Uffa Fox (the British genius who designed the Albacore some 70 years ago) would have been proud to see eight boats cross the start line, with several more still ashore and not competing for reasons of varying acceptability.
We’ve been sailing Albacores now for about sixty years at the PSYC. And of course we welcome other classes.
Notable this year was the presence of two wooden hulled boats, skippered by Dean MacMurtry and by John Morgan who joins us this season from Lake Muskoka.
Predictably for Mary Lake, the winds were utterly unpredictable. The Committee Boat showed great perseverance as it moved the line to adjust for a windshift, and then had to do it again. John Hogg, recognizing how iffy the winds would be, set a slightly shorter windward leg, and with a freshening breeze the first boats rounded the mark in three tacks and were off for a boisterous downwind leg.
And then the wind died. And then it came up again. But only in cat’s paws, whimsically favouring some but condemning others to the distant back of the fleet. A skipper was heard humming Bob Dylan’s “…and the first ones now will later be last, for the times they are a changing“. Wishful thinking, as it turned out. Warren Hall and Brad Dibble had an iron lock on first place and by the time they reached the finish line were almost a full leg ahead of the rest. The balance of the fleet took about fifteen minutes to cross the line, having been becalmed on and off before a dramatic windshift from southwest to north-northwest brought them all home to the line.
A very democratic and productive skippers’ meeting during the after-party at the Johnson-Vance cottage produced very helpful advice for the Committee Boat and a reiteration of the skippers’ appreciation for Sharon and Mary Ann’s thankless efforts, as well as a strong consensus that the season is off to a great start.
Race #1: Standings
Membership information
Commodores & Treasurer
We are always looking for new - sailing and social - members! If you know someone who would like to join the club, why not bring them along to a party this season?
If anyone not currently on our mailing list (i.e. if you have been forwarded this email) would like to receive updates, sign up here.
How to join
Visit portsydneyyachtclub.ca/join and complete the form.
Email us here.
Contact Edward Gledhill, Commodore on +44-7375 466446 (UK mobile) or the Johnsons, on (705) 385 2507.
2023 Pricing
2023 membership pricing is the same as last year's. All amounts are per annum, and are payable to our Treasurer, Elspeth, by E-transfer to treasurer@portsydneyyachtclub.ca.
$35 per individual
Family price: $75 (which is 2x adults + $5 for any number of minors u19)
Over 19s need to purchase their own membership
Please do get in touch if you have any questions about membership.
If you have made it this far...
Thank you for reading this issue of the Port Sydney Yacht Club Newsletter. Please forward this to anyone who might be interested. See you on Saturday for the second race of the season!
The Team ⚓
P.S. A belated "Happy Canada Day"! We were very pleased that our first race of 2023 coincided with Canada Day celebrations.
