Newsletter
May 2000

From the Commodore’s Desk

It’s sailing season at last! Is your boat in the water? Do you have a boat? Do you need a boat? Do you have sailboat to sell? Would you like to hitch a ride on someone else’s boat? Would you like to learn the ins and outs of sailboats? Would you like to teach kids (and adults) about sailboats? Do you have an interest in racing sailboats?

If you answered yes to any of those questions, the Sailing Club is ready to help you, and now is the time. It promises to be a busy summer in Lake Saint Louis, and we sailors need to make the most of it. Get out on the water and take advantage of the warm breezes! Test your skills against other sailors as you race around to buoys. Share your sailing knowledge with kids excited to try this great sport. Help plan a party for the Sailing Club. Ask for help if you need some sailing mentoring. Offer to crew. Whatever you choose, just get involved! Without the members staying active in the club, we’d be just a bunch of holes in the water!

Need help getting started? Call me at 625-2154.

One other quick point. I hope to see dozens of sailboats on Monday, May 29^th at the Blessing of the Fleet. It’s easy to win the sailboat division when you’re one of only a few, so let’s make the winner work for it this year!

And They’re Off!

In case you missed it, we have already started racing. We will attempt to keep you posted by submitting articles to Newstime following each race. John Ross has graciously offered to handle this duty, with Don Allebach providing the scoring information.

We kicked off the 2000 racing season with the annual Cold Duck regatta on Saturday, April 29. The regatta was a three race event.

John and Doris Beard, serving as the Race Committee, did a great job of setting the course in the changing conditions. Fickle winds made things challenging for the participants as well, however the team of Ray Grossmann and Paul Schattgen demonstrated patience with the ever-changing conditions to take the Cold Duck trophy in Kaleidoscope. Grossmann and Schattgen won two of the three races, and finished second in the other.

Following closely behind Mast Confusion were Pearson and Josh Buell. The Buell team finished with first, second and third place finishes. Winning the Sunfish and Blue Fleet was Stephen Long, who was one of the students in last year's Lake Saint Louis Youth Sailing Academy. This was Stephen's first regatta.

Also competing this year were the teams of Dan Houseman and Jean Coughlin, Norm West and Ken Kreisch, Don Allebach and George Abbe, John Walther and daughter Amy, Paul Otto, Mike Deane and Len Tulipanna.

The regatta was followed by a pizza party at Ruggeri's Ristorante in Wentzville, where the pizza was delicious and plentiful. Don Allebach, official scorer, presented the Cold Duck trophy to the Grossmann/Schattgen team, and a bottle of Cold Duck to the second place Buell team.

Series racing began on May 7. Josh Buell won the first race (A Series), followed by Dan Houseman, Norm West and Don Allebach. In the first B Series race, Dan Houseman took the honors followed by Don Allebach, Pearson Buell and Norm West. Note that Josh Buell (11) is fairing much better than his dad (age 39).

Stephen Long has joined the fleet in his Sunfish, so we encourage other Sunfish sailors to challenge his current dominance of his small division. We also encourage novice racers to come out and sail in the Blue Fleet, where finishing is it’s own reward. Racing mentors are standing by to offer a hand to anyone wishing to build their racing skills.

The first Sunfish regatta of the year will take place on Saturday, June 3^rd (see the invitation included with this newsletter). This is both a racing event and social event, so there is no excuse not to attend! The racing starts on the little lake at 12:30, and the barbecue starts at 5:30 at the clubhouse (on the patio near the pool). The party (food, etc.) will cost $7 for adults and $4 for kids. Please RSVP to Laura or Duane Wall at 561-1343.

The Lake Saint Louis Youth Sailing Academy is Back in Business!

Thanks in large part to the Lake Saint Louis Community Association, we’ll be teaching sailing all summer this year. The CA has taken delivery on three brand new Sunfish sailboats that we’ll be using for the classes. We pulled the boats in the Lake Saint Louis 25^th Birthday Celebration parade and lots of people stopped by to ask about lessons (Our "float" was full of kids from last year’s Sailing Academy, and we won the third place float trophy).

Remember that this year we are simply teaching. The CA is providing the boats and scheduling the students. What could be easier?

Here is the sailing lesson schedule for the summer of 2000. The highlights are:

• Each month (June, July and August) will have a week (4 days) of beginner lessons, with two sessions (a.m. and p.m.). Each lesson will have a maximum of 6 students.
• We will have evening lessons on Wednesdays. Twice a month we'll have intermediate/racing lessons, followed by racing. Twice a month we'll have adult lessons (we can schedule private lessons as well, if needed).

We scheduled the week-long lessons for Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. Note the day off on Wednesday. We felt a break in the middle of the week would allow a breather for those doing the teaching. Additionally, we'll be doing evening classes on Wednesdays so we felt this would be the best day to take off.

The intermediate classes will be a series of two, and the adult lessons would be single classes. The racing will include those in the class as well as any club members that wish to race. Awards will be given to those in the classes at the end of each month. The Sailing Club will track those members that raced (whether in the classes or not), and determine a winner at the end of the season (these scores would be combined with any Sunfish scores from the Sunday afternoon races).

Anyone interested in lessons should contact the CA. We will, of course, need teachers, especially for the June lessons, as they’ll be here very soon. If you would like to teach or just help out, be it for a single class, day or evening, please contact Norm West at 561-1682. These classes are the future of the Sailing Club. We can’t depend on sailors moving into the area, we need to grow our own! It is a lot like Social Security…you need people paying into the system (the students) if you expect to take anything out (the current members).

Don’t worry, we’ll have the lesson plan all prepared for you. Just volunteer and then show up and teach! Call Norm with any questions or call Pearson Buell at 625-2154

Please be aware that the cost of the lessons (if any) will be set by the CA.