Tree Trimming Party – March 23rd and 24th – Around 9AM CDT

Join your clubmates to trim up the trees – Need Loppers – Chainsaws – Pole pruners – Chainsaw pruners .. Strong backs to move tree limbs around . The windex you save may be your own!

TELLTALE

NOVEMBER 2023

PERIODIC NEWSLETTER OF THE PORT OLIVER YACHT CLUB

CORRECTION OF THE CORRECTION

In the October Telltale I wrote the correction that in the Karl Million Regatta that Terry Williams, “was the skipper of his own Catalina 22, S/V Resurgam which he skippered amazingly well to come in second.” Actually Terry’s boat is an O’Day 23. How could I, of all people, forget.

THE GREAT MINNOW

The Club actually did have an Oktoberfest, in October, with brats, kraut, und beer! Prepared by our own Herr Brandon Cook. Terry and Annabelle Williams actually came dressed in ledderhosen for Terry and a drinnel dresses for Annabelle. I understand that the food and beer were Wunderbar!

The Great Minnow Regatta was also run. Due to poor weather on Sunday, it was only a one-day regatta. The lederhosen clearly inspired Terry because he won first place in his O’Day 23. Kevin Klarer in his Hunter came in second. Dado Basic in his Catalina 22 came in third, and Bob Sharlow in this Catalina 22 came in fourth.

After the day of racing and the Oktoberfest, I understand that we had our October meeting. No one took any notes, so we can assume that nothing radical or earth-shaking occurred.

COMING ATTRACTIONS

On the second Saturday of November, that is November 11, we will start the day with the Fall Clean-Up starting around 9:00 a.m. Please pitch in to clean up the Club property. Remember that Club dues were increased by $100 per year, BUT with the provision that you can work off that increase simply by participating in Club activities such as the Fall Clean-Up. Come out and help and earn yourself some credit. If you have tools that might be useful, please bring them with you. Blowers, trimmers, power saws, rakes, leaf bags, and such tools would probably be helpful.

After we work up an appetite cleaning up, we will be treated to another gourmet meal by our esteemed resident Chef, Brandon Cook. Please also bring some extra food, because we will have worked up an appetite.

After our repass, we will have our November Meeting. You may recall (but probably not) that the November Meeting is when we nominate and vote for members for positions as officers for the coming season. Originally, the only officers we elected were the Commodore, Vice Commodore, Purser, Scribe, and two Board Members At Large. Sometime along the way we stopped electing Board Members At Large and started electing people who agreed to carry out specific tasks, Race Committee Chair, Yard Master, Dock Master, and Editor of the Telltale. Of course, there is nothing to keep us from adding to or subtracting from this list. Think about whether you might be willing to serve or who else might serve.

SURVIVING THE SUCCUBUS

PROLOGUE – THE CPR THEORY

© Lee Huddleston 2023

I was taking a class in Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) given by our Yacht Club’s own Super Nurse, Carol Kersting, through the Public Health Department. The class was going well when I realized that I didn’t need to take a class in CPR, I needed to get my friends to take a class in CPR. Well, ok, maybe cute, but that really isn’t so. The very idea of just standing by while a person died in my presence is awful beyond words. But the principle actually is relevant when the subject is blue-water sailboats. I don’t need to own a blue-water sailboat, I need to get my friends to own blue-water sailboats. Let them deal with the initial cost, the taxes, and the eternal upkeep.

How would that be of any benefit to me? Visit any marina where ocean-capable boats hang out. There may be hundreds of beautiful, seaworthy boats just begging to go sailing. But their land-bound owners cannot take them out because they lack one very important ingredient. That ingredient is a crew. Even for the many boats capable of being single-handed and skippers who are capable of doing it, single-handing for longer than a day or two is boring and rather dangerous except for the dedicated introvert. By being willing and able to crew, you are doing the skipper a favor. And they usually realize it.

Don’t you need to be trained and certified? No. It doesn’t hurt to have training and experience, but the people with formal training and certification are often expecting to be paid. I’m focused on the enthusiastic person who simply wants to go sailing in exciting places, and often for free. A good personality is the primary requirement. And that holds true for the skipper as well as the crew. There are enough good skippers who need crew that a bully or primidone can find himself or herself sailing alone. Or not at all.

An eagerness and willingness to learn can go a long way to make up for a lack of sailing experience. Besides, the skipper usually has his or her own special way of doing about everything. If you have had formal training, you sometimes have to unlearn the official way and learn the skipper’s “better” way. And ironically, many skippers enjoy training their crew. Just be open to being told what to do and how to do it. That is part of the fun of being skipper. And, of course, avoid telling the skipper that his or her way is not the correct way, even if you think so yourself that it is.

The financial arrangements are as varied as there are different boats. I have never paid for the privilege of sailing, nor have I ever been paid. Do check what is expected. My experience has been usually meals purchased off of the boat are paid for by the individual. Meals on the boat are often covered, at least in part, by the crew and sometimes covered by the skipper. Often, the crew will go shopping for basic food at local stores before the trip begins. And in some places, getting local ingredient or food is a special, enjoyable benefit. Considering that you would have to buy food if you were home and that you are eating your meals in paradise, the food costs are usually reasonable. Talk with the skipper before signing on. Don’t wait for a surprise halfway through a cruise. Sailors need boats, and boats need sailors. It doesn’t hurt to ask.

I have been able to sail in the Bahamas, the Virgin Islands, the Turks and Caicos Islands, the Dominican Republic, Porto Rico, Antiqua, Dominica, Guadeloupe, Saint Lucia, Martinique, Venezuela, Greece, Turkey, the Chesapeake Bay, and along the Eastern Coast of the United States, all for free except for a share of the food. You can too.

More chapters of Surviving The Succubus are coming.

OFFICIOUS INTERMEDDLER

Yes, that really is a genuine legal term. It is the label for a person who interjects himself into someone else’s business, without being invited, often with disastrous, unintended results. One such instance comes to my mind. Our esteemed members, Carol and Frank Kersting purchase themselves a brand-new Flying Scott with the prettiest apple-red gelcoat we had ever seen. Carol and Frank were about to launch their new toy when along came a well-meaning officious intermeddler, who shall remain unnamed. As Carol and Frank were stowing equipment on their boat which was sitting about ten feet from the water, the intermeddler decided to help them launch the boat. He untied the bow line. Unfortunately, the intermeddler hadn’t noticed that the Kersting’s trailer was equipped with rollers instead of bunk boards. The instant that the bow line was released, the boat began its journey to the sea. Before it even registered on anyone, gravity was pulling the boat aft at a rapid clip. The three participants were paralyzed by the shock as the boat gained momentum. Gravity succeeded in launching the fiberglass missile into the air before crashing it down onto the concrete ramp, and scrapping it down to the water’s edge.

The intermeddler looked at Frank, who at the time was young, tall, and quite strong. The intermeddler’s life passed before his eyes. He just knew that he was a dead man walking.

At the same time, Frank was trying to decide whether to kill the intermeddler immediately or latter. Fortunately for the intermeddler, Frank was genuinely serious about his religion and the intermeddler’s life was spared, with just a very stern admonition, “Don’t you ever help me with my boat again!”

Lee Huddleston, Editor of the Telltale