You could not have asked for a better day to have an outdoor function. It was sunny, no clouds in the sky, warm in the 60’s and no wind. We had everything set up by 11 AM and people starting to gather in the parking lot. We had a spread on 6 tables. Baked ziti, pot roast, KFC, and Pulled Pig BBQue, salads, slaw, potato salad, pasta salad, green bean salad, tortellini salad, baked beans, brownies cookies, cheese cake, strawberry crisp, blueberry cool whip something, toffee, cookies, apple pie, etc. We had over 50 people come to the Fall Meeting.
After everyone had their fill of food, we started the meeting. Doug gave us the treasurer’s report. To date we have 61 boats as members, the largest membership to date. Our treasury has $1900 in it with several other deductions (this event and the new waste caddy to come out). We have burgee’s for sale at $45. Let Doug or me know if you would like a new one or if you do not have one and want to purchase one.
Our T-shirts and other items have not been available. Raleigh T’s, on Millbrook Rd has our logo. I asked if someone lives close by and can check in with them, we need to find out what is the minimum order so that we can have some merchandise (T-shirts and hats) on hand for sale. Tim Vicknair and Stuart Rodwell volunteered to find out. (please get back to me by Jan 1, 2012 so we can put in an order and have thing ready for our Spring Meeting in March).
Diane Walters got up to talk about the Steele Creek Yacht Club website. We have a password protected membership section so that our members can get in contact with each other if necessary. If you forgot the password, just e-mail me and I will reply. Diane also asked that pictures be sent to her in a zip file instead of individually. Other suggestions are a service area. If you have a person for canvas work, boat graphics, engine mechanic, detailer, etc. get those names and numbers to Diane and she will set up an area on the website for this. Diane also asked our older club members if they have old newsletters from the club to get those to her too.
Mark then got to talk about the new waste caddy. He has most of the parts and just needs to modify one thing. Nathan asked if the hose could be at least 15’ long.
Eddie Walters got up to present the Spring Racing Series awards. In the B series the awards went to Big Bird (1st place) and Wrenagade (2nd place). In the A series, Honeycraft (1st place) and BrendaGail (2nd place). The Fall Series has one more race this coming weekend to finish. Eddie also said that next year there will not be a racing series but individual fun races to entice more people into participating.
We then had Pat Terry talk about areas for our members to work on our boats. Pat had talked to the people right down the road. They can do bottoms, and fiberglass repair. They charge $40 and hour. You can also do work yourself. The big problem is getting the larger boats there. You would have to de-mast and haul out. Reed Carpenter talked about the clean marina designation and clarified that you can do work on your below the 320’ water level. The main problem is that you need a water recapture for materials that come off your boat. We discussed about getting a letter together for Mr. Fleming in support of having a facility or making it terms of the new marina lease to have this facility. I asked if Reed, Pat and Rich Kamens can get together to draft a letter that the club can sign and get off to Mr. Fleming by the Spring Meeting.
Then we handed out awards of recognition and appreciation for those members who have continually helped others and the club by cooking or helping people get in and out of the dock, etc. These awards went to Ted Tlsty, Paul Sullivan, Jeff Matthiae, Rich Kamens, Bobette Eckland, Ron Honeycutt, Chesley Campbell, Steve Twyman, Doug Miller, and Don Courtney. For getting the website up and running and maintaining it, appreciation and thanks to Diane Walters. For recording all of our events on film, Laura Twyman. For putting together the racing series, Eddie Walters. And for the general “Fix It” help on the dock, Mark Alexander. The “Sailmate of the Year” award was given to me, Meryl Alexander. (Thanks everyone it was extremely touching for doing something that I enjoyed doing.
Finally we had the nominations for officers. Ted agreed to stay as Secretary, and Doug agreed to stay as Treasurer. Nominations for Vice Commodore went to Steve Twyman and nomination for Commodore went to Helen Rock. Congratulations to all nominees. With that, we had an end to our Fall Meeting.
Those members who had pictures, gave them to Mark to load on our computer. We will make CD’s that you can get copies of. We had lots of food and desserts for an evening campfire cookout.
After cleaning up, there were a hot and heavy rounds of Corn Hole challenges till the campfire time. At 6 PM, we started heading over to the moorings. Ted already had the fire going. It was a beautiful night. The moon was full the skies clear, a beautiful reflection onto the lake, and a great fire to keep warm by as we sat and talked over and joked about thing till 10 PM. A terrific ending to our wonderful year of sailing.
On Sunday the day started out clear and sunny and breezy. Several of us went out for a sail/motor. We had a great downwind run towards the dam. Winds were 15-20 knots and we just had out headsail halfway out doing 6.8 knot. You couldn’t ask for anything better. We stopped on the south side of Kimble point all the way up for a lunch break. As we started back, the clouds rolled in and the temperature dropped. We motored slowly and used our wash down pump and filters to fill up our water tanks. On the lake were Moonfish, Parrotise, Unplugged, Tenacious, Seahawk, Starbuck, & M&M. A great sail for the icing on the cake.
Our next club event will be in Mid January, a group sail and our 4th annual Chili Cook-off.