Hello everyone and welcome to the 2021 edition of the CLYC!  Let’s hope the madness of the past year will continue to subside and slowly make a return to “normalcy.”

Despite the pandemic, 2020 really turned out to be a fantastic year for the CLYC!  A full schedule of socializing, plenty of competitive racing across the fleets and a major regatta in the fall. The challenges presented by COVID-19 were no match for Commodore Hank Anderson; he did an amazing job organizing, preparing, reorganizing, repreparing, changing yet again and ultimately producing great outcomes!  Thank you Hank for your service and very hard work for the CLYC!

At the helm in 2021 – Commodore Chris Long with Vice Commodore Mike Starbeck; the club is in great hands!  They have quite a lot on their plate this year; still dealing with COVID, a National level regatta, a youth regatta and high expectations for the social calendar. Great leaders still need help; remember that when they come calling.

Speaking of the social schedule…  It’s ready to go!  Chris has been doing some serious party planning and scheduling in the off season and here’s how it will go:

June 5th – YC (downtown Clear Lake)
June 19th – YC (downtown Clear Lake)
July 17th – Brad and Margaret Oz residence
August 14th – Marcus and Julie Lundberg residence
September 5th Awards Dinner – YC (downtown Clear Lake)

Stu Oltrogge has the website nice and neat, updated with current officers, the online registration process is streamlined, we’re off to a great start!  Go ahead and register today; heck, take a break and do it now.  www.clyciowa.com  I’ll wait……………………………………….

Ok good, now that you’ve registered, let’s continue.

The annual Spring cleaning of the clubhouse is scheduled for May 1st from 9am to noon; the Clean up will of course include inside the building as well as the grounds around it.  Please show up and be ready to work hard and fast; the first rental of the facilities are scheduled for May 2nd! For more details please email Margaret Oz at m.osmundson75@gmail.com

As we do every year we start the racing season Memorial Day weekend, with the Memorial Day Regatta. This year, in honor of the five vibrant souls of the CLYC family in 2020, Past Commodores Art Tesar, Bob Swanson, Gil Bovard, Jim Larson and John Lundberg, their names will be added to the regatta name. All were very active in the yacht club as well as other civic organizations; their contributions, kindness and zest for great times will forever be missed.

In addition we’ll be including in the Yearbook, a page or possibly pages dedicated to the people who we’ve lost in the past who’ve left a lasting impact.  If you would like to list a family member, friend or have a suggestion of a person that should be listed, please contact Chris Long at long.christine@bradshawlaw.com or Emily Haugerud at ecoltrogge@gmail.com

Starting with the Memorial Day Regatta in honor of Art, Bob, Gill, JIm and John the schedule for racing will remain the same as it’s been for several years now, but a refresher is never a bad thing!

Saturday @ 9:30am – MC and X Fleets
Saturday @ 2:00pm – E, C and Hobie Fleets
Sunday @ 10:00am – C, MC, Hobie and X Fleets

One portion that changes from year-to-year are the extra built in races for the E fleet, they’re as follows:

Sunday afternoons – June 6, July 18, August 8, August 29

A minor change to the racing schedule is the cutoff or breaking point between the First and Second Series.  Normally the first series ends with the 4th of July Regatta, this year it will end after the races on July 11th. It was moved back to make the number of races more even between the two series.

Given that the city has already announced that this year’s 4th of July parade will be on Monday morning, July 5,  the plan is to race as scheduled on Sunday July 4th.  That may change however, as always stay tuned, we’ll let you know if any change occurs.

Qualification for the Interlakes Regatta, yes that’s still a thing, will be based on Series position in each fleet ending July 11th.  If you care to attend, the Interlakes Regatta will be held this year at Minnetonka Yacht Club, July 23-25.

The CLYC is hosting two great events this year: First on the schedule is the 50th MC National Championship being held from June 24-27.  As of today we have 56 boats registered and we should see upward of 100 if not more; maybe we can break the record for most boats in an MC Nationals, 109 boats!  Who holds that record…?  Well we do, THE Clear Lake Yacht Club of course!  MC Fleet members, please register for the regatta now. The event co-chairs have long been at work planning, organizing and collaborating with many and will need many more to make such a huge endeavor a success.  If you haven’t been directly asked and are willing to help, please contact Mark Tesar, Stu Oltrogge, Margaret Oz or Dan Allen and a place will be found for your specific skill set!

The second is the annual West Water Clinic for the X boaters.  Annual; yes it’s now an annual event!  The Sailing Center put on such a great event last year despite the COVID challenge that they were asked to hold the event again; and hopefully host the event for years to come!  They’ll have boats coming in from Okoboji and Minnesota lakes to learn from each other, their coaches and this year a major coach!  Ted Keller of TK Sailing is coming over to help on the water and improve the skills of all sailors participating, it’s truly a blessing to have a professional like Ted coaching our youth.

The Clear Lake Sailing Center (formerly the Clear Lake Yacht Club Sailing School) will be up and running this year.  Some of you may say, “Well duh.”  Many teaching facilities were not last year, including some very close to us…  Last year the CLSC Board, instructors and students operated in a manner compliant with CDC guidelines and those imposed by various other entities; the result was 0, ZERO Covid related outbreaks or issues.  That’s just fantastic, tremendous effort put forth. Their Facebook page is up-to-date with registration information and their website, www.clycss.com will be updated very soon.  Take a look at everything they have to offer and sign up your kids or grandkids as soon as you can; based on the interested excitement I’m hearing, spots will fill fast!

This has started to get a little long winded… Why don’t you take a break and click on www.clyciowa.com and register for the upcoming season…

In other news around the sailing scene; the ILYA has a great offer to promote attendance in their Invitational Regattas.  If you haven’t raced an ILYA Invitational Regatta in the past 5 years, the ILYA Promotional Committee will pay your registration fee if you choose to attend one.  That’s all the scow fleets; E, C, MC.

E Invitational – Mendota Yacht Club – July 9-11
C Invitational – Minnetonka Yacht Club – July 16-18
MC Invitational – Okauchee Lake Yacht Club – July 9-11

The ILYA Championships are in Okoboji this year; the event stretching an entire week doesn’t have much for specific detail yet, however, most of the pertinent info can be found at www.ilya.org or www.okobojiyachtclub.org .  A’s and MC’s race from August 16-18 with the E and C fleets finishing the week August 19-21.  I know we have several boats planning to attend.

Please don’t forget to go out to the website and register today.  Memorial Day weekend is quickly approaching; now that you’re done reading the first Crow’s Nest of the year, take 5 minutes and sign up.

Stay in the clear air,

Dan Allen
MC 2577 – Relentless
dsallen@cltel.net
www.clyciowa.com
www.clycss.com