Sad news isn’t the way I wanted to begin this Crows Nest, however, as the purveyor of all things newsworthy and noteworthy within the Club, I simply must…  In the recent weeks we’ve lost two more past Commodores; Dr Ben Broghammer (Commodore 1980) passed away on May 5 and W.L. Nicholas (Commodore 1967) passed away this past Monday, May 24. Both men volunteered and served the CLYC in many capacities but will be best known for instilling the love of the lake and sailing into their children.  Ben’s obituary can be found here and W.L.’s here. W.L.’s visitation will be tomorrow (Thursday, May 27) with funeral services on Friday, May 28.

Finally I can say………Break out your lifejackets, hiking boots and gloves; a new chapter of CLYC racing and fun is here!  Memorial Day weekend is the official opener and we kick things off with the Memorial Day Regatta in honor of Art Tesar, Ben Broghammer, Bob Swanson, Gill Bovard, JIm Larson, John Lundberg and W.L. Nicholas.  Sailors, as always, be ready for back-to-back races on Saturday at your respective times. The racing schedule is as follows:

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

• E fleet:  Extra racing Sundays – June 6, July 18, August 8, August 29

Head PRO Charlie MacNider reminds us a few rule changes have been made in this edition; Please review the RRS 2021-2024.  If you have questions, a really nice explanation of the changes with diagrams/videos are available at www.sailzing.com

The social schedule you may ask…  What’s more important than that?  Nothing of course! Saturday night, June 5th we put away the gear and break out the dancin’ shoes and high heels, as we kick off our social events at the Yacht Building downtown. Commodore Chris Long plans to have a food truck on site; Please do not bring any food items to share to this event; also if you’re feeling ill please stay home, if you’re not ill yet still nervous, wear your mask; let’s be social yet keep everyone comfortable and safe! The Social Event Calendar is as follows:

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

2021 is going to be an exciting year of racing here in Clear Lake!  We, the Clear Lake Yacht Club are hosting the 50th MC National Championship; With 4 weeks remaining until the start we have 90 boats registered with over 100 expected to be in attendance.  An event this size can’t be run without volunteers in many areas and the Club needs your help!  Julie Oltrogge is the Chairperson of the volunteer committee; give her a call or shoot her an email, clyciowa@gmail.com, if you can help in any way.  Can’t physically help at an event; let your waterfront space do it for you…In order to maintain our Covid protocols and good practices we intend to spread the fleet across as many docks as we can.  No mooring will be allowed down in front of the club.  If you’re comfortable having a boat or two at your dock, please contact Deb at dtesar@cltel.net.  Rest assured folks; if you don’t come forward now, these nice ladies will come calling!

The second is the annual West Water Clinic for the X boaters. The Sailing Center put on such a great event last year despite the COVID challenge 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 in preparation for the X Inland Championships in Wisconsin. Ted Keller of TK Sailing is coming over to coach our sailors on and off the water; it’s so great to have a professional coach like Ted involved with our youth.

Following the two regattas, the excitement continues in Clear Lake.  The Carnies will be in town and open up shop on the 30th of June continuing through the 5th of July; The 2nd Annual Boat Parade will be happening on the 4th of July along the same or at least a similar route as last year; On the 5th of July, the Annual Parade down Main Street.  For more details on the local festivities head to www.clearlakeiowa.com; for more detail on the boat parade, hit up Andi Tisor at andi_tisor@msn.com

In other sailing news; a few sailors over the winter made treks to different parts of the country to enjoy the warm weather and keep their craft sharp!  Mark Tesar raced in the MC Midwinter regatta with a record turnout of sailors; Jeff Nicholas branched out sailing in a totally new class, the Melges 15; most recently Brad Price and team raced at the Lake Geneva Spring E Regatta, which is a star-studded event!  Great job guys and thanks for representing the CLYC!

The ILYA Championships are in Okoboji this year… I know we’ll have numerous sailors attending that regatta; the A’s and MC’s race August 16-18 – the E’s and C’s race August 19-21.  The ILYA is also offering a special promotion where they’ll pay your registration fee to enter an Invitational Regatta if you haven’t sailed one in the last 5 years. Those event dates are listed at www.ilya.org.

Lastly if you have an item or items you would like to sell or are looking for, please let me know.

For Sale – MC 2577 and trailer (available after Nationals, possibly before) – 2013 Melges, enclosed cockpit in great shape – email Dan Allen at dsallen@cltel.net for details.

Stay in the Clear Air,

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