Only six weeks remaining until the start of the CLYC season; Memorial Day weekend will be here before we know it!  Many docks and lifts are in and once again, Jude Sorensen wins the award for first sailboat on the water practicing.  The Sorensen dock hadn’t been in the water more than an hour before his Opti was in the water being rigged, it’s always great to see such enthusiasm from our youth!

Memberships are pouring in; well done friends, you must be tired of me hounding you!  We already have three brand new members to the YC thanks to the efforts of Commodore Long, with hopefully more to come… The racing fleets are upgrading boats and expanding, especially the X fleet, please encourage more of your friends and family to join, share the love of our lake and learn the sport if you haven’t yet!

Starting the year we’ll have the annual Spring cleaning of the clubhouse.  It’s scheduled for May 1st from 9am to noon; the Clean up of course will 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! All the necessary equipment will be on hand, just show up and you’ll be pointed in the right direction.  For more details please email Margaret Oz at m.osmundson75@gmail.com

The Clear Lake Sailing Center registration is up and running!  Take a look at everything they have to offer and sign up your kids or grandkids as soon as you can, www.clycss.com; based on the interest and excitement I’m hearing, spots will fill fast!  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.  You can rest assured all guidelines will be followed again in 2021.

The club racing season kicks off May 29th with the Memorial Day Regatta in honor of Art Tesar, Bob Swanson, Gill Bovard, JIm Larson and John Lundberg.  Sailors, as always, be ready for back-to-back races on Saturday at your respective times.  If you’ve forgotten already, here they are:

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

The following Saturday, June 5th kicks off our social calendar. The Yacht Club building in downtown Clear Lake will be the host location.  If memory serves, the Social Members have the honors of Hors de’ vours at the first party?  We have a way to go, I’ll get back to you on that one!  The Social Event Calendar is as follows:

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)

2021 is going to be an exciting year of racing here in Clear Lake!  We’re hosting the 50th MC National Championship; As of right now, we have 64 boats registered for the MC Nationals with over 100 expected to be in attendance.  The field will include Olympians, World Champions, National Champions, Regional Champions, Local Champions, Professionals and Amateurs; it’s going to be a spectacular show of sailing ability!  The regatta committee can’t put an event of this magnitude together without help however, if you’re already volunteering, we thank you greatly for the efforts; if you would like to volunteer and haven’t been approached, please contact us!

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 to learn from each other, their coaches and this year a professional 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 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 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.  Several boats are planning to attend. If you plan to attend and haven’t made housing arrangements, you may want to do so soon; hotels are filling up quickly.

The Interlakes Regatta…  It’s at Minnetonka, July 23-25.  Qualification for the event ends at the end of the First Series, July 11th. That’s all the details I have on that event.

If anyone has items for sale they would like listed on the website please email Stu Oltrogge, if you would like it listed in the Crow’s Nest please email Dan Allen.  I’ll go first:

For Sale – MC 2577 (available in July) – 2013 Melges, enclosed cockpit in great shape – email Dan Allen at dsallen@cltel.net for details.

Please don’t forget to go out to the website, www.clyciowa.com and register today!

Stay in the clear air,

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