A huge shoutout, thank you and welcome to our new members; welcome to the Clear Lake Yacht Club family!  Existing members; welcome back!  I hope it’s been a great offseason, but now it’s lake time! Put gas in the powerboats (Starbeck don’t forget this step), prepare the tow lines, tighten the shackles, don’t forget to tape everything up after tuning and have the life jackets handy!  The official start of CLYC Summer 2022 is here! That’s right, another Memorial Day weekend of sunshine, BIG winds and cold water!

The most important piece of the summer is the social schedule…  Mark your calendars for June 4th at the YC building in beautiful downtown Clear Lake.  Past Commodore Chris Long set the bar pretty high last year despite still dealing with Covid; do you think Commodore Mike Starbeck is up to the challenge?  I bet he gives it his best shot! The festivities begin about 6:30 and end when they end… I’ll have more details about food and drink next week; in the meantime find your flip flops, boat shoes, flats, high heels, whatever you prefer and prepare for the first of four events planned for the summer; the dates are as follows:

June 4th – CLYC Building

June 18th – CLYC Building

July 16th – TBD

August 13th – MacNider/Ebeling Compound

September 4th – Year End Banquet/Awards CLYC Building

Unless a new member has a location they call “TBD” we don’t have a location planned for the July 16th party.  Surely someone doesn’t mind having fellow YC members around their home for an evening… If you would like to host, please contact Commodore Mike Starbeck – michael.starbeck@gmail.com

As always the CLYC racing season kicks off with the Memorial Day Regatta. Turn your radios to channel 72 an hour ahead of race time to hear the words of wisdom and witty banter from our great race committee teams.  Given the forecast at the time of this publication, listening to the radio will be a necessity; the water temps aren’t very high (64 degrees) and the winds may be gusting close to 30… Special instructions may be given so please pay attention.  We’ve been using basically the same racing schedule for 20 years, for the new members and those of us who never seem to make it on time, here it is:

Saturday @ 9:30am – MC and X Fleets

Saturday @ 2:00pm – E, C and Hobie Fleets

Sunday @ 10:00am – MC and X Fleets

Select Sundays @ 2:00pm – E Fleet (June 5th and 26th, July 17th and 24th, August 14th and 28th)

Just in time for Memorial Day weekend and the TRI Clear Lake, the sea wall restoration is complete; a very impressive feat considering the weather we’ve had this Spring… The TRI Clear Lake will be run this weekend on and around the lake so don’t plan on using the ramp downtown just yet.  A small change has been brought to my attention and that’s the route the swimmers will be taking/using:  According to the TRI Clear Lake Website the swimmers will mostly be in front of the sea wall and “Layout Lane.”  I believe that means the swimmers should be safe from moving boats… Of course, it wouldn’t be the “TRI” without the two other events; biking and running will be taking place along both North and South Shore Drive!  PLEASE keep a watchful eye for road closures and all those participating if you’re moving about the town.

The racing fleets are growing!  I don’t have the official numbers, but by my count we have 10 E boats, 3 C boats, 18 MCs, 8 X boats and 3 Hobie Cats. As mentioned previously we have a new “Provisional fleet”, the Melges 15, America’s hottest new double-hander!  Currently I believe we have 4-6 on the lake with hopes of tremendous growth! The X boat fleet returns every sailor; Elle Ebeling is set to defend her Fleet Championship title with the remaining 7 teams looking to end her reign. In the E fleet, Z-23, Team Loon has eyes set on another championship, but first has to hold off 9 other teams ready to pounce, including a new team making their debut in 2022.  One new sailor also makes his debut in the MC fleet along with several sailors coming back from injury or family timeouts!  Mark Tesar looks to defend his title against a host of eager sailors; no one can be counted out! I certainly hope the C fleet can get out for more than 2 races this year… We should all have fingers crossed for the health and opportunity of this bunch! The Hobie fleet returns this year after a short hiatus and with any luck they’ll get some good racing in this year.

Many go out to watch the racing live on the lake or at least watch from shore… If you’re not able to do that let me know and we’ll see if we can find you a ride. The results are posted on the CLYC webpage; the PRO’s, scorer and webmaster do a great job of keeping everything up-to-date.  They can be found here:  CLYC Results

I’ve mentioned several times the safety initiative brought forth by USSailing and the ILYA… Now is a good time to review your boats for proper safety equipment.  Life Jackets for everyone on the boat, fire extinguisher, throwable device, etc… Sailors, do you have a paddle, throwable, etc?  I’ve received several requests for the CLYC Safety Card, they’ve been emailed to those people; if you would like a copy of it, please let me know!  A reminder of basic information and protocol is a great thing to have on hand during a tense situation should one arise.

The CLYC is hosting three youth events this year:  The West Water X Boat Clinic, June 13th-14th and the two HUGE events this year; the 2022 ILYA X Boat and Optimist Championships.  July 27th – 30th over 100 X boat crews, their families, dogs and cats will take over the lake and town.  July 31st – August 2nd we’ll have 70+ Optimists continuing the invasion racing for the big hardware of the ILYA.  Margaret Oz, Andi Tisor and Kristen Ebeling are chairing both events and could still use some help in certain areas of the regatta; if you’re interested and/or able, please contact them!

School is just about over throughout the country, Ana Starbeck and the team of instructors are geared up and the new coach boats are ready! Session 1 starts June 6th; each session is filling up fast, be sure to go out to www.clycss.com and get the kiddos registered.  Not a kiddo, no problem… Once again this year adult classes will be offered!  Private lessons may also be available, if you have any questions please feel free to contact the Sailing Center and they can give you all the details.

A reminder to Board Members; a meeting is scheduled for this Sunday May 29th at 1:30pm.  Please arrive on time and ready to start at 1:30.  It will be held at the Music Enrichment Center on Buddy Holly.

If you have any suggestions or would like to include anything in the Crows Nest, please feel free to contact me. Until next week…

Stay in the Clear Air,

Dan Allen
MC 2811 – Relentless
E Scow Z-11 – Wild Side
dsallen@cltel.net
www.clyciowa.com
www.clycss.com