Comments from our Commodore, Vince DePillis:
Gotta say, I am continually impressed by the quality of our tiny club.
Vice commodore Jeff Oakleif organized an event at the non-profit or Sail Sandpoint, where 4 of the club’s boats showed up to an event on lake Washington, to offer rides to all comers. It was pouring down rain off and on, and our boats all came from Shilshole, which is a ways– one set of locks, three draw bridges.
Shout out to Jeff and Mike Hummels on Ruff Duck, Ghislain and Fred on Mojo, Joanna, Paul, and Jess, on Ceratops, and Duncan on Dulcinea. I think we took about 35 people out for rides. Well done all!
The week before, we had a Rendez Vous at Blake Island, organized by Joe and Sue, who arrived early and left late on the noble cat Presto, provided taxi service in their dinghy, and hosted a most convivial potluck Saturday evening, complete with a prize giving for the 2024 Challenge Courses.
First Prize for potluck contribution goes to Paul and Joanna for the fleet of deviled eggs– which used tortilla chips for sails, and included a trimaran with pickle floats, a cat, and a proa.
Finally an extra big thank you to Paul (of the deviled eggs) for getting our web site back up after many many hours dealing with the damage done by a malevolent hack. Without Paul, it would have been bye bye website.
I am so grateful to you all. I hope to see many of you at Dougie B’s celebration of life tomorrow.
From Duncan Thomson:
Short video from Dulcinea. Ceratops and Mojo getting lifted through the locks on Saturday.
From Eric Lindahl:
Even though the rain and clouds kept the crowds away I took a couple pictures to show we were there. Seth the manager of Sail Sand Point was very appreciative of our participation. SSP just have small boats that only can hold one or two guests, where our big trimarans and cat took up to 6 guests. I hope we can do it next year….in better weather.
We had a lull in the wind and rain for 15 minutes so Mojo, the super light F25, put up the screecher only to be hit with a new strong wind. It was impressive to see them reaching across Lake Washington at a very fast pace. Those guests got their money’s worth!
Thank you to the crews and skippers that braved the worst weather of the month to put this on.
From Ghislain Devouton:
I think we hit our fastest speed around 12.5 knts under jib and main with a first time sailor at the helm.
Her parents coming from India were super happy. The mum was so excited she was standing up in the cockpit to feel the speed.
From Paul English:
We had great reports back from SSP, and passengers all told us they had a great time – even though some were in shorts or jeans and got absolutely soaked with heavy rain and hail. At least there was wind!
From Vice Commodore, Jeff Oaklief:
I spoke to Seth Muir today (SSP Director) and he wanted to extend his thanks to everyone at NWMA. Apparently we helped save the SSP open house event and turn attitudes around on a crummy wet day. He made special mention that he heard nothing but glowing reviews from the public who participated. Seth also said that he would love for us to participate next year as well… and I think this is the most evidential comment regarding how he felt about us being there.
Nicely done!
From a NWMA point of view I believe the event was a success on several fronts:
- community participation
- alliance creation
- membership driver (yep… Vince took down some names of folks who were interested in joining NWMA).
I want to thank everyone who participated… especially the shore crew/cat herders/videographers who kept things running smoothly!
From Bill Gibson:
Here’s a link to a video I shot of the event. I think the multihulls rapidly became the main attraction of the day!
I think the real credit belongs to those, yourself included, who gave up so much time and energy to bringing boats round and hosting the folks who’d braved the weather. Well done!
From Ginnie Jo Blue:
Nice job everyone and I really enjoyed both the reports and the videos. I can only imagine the interest will continue to grow if we make it an annual event. Who wouldn’t want to take a ride on a strange looking sailboat like that? I especially enjoyed the young kids carefully walking across Ruf Duck and thinking about all the adventures that boat has been on over the years! Did anyone notice the “bullet holes?”
From Andy Inglis:
PS, I hope my gear dries out in time for the WA360…