A note to my fellow sailors in Maine:

Haitians still have a pressing need for food and shelter as they recover from the massive earthquake that struck in January. As a member of the Maine sailing community, I’m organizing a drive to collect used sails to be shipped to Haiti to be used as makeshift shelter. The rainy season is starting early this year in the Caribbean, so the faster we can get our used sails to Haiti, the better off the estimated 770,000 homeless will be.

Maine Sailing Partners in Freeport is willing to be a drop-off point for your sails, March 5 until March 19, M-F 8:00 to 5:00.
Pope Sails and Rigging, in Rockland will accept sails in the mid-coast area, March 5 until March 19, M-F 8:00 to 5:00.
They will then be trucked to Miami where two organizations, Haiti-Life and Shake-a-Leg, have the infrastructure in place to ship the sails to Haiti.
Please contact your friends, fellow yacht club members, other sailors, anyone you know who might have old, used sails taking up space and ask them to donate to the people of Haiti.
Deadline for donations will be Friday, March 19.

The fine print:
Shake A Leg the Miami collection point, and Haiti-Life, the shipper to and distributor in Haiti are both 501c3 organizations so your donation is tax deductible. Shipping from Miami to Haiti is funded by Project Medishare, also a 501c3.
Any sail will be accepted, other than torn, shredded or delaminated sails.
Please have the hoist and foot lengths available so we can properly tag the sail.

Thanks for your help
John Eide
jeide@meca.edu

Maine Sailing Partners
24 Noble Drive, Freeport, ME 04032
207-865-0850 or 888-788-7245

Pope Sails & Rigging
237 Park Street, Rockland, ME 04841
207-596-7293

Maine Sailing Partners     http://www.mesailing.com/
Pope Sails & Rigging      http://www.popesails.com
Shake-a-Leg     http://www.shakealegmiami.org
Haiti-Life     http://www.haiti-life.org/
Project Medishare     http://projectmedishare.org/

Fleet 43 will celebrate the end of another sailing season with good friends and food on November 11th.  Chick here to view Evite.

We had a great turn out for the Annual Meeting on October 14th.  Please see the attached Meeting Notes.

See you all at the Fleet Awards on November 11th.

Annual Fleet Meeting October 14th, 2009
6:00 pm in the PYC Captain’s Room-We hope to have at least one representative from each boat present.

1. Budget/Treasurers Report-Shelly 5 minutes
2. Fleet Officers (Nominations will be sent out ahead) 5 min
3. 2009 Fleet Awards /Party-November 11th 5 minutes
4. Food/Dues for 2010  10 minutes
5. Trophies-Weekly, Series, and Season   5 minutes
6. Rules Seminar-Dick Rose 10 minutes
7. Race Committee and Seminar 10 minutes
8. Tonini Series-Finalize NOR and races to be included 5 min
9. 2010 Calendar 5 minutes
10. Regatta Promotions Contract-Carter 5 minutes
11. Sponsorship-Carter 5 minutes
12. Downeast 25th Annual 15 minutes
13. PYC Update/News and Rules/Policies 5 minutes
14. Fleet Membership-How to maintain and increase 5 min
15. Other Business

Hello Everyone,

We are nearing our Annual Fleet Meeting on October 14th at 6:00 at PYC.  We hope to have many fleet members attend, but do require at least one representative from each boat to be present.

One of the items that will be discussed is the nominations of new officers.  As of right now these are the people, their position, and whether they would like to continue:

Molly White-Fleet Captain               Wishes to Continue
Stephanie Helms-Race Committee    Wishes to Continue
Shelly Paules-Treasurer                   Wishes to Continue
Tony Jessen-Fleet Historian              Wishes to Continue
Mark Klein-Fleet Photographer         Unknown
Nick Dambrie-Travel Coordinator/Rear Captain         Unknown

It looks like most of the positions are willing to continue but if you would like to nominate another individual, it would be wonderful to have a person in the fleet to send nominations to before the meeting so that we can have a clear discussion and decision making process.  If any of you would be willing to head up that process, I would greatly appreciate it.  Please email me at mollyfrommaine@yahoo.com and let me know.  I will forward that information on to the fleet.  This job basically requires gathering names and reading them off at the meeting for a vote.

If no one volunteers, please feel free to send nominations to me.

Thanks again.
Molly

The J24 Fleet Haul Out has been scheduled for Saturday October 3rd from 8:30-10:30 am.
Please have masts down and be ready to go.  Also please bring $50 in cash or a check made out to Handy Boat to pay for your haul out.

Etchells Haul Out If you can not make the haul out or would like to stay in the water later you can make arrangements to haul out with the Etchells fleet on Saturday October 17th for the same price.  If you choose to haul out with the Etchells please let Molly White know so that they will be expecting you.

Fleet 43 Meeting Don’t forget to attend the fleet meeting on October 14th at 6:00 pm at the Portland Yacht Club.  There will be many decisions about the upcoming season, so we ask that a representative from every fleet boat be there.

• Thank You-First of a huge “Thank You” goes out to all of the fleet members and volunteers that made this year’s Downeast Regatta possible.  It was a fantastic event and we received tons of positive feedback.  There are already 10 boats registered for next year’s 25th Annual Downeast, which speaks volumes to the level of quality of our event.  Nice work everyone!
• Haul Out-I am in the process of scheduling the Fleet Haul Out. I am contemplating scheduling it after the end of the PYC Fall Series so that the boats that are not traveling can compete.  Feed back from boat owners on this haul out plan before the end of this week would be appreciated.
• PYC Fall Series-The PYC Fall Series is held on the next four Saturdays and races are followed by chili, chowder, and drinks at the Portland Yacht Club.  Remember at the age of 80, George Tonini won the Lightship Race on his J24, Trick or Treat. Let’s get some fleet boats out there!  For more information visit the website.
• Handy Boat Regatta-There is also the Handy Boat Regatta, which is this coming Sunday.  This is a fun main and jib race for family and friends, a Second Chance favorite.
• Leafer’s  Last Leg-The Leafer’s Last Leg hosted by Sail Maine on October 17th.  For more information about this event see the website.
• Storage-Lastly, Rich Carlson is offering winter storage in an un-heated Westbrook location for boats on trailers at $20/ft of boat length.  The storage runs from November to May.   You can not work on the boats while in storage.  Vehicles, RVs, etc are also welcome.  Contact Rich Carlson at 207-831-2392 if you are interested.

2009 Downeast Job Break Down-Here is a breakdown of the jobs for the Downeast regatta.  Please read it carefully and share with your crews.  If for some reason you cannot perform your task please try to find another crew member to cover it.

This event is a huge success because we all contribute.  If you see something that could be done or a fleet member that needs a hand please help out whenever you can.

Thanks everyone, it should be a great weekend.

Food Shopping and Chili Making: Shelly, Laurie, Brookes, and Meg

T-shirt and belt Sales (also put merchandise away when finished: We will have men’s and women’s tee shirts, dry shirts and belts to sell.  Selling merchandise is an important way to bring in money for the fleet.
Friday 5-8 Molly and Sarah Helming
Saturday 7:30-8:45 Molly and Monica
Saturday Night after racing until 7:30 Kaighn/Impetuous
Sunday Morning 7:30-start Steve Neal
Sunday afternoon Jess and Andy

Award Set Up Saturday and Sunday: See Carter White for daily awards, trophies.  Daily awards on Saturday will be on the Junior Deck and Sunday’s daily awards and trophies will be on the front deck or in the great room (weather depending.) Brent & Gretchen Sullivan/Draco

Keg Care-Set Up and Take Down: Whoever gets in off the water first should set up the keg on Saturday and Sunday.  Please make sure the keg is taken care of Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights before leaving.  It can be put in the walkin in the kitchen  at the end of each night.
Friday afternoon-night Stephanie Helms and Mike Willett
Saturday afternoon-night Stephanie Helms and Mike Willett
Sunday afternoon Stephanie Helms and Nick Dambrie

Snack Duty (set up and clean up): See Shelly for location of snacks and bowls.
Friday afternoon Shelly, Meg, Brookes and Laurie
Saturday afternoon Jess and Andy
Sunday afternoon Jess and Andy

Check-In/ Weigh In
Friday 4-8 and Saturday 7:30-skippers meeting Molly and Carter White

Launch and Haul at Handy’s: Trailers should first be stored in the upper lot at Handy’s  and then over flow can be parked along the fence at PYC or maybe in the field.  For haul out the cars should have a matching hull number card in their dash so that we can make sure that the trailer matches the boat being hauled.
Friday 2-6 Rich Degrandpre, Nick Dambrie, and Mike Willett
Saturday 7:30-9:00 (by appointment only-as of right now there are no boats) Rich Degrandpre, Nick Dambrie, and Mike Willett
Sunday after Racing (keep a radio on ch 72 to update on progress and awards time-boats traveling to Marblehead & Lake George should plan to haul out as well) Rich Degrandpre, Wabi Sabi, and Sullivans

Mooring Coordination Bob Putnam and Launch Drivers

BBQ Set Up (We can use the Junior Grill if we can’t find our tank) Denali Crew-Tony will buy the food.  Molly has ketchup, mustard and relish.

Provisioning RC and Mark boats for Saturday and Sunday: There will be a total of 7 people for each day give Shelly the receipt for reimbursement Terry Naylon and Matt Blakeman (decide between you which day you want)

Breakfast Saturday and Sunday Pit Party

Clean up: Please leave the club better than the way you found it.
Friday Night: Junior deck/room and captain’s room Bad Apple
Sat/Sunday breakfast Pit Party
Saturday After Dinner: Clear tables empty trash into dumpster and replace with new bags.  Wipe down wooden tables, and break down white tables on the deck for dancing.  Mr. Hankey and Flying Chicken
Saturday After Party: Clear and wipe down all surfaces, throw away trash, take trash out to dumpster, replace trash bags, and close all windows and door.  Wabi Sabi, Al, Impetuous, and Bouncing Betty
Sunday: Break down tables and throw all trash away Denali

Food

Friday Meg, Shelly, and Laurie

Saturday Gritty’s and Steph

Sunday BBQ Denali

Bartending: A club member or staff member must be bartending at all time.
Friday Night 5-8 Rum-Bad Apple Crew and Beer-Scott Smithwick, (5:00-6:00) Andrew Gibbons (7:00-8:00), and Mark Waite (6:00-7:00)
Saturday Night 5-10 Rum-PYC Bartender and Beer-Ed Rowe (7:00-8:00), Skip (6:00-7:00) and Wendy Yale (5:00-6:00), Bill Newberry (8:00-9:00), Dave Robinson or Mark Klein (9:00-10:00)
Sunday afternoon 3-6 Mark Klein (4:00-5:00), Carter White (5:00-6:00), Tom Hall (3:00-when off the water-4:00) (any other PYC Fleet 43 sailors please fill in if necessary)

Scoring Stephanie Helms (unless Mark wants to do it on the LL)

RC Mark Toso (PRO), Rick and Cis Tonks, Greg Carville
Mark Boat 1 Skip Yale
Mark Boat 2 Scott & Shirley Fox

Protest Committee Bill Newberry (facilitator), Greg Carville, Andrew Gibbonn, & Sarah Helming.

Photo Boat James Cullum & Kieth Luke

Has anyone seen the tank that goes to the Fleet 43 grill.  We need it for this Sunday’s BBQ.

If you have any info regarding its whereabouts please email Molly at mollyfrommaine@yahoo.com.

Thanks!

A couple of News Worthy Items

• We need RC for Wednesday September 9th, if you are interested in doing RC on the 9th please email Molly White at mollyfrommaine@yahoo.com
• The Downeast Regatta is just around the corner, if you have not registered please do so as soon as possible. The more boats from our own fleet that we have registered the more boats from away we will attract.
• The fleet is offering housing for the Downeast Regatta. If you are able to house a crew or two…or five please contact Molly White with your housing details, such as bed number and size.
• We are looking for a few more volunteers to finish off the Downeast Jobs. In addition to housing, we are looking for one more person on the Lindsay Lord for Race Committee both days, two more people for Protest Committee, a photo boat/driver and keg bar tenders (must be a club member) for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.
• We are still in the hunt for sponsors for the Downeast Regatta. Remember sponsors brought in by fleet members keeps more money in the fleet. Contact Carter White at carter@regattapromotions.com.
• For those boats that travel to the Lake George Changing of the Colors, please note that the Capri Village has had a fire and rooms are limited.  There are plenty of other great places to stay, many folks have stayed at the Treasure Cove, which is right next door to the Capri.