Archive for the ‘Sailing’ Category

IMPORTANT-Downeast Job Breakdown

Tuesday, September 8th, 2009

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

Mid-Summer Meeting Notes-Please Read

Tuesday, July 21st, 2009

Mid Summer Meeting Notes

*Notes in bold

Monday July 22, 2009

5:30 in the Captain’s Room

I. Need for Rules and/or Race Management Seminar (in the fall, winter, spring)
Race Management Seminar-PYC will probably be holding another Race Management Seminar this spring; Fleet 43 will offer to help with this event in hopes to be co-hosts for the seminar.  Also Fleet 43 members will be encouraged to attend to increase attendance and to better the fleet’s race management overall.

Rules Seminar- The fleet will host this on their own but will open it up to fleet members, yacht club members, and other sailors.  Emily will speak to Dick Rose about doing the seminar or we will work through US Sailing.  The goal of this seminar is to better our own fleet racing as well as to host an event that gives back to the sailing community.

The cost of each of these events would be around $50.  We will finalize the arrangements for these at the annual meeting.

Sailing by the Rules in the Fleet- A friendly reminder to sail under the US Rules of Sailing and if a boat does not then you are encouraged to protest them (even on Wednesdays).  As written in the Wednesday Night NOR, the fleet, as a whole, will sit as the protest committee.  One way to learn/understand the rules of sailing is to use them.

II. Calendar of Up Coming Travel Events:

A. Northeast Regionals September 19-20th
Northeast Regionals will be held in Marblehead and will follow the Downeast Regatta.  The regatta offers a low entry fee,  a crane,  rooms at the Corinthian are going to be cheap for the event (or there are plenty of other places to stay in Marblehead), and Marblehead has one of the best Race Committees in the country.  This is a world qualifier with several of the boats that were at the Portsmouth Districts.  It would be nice to send as many of our boats as possible to this event because Marblehead boats come to the Downeast Regatta each year.   The more boats we send the more boats they will send to us.  It would be nice to have the boats planning to attend register well before the Downeast so Marblehead can see our fleet participation.

If you would like to go and need crew or would like to crew for another boat, please use the blog to get messages out to the fleet.  We can also make announcements on Wednesday nights.

Haul out-If there are not too many boats from away, boats going to Northeast Regionals can haul out at the end of the Downeast on Sunday.  If we have too many boats from away, there has been a fleet haul out scheduled for September 15th starting at 3:00 pm.

B. Lake George October 3-4th

Lake George already has 41 boats registered including Denali, Al, Steve, and Pit Party.  It is a fun regatta with a great venue.

C. East Coast Championships October 29-November 1st

Held in Annapolis, there are at least 2 boats from our fleet planning to head down.

D. Noroton, CT Regatta October 10th and 11th

E. Leafer’s Last Leg at Sail Maine October 17th

This was held in 420s and Ygnlings last year and they are contemplating adding J24s and Etchelles to the venue.  They will offer crane service to launch and haul the J 24s.  If you are interested in having a J24 line please let Stephanie Helms or Sarah Helming know.

III. Annual Meeting

At least one representative from each fleet boat must attend.  Decisions for the 2010 season will be made at this meeting so attendance is important.


A. Date and Time : Wednesday, October 14th at 6:00 pm
B. Location: PYC Captain’s Room
C. Set Agenda
1. Budget/Treasurers Report
2. Regatta Promotions Contract
3. Fleet Officers (Nominations will be sent out ahead)
4. Dues
5. Food
6. Trophies
7. Rules
8. Tonini Series
9. Fleet Membership
10. Sponsorship
11. PYC Update/News and Rules
12. Other Business

IV. Annual Awards
A. Date and Time: Wednesday November 11th at 6:00 pm
B. Venue: Same as last year, the White’s house/Potluck, an evite will be sent out closer to the date.

V. Doublehanded Regatta August 22nd
If the Trick or Treat gets in the water: To celebrate its return we will go with a Halloween theme.  Crews will wear masks/costumes etc.


A. RC: Tom Hall
B. Awards: Fun Awards
C. Food: BBQ and Potluck.  The fleet will supply the burgers and dogs and each boat will bring a side, dessert, etc.  We will have Sailor Jerry Rum and BYO Beer.  We are looking to have 8 or more boats to hold this regatta.  NOR will be out soon.

We need to take a look at the fleet grill to make sure it is ready for this event.  It may need a new tank or adapter, ask  Tony to take a look.

VI. Downeast Regatta
A. Create Planning Committee: If you would like to be more involved in the planning of the Downeast Regatta email Molly White at mollyfrommaine@yahoo.com.


B. Ideas for Improvement: go with something different from shirts or in addition to them such as winter hats, belts, shorts, a Downeast bandana, flip flops etc.  If we decide to do belts we need to purchase the ribbon up front and it will last for more than 1 year, this would be an investment.

Recruit more boats from away

Offer housing to boats from away: Nick, Emily, and the Whites will house boats, if you would be interested in housing please contact Molly White with details and amount of people you can take.  We will offer housing on a first come first serve basis.

Offer registration for the 2010 Downeast during this year’s check in and haul out.

Have our own fleet boats register early to attract more boats

Have our own fleet register for Marblehead early to entice more Marblehead boats.

C. Go over Jobs List
D.  Sign up for Jobs: Some people have already signed up for Downeast jobs but there are plenty more, due to our lower numbers it would be great if some people could do more than one job. The list will be available on Wed. nights.   If boats do not sign up a job will be assigned to them.

E. Sponsorship: We need more sponsors to create a great event as well as strengthen the fleet funds.  We have sponsorship packets so that fleet members can recruit sponsors.  Sponsorship dollars brought in by fleet members rather than Regatta Promotions keeps more money in the fleet.

We will start a “Friends of Fleet 43” page on the website, which lists any sponsorship less than $200 so that individual fleet members can bring in smaller donations.

Thanks to all who attended, we got a lot accomplished!

Series 2: The second series will begin this week and we will do the series 1 weekly awards next Wednesday when the glasses come in.

RC Refresher

Tuesday, June 9th, 2009

Just a quick reminder that tomorrow at 4:30 is the second (and last) RC Refresher for our fleet.  We have had about half the fleet send a representative, so we need the other half.

The goal of the refresher is to improve the level of out Wednesday night races, go over the use of the Lindsay Lord and mark boat,  use and storage of all RC equipment etc.

Please make sure that you have sent a crew member to this.

See you all tomorrow!

First Wednesday Night

Monday, May 25th, 2009

Don’t forget that Wednesday May 28th is out first Wednesday Series Race. The start is set for 6:00 pm. Flying Circus will be doing Race Committee. To find out when you have Race Committee Duty please check the fleet calender.

Also, due to the fact that the Lindsay Lord has not hit the water, we will be moving the RC Refresher to June 3rd and June 10th starting at 4:30 pm.

Fleet 43 Calender

Wednesday, May 20th, 2009

The Fleet 43 Calender has been updated on the website.

If you would like to request a certain night for Race Committee please respond to this entry.  Otherwise your boat will be assigned a night(s).

Remember that there is a Race Committee Refresher requirement for all boats.  Please send a representative down to PYC May 27th or June 3rd between 4:30 and 5:00 pm.

Sail Maine Regatta

Friday, May 8th, 2009

Want to get a taste of Weekend Sailing in Portland Harbor? Want to scrape off some rust? Want to maybe find some new crew? Come on down to SailMaine Saturday, June 6th for the first annual SailMaine Regatta. There will be a full day of racing, and a pig roast and party afterwards. For more information, NOR, Sis and so on, visit www.sailmaineregatta.com.

Fleet 43 Loses Long Time J 24 Sailor George Tonini

Monday, February 23rd, 2009

It is with great sadness that we mourn the loss of long time fleet member George Tonini.  George was the avid J 24 sailor for whom our fleet award is named.  Although he has not been seen on the water in some years, many will remember George sailing the bright yellow USA 1031 Trick or Treat.  We are happy to have had him as a friend and member of fleet 43.  His memory will live through the Tonini trophy and our members.

Please see below George’s obituary and the memorial details.

George Tonini
1922 – 2009

George Tonini, born in Trieste, Itlay, December 20, 1922, and passed away February 19, 2009.

George was a Merchant Marine and trained on the Italian navy ship Amerigo Vespucci. During WWII he was an Ensign and while cooperating with the U.S., he served in The Royal Italian Navy as navigator on the Italian submarine Goffredo Mameli. He was stationed in many different places, but the most interesting was Great Diamond Island in Casco Bay. He also worked as a dispatcher and translator at the American Motor Pool for the Allied Military Government in Trieste Italy.

He settled in Maine, married and worked the rest of his life as a Chef and Caterer in several different capacities. (If you were one of the lucky ones you would have tasted his food). He was a member of the Portland yacht Club since 1964, he taught many people how to sail, and was an avid J/24 racer until the ripe age of eighty. There was so much more to his life then we can put into words. He loved life, the ocean, sailing, dancing, cooking, playing poker, fishing, the Caribbean, and most of all, his wife Dorothy of 50 years. He was loving, vibrant, flirty, energetic, and cute. We will miss him dearly.

He is survived by his wife Dorothy Tonini of Cumberland, daughter Juliana Tonini of Windham, son Daniel Tonini of Portland, along with his granddaughter Aria Tonini of Alfred. Daughters Adele Harnois of Portland & Linda Beck of Gorham. Sons Eric Tonini of Ft. Myers Florida & Giorgio Tonini of Trieste Italy. He has five grand children.

A memorial service will be held at 11am on Friday, February 27, 2009 at the Memorial
Chapel of Independent Death Care, 471 Deering Ave. Portland.

Donations to:

American Stroke Association
51 Us Route 1
Scarborough, ME 04074

Or

Animal Refuge League
449 Stroudwater St
Westbrook, ME 04092

Trivia Answer; Trivia Winner

Friday, May 25th, 2007

If you look at the comments below the trivia question post, Bill Newberry has answered the question correctly. He was not, however, the first to answer.  The winner is Dale Robertson – the J24 District Governor for Eastern Canada – who somehow got on our email distribution list.  Kudos to Dale.  Either he’s very tuned in to te America’s Cup, or he’s a regular Scuttlebutt reader.  (Note that the link to Scuttlebutt is to the issue in which the trivia question and answer appeared and in which also appeared a blurb about Hall Maine’s hand in creating our new website.)

I also recieved a correct answer from Jess Harris, who is also apparently, a Scuttlebutt reader.  She actually beat Bill to the punch.  That’s what happens, Bill, when you get old and move to the PHRF fleet — you lose your reflexes. 

–Howard

Trivia: Free t-shirt to the first one who answers correctly!

Thursday, May 24th, 2007

First one to send me the answer to this question gets a free 2007 Downeast Regatta t-shirt:  What do the three remaining syndicates in the America’s Cup have in common?  Send your answers to howard@maine.rr.com.