Quannapowitt Yacht Club

QYC’s sailing season is underway. People are sailing, so pull that tarp and hose off the residue of winter.

Three Lasers launched and sailed today and while the water was cold, it certainly didn’t numb our toes. We were out for about an hour and a half with lots of gusts and moments of perfect breeze.

This is your early warning! Soon QYC will be up and running for the season. Friday, April 15^th we will hold our Annual Meeting at 7:00PM. Come hear what we have planned for the season and enjoy our speaker. The next morning at 8:00 AM we will launch our docks and officially start our season.

These are the nominations for 2011 officers and Board members respectfully submitted by the nominating committee - Brian Wilson and Connie DiRaffaele.

Columbus Day weekend didn’t seem like the best time for our annual meeting and season ending Chowder Supper so the board decided to push it out one week. We hope that more people will be able to attend on October 17th.

We set the time at 5pm so that if you’re watching the game you can still join us.

Water is both the medium our sport is played in and a substance so dangerous that the National Safety Council reports that over 7000 people drown annually.

Swimmers are not immune; one quarter of all who die are swimmers.

We need volunteers to help prep the club and greet prospective members, contact Rich and Pauline Mastronardi. And come practice with us so our guests see a busy club.

An on-the-water practice day is a great way to start the racing season, which begins on Wednesday evening. You will have a chance to practice starts and mark roundings. This practice is for beginners and experienced sailors. We’ll do a little bit of tacking practice and then run 3-minute start sequences, sail the course for 2 minutes and then do it again and again.

QYC Laser sailors made a great showing at our May Madness Laser Regatta. New member Sara Helbling, placed second in a very competitive fleet of 20 sailors from all over New England – ME, VT, NH, RI, CT and MA. Your Commodore and Eric McCaffrey placed fifth and sixth respectively, and Members Bill Dobson and Scott Doran persevered through the rain and tricky wind shifts when more experienced sailors headed for the beach.

When you plan a regatta you haven’t the faintest idea what kind of weather you’ll have, so it was with a pretty profound degree of disappointment that the weather for our May Madness Laser regatta began to make its self known out of the long-term forecasts – rain and thunder with moderate to light winds.

On Saturday an ambitious group of members got it all done! The docks are in, including a repaired one, the grounds are raked, decks power washed, clubhouse cleaned, dingy racks moved, racing marks set and more.

On Saturday the 17th we'll hold our first racing seminar of the season. This is a good time to come get reacquainted with the rules. The information is aimed at all racers with an emphasis on beginners. If you have questions contact Brain Wilson, head of our Race Committee.

Welcome to spring!

The warm weather is making early sailing look like a real possibility this year. I hope you had time this past weekend to at least look under the winter cover.

Our Annual Spring Meeting is this Friday at 7:00. I look forward to seeing you there. My original speaker had to drop out, but I have asked a great alternative to talk on wind shifts and will hear today. Plan “B” is an instructional video with lots of racing action. Either one will be short and a good way to prime your brain for the upcoming season.