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Maryellen Ferring shows off the bubbly gift of thanks for Mike and Maryellen’s work as Commodore. Photos: Mike Ferring and Chris Smith

A night of many awards, excellent food, and good times. It was the 2013 Commodore’s Party and 95 people turned out to celebrate the end of an AYC year.

New Commodore Cindy Pillote handed Maryellen and me a fancy bottle of bubbly and a framed Commodore’s flag as a thank you, and the 2013-2014 Board of Directors took office. Here’s some of what I had to say during presentations.

Honorary Life Membership: The club’s highest lifetime honor, currently held by Joyce Seales, Tom Ohlin, Al and Sandy Lehman, and Mike Yarnell and Tia Renshaw. Now we add one more to that distinguished list. Someone who has been a an AYC stalwart for decades, a C22 sailor, 14.2 fleet captain, the center of the ASF high school sailing program, the guy who’s always there to do what needs to be done: George Tingom.

Keepers of the Flame: One year ago, things looked pretty grim for three parts of AYC that have long been strong. The flame was about to go out. Today those flames are really bright and getting brighter.

One was the annual Kinnikinick summer campout in the woods near Mormon Lake. Steve Nahkala loved that gathering and put the arm on a bunch of us, put fuel on the flame of Kinnikinick, and that bonfire is burning brightly. He’ll do it again this year and he asks that you plan to be there August 9-11.

The Laser fleet was dropping in size to a few hearty souls when George Sheller decided to go to work to build the fleet. He recruited, he put on a clinic, he staged casual Wednesday night racing, and the Laser fleet this year is at 10 boats.

Three-to-four years ago, the Catalina 22 fleet was our biggest, with numbers in the teens. Heading into last fall, it looked like the number would be (ouch) two. That’s when Steve and Christina Campo went to work. A clinic, a party, a newsletter, tuning tricks, and a million volts of Christina applied to the right places: Now there are 8 boats for Saturdays (and most of the fleet was at the party).

Maryellen hands Bruce Andress a “Heavy Lifting” trophy.

Heavy Lifting Awards: As always, we ask the board of directors to do most of the heavy lifting in the club, but it’s a huge help when people who aren’t on the board jump in.

Steve Brown helped a lot at Tempe Town Lake as Lake Captain.

And Bruce Andress did lots of heavy lifting at Lake Pleasant as Lake Captain, where lots of gear needs loads of maintenance.

For years, we’ve been rushing to the AYC website on Mondays to check our race scores where Dave Christensen has been decoding the chicken scratches and reading the chicken bones of the RC scores and turning them into numbers.

When you’ve come of the monthly meetings, you’ve been met at the door by Lori Reger, who’s been an enormous help to membership, assembling new member kits, following up with guests. And she’s been at TTL on Sunday afternoons to meet people who want to adopt a boat as she handled that program.

The US Sailing Sportsmanship award, AYC’s MVP award, went to Rob Gibbs (left).

US Sailing Sportsmanship Award: Each year we give an award to someone who has been an AYC Most Valuable Player. The award is called the US Sailing Sportsmanship Award and it’s awarded to someone who’s done great things for our club.

This year it went to a person who’s done it all. He was on the board as membership director. He’s raced every year at both lakes. He’s taught Start Sailing Right for something like 10 years for ASF. He’ll be on the ASF board this next year. He’s run the ship’s store.  He handled the online registration system. He managed the website. Last year he put on an introduction to sailing day at TTL to give rides to people who wanted to sail. He’s been a big advocate of powerboat training and has trained nearly all our certified powerboat operators… and will be out tomorrow morning to certify some more. Almost as a lark, he applied for a grant with US Sailing to be used to buy a powerboat… and got $10,000 that we used to buy a boat. Rob Gibbs is our 2013 recipient.

A critical part of AYC is attracting new people into the club and into leadership positions. If you’ve joined in the last year or if you’re joined just within the last few weeks as Mark and Mary Howell or Victor Felice or JM and Mary Kiel did, welcome and thank you.

Board of Directors Accomplishments

One year ago the Board targeted membership growth as a top goal for the year. Membership in the club had dropped into the 190s. Today it’s over 220 and rising.

The strong membership effort was led by directors Brenda Shears and Thom Dickerson, with a lot of help from Lori Reger. Wendy Larsen set up the mentor program to pair a current member with each new member to help new folks get oriented and active.

All board members did excellent work this year. For instance, Emory Heisler revamped the Birthday Regatta to become easier and less expensive to present. Peter Lehrach started and managed the adopt-a-highway program that put our name on signs along Carefree Highway near Lake Pleasant. Bob Whyte arranged the space and the dinner for the party. He kept the string of amazing meeting speakers going, with AYC members such as Dave and Wendy and Phil Freedman and Bill Hutchinson as well as some other familiar names such as Dave Perry, Andrew Campbell, and Annie Gardner. Greg Woodcock was always on top of issues, whether it was a boat problem or a race document that needed tweaking.

Cindy Pillote is Commodore for the coming year.

Here’s the 2013-2014 Board:
Emory Heisler, Sr Staff Commodore
Mike Ferring, Jr Staff Commodore
Lori Reger, Secretary
Tony Chapman, Treasurer
Thom Dickerson – second year Membership Director
Andrea Love – Membership Director
Greg Woodcock – Fleet Captain
Ralph Vatalaro – Cruising Captain
Christina Campo – Rear Commodore
Peter Leharach – Vice Commodore
Cindy Pillote – Commodore

The party drew 95 to socialize and commemorate the accomplishments of the year.

John Mayall and George Tingom presented the ASF Heavy Lifting trophy to Phil Freedman.

Emma Davis picks up a juniors trophy.

Isabel Love receives the Wayne Jason Tucker Outstanding Junior award.

Martin Lorch and son Cedric heft the Club Championship trophy. It’s been a good year for Cedric, winning the High School Championship and two Blunder Buckets!

Christina Campo and Tony Chapman congratulate Emory Heisler.

John Riddell and Mike Parker exchange lies before dinner.

Rear Commodore Bob Whyte arranged for the great space and the amazingly good buffet dinner.

Resa Coats and Bill Hutchinson schmoozing before dinner.

Whether you prefer to call them pancakes, flapjacks, griddle cakes, Hobo Nickels, or Flap Sams, this breakfast food is too good to pass up. Come to Lake Pleasant and make a day of it with the educational event to follow or to head out for the day of AYC racing.

Pancakes and other breakfast attractions will be served starting at 8am on Saturday (April 6)  and run to around 10am. You’ll find us at Ramada #1 and 2 closest to the Sailboat Shop. Cost is $5.00 for adults and $2.00 for children ages 4-12.

Some important perspective on the morning: A pancake is a thin, flat, round cake prepared from a batter and cooked on a hot griddle or frying pan. In Britain it is made without a raising agent, and is similar to a crêpe. In America, a raising agent is used (typically baking powder). The American pancake is similar to a Scotch pancake or drop.

They may be served at any time with a variety of toppings or fillings including jam, fruit, syrup, chocolate chips, or meat. In America, they are typically considered to be a breakfast food. In Britain and the Commonwealth, they are associated with Shrove Tuesday, commonly known as Pancake Day, when perishable ingredients had to be used up before the fasting period of Lent.

Please join the finest batch of LPSC sailors around as we pay homage to the delectable pancake!

—Rhonda Brewer, LPSC

AYC women are having a social gathering Thursday (8/23). Everyone is invited: members, nonmembers, ladies who sail, ladies who hang out with sailors. It’s a gather to get to know each other. Nothing formal—just some fun people sharing stores, getting to know each other over a beverage and some snacks. It’s a casual event from 5:30 pm to 7:30 pm or whenever. Brenda Shears has offered her house and we took her up on it. Please RSVP so we have enough food and beverages by contacting Brenda.

One of the clusters of campers around the Kinnickinick campground. Photos: Mike Ferring

The Kinnickinick Campout in the cool of the pines near Mormon Lake is a long-time AYC tradition, but last year it barely had a heartbeat. Steve Nahkala was the only AYCer to show. This year, Steve decided he’d step up and give the tradition a pop of CPR. It worked.

With people scattered over the campsite, I could never get a clear count, but this time the even drew about three dozen people, most recruited or cajoled into making the trip by Steve and Dennis Lynde. Dennis knew that Maryellen and I aren’t campers, so he offered to bring a tent for us if we came. We did. We’re glad we did.

It didn’t hurt that Phoenix was being clobbered by temperatures over 110 all week (116 the previous Wednesday) and that when we drove into the campground the thermometer in the car read 77°. We sat through a brief rain shower (the only one of the trip), popped a beer and started dropping in on fellow campers.

Steve had organized the traditional Kinnickinick sports: pasture golf and horse shoes. We gathered for a pot luck dinner as the sun began to set. And we gathered around a roaring bonfire as it turned dark. Steve made sure each of the kids walked away with a certificate for something. Some adults were awarded big bottles of wine. And the good feelings spread into the nighttime. There was a meteor shower for entertainment. Cool for comfort.

Next year you should try it.

Organizer Steve Nahkala stirs up a tidy pile of sausages.

Swingin’

One of the certificates of achievement awarded by the bonfire.

So cool you’ll wear a jacket around the fire.

We’ll be camping at Kinnickinick Lake, starting Friday, August 10. No charge for either camping or sailing.

Organizer Steve Nahkala plans to have bocce ball, forest golf, liar’s dice, horseshoes and other games. And it’s a fun place to bring the kids and your friendly dogs; we usually have a bunch of both. The lake is really great for dinghy sailing, and I would encourage you to bring a boat if possible. Tent camping is fine, along with any kind of camper or SUV with a mattress. We’ve had people camping in a Catalina 22 before, so anything is possible. We will for sure have a huge potluck dinner on Saturday night, so bring extra for everyone. And then there’s a campfire, wine tasting, sing-a-long, star watching, and possibly a marshmallow fight. S’mores of course.

People arrive early on Friday, sometimes as early as Thursday. In the many years I’ve been going there, we’ve usually had some rain, but not too much. The road into Kinnickinick is graveled dirt, but graded and maintained. I’ve never had a problem hauling everything from a Class A motor home to a tent.

Hope to see you there. Here’s a page with map. Our campground is free. Bring your Guitar or harmonica.

—Dennis Lynde

In this historic shot, Bill Hutchinson waves hello.

Looks like a game of liar’s dice under cover.

The 2012 Tall Cactus Regatta and Siesta is now in the books.  Mike Parker will be posting pics and video of the beautiful sailing conditions and the picture-perfect downwind sailing first leg of the regatta, followed by pictures of the finish line busted open by a Catalina 22: Spirit, driven by Bob Worrall. Bob was closely followed by Greg Jackson’s Viper, flying down the canyon with spinnaker flying just 15 seconds behind but “adjusting” in over Bob for a 3-peat victory!

The racing was followed by the fun and food by all including some rattlesnake sitings and the Bean Pot was duly awarded to the Spin Fleet representative after a fierce battle (and a bit of skulduggery by the Non-spin fleet).

Mike offers a great BIG thanks to Patty Rosky for the encouragement and moral support all day, to Bob Worrall for tending the steaks and salmon, to Kyle Clark for the use of his dinghy, and all the folks who made it a pleasure to share a fine meal and fireside chat (minus the fire) in to the late afternoon.