June 2021 Ditty Bag - Lake Canyon Yacht Club

June 2021

Commodore’s Report

by Scott Wells, LCYC Commodore

Coming Soon……

Just Go Sailing!

7th Annual Charles L. Branch Leukemia Cup Regatta – May 22 & 23, 2021

by Ray Leubner & Phil Crane, LCR Co-Chairs

For our 2021 fundraising campaign, LCYC will break through $60,000 for the South-Central Texas Chapter of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, a very solid effort given the backside of the COVID pandemic. Over the seven years that LCYC has hosted this event, our club has raised $344,000 for LLS! We cannot offer enough thanks to all those who have made donations and/or volunteered their time and effort in support of LLS in the fight against cancer.

This year’s 12 fundraising teams were: Gary & Debbie Kirkham (Team Pluckers & Pirates), Bill & Stephanie Clark (Team Carson), Phil & Barbara Crane (Team Stevie Boy), Wayne & Ginny Peacock (Team J/22), Fred & Sandra Lindsey (Team MABL), Chuck Begley & Laurie McGill (Team Chili Pepper), Jim & Judy Ritchie (Team DUSTOFF), Jim & Renee Kizziar (Team Alibi), Gustavo Medellin (Team Canyon Wind), Chris & Debbie Fogle (Team Skeeter), Marty Chrisman (Team Over the Hill Krewe), Ray & Kathy Leubner (Team Hugo), and Team LCYC. A huge thank you goes out to the Branch Family for their significant contribution to our fundraising efforts.

This year we had a total of 7 sponsors donate $8,000 in support of the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society: CEMEX, Keith Zars Pools, McCracken and Carroll Wealth Management, Intruder Alert Systems (Mike Samulin), and Peter E. Macler Associates. Claudia Roeschmann of Roeschmann Design designed our poster and banner. JS Fine Wines and Spirits let Team Stevie Boy host a wine raffle at their place of business for a fourth time. This year a record smashing total of $3,500 was raised, largely because of a basket of incredibly fine wines donated by JS. THANK YOU!

Our Third “Cocktails with the Commodore” was once again a success as well a pleasant social evening, raising $1,600 despite being scaled back due to COVID. The planned Saturday evening dinner and festivities were pretty much a wash-out due to the rain and wind. The hearty souls who attended were treated to music provided by Charlie Mayer and his fantastic sound system. Joe and Lonna O’Brien and their team of volunteers (Mary Lindsey, David & Audrey Anderson and Lancine Justin) prepared and served an impromptu running dinner to soaking wet racers and race committee volunteers. Laurie McGill, Kathy Leubner, Barbara Crane, and Lancine took care of lunch on a still very damp Sunday. Feeding this many people is an enormous amount of work, many thanks to all our galley volunteers!

The regatta had 19 boats racing in 4 classes. The Race Committee ran the Branch Long Distance portion of the regatta on Saturday in what turned out to be extremely wet and windy conditions, especially after all the boats made the turn from the far end of the lake to head home. Joe McDonough clocked wind gusts of 43 mph. Only 6 boats were able to cross the finish line. Sunday was still very wet, but the wind behaved itself, allowing the Race Committee to run 3 buoy races. For the overall regatta, first place finishes went to: Fred Lindsey in Spinnaker for the 7th year in a row, John Ruiz in Big Boats, Jim Ritchie in Cruisers, and Bill McVey in Non-Spin. Joe Monosmith raced solo in his Trimaran, beating himself. The first spinnaker keel boat to finish the “long” distance race was Fred, winning the perpetual Branch Long Distance Race trophy yet again. Many thanks to the Race Committee which was composed of Rick Mella (PRO), Nancy Hodo, Arnie Wilenken, Dave Sanford, Marvin Arnold, Roger Goodfellow, and Joe Vasile; all did a great job in very trying conditions.

Please also thank Maggie Carty, Claudia Roeschmann and Kathy Leubner for all their work on design, graphics, publicity, and the web page. Jo’Anna Rosales of LLS San Antonio/Austin was very instrumental in setting up the LCYC team fundraising webpages. A special thanks to Julian Craven and the Docks & Grounds Crew who put the club grounds in good shape ahead of time.

Welcome New Members

David and Melissa Smedley, San Antonio, TX
Brian and Erin York, New Braunfels, TX
Hans and Diane Sheline, Sugar Land, TX

Adaptive Sailing

by Bill McVey

Thanks to all 32 members who volunteered to help with our first outing for 2021. Our guests for this Saturday lunch and sail were veterans from Operation Comfort. Though it turned out to be a smaller group of 16 (20 had signed up), those that did attend had a wonderful time, and were very appreciative of the program our club had provided for them. After a brief welcome and orientation to sailing, they really enjoyed being greeted our own retired Senior Master Sergeant Joe O’Brien making them feel right at “home” by instructing them exactly how they were to go through the chow line! Of course, the grilled hot dogs with everything you could imagine to put on them, along with lemonade, chips, and cookies made for a great lunch.

Then it was time to match everyone up with their captains, crews, and boats. With the 15-30 mph winds whistling through the trees, it took a little coaxing to get a couple guests reassured that our boats and sailors were up to the task. However, at the end of the 2.5 hour sail , everyone returned safely and excitedly told me how much fun they had and that they had the best captain and crew! The initial reluctant ones were the most excited of all!! We even had a few guests interested in learning more about the club, maybe interested in asking Rick Mella if they might help with race committee, and also intending to sign up for our adult sailing class next spring!! Too bad our volunteers weren’t working on commission! Actually, our members always enjoy it as much as our guests do!

Please thank these members who volunteered and provided such a great day to this group of veterans with disabilities: Frank Doyle, Bob Middleton, Rocky Hill, Josue Martinez, Ray Leubner, Marvin Arnold, Mark Nicola, Nancy Hodo, Joe and Lonna O’Brien,
Brigitte Donohue, Anu and Fred Day, Allen Borden, Gary Clark, Brooks Englehardt, Jim Ritchie, Erik Siegel, Chuck Begley, Jordan Merson, Leslie Heath, Pete Macler, John Thompson, Jerry Anderson, Bog Godlewski, and Bruce Dunn. There were also several non-member friends who helped out crewing, including Meribeth Shea, Bob White, and Sam Nieto.

Our 2d of 3 outings is on June 5th. (The 3d one is Sept 11), just ten days or so from the publishing of this Ditty Bag. The guests for this one will be from an organization called Door-in-the-Wall-Texas.org. headquartered in Bandera. It will be adults and children with varying disabilities, sometimes as many as 30 show up, even though we limit the list to 25! We need to have 10-12 boats and crews for this one. You might enjoy learning about the group on their web site. www. ditwtexas.org. They have a separate link for Sailing, which essentially consists of photos from previous outings with our club. The links are small, in blue, on the left side of the front page. Many of you who helped with our last 2019 outing will see yourselves in some of the photos and videos!

The schedule will be the same, that is; we would like you to have your boat ready by 11:30 so you can come up and eat lunch with us, then at 12:00, we will introduce you to your guests. Take them sailing until 2:45pm. If you need a crew we will assign you one from our crew volunteer list.
Please let me know as early as you can, at bmcvey@gvtc.com or 210-601-9144.

Thanks very much, Bill

Mother’s Day Breakfast

by Robin Engle, LCYC member

Kudos to Fred Day and his crew for an elegant, relaxing, beautiful Mother’s Day Brunch on May 9. From the crisp bacon to the chocolate kisses, every detail was thoughtfully served on the deck. Many families, including my own, celebrated with three generations. Violin music filled the air with her stunning music, thanks to the daughter of one of our members. Thank you all for the LCYC tradition of honoring moms and families.

Series Racing

by Rick Mella, Race Director

The final Keel Boat Spring Series racing got underway Saturday, May 1st, with threating thunderstorms & lightning 30 minutes prior to the starting signal. The Race Committee set the course for winds coming from the Southwest but with frontal systems headed for Canyon Lake all boats were signaled to return to LCYC. Races were postponed and eventually cancelled for Saturday. The final Spring Series Keel Boat winners:

J-22 Bruce Dunn – Alyssa Rose
PHRF Spinnaker Chuck Begley – Chili Pepper
PHRF Non-Spinnaker Aaron Brittain – Boondoggle
Big Boat Ray Leubner – Hugo

Keel Boat Sailors enjoyed Beer & Chips on the LCYC Club house patio during the Awards presentation. Special thanks to our LCYC Port Captain, Mindy Rogers supporting weekend activities.

Sunday, May 2nd, 2021, Board Boat Spring series final three races with weather forecast improving from Saturday’s strong thunderstorms. Race Committee volunteers put together a 4.0 mile race course, with wind measurements between 10-14 mph from the Southeast direction. Sixteen Board Boat sailors had registered for Sunday racing, where three races were completed under sunny skies. Races were completed at 3:09pm, with the Race Committee Protest Horn sounded at 3:18pm once the committee boat entered the LCYC marina.

Flying Scot Chris Powers – 6081 – The Full Catastrophe
Sunfish Dave Sanford – sail # 10
Portsmouth Travis and Elizabeth Grahmann – 749- Julie

Again, my special thanks for the Race Committee volunteers. They worked very hard to set & manage the race course for our LCYC Series Regatta for the Spring Series weekend. Volunteers are always welcome, no experience required! Working as a Race Committee volunteer, it’s a great way to view the monthly racing at LCYC. For those LCYC members / non-members, who want to help with Race Committee duties, please reach out to me since we have plenty of openings for volunteers throughout the year. Contact info: Email: richardamella@hotmail.com or RaceDirector@lcyc.net

TSA

by Chris Fogle, TSA Representative and Travis Grahmann, Youth Regatta Chairperson

Stay tuned to the Ditty Bag for more updates as the season progresses. You can also check out the TSA website at https://txsail.org/ for more information, or check us out on the Facebook TSA Junior Sailing Page www.facebook.com/groups/172730702754870

2021 Texas Sailing Association (TSA) Youth Racing Circuit Dates

Check the TSA website for updates.

5-6 Jun	Roadrunner Regatta and Alumni Regatta	Austin YC
19-20 Jun	Rockin Rockport Regatta	Rockport Yacht Club
TBD	TX Youth Race Week
24-25 July	Round Up Regatta	Texas Corinthian YC
11-12 Sep	Rock the Rock Regatta	Corinthian Sailing Club, (White Rock Lake)
25-26 Sep	Jr. Ol’ Man of the Sea & USODA Mid-America Champs	Fort Worth Boat Club
9-10 Oct	Pirates of the Corinthian	Dallas Corinthian Yacht Club
30-31 Oct	Chocopalooza	Rush Creek Yacht Club
20-21 Nov	TSA End of Year Regatta: Changes in L’attitude Regatta and KO Sailing Texas State Optimist Championship	Corpus Christi Yacht Club