Wednesday March 17th at the Old Town Hall, Hilton Garden, in Freeport.

5:30pm to 8:00pm

More to the point though, Frank brings extensive background in running Junior Sailing Programs most recently at Larchmont Yacht Club and Pequot Yacht Club on Long Island Sound as well as Ida Lewis Yacht Club in Newport, RI.  Still an active racer, Frank has completed in two Newport-to-Bermuda Offshore Races but mostly enjoys racing dinghies.  He crews on Lightnings and frostbites in Inter Clubs.  Additionally, he is an active racer in the Vanguard 15 class.
My thanks to Rob Taisey, Cindy Drake, Tom Schwarm, John Karp and Louisa Price for all their help.
Presently, Frank and I are filling out the team of Instructors. We’ll need volunteers for many tasks to be done in preparation for this season, so don’t wait to be called- get involved NOW!
Thanks,
Henry Bliss

Sailing Program- Henry Bliss
Denley Poore
Tom Schwarm
Anne Fuehren
Louise Price
Spencer Drake

House – Randy Rice
Eileen Peterson
Julie Freund
Lev Davis
Elnel Browder

Race Committee – Stu Macdonald
Bill Foster
Peter Gerquest

General Board assistance
Ben Niles
Barney Baker
Chris Pinkham

Water Front – Paul Dunn - Dinghy Ties
Bob Santomenna
Ted Gribbell

John Karp dock building & repair
(We had so much help building floats that we will surely miss more than one.)
Steve Morrow
Tom Downing
Dave Knudsen
Jonathan St Mary
Ben MacDonald
Eric Oransky

Fleet Captain of Sail
Malcom Poole

Entertainment
Sue Hadlock
Stephanie Paine

1. Commodore’s Award for Volunteerism –Randy Rice
Given to a member or members who have worked tirelessly in support of club activities and programs. –  5 years of dedicated work and retiring from the Board, Randy had so many projects one day he managed all three, roofs, crush stone, and curbing. I was there to take the pictures(see photos on web site). Randy spent so many nice days shingling the club house and so much more. He organized a wonderful group of club house volunteers this year. Randy has promised to keep contributing after retiring from the Board

2. Heritage Award.  – Sue Hadlock
Awarded to the member, who by good seamanship, an adventurous spirit, a willingness to share knowledge and an abiding love of the sea, has promoted boating in a way that honors the values that Bill Hadlock embodied in his life. – Rob Tasiey covered a number of Sue’s enthusastic trips on the bay, not to mention she “summered over” on her boat this year.  
3. Sportsmanship Award  -Nat Henshaw
Awarded to a member whose enthusiasm for the Club is demonstrated on and off the race course.
We all know Nat is a competitor. This award is not for flying spinnaker’s up side down or starboard tacking Bill Full appropriately, or for picking up so many crew members right off the dock and getting so many members and guest out sailing at the spur of the moment. It’s for all these reasons and Nat’s  “spirit” for sailing that his “crew” more than anyone  else can understand!
4. Offshore Trophy: Cameron Grillo
Awarded to the sailor or sailors with the best offshore race finish and/or who navigate blue water flying the HYC burgee.  - Who has heard of Auckland, NZ. up to Opua and or a sail over to New Caledonia, Vanuatu and, or finally across the Coral Sea to Cairns on to the Great Barrier reef in Australia. horizins were hugely expanded during his three months sailing with Nat and Betsy White. Nat White Stated “Cam is a fine sailor and was a great help aboard BAHATI during some challenging passages! He also learned to do some deep-sea trolling and filleted his first mahi-mahi almost as big and probably as old as he is!! Cam is comfortable up the rig, under the boat and under any sailing conditions. He is not afraid to handle sails in rough conditions and yet he is careful not to take unnecessary risks”. BAHATI and HYC members say cheers all round for Cameron!Cam’s.net/bahatihttp://www.

Life Membership: The Board has nominated and passed the following for Life Membership.

Dick Bowen: was a Board Member for several years, commodore 1979-1981. Dick was involved in areas of the club including a major force behind promoting the interclubs . Dick and his wife as being very involved in the sailing program for many years He was very involved with the building of the present clubhouse after the old shack was washed out. Back when he was racing his Ensign “Railroad”. His enthusiasm for the Club and his sportsmanship, on and off the water, has always been notable. I believe he is very deserving of this honor.

Widgery Thomas: The Thomas Family came to South Freeport in the summer of 1965 in Andiamo towing our turnabout “Snap”. That summer the family lived in the boathouse next to HYC. This started his involvement in all aspects of HYC. Widgery served on the board and was commodore in 1970. Widgery changed from power to sail as his love of sailing grew. Patience, Quickstep, and Cockle came and went. Cockle was his favorite and his only winning boat. He won the Friendship sloop regatta. Widgery shared his love of the Maine coast and sailing with the family spending one and two week cruises every summer.  He took great pleasure in having a good “white knuckle” sail.

The Tide is high @ 10am on and we really need a crew on hand by 8:00am so we can use the crane as soon as it arrives. In keeping with this annual event an assortment of the finest patisserie specialties, java and cocoa will be offered at 7:30am. Any questions please call Heidi Bishop 939-3601 cell or home 865-4108.

In all, six very skilled and courageous sailors competed for the coveted title “Grub Tub 2009 Champion”. The spectators were impressed not only with their small boat handling skills but with they’re swimming and bailing skills as well.

This year the spectators’ crowd grew enormously due to the event’s location (small tidal bay just south of the HYC Club house) and free admission. Two chase boats (Mike & Stacey Lodato & Cliff & Laura George with Susie Soule) shared in several rescue efforts making sure the participants could get out of the water quickly and back in the competition. They also helped with repairs and collecting floating items like bailers and shoes floating through the harbor.

The Race Committee master for this wonderful regatta was the very experienced Chairman Ross Cudlitz. He was the master of ceremonies and ran Olympic type courses for this prestigious event. The only difficulty was the horn system being used. He literally “blew” through the HYC budget! As everyone knows Ross has the experience to handle “world class” competitors. He only acknowledged one compliant (Henry Bliss the “whiner”) at the start of the 3rd race start sequence and called all the boats to return for a restart. It took the last race to determine the ultimate winner.

Grub Tub Worlds 2009 Results
1st Place and World Champion” – Ben Niles
2nd Place – Henry Bliss, also winner of “Most controversial Grub Sailor.
3rd Place Tim Baker “ Tim the winner of the “Best Bailer”.

http://sailingteams.ussailing.org/News/USSTAG_Wins_Two_Gold_Medals_at_Sail_for_Gold.htm

 http://www.sailracer.co.uk/events/18401/results.htm

You can follow Hugh in the future through the links below:

http://sailingteams.ussailing.org/Multimedia/Sail_for_Gold_Photo_Gallery.htm
http://sailingteams.ussailing.org/Home.htm

I am sitting inside the large hanger where they do all the measuring before the regatta. The event organizers set up a long table with ethernet plugs so the internet junkies can get their fix. They have us in postponement this morning because the wind is blowing about 25 kts with gusts to 30+ kts. We had a lot more boatwork to do on our borrowed boat from the Irish than we had expected, so we only had an hour an a half of practice time on the water on Sunday rather than the two days we had hoped for. But it didn’t seem to matter as you can see from the results below. We had a protest in the second race with the French because they blatantly fouled us. The Brittish witnessed it and we had no trouble winning in the protest room at the end of the day.

Weymouth is an interesting town. It seems like a nice quaint Brittish town during the day, but at night all that changes. The other night I was passed by dozens of Brits decked out in their very finest bell bottoms, afro’s and wide lapels on their way from one 70’s party to the next. On the weekends most places are open until 5 or 6am.

The Weymouth venue is fantastic. The US Sailing Team Alphagraphics has secured our own section of a hanger in the lot next door where we will be able to keep our stuff between events, store and work on boats, hang out, debreif, etc. as soon as they finalize construction details. Right now we have an enormous space and a concrete floor with a big table on one wall.

Having lots of fun walking around and seeing competitors from different countries. Everyone has got their different team gear on, plastering sponsorship stickers on hulls and cars and sails, and running back and forth from different vendors to their boats in a rush to get everything perfect before their hit the water for the day. If any of you watch the Tour de France it is getting to be sort of like that, although we don’t quite have the level of sponsorship that they do.

Thats all for now. I will try to send some pictures, but I forgot a cable to plug my camera into the computer. I have no idea when I will be back online, but will try to check in every few days.