Many exciting things are happening around the club. Repair of the facilities continues with the rebuild of the south pier, re-roofing of the clubhouse, etc. Volunteers have put in an enormous effort to accomplish these improvements with Pier Rear McCoy at the head of the list. My thanks go out to all that have lent a hand with electrical work, plumbing etc. The club is really looking good.

The boat show was a huge success. I missed most of it out on the water with the Sears Cup event (thanks to the excellent committee who helped out!) but I am told we had steady traffic all day and even signed up new members on the spot! It looked like everyone enjoyed the wood boat guys who gave rides all day long. Thanks to Natalie, Scott, Red Dog & others for all the promotion & organization.

Input from the member surveys is now being translated into actual programs. Look for details in this newsletter about the new Wednesday night casual race program, the White Rock Cruisers meeting on Fridays and more. Thanks to all that contributed ideas, now lets see everyone participating!

The club is in a very healthy growth mode now, but that also brings new challenges. One of the biggest issues is the availability of davits. We have members who are sailing regularly who can’t find a davit as well as potential new members who are reluctant to join without a place to keep their boat. At the same time, we have empty davits owned by inactive members and davits holding unsound boats. The board has a duty to the club to exercise proper stewardship of the facilities and will be contacting members owning boats or davits that are in disrepair. If you are contacted, please understand that this is not personal but necessary for the safety and betterment of the club.

The spring sailing season is upon us! Get on down to the docks. It doesn’t get any better than this!

See you on the docks - Phil

Upcoming Events – Mark Your Calendars

Adult Sailing Classes (Second Session) – June 4

Junior Sailing Camp (First Session) - June 4-15

Women's Racing Program - June 9-July 28

Lightning Districts CSC – June 16-17

Junior Circuit Regatta CLYC – June 16-17

Special Olympics Regatta CSC - June 23

C-15 Nationals CSC - June 29-July 1

CSC Independence Day Fun Sail - July 4

Adams and Mallory TSA CLYC – July 7-8

Junior Sailing Camp (Second Session) – July 9-19

Adams Cup Area F RCYC – Sept 11-15

Many thanks to all that have renewed - especially to the email users (we've saved our own club some money this way). Those that have renewed should have their new membership cards and racing schedules in hand. If you don't...you probably have a suspension letter instead, so mail in your renewals! With that completed, I can focus on a bunch of new member applications - so tell your friends that have applied that their membership proceedings should be underway.

Progress on the South pier area, which is being overhauled, is raising the walkway by 9 - 10"s and is being held steady by driving piers 18' or more below the bottom of the lake. That's poundin' till you can hardly pound no mo. The triangle area for folding sails and docking has been reinforced with new piers, double joists and topped off with a new deck. The seven davits are being torn down and replaced with new wood with the finger walkways between the davits measuring 24" x 24' and supported by stringers and joists with the two end piers a foot above the walkway for sailors to tie up too. Coincidentally, the length of the walkway is the same as the length of a F/S with the rudder kicked up giving more safety and ease in landing and leaving.

You may have noticed the clubhouse has a newly re-shingled roof with 8 new air vents to disperse the hot air that may be generated by various meeting at the clubhouse. By the way, the clubhouse sink drain now flows freely. Electricity to the north end of the club has become better and safer with the installation of a new 6/3 electrical cable. The new walkway from gate to gate has a trough for utilities and the South trough is currently housing the new sewer clean out pipe hook up. On a lighter note, the light poles are now working.

There are more projects on the list, but more on that later. My thanks goes out to all the people who help make these improvements, because without them nothing would get done! So, congratulation to you guys who put in all of your time and effort.

Your pier rear or rear pier or...what ever you want to call me, Mac McCoy.

The annual White Rock Boat Show was held on May 12 and was a great success! There was a steady flow of traffic all day and we signed up new members on the spot!

Davits Repairs

There are a number of davits that need to be repaired. Several of the people have expressed a desire to hire someone to do the repairs on their davits. Clancy McKenna, Davit Registor, has compiled a list of contractors who have expressed interest in doing davit repair work.

Johnny Murphy - Pager 214 795-7692 - Works at World Trade Center in Engineering Dept. and would do this work during off-hours.
Jarrat Graham - Cell 214 693-7296 - Received a strong recommendation from Jeff Harrold. A&M student working on Fridays and weekends.
Sam Marrs - 903 369-7969 - Corsicana carpenter who works in Dallas on a daily basis.
Ben Larson - 972 412-1115, 972 564-9496, Cell 214 926-1852. Currently working for Mac McCoy doing walkway repairs.

CSC Board Meeting

The next CSC board meeting will be at 7PM on the dock on Tuesday, July 3. The board meetings are open to all members.

Glenn Shipman is coordinating an everyone-welcome group of sailors who want to day sail on the lake. The "White Rock Cruisers" will be down at the lake sailing very Friday evening. They want to encourage others to come out and join them. Contact Glenn or Jeff Harrold for more details.

In response to the member survey, Wednesday night fun sails will be initiated this summer starting on June 13. The activities will begin at 7PM, but one can always join the fun in progress if you cannot make the start. The format will be varied depending on the participants' desires and will consist of low key fun racing and other on-the-water activities. This is your opportunity to hone your sailing and racing skills in a friendly, supportive environment and to be with your fellow sailors. White Rock is beautiful (and cooler) in the evening. The Wednesday night series will be continued through the summer. Hope to see you on the lake.

CSC, in conjunction with the Special Olympics of Texas, is hosting a 2001 Special Olympics Regatta. The regatta will be sailed in Flying Scots on White Rock Lake on Saturday, June 23, 2001. A team will consist of a Special Olympian Athlete and a Unified Partner provided by the club. Three races will be sailed and lunch will be served at the clubhouse. We need volunteers to help with the regatta and to serve as Unified Partners. Contact Joni Seifrick at 214-553-0005 for information, or to donate your time or money. Registration must be received by June 9.

This was a busy month for CSC sailors. Regatta results are summarized below.

It was a sight to behold, 41 juniors competing in Optis, Laser Radials and 420s. This was CSCs stop on the TSA Junior Circuit. Sailors came from as far away as Corpus Christi to compete. Our CSC Juniors represented the club well. Hugh Haggerty placed third in a Laser Radial fleet of 8 with strong competition from Rush Creek, Houston and Corpus. Thirteen Optis competed in the Red/Blue/White fleet representing FWBC, RCYC and Corpus YC. CSC sailors placed 3 - Joey DeCosta, 9 - Blake Boettcher, and 11 - Jaron Hinkley. Scott Wade won the Opti Green fleet of 14 followed by Paul Denison in second. CSC sailors also placed 12 - Myles Busch and 13 - Annie Brockman. Sailors from FWBC, RCYC and Corpus participated in the Green Opti fleet. The full results of the regatta are posted on the junior's website and can be reached from: http://63.136.84.32/juniorsailors/index.html. We heard a lot of very good feedback on CSC hospitality and the event race management.

TSA Sears Cup Regatta

The Sears Cup Area F Regatta was sailed in Flying Scots at CSC on May 12 and 13. This was the semi-final for the national junior sailing championship. Charles Higgins from Ft Worth Boat Club won the event and the right to go forward. Hugh Haggerty from CSC placed a close second followed by teams from Houston Yacht Club and Corpus Christi Yacht Club.

CSC Snipe sailors sailed in the Southwestern Championship, French Nationals and a regatta in Oklahoma City in the past month.

Twelve Snipes participated in the Southwestern Championship Regatta at White Rock Lake on May 25 and 27. Six races were sailed with one throwout. The Gene Soltero with his crew Laura Monroe took first place. The results of the regatta are shown below. Take a look at how tight it was in the middle.

Gene Soltero, Janet Hinkley, and Ove and Alice Rassmussen went to Oklahoma City in late May for the Frank Gunn Memorial Snipe Regatta. The French Nationals were a good tune-up for Gene, who won (2,3,1) in OKC with his crew, Janet. Ove and Alice took 8th. Janet hiked like crazy. Alice sang songs on the water.

The Flying Scots Districts were held at Lake Ray Hubbard in conjunction with RCYCs Dingy Fest. Richard Wade won the 10-boat regatta followed by Michael Mittman and Tommy Miller. New Scot sailors, JC/Judy Adrian and Paul Labute, sailed great regattas in their first time off White Rock.

Wrangler Regatta

It was a blustery weekend for the Butterflys and Lasers. The wind was 5 to 20 and gusty on Saturday, and climbed to 20 - 30 plus on Sunday morning. Not for the faint of heart.

There were 10 Butterflys that braved the elements. Lisle Eddy won the regatta by keeping his boat upright. He was followed by Scot Mauney and Bruce Faust.

Nine Lasers participated for the first time in the Wrangler. This regatta may be placed on the Laser circuit in the future. Doug Pekover placed first, followed by Chris Henkel and Brad Salzmann.

Corinthian Captain's Challenge and Drag Race

The Captains Challenge went off as scheduled on Saturday, June 2, when the wind was about 12 - 15 mph plus with a few white caps rolling bye. We were going full-and-by with a little water seeping through the cracks and a couple of opportunities to T-bone someone else was overcome with superior boat handling techniques. For breakfast, we had bacon and eggs and all the trimmings, and for lunch, grilled hamburgers n' stuff, which was all made happen by Bruce Guy our race chairman who did a great job orchestrating the event.

We had two races. The first race was won by a good margin by Bruce Guy, followed by a tight photo finish of the other 3 boats participating. One beating the other by only a few inches. A tense moment for the committee boat, I'm sure. Mac McCoy and his new 'for the day' crew, LoriAnn won the second race was and were the overall winners for the day.

Later in the day, a drag race to the permanent marker down by the dam was held. Everyone else left, so Mac and Bruce, with no crew, set out with a rabbit start. They parted like the Red Sea going their own way. Mac was first to the marker and first back to the VIP. Mac was spotted sporting an umbrella with his back to the sun setting in the shade going downwind with the jib poled out, just cruising along having a good time and enjoying the day, waving to the committee boat (who were still engaged in the Butterfly event) as he passed near by. It was a great day.

The following is a translation of a report by former French Snipe Junior National Champion and current collegiate sailor Maxim Romain which appeared in the French Snipe class annual newsletter for 2000.

Last October (1999), I crewed for an American by the name of Gene Soltero at the Snipe Regatta in Cazaux (Southwestern France). In May of this year, I met him again when he returned to France to participate in the National Open de France Snipe at Le Havre (French side of the English Channel). I was searching for a summer internship in the U.S. for engineers. Knowing that he was one as well, I asked him if he could help me to find one in the US. He, not content to just put me in contact with the person who would help me obtain the internship in Dallas, TX, offered me hospitality for the three months between June and August. Thanks to Snipe sailors.

At the beginning of the month of June, I thus landed in Dallas and was met at the airport by Gene. In the crushing heat Gene drove me to his property. We passed a small lake before arriving at his residence. Two Snipes were quietly sailing single handed on the lake. A women that one would have believed was straight from Louisiana looked at her son on the bank vainly trying to catch a fish. It White Rock Lake. In other words the lake sheltering the Snipe Fleet 001, the "first fleet". I had arrived at the cradle of Snipe Sailing!

The house of Gene and his wife, Beth, wasn’t located but a few meters from the lake, which is situated in the interior of Dallas. A pool and a jacuzzi seen in their garden appealed to me for the rest of my stay. It is useless to say that I intended to benefit from this experiment to discover Sniping in the United States. I thus arranged with my company to release me for one week of holiday in order to take part in the championship of the United States. Gene also placed at my disposal an old Snipe in order to help me and to take part in the local regattas.

The first weekend, I joined Gene for a regatta (the Corinthian Captain’s Challenge) which we gained the high hand. I also was pleased to meet a young woman who was involved in women’s laser sailing at the Corinthian Sailing Club. After a short exchange (limited by my still poor comprehension of Texan at the beginning of my stay), it was agreed that I would help the women’s Laser team on the lake every Saturday morning. I said to myself that my stay in States started definitely very well! After a few weeks, it was apparent that this team was really beginner level and in my perfect macho, I could jump to the head of the fleet in the first leg while making from time to time half-turns to offer words of advice. I asked to them whether they did not have British ancestors to be so slow but not. (Translator’s note: The French Snipe sailors and the British Snipe sailors sail against each other frequently and engage in much gamesmanship.)

It should be known that non-Americans are prohibited from skippering Snipes at the U.S. National Championships, but not from crewing. I thus posted my offer to crew for anyone at the Nationals, which was to be held at mid-July, on the Internet site of the SCIRA. I had exactly zero answers. So I thus joined Gene for sailing during the championship. We did one or two days of practice together. All seemed to go for best.

I will now try to explain you the course of the American championship. There is first an elimination series of six races. During this series the competitors are divided into four fleets. The fleets then meet two to two during successive races. At the end of 6 A and B races, all the sailors in one fleet have raced against each other six times and against each of the other sailors twice. The scores are combined and the 32 best teams are then qualified for the finals for the National Championship (the Heinzerling Trophy). The remainder of the fleet races on a separate course in a consolation series (for the Wells Trophy). This system is very powerful in the context of large fleets. It avoids transforming the regatta into a street battle when 100 boats try to closely cross a first buoy since the fleet is always divided into two. That also makes it possible for the least powerful to be able to reach a podium by sailing with people of the same level in the consolation group.

For this 2000 edition of the American championship, 58 Snipes were present, having come from the Four corners of the United States. It was held in Oklahoma City on a small lake. A nice small club, with good barbecue grills and ovens, accommodated us. It should be noted that the participants do not make 5 to 10 hours of road travel like us but sometimes two days of road travel simply to come to take part in the championship. Only the best thus come.

The first series proceeded under a wind of force 4-5 (20-25 knots). Doing well in several heavy air races we qualified ourselves for the finals with a place of 22nd in general. This is where the troubles started for us. The wind weakened.

And does each one know how little I like the weak wind? And to crown the whole, we found ourselves competing against the elite American teams. It was a catastrophe. With winds varying more than 30 degrees and oscillating over completely random periods (between one minute and half an hour), we had great difficulty to work out a suitable tactic. And moreover, because the leech of our new jib was hooked, we were with a speed weaker than our adversaries and we finished dead last in the finals. The first crews came all from San Diego and were overall professional sailors sent by North Sails and Sobstad. These were people who practice everyday. Lastly, there had been the merit of being beaten by the élite.

Outside the sailing, I must acknowledge that personally, I was very bored. It is that overall, the average age was much higher then my 22. Or the young people they had there were much younger than me. In short, it was difficult to find the ambiance of fun evenings with Celtique in Lorient! Admittedly, they had barbecues each evening, but that was a picnic environment with the children. Although, there were two evenings in large hotel with dinner and dancing that I appreciated but wanted more. You will be able to put that on the account of youth.

During this championship, the subject of the carbon centerboards was discussed. It seems that they are rather favorable there. They would like simply to be sure that the price of the carbon centerboard would not undergo inflation after its authorization. Given that the guarantor of this price is none other than Portuguese and ex- European Commodore Mr. Roquette, the dangers seem weak. On the level of the performances, I didn't listen very well, but they all seem to have noted certain deficits of speed due to possible deflection in strong wind. In other conditions they seemed perfectly similar to the aluminum centerboards.

After this very beautiful championship, I returned to Dallas to continue my training course and returned at the beginning of September to Lille, France to complete my University courses.

Race Calendar

The Main Sheet belongs to each member of the club. This is an invitation to all members to submit articles about the club, regattas, meetings, fleets, awards, members, family, and community. The deadline for information is the 20^th of the month. Please submit articles to Frank Richards at 7274 Williamson Cir, Dallas, TX 75214, or at frank-r@texas.net. I am also interested in any suggestions on how to improve the newsletter. Membership in the Corinthian Sailing Club is open to anyone with an interest in sailing. Club facilities are located at 441 E. Lawther Drive on White Rock Lake. Phone 214-320-0841. Mailing address is Corinthian Sailing Club, PO Box 180087, Dallas, TX 75218. Website is http://www.cscsailing.org. Both regular and associate memberships are available. Contact the Membership Rear Commodore, Ralph Capen, at rcapen@earthlink.net or 972-669-0010 for details.