Corinthian Sailing Club
THE MAIN SHEET
FEBRUARY 2006 - WHITE ROCK LAKE - DALLAS, TEXAS

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A LETTER FROM OUR COMMODORE

Dear CSC Members,

As I begin my term in office I would like to share with you what an honor it is to represent you as your Commodore this year. I appreciate the trust that you have placed in me and promise that I will do all I can to keep the Corinthian Sailing Club the best place to sail in Texas. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank the other Board Members who have volunteered their time to make our Club a better place. This is a very qualified group of people and together we are going to do some great things this year.

My focus in 2006 is to make the membership experience at CSC as enjoyable as possible for our members. The best way I know of making this happen is to encourage you to use the club as often as possible. Just like a boat, a Club wastes away if it isn’t used by its members. Too often work, kids or other recreational activities override our desire to enjoy our Club. To a certain extent this is unavoidable; but I would like to challenge you to try and find one day a month to come down and enjoy your investment. Think about how much that $406 a year can provide:

Beautiful views of the downtown skyline at sunset.
A veritable nature preserve right at your doorstep – come down and catch the pelicans before they migrate again!
The most competitive racing in the area – at any price!
Outreach programs to help newer sailors get up to speed and feel more comfortable using their boats.
First class educational programs like our junior sailing camps and adult sailing classes.
GREAT social events like First Fridays and other exciting parties that will be announced soon.

What amazes me most is that CSC offers you all of this for half the price of the other Clubs in the area. Without a doubt our membership experience provides more bang for the buck than any alternative I am aware of. I hope you will take up my challenge to come down once a month and that I will see you and your family soon. Bottom line, this is your Club and you deserve to enjoy it.

See you at the Lake!

Jeff Bodkin
Commodore
Corinthian Sailing Club

ANNUAL BUSINESS MEETING

The CSC Annual Business meeting was held at the Royal Oaks Country Club on January 19th. No changes to the club's by-laws were made – they have not changed since the service requirement was added in 2004.

Here are some of the highlights of the meeting:

2005 Budget

The club ended last year with a $21k surplus of cash in the bank after all bills were paid. Most of this surplus was a carryover from previous years. Income and spending were both within a few percent of plan. This surplus is in addition to the $50k emergency fund, invested in certificates of deposit, that has been set aside to deal with catastrophic events. Notable capital expenses in this budget included $55k for the replacement of the clubhouse’s siding, the replacement of the clubhouse’s upper deck flooring, and other improvements to the club facilities.

John Kolius

Attendees at this years’ annual business meeting were treated to a discussion of the state of sailing and the importance of fleet building by John Kolius. John is a five-time Americas Cup veteran (Courageous, America 2, Il Moro di Venezia, America 3, and Aloha), an Olympic Silver Medalist in the Soling, and winner of several World and North American championships in a variety of boats.

Given this pedigree and his current ownership of KO Sailing, the largest provider of small boats on the Gulf Coast, he brought a unique vision of our sport, from the highest levels to local Club racing.

The evening's discussion focused on the competition that yacht clubs currently face to attract and retain young sailors. John asserted that the battle being fought for the scarce leisure time and disposable income of our population increasingly is not between competing yacht clubs; but rather between other sources of recreation and sailing. As demands of worker productivity increase, golf, skateboarding and even movies will compete for this increasingly scarce resource.

Mr. Kolius believes that the successful Clubs of the future will have to work together to market the sport as a low cost, easy access means of enjoying nature and friendly competition if we are to survive. Our sport does a good job of training and attracting kids but we tend to lose them once they reach their late teens, when girls (or boys) and cars come into the equation. The key to retaining this group is to provide exciting, inexpensive means for young adults to participate in the sport.

Throughout the discussion John described the sailing experience as needing to be “a cheap date.” He showed that by amortizing the cost of ownership of an inexpensive dinghy such as a V-15 over five years the costs are actually cheaper than movies and popcorn if attended on a regular basis. By bridging that gap between the youth sailing programs and the more financially established generations we will ensure the continuity of our sport.

A spirited discussion followed of the merits of various classes such as the Laser and V-15; but the consensus was that a good progression from Optimist Prams would be to a small high performance single handed boat to an inexpensive double-handed boat and then to the more established classes that currently make up our Club. He also discussed the need to market these boats to the general population by means of hosting mid-week low intensity races such as our Wednesday night sailing program. Wherever possible he emphasized the importance of making these races as visible to the general population as possible. Adult sailing classes and mentoring programs were also discussed as a good means of reaching out to new sailors. The presentation concluded with a solid round of applause from the group and a challenge from our new Commodore for members to introduce a young adult to sailing this year.

Membership Status

We ended 2005 with 295 members. As the six-year table below shows, we have a very stable membership:

2006 Club Officers

Awards

The Norman B. Watkins Award

The Norm Watkins Award is presented annually to the member of CSC who best represented the club as a Corinthian Sailor. He or she may have provided unusual leadership, served to promote the sport of sailing, or trained others in sailing or seamanship. This year’s recipient of the award is Steve Comen.

Old Salt of the Lake Award

This award recognizes and honors the crusty old salts who sail at the Corinthian Sailing Club.The winner of the Old Salt of the Lake award for 2006 is Sylvan Newman.

Special Service Recognition

For Extraordinary Volunteer Efforts:

Allan Schmidt, Lauri Block, Kathy Harrington, Pat Diggins, Renee Comen

For Leukemia Cup:

Red Dog Jones

For Special Olympics:

Steve and Renee Comen

For Adult Sailing Program:

Bob Harrington

For Our Presence on the World Wide Web:

Lisle Eddy, Frank Richards.

FEBRUARY BOARD MEETING

Annual Dues

The board voted unanimously to leave annual dues at their 2005 levels. Returned check charges, which formerly were borne by the club, will this year, for the first time, be passed onto the writer of the check. There were about ten such cases in 2005.

Plans

The board is discussing extensive improvements to the North Docks. Projects 1-4 are being considered for implementation in 2006. Projects 5-6 are longer term and aim to improve existing structures and accommodate growth. The first three projects are enhancements aimed at the Junior Program and board boat sailors.

Project 1 Expand the deck area near the north entrance to add two ramps for the junior program and provide storage for 12 Lasers and 12 Optis. Two ramps would be constructed, allowing launch to the Northwest or to the South.

Project 2 Reconfigure storage rack to hold 12 boats and to better protect them.

Project 3 Widen north entrance gate for better access, so it is similar to the South Gate. This will greatly increase small boat access to our facilities when hosting events such as Junior Events, the Leukemia Cup and State Fair Regattas.

Project 4 Build 12 new board boat pads north of the junior/SMU locker with access to ramps. This project aims to attract new sailors by adding pads to expand and broaden our membership base. We have a commitment from nine non-CSC sailors to join the club and promote a new laser fleet on the lake. Two existing CSC members have committed to bring new lasers to the lake. We can continue to economically expand this area in stages as demand dictates. Access to these facilities will be focused on active sailors who will be catalysts for growth throughout the Club.

Boat Pad Renewals

The Board voted to make boat pad renewals contingent upon usage. We have had two years of full boat pads, and lack of available pads has become a problem. We want the pads to be used by boats that are sailed regularly, and not for long term boat storage. The solution is to implement a priority system similar to ones employed by other clubs.

This year’s membership renewal form will include several questions in the pad rental section of the application. Each answer will be assigned a point value which will be used to determine priority in the awarding of boat pads. These questions will include:

Is the boat used in the White Rock Joint racing program?
How many times was the boat sailed last year?
How long have you been renting storage at CSC?
Which boat pad would you prefer?

Based upon the point values generated by these responses, the Davit Registrar will assign pads.

The intent is to provide a non-partisan means of assigning pad rentals and to focus allocation of resources to more active sailors.

Equipment

Rescue 2, our 15-foot whaler, has been repaired. It now sports a new rub rail, and several holes have been patched. The committee boat has a new 60hp Mercury outboard, sitting atop a new transom. We plan on replacing the aft floor on the committee boat this year.

Hull of Shame

This year we will pick the ten boats or davits that stand head and shoulders below their peers for their advanced state of decrepitude. We will highlight one of these boats or davits each month with a captioned picture.

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We're not talking here about boats or davits that are running a bit late on routine maintenance - minimum entry requirements will span floating walkways, abandonment & safety concerns, general appearance and how lack of action is affecting neighboring davits and the image projected of the club. Extra points will be awarded for growing plants, insect colonies, or bird's nests. Owners will be notified well in advance, in case they would rather fix up or remove their boat so it no longer qualifies for the honor or appearing here.

IS YOUR DAVIT SAFE?
Robert Dorrell, Davit Registrar

Now is the time to take notice of our davit areas. Budget for your davit repairs and make sure they happen soon, or let someone else take over the maintenance and use of your davit. For the safety of all members and the appearance of the club itself a few of us who have davits, ought to give someone else a turn to have a davit. Far too many davits have made my initial list of those in need of repair, so I will wait in the hope that many of us will knock in those nails and replace those missing walk boards, those rotted railings, those too-tapered posts.

At the end of March I will do another walk-through. After that I am duty-bound to notify each member about necessary repairs to their davit, and this is the part of the job which I wish I didn't have to do. I will be posting a list of these davits at the club house.

So, please take a look at your davit. Is your davit number on the end of your davit? Is the end of your davit there? How does the walkway look, are nail heads sticking up? How about the railing and posts? Do you know your davit neighbors?

Stay involved and stay active in the club. Let me know how I can help you. Here are phone numbers for some local davit rebuilders:

Ken Brown (972) 977-4750

Michael Mittman (214) 929-3511

Joe Romanowski (214) 683-1128

Ben Larson (214) 926-1852

You can always email me at davitregistrar@cscsailing.org

SOME UPCOMING LOCAL EVENTS

11 March, 9am - Second Saturday Shoreline Clean-up
11-12 March - White Rock Cup Victoria Regatta - RC Model Regatta at CSC

A complete list and more details are on our new and improved club calendar http://www.cscsailing.org/calendar_csc.php.

THE MAIN SHEET – YOUR NEWSLETTER

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 submission is the first Tuesday of the month. Please submit articles to secretary@cscsailing.org. If you prefer, call 214-369-9037 and simply leave your thoughts in a voice mail message. An article draft will shortly waft its way to you for proof-reading. Any suggestions concerning improvements to the newsletter are welcome. If you have experienced formatting problems with the newsletter, please contact me at the email address above.

CORINTHIAN SAILING CLUB

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 the East side of beautiful White Rock Lake. Phone 214-320-0841. Our web address is http://www.cscsailing.org ; a general email address is info@cscsailing.org. Our mailing address is Corinthian Sailing Club, PO Box 180087, Dallas, TX 75218.