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W H S Y C N E W S L E T T E R V O L 1 # 5

WHSYC

Hi All Yacht Club Members,

This is the first DOUBLE issue of the William H Seward Yacht Club Newsletter! I didn’t get October’s out and

now we are in to the second week of November! Yikes! How time flies..What a stunning image by Ron Niebrugge

of Seward, Alaska. I became a fan of his on Facebook after coming across some of his images and saw this one and

had to share it. Go to his website or check out his latest images on FB. Super cool, great images.

Its been an....interesting year this year for the club as it was faced with unprecedented challenges, with the

ARRC terminating the ground lease with the clubhouse and forcing us to sell the building when finances and

options to move it were all but nil. But things have finally started to settle and its time to move on to bigger and

better things. We had a good group show up at the clubhouse and pack up what we wanted to keep, threw out the

junk and gave away the rest to the non-profit Seaview Community Services group in Seward.

Hey we have some important things coming up in this month and the next. The first is the Annual Elections and

then we have the Christmas party on December 13 as well. Here is the info!

November 20 - Annual Elections - Loussac Library, Public Conference Room, 6-8 pm. You will be receiving a

ballot shortly with a new bylaw for the club members to vote on. We are looking for members to serve on the

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W H S Y C N E W S L E T T E R V O L 1 # 5

WHSYC NEWSLETTERboard. After three years of serving as the Commodore and Vice Commodore I will be stepping down and letting

another member to take the helm. We are really needing some new faces to help out and are looking fora Vice

Commodore and a Trustee. If you would like to have some input in the club then please let me know and we will put

you on the ballot! The club will provide the main dish and all the attending members are asked to bring a side or a

dessert. Unfortunately alcohol is not allowed but we can reconvene somewhere else afterwards and imbibe!

WHSYC ...the MOVING AND PACKING PARTY!!

GOOD ATTITUDES PREVAILED..what do they say about the difference between Adventure and Ordeal? Afterwards we were treated to some great music, food and dancing at Chinooks afterwards. It was a lot of fun!

Here’s to New Adventures and New Beginnings. Cheers. Thanks for the good attitudes and smiling faces!

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W H S Y C N E W S L E T T E R V O L 1 # 5

Alma Mater

The deal is done. Myself and Deb Perala along with Clubhouse Transition Committee Chair met on Tuesday with Andy Donovan of the Alaska Railroad Corporation and signed the papers selling the clubhouse bringing to a close a long and storied history. Lots of memories, parties, meetings, and general good times were had here. She served us well for many years. I wish it would have lasted another 10. ...C’est la vie.

DOCK CARTSTwo (2) dock carts have been left out for member use during the off season. The others have been locked away.

A wooden and a plastic cart at the top of F float locked with a combination of

3-2-1-0. 

A plastic cart at the top of B float locked with a combination 8-2-4-0. 

SAILING

Christmas PartyMark your calendars for the

upcoming WHSYC Annual

Christmas party.

John and Marcy Baker’sJohn and Marcy

have bought a

new house and

moved to the

hillside after many years in the

Turnagain neighborhood. As John

said to me they wanted a house in

which they could host parties and

this is one of those!

WHSYC Xmas Party!!

6060 Yukon Drive

December 13th

6pm - 9pm

Members are asked to bring a

side or a dessert and the club will

provide the main dish. There also will

be a White Elephant gift exchange so

bring a gift if you want to participate.

Its always a hoot!!!

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W H S Y C N E W S L E T T E R V O L 1 # 5

SAILING ALASKA - WHSYCMemberships - 2013; -

Good News! We are fortunate to have Mike and Deb LaMagdeleine to step

forward and fulfill the position vacated by Piper our Membership Chair person

for many years after. Actually it was Deb who accepted but word has it, from

Deb no less, that she told Mike that if she was going to take on this

responsibility that he was going to have to help her out.

Personally I think this is great as it shares the load of responsibility that at

times is a bit overwhelming. In fact we are looking at doing that with more of

our chairs as well such as Activities and Racing! So if you want to help out

with that it would be welcome as well. Contact myself or Dave Summerfeldt

and let us know that you want to help out.

Website - Bill Ennis www.whsyc.org

Rumor has it that a new look is coming to the William H Seward Yacht Club

website! Webmaster Bill Ennis remarked that he has bought new software and

is embarking on revamping the website so that it will work with mobile

internet. It is going to be a big job so I will go ahead and say a Big Thanks

right now! As always we would love to have some new pictures of our member

out on their boats for the website.

Activities - (Nona Wilson, Vice Commodore)Look for some cool new upcoming activities for this winter? Look no further! Last week,

Nona hosted a meeting at her house for some serious brainstorming for Activities for the

members this coming year. So Nona, Matt Raney, Bill Ennis, Connie Livsey and myself came

up with the following new activities for the yacht club for the next calendar year. And boy did

we come up with some fun Fun FUN ideas! We are talking about anything from some cool

new how to classes to some great social events, like a Boat Crawl and Poker Run to a End of

the Season Black Tie Event! It was a hoot coming up with these ideas. I know you will enjoy

them. So look forward to hearing more about them shortly.

WHSYC Activities Calendar November 2013 – December, 2014

Date Time Event LocationNovember 15 6pm Sailor’s Social Fire Tap

November 20 6-8 Annual Membership Loussac Library

December 13 6-9 Christmas Party John & Marcy Baker’s

December 28 5:30 - 7:30 Sailor’s Social Glacier Brewhouse

January 11 10 - 2 Splicing Activity T&A Supply Whse

January TBD ??? Movie – All is Lost Bear Tooth?

January 18-19 All day AMSEA Emergency Drill Training Sailing Inc

February 8 12-2 Women & Sailing Roundtable Anchorage - TBD

February 15 6 pm Alaska Marine Gala Denaina Center

February 15-16 All day AMSEA Emergency Drill Training Sailing Inc

March 8 10-12 Radio’s – VHF & SSB Anchorage - TBD

March TBD TBD West Marine Night Anchorage

March 22 10-2 Spinnaker/Light Air Sailing class Anchorage

April 1 5:30 - 7:30 Sailor’s Social - APRIL FOOL’s Midnight Sun Brewing

April 12 All day Diesel Class Seward – AV Tech

April 26 10-2 DIY Build a Hydrophone T&A Supply

May 15 12-4 BBQ in the Park/Racer’s Seminar Jewel Lake

May 10 -20? All day Riggers Arrive – Keith and Ray Seward

May 10 2-5pm Boat Crawl – Poker Run Seward Harbor

May 16-18 All day Rendezvous - Bulldog Resurrection Bay

June 4 5-9 Kids and Dingy Sailing Westchester Lagoon

June 13-15 Weekend Rendezvous - Verdant (Father’s Day) Aialik Bay

June 25 6-8 Mast Ascending Class Anchorage - TBD

June 28 Noon - 3 White Sails Race #1 Resurrection Bay

July 4th Weekend Party in the Harbor/July 4th Seward Harbor

July 3-7th Weekend + Taz Basin/Northwestern Raft Up Northwestern

July 12 Noon - 3 White Sails Race #2 Seward

July 25-27 Weekend Rendezvous – Safety Cove Day Harbor

August 2 Noon - 3 Rum Doodle Seward - Ress Bay

August 15-17 Weekend WHSYC Fishing Derby/Fish Tacos Seward - Sunny Cove

August 17 Noon - 3 Alaska Cup Seward - Ress Bay

August 22-24 Weekend Rendezvous – Safety Cove Day Harbor

August 29 - 1 Weekend Labor Day Raft Up – Day Harbor Day Harbor

September 12-14 Weekend Winterization and Geocaching Thumb Cove

October TBD TBD Sailor’s Social/Slideshow Anchorage

October TBD TBD WHSYC Black Tie/Blue Blazer Event Anchorage

November TBD TBD Apps For Sailors Anchorage

November TBD TBD Annual Elections Anchorage

December TBD TBD Christmas Party Anchorage

SAILING

Facilities - ( Chair - Bill Goodell)

Racing - ( Chair - Dave Summerfeldt)

This was not a banner year for racing. There I said it and I’m not going to make

a lot of excuses but there isn’t a lot of racers in the club already and it takes a bit

of effort to organize one, put out the buoys, pick them up, pre-race skipper

meetings prior, figuring out handicaps, etc. but unfortunately a number of our

racers weren’t even able to race if we had had one. Linda Kumin and her speedy

boat, Williwaw were busy gunkholing as they brought her boat back up from

Seattle. Mark Ward and Laurence are in the South Pacific still on board

Radiance. Mike Busey another racer broke both of his arms in a motorcycle

accident and our chair person...well the rumor is that he has found a new

cruising companion and his mind is elsewhere. And granted a lot of these boats

are the same ones that are used in the Rum Doodle...So what do you do.. oh well

maybe next year! If you would like to race and be part of the committee it

would be most welcome both to have you race and to help organize it. Once

you race, you will realize it is a blast plus we gather back at the clubhouse

afterwords and eat and drink and argue and throw epithets, slanders and curses

at one another. All in good will of course. We even had some other good ideas

like “destination” races to a cove somewhere but alas it just never happened and

granted we are mostly a bunch of explorers and cruisers who really just like to

sail out to some remote beach to meet our buddies and break out the food and

cocktails.

On October 6th and 7th a group of WHSYC Members showed up at the yacht club to begin the

decommissioning of “Ye Old Yacht Club”. There was approximately 10-15 of us and after 4-5 hours we

had loaded the dumpster, boxed up the rest and carted it off to storage by 4 pm. Afterwards we sat around

ate pizza and drank a couple of beers and reminisced about the old girl. She’s been a good home for us for

many years, a place to dry out, to socialize and relax. Now everything is gone except for a very few

remaining odds and ends and in the next couple of days after the paperwork is signed the deal will be done

and it will be time for new beginnings. Word has it that the ARRC is going to start aggressively marketing

the building for sale with the hopes of breaking ground on the new development come Spring 2014.

SAILING ALASKA

FYI - KUDOS!

Sailing Inc - Randy and Deb Altermatt

If you are needing a place to warm up and get out of the weather while working on your boat in Seward,

Sailing Inc is throwing open their doors for WHSYC members.

CHALLENGER OF RECORD? THE WILLIAM H SEWARD YACHT CLUB! ...Not!

Rumor has it that after Oracle team won the America’s Cup that the WHSYC via our fearless

webmaster pictured here threw down the challenge but the Oracle team fearing certain loss of Auld Mug if they accepted DECLINED!!!

GIVE ‘EM HELL BILL!

AMERICA’S CUP - ORACLE!!!Crewed by 11, the AC72 catamaran is a lightweight speedster that measures in at 72 feet long by 46 feet wide and weighs 13,000 pounds. The AC72 is powered by a wing sail that stands 131 feet tall and covers 2,798 square feet in area.

The dimensions add up to an athletic yacht that’s long and light, wide and stable, and possesses incredible speed potential. When the windspeed hits 18 knots, the AC72 sails at 35 knots (40 mph).

When the boatspeed reaches 43 knots, a speed easily achieved off the wind, the catamaran is capable of sailing its 72-foot length in a single second. By comparison, the sloops used in the 2007 America’s Cup had a top average speed of 12 knots, meaning they sailed their 80-foot length in four seconds.

GUNKHOLER’S SPOTLIGHT Nuka Bay - North Arm

900 Foot Freaking Waterfall!!! CHART 16681 ( Seal Rocks to Gore Point)

SAILING

“CRUISING GUIDE TO WESTERN SOUTHCENTRAL ALASKA” p.

Anchorage Conditions

• Exposure: Probably very little except from the south• Swell: Unknown, could be none... could be a lot..its Alaska!!• Holding: Unknown, Clay, Mud, Rock...pick one.

• Anchor in ????? ...this is Alaska, figure it out• Swing Room: Unknown, who cares, just keep it pointed at the

waterfall.

• Special Considerations: • HERE THERE BE DRAGONS!!!!

In some late night beers at the Spenard

Roadhouse with yacht club member and

San Fran native Gary Fung S/V Maniac

he told me about this magical place he

pulled up into one summer in his sailboat

and that he wanted to go back to. He

proceeded to tell me how he pulled into

this bay and there before his eyes was this

900 ft waterfall that was plunging off the

mountains and crashing down on the

hills below. Well that prompted me to

break out the maps and start pouring

over them in the hopes of finding this

magical place. Well as you can see I

found it and am stoked! STOKED! to go

and check this out. I share it with you

now. It is listed as one of the tallest

waterfalls in the world.

SAILING ALASKA

Sam Commodore 2013

Book Recommendation

Journey Of A Hope MerchantNeal Petersen“Winner of the National Outdoor Book Award”

“Journey of a Hope Merchant” is a wonderful account of the world’s most unlikely and most determined sailor, who hauled himself up and out of apartheid South Africa in to the cockpit of his own, home-built, round-the-world racing yacht. Petersen’s like is a terrific and inspiring

story of triumph over adversity achieved by courage and ability, and his rise above shameful race prejudice is a prolonged act of grace.

Right before I sent this email I was talking with the AMSEA group out of Sitka about doing a special program for the WHSYC members geared towards sailors! Thanks to Bill Ennis for bringing this to my

attention. So here it is. (Disregard flyer location, costs, time)

Limited to 15 per group but no less than 8.Two (2) Sessions are offered. Pick one (1). In Seward with water sessions. Plan to get WET!

Saturday and Sunday, January 18-19, 2014also Saturday and Sunday, February 15-16, 2014

The course fee will be $150 per student.  (The course cost is usually $175.  Our director, Jerry Dzugan, authorized a discount for your group).  

Class description: http://amsea.org/training/drills.html

SAILING INC will host the AMSEA program!

Thanks to Deb and Randy!