Temperature was in upper 40s and wind was about 20 mph. At 12 noon on January 1 2008 Tom and Donna took the plunge. Spectators on Hand to Watch the Plunge In They Go Photos by Warren Aabrams and Jimmy Harrell

{{ {{{Dock D}}} }} A few months ago, floating dock D was in the early stages of tearing itself apart. Ronnie Young began the process of rebuilding the dock. So far, new skirting has been added to prevent boats from slipping under the decking and being damaged, one of the floats has been replaced, several pieces of reinforcing brackets have been rebuilt and installed, and some of the decking has been replaced. There is still more to be done and we are working on it slowly. Particularly, we have to remove the old poles. The board discussed someone’s idea of rotating the dock 90 degrees so that it ran more or less parallel to the shore and so that we could reposition the poles making the dock was more boat friendly. This past week Ronnie repositioned the dock to the new position and the contractor came and put in the new poles. The potos show the new poles in place. {{ {{{New Slips}}} }} While we were discussing the repositioning of the Dock D, we got permission from Georgia Power to add stand off poles next to the stationary part of Dock D and next to Dock E (near the pavilion)so that boats could be tied up at these locations without damage. Notice the new poles next to these docks in the photos. Those on the waiting list will soon be notified that the new slips are available. Photos were taken by Dick Mueller.

The date was announced way back at the first of the year, but here’s your gentle reminder: The OSYC Annual Membership Meeting is scheduled for November 10, 2007 at 6pm at the clubhouse. Dinner will provided by the club, and an email will be going out shortly with dinner logistics and asking for RSVPs. As always, this is the primary annual business meeting of the club and we will be electing new officers for 2008. The Nominating Committee has assembled the following recommended slate of candidates for 2008. Each of them has agreed to serve if elected. -*Commodore: Jimmy Harrell -*Vice-Commodore: Ken Griffin -*Secretary/Treasurer: Jay Harrell -*Trustees -**Howard Gregory -**Bill Lewis -**George Thorpe -**Ronnie Young And of course, Bill Shaw will round out the Board as Immediate Past Commodore. Additional or alternative nominations may be submitted to the club secretary and any nominations received before the meeting will be presented by the secretary along with the Committee slate above. Also in keeping with Roberts Rules, nominations can be made from the floor as well. As always, a quorum will be required to transact club business and if you are unable to attend in person, please provide a written proxy for you vote to another member that you trust to represent your interests at the meeting.

I was looking at the forecast earlier in the week and couldn’t help but notice the Halloween Regatta weekend sandwiched there between two storm systems. Certainly we could use the rain, but to my thinking two back-to-back storms were likely to bring good sailing conditions for our annual Halloween event. And indeed it did! Cool nights, warm, but not hot, clear blue skies and sunny days all coupled with nice, full, moderate breezes each day. In other words, exactly what fall sailing at OSYC is supposed to be like. Saturday came with the breeze from the NW blowing straight down the lake giving us a nice long course. Nine boats, including Bill Lewis in his new Merit 22 and Bill Shaw in his new San Juan 23, did two 2-laps WL courses, one at winds 8-12 and the other a bit more. The Bolinger family and friends pulled off a flawless race committee, and [took the photos to prove it->http://picasaweb.google.com/jharrell26/20071020OSYCHalloweenRegatta2007]. Despite the length, each race was only about an hour long and we hit the dock before 4pm so master chef Ken Griffin could light the grill. With boats put away, the clubhouse became the center of attention. Grayson was directing the decorations and set up of the sale, while Ken and the Goodie Gallery whipped up the food. By the time it was over, if anyone went away hungry, it was their own fault. I’m not exaggerating when I say it was some of the very best sailing club food you can find anywhere, and far-far better than most. After dinner there was the requisite costume contest highlighted by an awesome headless Dexter and followed by the drawing of raffle tickets on the porch. Some how this year I managed to come home without any huge items, but I did end up with a lawn alligator. Hey at least it doesn’t take up any room in the garage. (And Ken definitely owes me a favor for not donating tickets to his daughter for the sewing machine.) Sunday morning dawned cool, blue, sunny and windy again. Once again a beautiful day for sailing. Somehow overnight the wind had turned 180 degrees and was now blowing straight down the lake in the opposite direction, once again giving us a long wide-open WL course. The MacMillans gave us 3 laps for the first race in a bit over 12 mph wind and 2 laps for the second in what turned out to be a bit less wind. The races were hard fought and in the end only a few second separated 1st and 2nd for the weekend. The Harrells took 1st, the Griffins took 2nd and Calvin Smith sailing solo took 3rd. In 4th we had Bill Shaw and Bob Horan tied, followed by Michael Dortch, Bill Lewis, Greg Phillips and the Davis rounding out the fleet. As it was with the food, so it was also with the sailing. If you didn’t get enough sailing this weekend, you have only yourself to blame. As if to make up for less than decent weather for most of this year, the lake served up it’s very best and we were there to enjoy it. But wait, there’s more! Check the 2007 schedule and watch this page – we still have the rest of the Fall Series and the Fall Membership meeting before we pack things away for the holiday…

Click on the link to see announcement [2007 Halloween Regatta ->http://osyc.net/OSYC2007%20Halloween%20Regatta.htm]

(Editor’s note: Tuesday is the name of Bill’s boat and Outback is a regatta on Lake Murry. At first, I thought he was going to give us a restaurant review. Jimmy) The Ronnies and I decided to try the Outback Regatta. With a combined age of 182 vs 30 and and estimated 70 we had the experience, but not necessarily the the agility and good sense to sail a smart race. On the first race we were 3rd at the first mark, very close to the 1 and 2. We were ready for the spinnaker set because Ronnie #1 (Young) and I had practiced the spinnaker set and retrieval a few times a week or so earlier and all had gone well. Ronnie #2 (Hartley) had decided to work on the committee boat for the “good of the team” as the air was light, building to 7, and he knew we did not need the extra weight. I think he also knew that it was going to be a hot light air race. Anyway, since we had done so well in practice, we left the spinnaker in the boat rigged just the way we had taken it down on our last retrieval. Back to the race: The spinnaker went up OK and we were OK but the course dictated a jibe. We jibed the spinnaker and all went to hell instantly. The spinnaker and sheets wrapped around the forestay in a bad way. After a few “casual” conversations about what might be going on, I realized that when we had set the boat up, after leaving the spinnaker just as it had worked well during practice, we had left the spinnaker sheets inside of the forestay when we set the boat up. We pretty much waved the fleet by as we worked through the disaster. We were so bad that the committee gave us the dsq for Jay going through the closed start line. In all fairness, in the end, they gave both of us the dsq for Jay going through the closed start line. You should be punished for doing dumb things! In race 2 we were caught below some really big boats at the start, and tacked away into a hole and were never heard from again. End of racing, day one. Day 2, the air was once again light and Ronnie #2 had once again abandoned ( I mean volunteered for the committee boat) After a bit of a delay, the race #3 was started. We were 4th at the first mark very much in contention. We rounded and hoisted the spinnaker and it would not budge out of its dark little hole. We pulled the halyard hard and still no spinnaker. It had worked well in race # 2 and it was just as we had left it except for the knot I made in the halyard to the forestay to keep it in place while towing back to the launch ramp. If you pull on a loose knot hard enough it gets very tight. Once again we waved the fleet by as we practiced boy scout knot un-doing. The regatta was great!!!!! If any of you miss this event next year, you are missing a major happening. I have never been to a regatta with better food and beer. Period! If you like to sail and you like a good time, put this regatta on your calendar next year. Hyatt $107 a night for a 3 bed room. How does that compare with Boston? In the end, Alex wiped Jay and me on the course, and we really don’t care. I think Alex is the southeast’s hope for beating up on some of the Marblehead group in the future. He sailed a great series, but more importantly was a great host for his home regatta. Put the Outback on your schedule next year and come try to beat Alex and enjoy a whole bunch of Columbia Sailing Club hospitality

In a surprise twist of fate, summer returned to the south for what’s likely to be our final weekend of “dang hot” temperatures and very light wind. The bad part is that this occurred at the end of week of cool, dry, sunny and windy weather while we all suffered at work. So instead of our hoped-for first taste of fall sailing, instead we got a last blast of summer. No matter, we still managed to have fun! With only three boats, the Vipers were lumped into the large “PHRF spinnaker” start. We had 3 Vipers, 6 U-20s, a bunch of J-24s and S2s, some large cruisers, and even an Olson 30 starting with us. In the light wind, these large boats cast a wind shadow about a mile long. And we were well under hull speed, so this wasn’t going to be a good day for handicap racing. The first start ended in a general recall as much of the fleet crossed the line as much as 30 second early. Wow! On the restart, Alex got the jump on the fleet and never looked back. Meanwhile Bill and I where able to prove beyond a doubt that it was Alex’s skill in play and not just his fast boat by finishing somewhat further back in the pack. Not to mention a DSQ for me for sailing through the “closed gate” not just once but twice. (So did half the U-20s BTW, so I wasn’t the only one to miss that line in the SI). As if the first race wasn’t light enough, the second was even more so and part way around the wind died completely. Ratings no matter, the entire fleet converged on the leeward mark at the same time in a giant ghosting pinwheel. Except for Alex that is – he was already nearing the finish line by then. Sunday morning brought a 10am start, but the wind didn’t arrive until later. With finally enough wind for a start, we got yet another general recall. The restart (with the I flag) was successful and we got in one more drifter before heading in for lunch and packing up, and watching Alex pick up his prize. And to those who didn’t make it, you missed the best regatta food anywhere – fantastic meals both Friday and Saturday night. And next year there will be a new $3 million club house overlooking the lake. I would definitely recommend a return trip, particularly if we can get enough sportboats there to have our own start as a group instead of being forced to fight it out with the bludgers. (So, where exactly does rule 18 turn on when one boat is 21 and the other is 30 feet long?) Here are a few [photos->http://picasaweb.google.com/viper640photos/2007OutbackRegatta]. Jay

The weekend of August 25th and 26th are scheduled for the Summer series races 7 and 8. As an extra bonus, we will have a “Club Burn” the night of the 25th. This is an activity Ken Griffin learned from the Rudder Club in Jacksonville and suggested we try it here. This will be a cook out. everyone bring a meat they want to grill and the club will furnish the sides along with the grill and for those that want it, the cook. Ken said he will be glad to man the grill and cook for anyone that wants him to cook their meat.

The OSYC Nominating Committee will present a single recommended slate of candidates for election as Officers and Trustees for 2008 at the Fall Meeting on November 10, 2007 as required by Section V of the Bylaws. This will include the following positions. Commodore Vice Commodore Secretary-Treasurer Trustees at Large (4) Also, individual members may nominate candidates at any time. If these nominees are willing to serve, they will be added to the slate provided to the membership prior to the Fall Meeting. Such nominations may be made by contacting the club Secretary by October 5th. Jay Harrell’s email address is [jay.harrell@riverside.net->jay.harrell@riverside.net] and his postal address is 2710 Henderson Mill Road, Atlanta, GA 30341-5710. The Nominating Committee’s recommended slate, along with other nominees from the membership received by October 5th and who agree to serve, will be mailed to the membership prior to the Fall Meeting. Nominations may also be submitted later or made from the floor at the Fall Meeting. These later nominees will also be added to the ballot at the Fall Meeting if they agree to serve upon election.