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March/April 2018 Newsletter Liberty Lifelines

Published on 3/26/2018



COMMODORE'S REPORT


Alas (FINALLY!!) spring is upon us! We have weathered four nor’easters and the volunteer members of LSC have made it through rain, wind, and the cold bitter air to help prepare your boats.

 

This year, the Return of the Fleet will take place on Saturday, March 31, 2018. We will meet at the club house at 11:00 AM and depart in carpools to Winter’s Marina around 12:00 PM.  We plan to leave the docks by 1:30 PM – 2:00 PM (High Tide is 2:23 PM.)

Members and potential new members are invited to help commission our fleet.  If you can’t make the sail, please join our house crew to help prepare the club house for the season as well.  

Please Sign up today so we can arrange the proper number of drivers! Sign up as carpool if you can drive. We need drivers!

Over the spring, your club members continued working on the fleet at our dry dock at Winter’s Marina in Riverside, NJ.  We have made some major repairs on each boat, this past weekend we 
accomplished

 

  • Install the new mainsheet blocks
  • Install halyards and the vangs
  • Install the remaining booms and tillers
  • Install outboard motors; fill and install gas tanks
  • Check and recheck inventory and equipment
  • Finish waxing (4 boats already done)
Be sure to thank these volunteers who made it through the cold weather to ensure your boats were ready for the launch:

Dave Blair
Todd Bosco (New Member)
Dennis Brunn (New Member)
Ed Carmody
Chris Chu
Chris Daly
John Davis
Ernie Dellheim (New Member)
Sean Devens (New Member)
Deb Dullen
Dave English
Peter Ennis
Chris Feret
Katie Ferris
Andrew Johnson
Jay Malamut
Laura Martin
Sam Martin
Shannon McBride
Colleen McCann (New Member)
Drew McDaniel
Audrew McGowan (New Member)
Maggie McMahon
Mimo Mottini
Jack Oczeretko
Bob Rhodes
Brion Sirine
Rich Sita
Mike Sobrepera
Meredith Spindler
Bill Weist
Rick Werkheiser
Walt Wronka
Bill Wyatt
Caitlin Youngster
Ace Rhmiro (Non-Member)
Shareef (Non-Member)
Arnold the Crazy Rock climber (Non-Member)
Joe Betzala (Non-Member)

ON THE HORIZON

We’re working on a lot of new fun things this year but need our club members to help sustain these programs.   Please email me @ commodore@libertysailing.org if you can participate in any of these activities as a part of a committee:

 

  • Friday – Happy Hour sailing – Need 3-4 members who regularly attend to help coordinate
  • Sunday – 1-4 PM Sailing/Racing – Need 3-4 members who regularly attend to help coordinate
  • Open Houses – Need 1-2 people who can use our playbook to register visitors and get them to the boats for an introductory sail
  • Big Brother Big Sister sail – Need a few good members to help organize this worthwhile endeavor. Dates to be determined.
  • Memorial Day Sail – Linda and Debbie can always use a few more party planners. Summer holidays will be here before you know it!
  • Spring Fling/Fall Topper - Our annual charter trips need 1-2 members to make boat reservations and coordinate details.
  • Regattas and cross club races – We need someone to line up dates and coordinate member participation when we race against other clubs.

And speaking of the horizon, are you interested in sailing overseas?  Maybe the Caribbean?  How about the Greek Islands?  Chartering overseas is easier than you might think.  Drop a note to Skip Markowitz at skipr00@comcast.net or catch him at the club house on Wednesday or Thursday evenings.

ASA 105 Class Discount for Members

 

Liberty Sailing School is offering ASA 105 starting Monday evening April 16th. Cost is regularly $289. A $20 discount is applied for club members and guests. You will learn the basics of piloting a small craft along coastal or inland waters. Upon successful completion of the final exam, you will receive certification from the American Sailing Association.  The course covers terrestrial coordinates, reading charts, chart symbols, measuring direction and distances on charts, compass rose, variation and deviation problems, dead reckoning, position finding, bearings and fixes, danger bearings, current set and drift problems, tides and currents, introduction to electronic navigation including GPS, navigating in fog, final exam. Click Here for more details. Questions please email stevemink@comcast.net



- Commodore Christopher Chu

 




MEMBERSHIP COMMITTEE

Ahoy Liberty Sailors! 
We need your help with two important initiatives that are coming up. 

#1 New Member Mentors 
As a lot of you may remember, it can be a little overwhelming when you first join a new sailing club and don't know anyone yet. To help with this, we are going to pair an experienced member with each new member to help them navigate the (sometimes confusing) structure of Liberty Sailing Club. The role of mentors is to be a buddy who keeps an eye out for them around the club, introduces them to other club members, helps them get involved with racing or cruising, and who is available by phone or email if they have a question about something. Note: you are not responsible for teaching anyone how to sail, just to be friend. 

Are you up for helping our new members feel like part of the family? Email Caitlin at membership@libertysailing.org or respond to this email if you'd like to be a New Member Mentor! 

#2 Open House on April 8th from 1-4pm
Our first open house is in just two weeks! Looking for one more skipper, several crew members to sail, and a few folks to hang out at the clubhouse and chat with potential new members.

Sign up to volunteer on the website by going to this link Open House - 4/8/2018 and clicking "volunteer!" on the right hand side of the page. 

The next open house is going to be on Friday, May 4th from 5:30-8:30pm. Feel free to sign up to volunteer at this one too. Open House - 5/4/2018

Thank you everyone and see you on the water soon!

Caitlin Youngster, Membership Chair

cmyoungster@gmail.com

 


COMMUNICATIONS COMMITTEE


Please make sure you download the Liberty Sailing Club mobile App and enroll in your "Interests" on the days you want to sail.


All last minute communications about each night’s events will only be communicated through the app (weather, delays, and need for crew). Please be sure to download the Liberty Sailing App for your iPhone or Android.


LSC App Splash Page
App Chat room
Maintenance Chat Room


We’re also looking forward to using the “boat status” channel to do a better job of reporting issues to the maintenance committee.  With a channel for each boat, it should be very easy for members to report any issue.  You can even take a picture with your phone. 

 

If you have questions, make sure you use the Chat feature in the Liberty Sailing App. If you haven’t downloaded it yet, here are the links:

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/liberty-sailing-club/id1345442436?mt=8

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.clubexpress.libertysailing&hl=en

 

Rich Sita, Communications Chair

rsita.rsita@gmail.com





MAINTENANCE COMMITTEE

 

The booms have been reinstalled with new bushings to prevent further wear and the outhauls are being repaired and sheaves replaced. New tillers and halyards have been installed as well. We have soda-blasted the bottoms of three boats, and will be repainting the barrier coat this week. Last year, we did all new deck hardware, new blocks, new main sheet system. All of these tasks are essential to maintain safe operations and prolong the life of the fleet.

For 2018, we will have work parties every other weekend and will
 need volunteers.  Attendance for each of these  will cover up to 4 hours of the 8 hours required per member.


March 31st Saturday 11AM Start  -  Return of the fleet - We will need to have:

  • All sails on the boats
  • Skippers and crews for all boats
  • Needed 4 to 6 volunteers each boat 
  • One pickup truck 
  • Don't forget your foul weather gear
New Documents for Members
All members (Skippers/Crew) should be aware of the New Member FAQ and Boat Reference Guide. This is found in the documents section and contains important details of how to dock our boats, racing courses, etc. A copy of the boat reference guide is also found in the step box in each boat. Thank you Dave English for putting this together!!


Laura Martin, Maintenance Committee

lm6419@aol.com

Dmitri Bernhardt, Maintenance Chair
seegypsy@gmail.com






RACE COMMITTEE 

 

Back to the Club Party – April 12th, 6 pm

It’s finally that time! All Liberty Full-time Cruising and Racing members are reminded that our annual Back to the Club Party will be on Thursday, April 12th, at 6:00 P.M. at the LSC Clubhouse. Enjoy pizza and find out what your crewmates were up to in the winter.

For the 2018 race season, we will be fielding 6 boats instead of the normal 7 boats this year as Connecticut will be out of service for repairs.  We will have formal racing on Wednesday and Thursday evenings with teams formed and assigned to boats.  We will also have informal racing on Sundays during the Spring and Fall, along with informal cruising on Tuesdays and Fridays


Racing Team Assignments

For Wednesdays and Thursdays, each team is assigned one racing skipper, one racing co-skipper and four crew members.  Each team is assigned to a boat for racing on Wednesdays or racing on Thursday (12 teams – 6 Wednesday, 6 Thursday).   We will need six racing skippers, six racing co-skippers, and six crew teams (of up to 4 each) for races on Wednesday and Thursday evenings.   We can have more than 4 crew members on a team if some crew members can only participate on some of the evenings, and the team wants additional crew for those evenings.

The Back to the Club Party is where racing team assignments are finalized.  If you would like to race on Wednesday and / or Thursday, here’s how to get assigned to a team:

  1. If you have raced with the club previously and would like to sail with the skipper / team that you’ve sailed with previously please contact the skipper to make sure he/she has you on their team list.The Skipper will submit the names of his team prior to or at the Back to the Club Party.
  2. If you are new to the club, new to racing, on simply want to get on a racing boat, send an email message before the party to the Ed Carmody, Racing Committee Chair (edcarmody@comcast.net). Please indicate your preferred race night, and if you have a skipper you’d like to sail with. Please also provide your contact information and level of sailing and racing experience. Otherwise, please come to the Back to the Club night and meet other members and sign up for a team.

We will ensure you are assigned to a boat. We encourage new people to join the racing program even if you have not tried it before. It’s fun, competitive, and a great learning experience.

In any case, everyone (regardless of whether you are an existing or new member) will need to supply complete contact information (name, email address and telephone number) to his/her respective skippers to be sure teams are assembled properly.  Also, please, please, please update your information on the website; only you can edit your preferences and make sure our records are accurate. In the past, some individuals (particularly new members) have been hard to identify and contact due to misspellings, new email addresses, etc.  Skippers and crews should also be sure to register for the interest group for their evening to ensure they are signed up for the chat.


Skipper Responsibilities

Skippers ultimately are responsible for providing and verifying the final skipper/crew list of names for their respective boats by the end of the evening.  Skippers are required to input their skipper/crew list of names inclusive of any changes (additions/deletions) that may occur during the Party. (If skippers have a partial, or complete, crew list currently, skippers are encouraged to email it to the Race Committee Chair – Ed Carmody) so it can be assembled as an interim list and made available for review at the beginning of the Party.) 

In addition, skippers are responsible for assembling a complete skipper/crew contact information list (name, email address, and telephone number) for their respective boats and forwarding it immediately after the Party in a follow-up email  to the Race Committee (Ed Carmody at edcarmody@comcast.net).

Skippers, please prepare in advance, to the degree possible, so you can complete and verify this request for information with your crew at the Party.

Racing Rules

All Racing Skippers are required to pass a Racing Rules Quiz.  Laura Martin will be hosting a Racing Rules Seminar on Saturday, April 14th at 10 AM.  Skippers and all crew members, or anyone aspiring to be a racing skipper are encouraged to attend.  Please see the website for further details.


The Race Committee’s goal is to accommodate appropriate requests by full time members, to the degree possible, and reserves the right to require changes by the skippers to be sure full time members have an opportunity to race, if desired. As a reminder to everyone, all interested members get to race one night, either Wednesday or Thursday, and to the extent slots are open they can be on another boat. The Board would like to have a smooth beginning to the racing season and seeks everyone’s cooperation.


Ed Carmody, Race Committee Chair
edCarmody@comcast.net