1. Commodore's Report

I'm writing this after the club completed “The Pride of Queen City” and 4 days of “Opening Day.”

For Jerry Zuvich’s Pride we hit the worn areas of the club with paint and pressure washers, dug, trimmed and installed new plants (they’re some tomato plants by the barbecues). We had hot dogs for lunch and pork chops for dinner, all made by our members. I really like the way our club looks after all the work.
I spent quite a bit of time at Seattle Yacht Club over the Opening Day weekend and was always glad to take the shuttle back to our club to mingle and help the other members that were working so hard making our weekend so much fun.

For Opening Day we had Brats and Beer by Butch and Nancy Scherrer, the best Steak Fry ever and Homemade Spaghetti by Dick and Elin Storey and to close out the weekend we presented a terrific Tarrette Brunch to all the clubs on Sunday morning. There are more kudos to all the helpers throughout this Bilge Pump. For all you “Snowbirds,” Bob and Diane Prestebak got back just in time to cut, slice, dice and wash dishes during the weekend. The pressure’s on the rest of you when you get back.

When we induct new members the Bridge reads a little about the traditions and history of QCYC and when I give the initiation speech I try to emphasize the part of where as a member you are entitled to all the privileges and responsibilities of membership. As part of the responsibilities of belonging to a club that has volunteers doing all of our big events we must have all members give a little of their time. Please sign up to help when these events occur, your fellow members need your help.

By the time you receive this Bilge Pump we will have had a vote on a couple of by-law changes. This is a constantly challenging event. Yes or No on a vote doesn’t mean that any change is permanent or cannot be expanded to clarify issues. Thanks for being part of great club and being careful about any of these proposed changes.

At the second meeting in April we had a fireman from Bainbridge Fire Dept. make a presentation about fire safety. The first thing he said was “The best way to protect yourself from fire is to not have one.” Among other comments it was, “You need to have smoke alarms in all the cabins of the boat” and that only a couple of breaths of boat fire smoke will asphyxiate you.

The next day I went on-line and bought my smoke alarms, five linked alarms for $125.00, have you?

I’m looking forward to seeing you on the dock, Fleet Captain’s Cruises, Winslow events and cruising this summer. Don’t forget to ask your boating friends to join the club, as a recent past commodore said “The only reason people don’t join is that they’re not asked.”

Check out all the other articles in this issue of the Bilge Pump for more about our wonderful club.

Safe Boating,

George Austin
Commodore