1. Commodore's Report

January was a busy month for our club. The past commodores had a Winslow cruise-in on the 8th and the Grand 14 Bridge officers had a cruise-in on the 15th. For the Grand 14 cruise-in the Vice and Rear of each club usually put together some sort of nice presentation sometimes called “a roast.” Don and Bob wrangled Dave and Margaret Krows into making a nice little slide show. Now the world knows more than they should about me. I had forgotten all that rotten stuff, and they will pay next year! Thanks, Margaret, it really was great. Mike Cochran and his crew put together a terrific Friday night dinner for the “First of the Season” predicted log race. See Bob Lindal’s article. I went along as a novice racer with Don Wilson and Bob Stettner as assistants on Grey Goose. Bill Anderson, of log racing fame, came along to help us get around Lake Washington and Mike Cochran came along as our observer. If you have ever thought about considering log racing, contact Bob Lindal and he will help you with all of the beginning steps how to get involved. We didn’t do well (I filled the boat with fuel, which slowed us down) but we had fun.

Martini Madness, hosted by Scott and Tracy McPhee, was well attended: lots of socializing and the food was terrific. The list of special drinks was long and I had a red apple martini that was super. Put it on your calendar for next year. At the second club meeting of each month we have been having guest speakers. For March we have Seattle Yacht Club coming to talk about Opening Day and you can get the free pin. Put this on your calendar.

Thank you to all the Boat Show helpers. This is such a big exercise for the club. The open house has passed and hopefully we have asked some of the applicants to become members. As P/C Jennerich says, the number one reason people don’t join an organization is that they are not asked.

January and February are gone already and that means it’s time to start thinking about our spring clean ups, dock work parties, washing our boats and making plans for our big weekends and the summer cruise. We need lots of volunteers for these clean-up events. Contact Becky Garvie for grounds, Art Mauldin for docks, Jim Damery for house. The big cleanup before Opening Day, “The Pride” will be chaired by Jerry Zuvich.

Sometime in March we will see the last section of Winslow dock arrive. Installation will occur when the tide and weather are right. What an improvement this will be. We have other clubs asking how we do all the things that make us stand out. It’s all about the volunteers who take a project, run with it and make it happen, this one by our own Eric Wood.

Gary Halverson is looking to get a good count of who is going to Tacoma for Daffodil. He was passing out boat registration forms at last night’s meeting, so contact him about this. We also need to have a little meeting before we go so we’re organized for the Trivia Contest: maybe some t-shirts. This is a fun cruise and we really only decorate one side of the Officer’s Boat, a couple of hours with help, so come along.

Opening Day is coming, Salish Sea is the theme. Dick and Elin Storey are the Opening Day chairs, so they might be asking for some help with this event. It seems early but if you are thinking of helping Don Wilson with next year’s Opening Day it would be good to work with Dick and Elin so you have the experience to handle this big event. All of our big weekend event chairs need help. Even a couple of hours during the weekend makes a big difference.

I look forward to seeing you at these events.

George Austin
Commodore