New Evening Sail Schedulers for the coming season! - - Marilyn Leece

I am pleased to announce that the new Evening Sail Scheduler is Peggy Clark.

The new Evening Sail Assistant is David Barbour.

Welcome Aboard, Peggy & David! Watch the Burgee in the weeks to come for more details!

 2012: Another Successful  Lottery ! - - Trudy Morse

On February 21, 2012 ASI held the annual lottery for timeshares in the North Channel , open to all Level  4 sailors and students. Norm Schmidt did his usual expeditious and friendly job in a challenging situation with negotiation and filling of timeshare weeks.

We were fortunate to have some new assistants to assure a smooth flow and keep us on track. Jessica Hogg and John Johnston were enthusiastic greeters distributing packets and directing participants to the appropriate tables to complete requirements.  Sherri Gregory filled in at another table validating membership and collecting payments as well as checking and signing confirmation forms, along with Don DeGrazia.  Kathy Chrzanowski assisted with set-up and assuring needed supplies were available and in place.

Craig Smith, as he does every year, did his usual fine job of assuring sailors signed up for maintenance. Dave Clark, who has been an assistant for many years, accurately checked eligibility to draw tickets, after which each participant was able to draw a ticket. Dave then placed the lottery list on the board for further processing. 

A final electronic list of timeshares was created and checked by Norm and Trudy, after which Trudy mailed the payments to Lisa, our ASI sail secretary.   

At this time I would like to acknowledge two faithful and highly valued lottery assistants with more than 20 years of experience: Don DeGrazia and Peggy Clark. Don has been one of the faithful committee members for many  years planning the lottery along with Norm and Trudy. In the past, he also brought large prepared calendars to be used at the lottery. Both Don and Peggy assist checking eligibility and processing payments. Peggy could not be with us this year and we missed her.

This year we have a few open spots both for timeshare weeks and transfers of the boats. By the way, Dave is our new Level 4 Manager; and if you want to fill an open spot, do a transfer trip or do a workshop, please get in touch with him.

I want to thank all of you for your successful efforts and great job assuring the lottery was a success. It takes a team and this is a very good team.   

2012 Spring Sailing Sewing workshops - - Kathy Chrzanowski

Sailing Sewing workshops will be Saturdays, March 24 and 31 at my home from 9am - 4 pm.  You do not need any skills to do this.  We will teach you. Service hours may be obtained for all the hours you work.  The sails are sorted and labeled as to the repair needs, so hopefully this will go along easily, and we will be ready to put the boats with repaired sail back in the water soon afterwards.  Any questions email matwins1@comcast.net or phone 248- 877-6539, but please do not expect a reply if you email or call between March 8 - 19.  I will be in India on a mission trip to distribute eye glasses.  If any of you have old eye glasses sitting around, please bring them to me, so the next eye glass trip will have enough for them to use.

DRYA 2012 Winter Wednesday Seminar Series Overviews - - Mickey Bennett

Seminars start at 7PM.  Go to www.drya.org for more information, updates, and potential winter weather changes. Unless otherwise noted, these seminars are free of charge to ASI sailors!

Seminar #9 Mar 7 A PRACTICAL APPROACH TO REWIRING YOUR SAILBOAT

Com. Skip Gmeiner and sons Ron and Stephen will build on last year's popular presentation on wiring in a sailboat. This presentation will quickly review last year's topics (new battery-saving LED navigation lights; changes in ABYC wiring requirements; and new ways to charge auxiliary batteries). From there they will provide practical information for the do-it-yourselfer; how to effectively re-wire with modern innovations; dealing with 110 VAC and 12 VDC systems, and grounding. The Gmeiners are well versed in this topic area as their commercial venture, SPEMCO, is a large distributor of nautical switches, indicator lights, circuit breakers and many other electromechanical items. Join us March 7th at 7 PM at North Star Sail Club, 32041 South River Road, Harrison Twp.

Seminar #10 Mar 14 SAIL MAKING FROM START TO FINISH

SORRY, BUT THIS SEMINAR IS COMPLETELY SOLD OUT

Seminar #11 Mar 21 UNDERSTANDING AND IMPROVING YACHT RESISTANCE … AND WINNING MORE RACES

The focus of this presentation is to describe how hydrodynamic drag influences sailing-yacht performance. The hydrodynamic drag is conventionally broken into several components including wave, frictional, and induced drag. During the talk an overview of each of the components of resistance will be given with an emphasis on the relative importance of each component in different sailing conditions. This presentation will be by members of the University of Michigan's Naval Architecture Department including Professors Steven Ceccio, Robert Beck, Kevin Maki, and Armin Troesch. Among the faculty are several who are also seasoned sailboat racers as well as designers. Please join us March 21st at 7 PM at Ford Y. C., 29500 Southpointe Road, Grosse Ile.

Seminar #12 Mar 28 MODERN SAFETY AND SEARCH AND RESCUE TECHNIQUES AND RELATED ELECTRONICS

Coast Guard Lieutenant Justin Westmiller will speak on modern safety and search and rescue techniques including a review of how AIS impacts our safety on the water. He will address what to do when the helicopter is overhead and how to get the helicopter to come including transmitting calls for help using EPIRB and DSC.

Tim Metcalf will discuss Digital Selective Calling (DSC) and the familiar red “Distress” button. In order to take full advantage of this technology, boaters must ensure that their identity and location are available in the event of an emergency.

The discussion will led by Tim Metcalf, a USCG ¬licensed captain, experienced offshore sailor and racer, and the owner of a small business that sells, integrates and installs marine navigation electronics. Tim Metcalf is the Rear Commodore of the Double Handed Sailing Association. He has accumulated almost 13,000 offshore sailing miles.

Please join us March 28th at Port Huron Y. C., 212 Quay St., Port Huron

New L1 skippers: get into racing next season - - Michael Golden

Racing is a fun way for new or experienced skippers to refine their sailing skills. One learns sailing by doing it; having another boat sailing nearby at your performance level is a great teacher. You don’t have to get competitive about racing to gain confidence in your ability on the helm.

New racers must attend the basic seminar in April and a practice, to skipper in the early races, when you are ready. There is no racing fee for newly rated Level 1 members from this last season. To sign up, reply with your name, rating, and years of sailing/racing experience to Michael Golden 248-549-3030.

Performance Quiz

1. What 3 things are necessary to come about?

2. How can you make the boat turn downwind faster?

3. What can you do to reduce excess weather helm (boat heads up a lot)?

4. What are the best things you can do to improve your sailing ability?

Bob Dylan says, the answers my friend, are blowing in the wind:

1. Have way on; be sailing close to the wind, slowly move the tiller wide (45°).

2. By letting the main sail out as you fall off.

3. Raise the centerboard a bit, move weight forward, hike out, & ease the main.

4. Join the racing program and teach sailing.

(editors note: for question 1, the first necessity is wind!)

A few more things...       

A clear conscience is the sign of a fuzzy memory.

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Please send your Burgee input to asidon@comcast.net for inclusion in the next  Burgee. Have you noticed they are coming more frequently? C'mon, spring!