Emailing - Percy Priest Yacht Club

Date: 6/19/2020
Subject: Email To The PPYC Membership
From: Communications Director

PPYC Newsletter

Commodore's Corner

I (and our Board) have been advised by two of our club members that they are very upset with me regarding my last two newsletters. They feel I am lacking empathy for the terrible situations our nation is in right now, and that my newsletters contain a political and insensitive side that should not be there. I did not realize it sounded political and certainly did not intend for anyone to feel I was being insensitive or disrespectful. If you were offended, I am sorry. That certainly was not my intent.

These are stressful times for all of us, including me. I think it’s safe to say that the current environment is unlike any we have experienced in our fifty-year history — so as your Commodore, I am faced with the rather unique challenge of providing leadership to an activity-oriented organization that has for half its main season been unable to schedule any of its activities. In searching for content in all my communications with our members, my intent is to try and lighten things up with some humor, tidbits of information, or photos that are pleasant things. In future communications, I’ll stick to our activities to avoid any future misunderstandings. Hopefully, finding content will become easier as we get back to some degree of normalcy and there is more activity-specific content to work with. I look forward to that, so here I go. ...

In my article last week, I mentioned that Tom Ragsdale sent me a very interesting article from “Sailing World” about a boat I’d never heard about, the R21 sailboat. (Click here to read the article: Ragsdale Article.) After seeing that, George Heinz sent this additional information to me (and pics -- see below.) ...

I had a chance to sail the RS 21 at the NOOD in San Diego last year from March 15-17. They were looking for folks to test it out in a 6 boat regatta. My buddy had been inquiring about buying one and was offered a free charter. I offered up hotel points so we could go. The boat is very neat and even has a Torqeedo electric motor integrated into the hull. You lower it down through the hull right by the main sheet Barney post and just whiz along. Battery life limits how far you go, but for getting out and back from the race course, it was awesome. The boat is set up with an extending bowsprit and asymmetric masthead spinnaker that you set and douse from a bag just aft of the mast. Drop lift keel with bulb, mainsheet on a bridle in lieu of a traveler which opens up the boat. We raced with a crew of 4. We got beaten by the “pros and prodigies” that were there, but had a great time anyway.

I appreciate the encouraging feedback I get from our members from time to time, and I always welcome any constructive feedback that will help me and our leadership team provide you with meaningful, useful and uplifting information. I hope to see you soon on the water.

Kathy Ware, Commodore

Upcoming Events And Other Items Of Interest

Upcoming Events

If you missed our June 18th “Virtual” Happy Hour Red Cup Event, you missed a great teleconferencing experience. Scott Carter did an excellent job describing his recent three week open seas and coastal voyage on a 48 foot sloop — over 2,000 nautical miles, from St. Thomas, USVI to Marion, Massachusetts. He did a great job making the event not only informational but educational. Based on the good turnout and overwhelmingly positive feedback from participants, we’ll probably be doing more events like that.

All of our scheduled activities for 2020 remain on the Events Calendar, with “CANCELLED” in the titles of those in June and “TENTATIVE — Being Re-Evaluated during June" for those in July.

Please see the note Charles added in the Communications Corner section below about a special page we've added to keep you regularly and frequently updated on the overall status of the Coronavirus situation, including its impact on our Events schedule.

Communications Corner

There was a great turnout for our special “Virtual” Happy Hour Red Cup Event on June 18th. We called it “virtual” because it was held electronically via Zoom. This was a unique opportunity to hear firsthand about Scott Carter’s recent three week open seas and coastal voyage on a 48 foot sloop — over 2,000 nautical miles, from St. Thomas, USVI to Marion, Massachusetts. Scott did a great job. It was not only interesting but educational to hear him describe aspects of a voyage unique to one of that duration and distance. Participants expressed kudos as we wrapped up the meeting, and responses to a feedback request I sent shortly after the session have been very positive as well.

Based on the positive feedback about this "virtual" session, we'll likely plan some others, so stay tuned. Warning to future presenters, though -- the consensus as this event was winding up was that Scott has set a pretty high bar for both content and delivery!

After testing with several members — all providing very positive feedback — I'll be going "live" soon with a new way of matching Skippers needing Crew with sailors wanting to serve as Crew. The Forums-based method you find when you click on Crew Finder in the main menu has not been used for several years. Whitney Gutsgell and I put this new method together, and based on the feedback from those helping us test it I think it will be viewed positively by the membership [whenever we return to a situation where any Skipper/Crew matchups are actually needed, of course!] Stay tuned for more on this, too.

Don’t forget to check the Coronavirus Updates page regularly for the latest information on how that plan relates specifically to PPYC [Link below.]

Please Note. We’ve added a special Coronavirus Updates page to the Member Resources section. We will post the most current PPYC-specific information we have about the Coronavirus situation there. You can access it through the Member Resources Menu, by clicking the link in the top banner on this page, or by clicking here: Coronavirus Updates

Charles Jones, Communications Director
communications@ppyc.org

Thanks for reading this communication. We'll see you around.

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