All posts by Kathy Rubino

Hobie 16 North American Championships Registration Rate Held Thru August

The hosting fleet (Hobie Fleet 126, Michigan City, IN) for the 2022 Hobie 16 North American Championships, has announced that the registration fee for the event being held September 11-16, 2022 in Michigan City, IN will be held at the present rate until the end of August.

So if you have not registered do it NOW: https://www.regattanetwork.com/event/23790

As of August 22nd, they have 41 Boats registered. This event and venue are not to be missed. Plenty of SWAG with awesome Social Calendar and ICONIC Racing on Lake Michigan. This is an event that comes to the Mid-West seldom, don’t miss your change to participate.

summer series week #6 – August 10, 2021

Tuesday’s forecast is for SW winds around 9 mph with temps in the upper 80’s and only a 20% chance of storms….looking good!  Andy Lenczycki is scheduled to be our race chair – thanks Andy!  And thanks to our PRO for putting together that course document I sent yesterday!  if you missed it, look at last weeks post (the document is linked). 

If we sail, Andy may be taking pictures by drone to be used for the next multi-year trophy base. If you want to be in the picture, Tuesday would be a good night to be present.

Year-End party plans are shaping up!  We are looking at having it outdoors, possibly at Main St. Pub on Westnedge on either Saturday September 25th or Saturday October 2nd.  We need your input if you plan to attend:  Which of these Saturdays work best for you?  Please let us know, either by replying to me (not reply to all) with your choice or let us know at Brewster’s tomorrow. 

Speaking of Brewster’s, attendance was extremely low last week after cancellation, so in the event of a cancellation, we will be releasing the room.  Enjoy the evening with your loved ones or gather at a place of your choice.  

Please remember we always sail at 6:30 on Tuesdays Unless RC cancels for weather related reasons.

FOR ANY CHANGES:

To help Statistician/Committee Boat please notify Statistician if your status differs from your membership’s registration:

1.    Skipper change (particularly from race 1 to race 2)

2.    Crewed or Solo

3.    Crew change

4.    Boat Type

5.    Sail Number

6.    A or B Portsmouth Fleet

Changes to be emailed to Statistician by 4:30 PM race day.

Email: Andy Lenczycki (Statistician).

Not the preferred method: Late changes can be texted to the PRO.

Dave Dunlap (PRO) 269-330-5496, dadworksmi@gmail.com

RACE NIGHT:

1.    Please check-in with Committee Boat prior to starting sequence for attendance.

2.    If possible, notify Committee Boat if you are not finishing a race or retiring for the night.

3.    Notify Committee Boat if you are going to protest. PRO will let you know when / where protest will be heard.

see you on the water and Brewster’s afterwards!

– Kathy

Message from the commodore June 21, 2021

Hi Everyone! Tuesday (June 22, 2021) looks like a nice, but cool evening for sailing, with temps in the 60’s and W/NW winds around 10mph for our 6:30 start. 

After racing, PRO Dave Dunlap and myself would like to welcome members to our lake home (5061 S. Long Lake Dr., Portage) for a gathering, results, and a short discussion for fleet business.  See the attached PDF for more information.  Next, starting this week and going forward, we are including these reminders in the weekly emails to assist the race committee and scoring process:

PRIOR TO RACING:

To help committee boat, please, notify the PRO and Statistician ASAP (on the Monday before or early Tuesday), if your status differs from your membership’s registration with regards to:

  1. Skipper of your boat
  2. Sail Number
  3. Crew change or if you are solo  
  4. Boat Type
  5. If you are crewing on a new member’s boat, please include this new person’s name, sail number and boat type. 

Email or group text: (PRO and Statistician)

Dave Dunlap (PRO) 269-330-5496, dadworksmi@gmail.com

Andy Lenczycki (Statistician) 269-910-2721, Hobie480@yahoo.com

The race committee is extremely busy on the water and these changes are very difficult to handle at the last minute, so please help support their efforts by following through with this!

 ON RACE NIGHT:

  1. Please check-in with Committee Boat prior to the starting sequence for attendance.
  2. If possible, notify Committee Boat if you are not finishing a race or retiring for the night.
  3. Notify Committee Boat if you are going to protest. PRO will let you know when / where protest will be  heard.  

Thanks all!  Kathy

2021 OFFICERS mEETING hELD 3/12/21

Greetings ALCA and Friends!
The 2021 officers met by ZOOM last week to start planning the 2021 sailing season.  The first scheduled race is planned to be May 4th, which is the first Tuesday in May.  We still have yet to define the Spring and Summer sailing seasons, and for this we will need your input!   2020 Members, pay attention to your email which will have a survey to respond to. 

There will be no Spring kick-off this year.  Hopefully with the increase in COVID-19 vaccinations and a decline in infections, we will be able to meet sometime this summer!  At least for the Spring Series, we will not be gathering after racing, rather Andy Lenczycki, our Statistician, will have a ZOOM meeting for the results.  

Next, the officers are planning a tuning/get ready to race day – probably the weekend prior to the start of racing.  The details have not been ironed out yet, so stay tuned.  

See attached for our ALCA-membership-form-May-2016, available as a PDF or Word doc.  If you’d like to join now (highly suggested), print, complete the form and mail or drop off to Faith Akert.  Please, if you have any questions about the fee structure, do not hesitate to ask.  Ideally, the officers would appreciate all boats on the water to be active members of the fleet to streamline scoring.  

Lastly, we are in need of a fleet Secretary.  I am willing to serve as Commodore and Secretary, however, this is a lot of work!  This year is a good opportunity for someone new to step in and fill this position, taking over partial responsibilities and learn.  The duties of the secretary as written in the ALCA by-laws are: 
Secretary – The Secretary shall keep accurate minutes of meetings and take all correspondence.  The Secretary shall also be responsible for updating the by-laws and for  working with the Principle Race Officer to ensure that the racing guidelines are up to date.
Please reply to me if any of you are interested and we could get started!  
Happy Spring!Kathy RubinoCommodore ALCA Fleet 519 (& Secretary for the time being) 

ALCA Sailing Practices for Safe Racing During the Coronavirus Pandemic

The following actions should be adopted to allow safe sail competition among individuals while minimizing exposure risks to the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 disease. As you may or may not know, this virus can be spread by pre-symptomatic as well as asymptomatic individuals causing a wide range of disease, from no disease and very mild symptoms to severe respiratory illness. It is hoped that these practices will not only be informative but also alert boundaries that some sailors need to respect so we can all participate safely. We do not want to become infected with this coronavirus and pass it on to compromised individuals! In General:
  1. Symptoms that may appear 2-14 days after exposure to the virus include fever or chills, cough, shortness of breath or difficulty breathing, fatigue, muscle or body aches, new loss of taste or smell, sore throat, congestion or runny nose, nausea or vomiting, or diarrhea. Please refer to the CDC website for a continuously updated list as more is learned about COVID-19. If anyone is experiencing these symptoms, please do not participate in any land or water activities, stay home and continue to monitor your situation. Please alert either Kathy Rubino or Jerry Mohney if you suspect you may be infected or you have a positive result from the SARS-CoV-2 viral test and do not participate for at least 2 weeks until you know you are not infectious, even if you feel better.
  2. If you have been exposed to someone who has tested positive for the virus, you must quarantine and not participate in land or water activities for 2 weeks. Continue to wear a mask as you come back to being around others as well as practice social distancing.
  3. Solo sailing or sailing with other quarantined household members is strongly encouraged since it is impossible to maintain a 6 ft. distance between skipper and crew while racing. However, it is up to each individual to consider their own risk factors; it is advisable to wear a mask, scarf or buff when sailing with members of other households. Hand hygiene is stressed and sailors are encouraged to carry hand sanitizer for regular use before, during and after racing.
  4. Boat to boat contact should also be considered, as aerosolized respiratory droplets carrying the virus can travel across boats, especially at the starts and mark roundings. Again, wearing a buff or a scarf would minimize transmission, especially when hailing other boats.
  5. ALCA will not be providing help on land to new skippers this year, nor will experienced skippers be available to crew for new skippers. Please use e-mail, phone or video-chat if anyone has questions.
  6. We are not meeting after sailing for results. Results will be posted on the website.
  7. Other social events are suspended at this time.
  8. If the governor decides to move our area back to the Phase 3, Flattening, in the Michigan Safe Start Plan, sailing will be cancelled until further notice.

Boat set-up Practices: to include the public boat launch, as well as a friend’s residence:

  1. Sailors should respect 6 ft. social distancing and wear facial coverings. Give each other plenty of room to rig, which may require a staggered approach.
  2. Transmission of the virus can occur by contact of infectious surfaces, hand hygiene is important. Hand sanitizer should be used before and after assisting others with boat set-up.
  3. Do not congregate without practicing 6 ft. social distancing.
  4. Individuals should provide their own refreshments and avoid sharing coolers and snacks. Do not touch others properties unless asked.

Race-Committee Practices:

  1. We are blessed to have two former ALCA sailors, Keith and Dixie, who have volunteered to be part of our race committee – even during this pandemic. It is all of our responsibility to keep them safe! Therefore, only three people are permitted on the committee boat each week. Anyone wishing to provide their pontoon and be the Race Chair for a two week period, should contact our PRO, Jerry Mohney. If either Keith or Dixie prefers to be absent for a given week, the third person will be a member of the same quarantined household as the Race Chair or pontoon owner.
  2. Masks will be worn at all times, and 6ft distancing should be maintained as much as possible at all times. Extra masks as well as hand sanitizer will be provided to the Race Committee by the fleet.
  3. Surfaces of each pontoon boat should be cleaned prior to each Tuesday.
  4. Race Committee members can bring their own beverages as desired, however there should be no food on the boat.

ALCA Year end party updates

Remember we have our year-end party on Saturday, October 19th at Lodo’s.  If you haven’t RSVP-ed your dinner choices yet to Julie and me, please do!  Thank you to those who have already.  The dinner selections are:

  • Sirloin with roasted potatoes
  • Chicken Scampi
  • Fish and Chips
  • Vegetarian Lo Do Pasta

Also, for those of you who have ordered ALCA/World’s shirts, the cost turned out to be $19 each.  Lori will have the shirts on the 19th at the party, please bring your money to pay her then. If you ordered a shirt and can’t make it to the party, please pay Lori some other way. 

Finally, when many of us are planning our ski trips, there’s still more sailing to be had.  A few of us were thinking of getting out on Austin L.  (Sunday 9/6/19) for some fun sailing – the World’s are less than a month away, and we don’t want to forget what being on the boat, at the tiller or jib sheets feels like……. IF the bug hits you, please join us!  
Just thought of something so you can remember the money for the shirts…… $19 on the 19th!  LOL! 

Year End Party Flyer

Year End Awards Banquet – Saturday, October 19, 2019

This year’s Year End Party will be at LoDo’s starting with happy hour at 5:30 pm and we will eat about 6:30-6:45 with awards and elections to follow. Please RSVP to either Kathy or Julie with what you want to eat. The fleet will provide appetizers for the happy hour but you will be responsible for your entree and it will be a cash bar, they will do separate checks.

Here are the choices to rsvp with by October 14:
Sirloin with roasted potatoes
Chicken Scampi
Fish and Chips
Vegetarian LoDo Pasta

Summer Series Week #10 – September 10, 2019

Tuesday (9/10) marks our last night of Tuesday racing in the Summer Series, and a re-emergence of summer weather, with temps in the mid 80’s, sunshine, humid, with a slight chance of thunderstorms.  Winds predicted at 15 – 25 mph from the southwest for the day, and specifically, SW winds at 12 mph at 6 pm.  Time to get out and enjoy!  Jeff Daane will be our Race Chair, on his pontoon boat.  We meet at Brewster’s afterwards, as usual.  

Save the date for the 2019 Year End Banquet5:30 pm on Saturday Oct 19th.  We are in the process of firming up plans for the venue and will have the info out soon.

Summer Series Week #9 – September 3, 2019

Hard to believe it’s September  already!  Tuesday is week 9 and Race Chair is Jeff Daane with his pontoon boat.  The forecast for tomorrow is a high of 81, with a 55% chance of strong  thunderstorms, with SSW winds at  15 to 25 mph gusting to around 30 mph.  Well see how accurate these forecasts are when tomorrow arrives! 


Save the date:  Saturday Oct 19th for our year end party – site TBD.
Otherwise, Dave and I just got home from Michigan City where we sailed in a Fleet 126 one day regatta.  Very little wind, but tons  of fun!  3 races, all beach starts – CRAZY!  Then we all gathered at Shoreline Brewery for dinner, drinks and socializing.  This was the last race for this year, but there most certainly will be on the calendar for next year!
Stay tuned for what’s going on with Tuesday’s weather!

Summer Series Week #8 – August 27, 2019

Dear Mother Nature:  please make the rain stop and give us good sailing weather!  
That’s what we all need to be hoping for Tuesday, as we plan to sail week 8 in the summer series.  the forecast does predict that the rain will stop, and we’ll have sunny skies by race time, with temps in the mid 70s, with winds out of the west around 10 mph.  Race committee boat is Win Larsen’s pontoon, with Dave Dunlap as race chair.  
This week’s help planned help topic as Rules at Marks, please see  your email.  Also, if there are any questions about the two prior topics, please come to Brewster’s with your questions.