from www.butterflyer.org

From the NBA Committee meeting at the Open/Jr Nationals at Spring Lake: The 2010 Open and Junior Nationals will be at Glen Lake MI on 20-22 July. Overseeing the event will be the 2010 NBA Commodore, Glen Lake's Vic Peirce (yes, his last name is really spelled that way). Also planned for 2010 is a complete online registration system that will allow sailors to enter one or both of the NBA events and pay online. The system will also allow the NBA to manage members' email and physical addresses, as well as sail numbers. The NBA will also be sending out email newsletters on a regular basis, to everyone who provided a readable eamil address on their regatta entry forms over the last two years.

The class will also be establishing a tax-deductible foundation to help support Butterfly activity and development of youth sailing programs.

The builder, Windward Boatworks, reassured the NBA Committee that the parts supply problems of the past couple years that have kept sailors on shore will soon be solved. An unfortunate issue that has come up, partially as a result of the parts supply problems, is that there are now some class rules issues that will have to be watched more closely, perhaps even requiring an equipment check at events. This has been in the Sailing Instructions of the NBA events for the past two years, but the class has not yet acted. One issue currently being considered for implementation in 2010 is a new Black Band on the mast to control how low on the mast the boom can be set.

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by Pam

Scott Young and Doug Peckover are my mentors. Doug has been my coach and I’ve been bugging Scott for years with sailing questions and he always takes the time to answer.

Scott and Doug have battled things out between each other on the race course over the years and I’d say Scott has the edge these days but Doug can give him a run for his money. The problem is that they give me conflicting advice and I’ve been asking, listening and watching and finally figured some things out.

Scott sails the course and Doug sails the competition. Scott says his biggest asset is his vision. Doug’s biggest liability is his vision. Currently, Doug is legally blind and his vision has been steadily slipping in recent years. His eyes work independently of each other so he has double vision (sometimes quadruple if both eyes are working) and he’s never had depth perception or 3-D vision his entire life. I often have to ask him which eye I’m talking to because it changes depending on the time of day and whether he’s tired. Yeah, I know ... amazing!

Scott’s vision is great so I can see how he sails the course. His senses have all been geared toward going the right way and reading the wind and he talks as though it’s quite simple. There is only one right tack to be on at any given time and it’s the one that takes you closest to the mark. Often Scott finishes a good distance from his nearest competition. I’ve tried his way and it works but when Gary is coming up fast behind me and I start trying to cover, things go wrong real quick.

Doug uses his competition as seeing eye dogs. Sadly, if he were on the course by himself, it might take him all day to find the windward mark. He has been trying to teach me his style of sailing. Stay with your competition, protect the inside, don’t bang corners, look at the angles between you and your competition and tack if they’re sailing higher. When he’s on his game, his boat handling is near perfect and he patiently waits for people to make mistakes. Often Doug finishes just barely ahead of his competition. I find that stressful but it does seem to work. When my competition is close, I make my tacking decisions based on our angles. On Saturday, Sandy was in the lead and I was on Doug’s hip. He hollered back for me to look at the angles. Sure enough, we were on the same tack as Sandy but lifted and Sandy was headed and sailing down to us losing ground. I think Doug caught him but I made some errors and didn’t gain as much.

Doug tells me that when his vision was better he used to sail Scott’s style but couldn’t do better than 5th in the Worlds. The year he decided to sail the competition instead of the course, he won the Worlds and then remained in the top 3 for the next 5 Worlds. He calls it percentage sailing.

I’ve been experimenting with a hybrid of Scott and Doug’s styles and I must say I’ve been getting better and better. I’m still collecting information on the various things that both cue in on to enhance and support their style. Doug seems to be using senses most of us ignore. He can’t see squat but still makes better decisions than most. One of the first things he insisted on teaching me was sailing the boat at night deprived of sight so that I could learn to feel the boat. Sure enough, it talks and I’m learning to listen. We are very lucky to sail at a lake that has no motor traffic allowed at night so that we can safely sail at night. Next year, I think we need to have night races. Nothing official, just start together and go to the end of the lake and back. Who’s in?

As an aside, Doug has decided that the Butterfly is more responsive than the Laser and is a better teaching boat to learn to feel the helm. Let’s not forget that Scott, history making six time US Men’s National Champion, started on a Butterfly and can now successfully jump from boat to boat. I’m claiming he owes his success to the Butterfly. Yep, the Butterfly rocks!!

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by Pam

It’s THAT time of year again. Awards to give out, parties to plan, new officers to elect, next year’s sailing calendar to plan, accomplishments to review, next year’s goals to plan, volunteers to find, commitments to make, and, let’s not forget, holidays, spending, family and in-laws. Aah, I can feel the stress levels and tension starting to build. Yep, ‘tis the season!

A veritable powder keg of emotions. Different opinions, different goals, conflicting obligations, different methods of handling things, and, of course, feelings. Oh, as if the holidays weren’t stressful enough!

Sailors seem to find a state of peace, serenity and rejuvenation on the lake. Sometimes they just want to holler or beat the snot out of someone (without going to jail) and the lake lets them do that too. Cheap therapy. Yep! White Rock will be a hopping place this holiday season. How lucky are we to be able to escape the daily grind and spend time with such a dysfunctional group and actually enjoy it and call it home. Come give the Butterfly fleet a try this winter. We’re a couple of degrees mellower than the normal White Rock sailor.

The Fly Fleet had a great year. We began the year leaning heavily on our CSC members and the use of CSC’s rescue boats for our races and finished the year leaning heavily on WRBC with its new rescue boat, clubhouse and finger piers. Our Wrangle Regatta this year grew to almost 50 boats in 3 fleets (Fish, Flys, Lasers) with many off lake sailors joining us and CSC’s facilities accommodating the bulk of the competitors with the F/S fleet doing committee. Thank you CSC!!

The Butterfly sailors are becoming more active outside of their regular Saturday races. The Fly fleet had as many boats as the F/S fleet for the State Fair this year. The Fly fleet also stepped up and helped out with duty for both the Open House and the Terlingua and added a little bonus at the Open House by taking pictures and videos and posting them on our website.

Several Butterfly sailors have also been active in other fleets and sailed on the Sunfish, Laser, F/S, J/22, and J/24 circuits. Of course, we can’t forget that we’ve managed to coax the currently club-less, former world blah, blah, blah, Doug Peckover, into sailing a Butterfly and he went and won the Butterfly National Championship in Missouri. Some of us also followed his sailing adventures at the Worlds this year where he took a 6th place despite currently being legally blind. We’re anxious to see what he accomplishes after he gets his new eyes for Christmas.

Two of our members, Amber and Dave, upgraded with brand new Butterflys and we’ve had many guests sail our popular fleet boats throughout the year. We’ve run various sailing drills before racing which have been entertaining. The fleet also began tinkering with the concept of a Round Table Club which has taken off slowly and begun moving to different venues. Our website has been a new little twist this year with the addition of all sorts of pictures, videos and articles.

We will continue to sail throughout the winter on Saturdays and we’re just about the friendliest and most helpful fleet around. Come out and join us. We’d love to have you!

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by Pam

59? Whoa, DUDE! Really? Wouldn't have guessed it. Congratulations on all your sailing successes this year. Not bad for an old dude. Happy Birthday!

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by Pam

This past weekend was Wurstfest for the dinghy sailors. I had never been to Canyon Lake before. Very nice lake, location and facilities but I sure could have done without that hill. Boats and cars get separated and I learned quickly that a little planning means the difference in an extra haul back up and down the hill to get something left in the car and Camp Fish seemed to have been the furthest up the hill. What a trek!

Lots of familiar faces were at Wurstfest. Frank and Bruce were racing a Flying Scot and took 6th. Bruce’s son, Eric, was racing a Laser and took 1st. Doug, Shaun and I sailed Sunfish in a 34 boat fleet and Doug got 2nd and I got 9th. Shaun didn’t have the best weekend but from what I’ve seen he is passing through that stage where he is inconsistently good which means he’s on his way to being consistently good very soon.

The weather was absolutely beautiful. A touch chilly in the mornings but wonderfully warm sun by afternoon. The breeze was on the light side and we spent alot of time sitting on the low side. It was educational for me. I’m learning to keep an eye on the sail and make sure air flow is attached. The super slow mark roundings gave my brain plenty of time to figure out who had right of way.

I’m figuring out that the biggest improvement to my sailing has come not from racing and time on the water but in the car driving to the various regattas. Doug can talk about sailing for hours on end and never tire. Fortunately, I have enough questions to keep him talking. This trip we talked about race course management. A very enlightening subject. I’ll share more later but need to have a chat with another sailor who uses a different method so that I can compare the two.

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by Pam

Looks like the roving bit is catching on a little. Pete and I sailed on J/24s at the Terlingua Regatta at DCYC. His team finished 4th and mine finished 5th. We were on the same team for the beer can boat races and even though our design had a weighted keel and would go to weather, the PRO changed the course to a downwind and some kids won it.

Doug and one of the Lasers, Forest, sailed on Lasers at DinghyFest at RCYC. Doug battled with a talented college sailor up from Galveston and they had a ton of fun but Doug lost to him in the last race and took 2nd. I’m told Forest had a good showing and when the wind picks up, his boat flattens and he takes off. Kind of like Gary.

Meanwhile, back at White Rock, I understand the usual Butterflyers all raced on Saturday and as the wind picked up it got fairly bumpy (and wet). Looks like the races went to Bruce, Burton and Gary.

Now, on Sunday, Gary helped with duty for the lake championship and it looks like Sandy was the only Butterflyer to sail and took 4th overall. Way to go Sandy!

Frank and Tom came over the DCYC to help with duty on Sunday. They definitely had their hands full. The committee boats were breaking down left and right and the wind was pretty steady and the water fairly choppy. Last time I saw Tom, he was eating home made banana pudding at the club house saying there was a nap in his future. Thanks for stepping up and helping out with duty guys!

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by Pam

It was a bit on the chilly side at times today, but an otherwise beautiful day.

We had an excellent PRO from DCYC that ran some very good races and efficiently directed the Butterflyers in quickly setting the courses.

Thank you Gary, Dave, Tom and Doug for volunteering for race duty.

Doug and I buzzed up and down the race course trying to take pictures and video. There were times when we had to abandon the amateur photography to resume race duty but we managed to do both. Pictures and video are loaded into the fleet's web albums and can be accessed by clicking on the pictures in the right margin.

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by Pam

Our racing was cancelled today so that we could help CSC with race duty for their annual Flying Scot Open House Regatta. Day 1 started kind of slow but turned out to be a beautiful day.

While some Butterflyers are serving on race duty others are on the race course competing. Today, Frank and Bruce won the second race. Congratulations guys! Go get 'em Butterflyers.

Check out the pictures and video from the day in our photo albums link located at the right.

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by Tom

For those of you that listened to the weather forecasters on Saturday, and did not come out to race, you missed some good races. The wind was moderate and fairly steady. No swirls or dynamic shifts. Bruce won 2 races and Sandy won the other. Those of us that were there also listened to the weather people, and heard them to say it would be 65 degrees. It wasn't. It never got much above 52-55. We, of course, were dressed for 65. It was cold, and we all were pretty cold in between the races. During the races it was ok. Bruce, Sandy, Gary, Dave, Miles and I braved the elements. Burton and Mike S were on duty and not racing and were very cold on the committee boat. I saw them doing gymnastics on the boat trying to keep warm. If we had dressed properly, it would have been beautiful out there.

This is normally great weather for racing. Come on out and enjoy it with us.

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by Pam

It was a beautiful day … until it got windy and chilly (for me) and started to sprinkle. We had 13 to 14 Butterflys come out to sail and Tom did duty for the Flying Scots. We shared a course with a handful of Sunfish and a couple of Laser radials and we got in two races before lunch and two races after lunch.

We had a different winner for each race, me, Doug, Frank and Sandy, with the overall finishes being me, Doug and Frank. I must thank Bruce for getting there late and not registering for the event and our race committee for setting courses that worked out quite well for me.

Marsha, now newly engaged, was back with us from Africa and California. It was good to see her and she did quite well, until her boat decided to roll over. Amber was out in her beautiful boat and contributed yet another “Sunshine” hat to the lake.

It was a fun day and I’m glad we had such a great turnout. The first 3 races were counted toward our regular Saturday series racing.

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