Newsletters

Shell Lake Sailing Club Newsletter
Winter 2003-2004 Issue

Skippers’ Summary
The Summer of 2003 will go down in the Commodore’s Log as a very nice year for the Sailing Club. We started out with a Banquet at the Swiss Chalet that had 45 in attendance. Our delightful speaker, Dianne Siebrasse, was a Captain in the USCG and is a sailing instructor for Sailboats Inc. I’m sure that Tim Bauernfeind, our Speaker Procurement Chairman, is looking for someone to top her presentation for next year . . . good luck Tim, it’ll be a challenge. We will be going back to the Swiss Chalet next year as they did an excellent job for us. We had a nice area all to ourselves, it was close to the bar, and the food was excellent. I am thinking about having the Banquet on the 5th of June this year, which will be one week before our 1st SIR, so we can talk up the races and the Sailing Tactics Class at the Banquet.

2003 Social Event
We had one Social event, a Wine Tasting Party at the Ernie Zumbrunnen and Grace Hawes residence. By the way, Ernie, our Social Director, has moved with Grace to Portland, Oregon, so the position is open. There were about 35 people who showed up with some excellent hors d'oeuvres and a bottle of wine to share.

The club bought two bottles each of five different wines selected by club sommelier Chip Wood thru the close watch of Ed Blair of Econo-Mart’s Fine Spirits Department. As near as I can tell, everyone had a great time and there were a lot of important decisions made that night – the most important being that this will become a yearly event.

2003 Races
There were (4) races over the summer. The race on Aug. 9th was canceled because of a lack of wind. It will be a rule of thumb that we won’t have races unless the wind is over 5 MPH and under 20 MPH. We had (24) skippers and (15) crew members take part in our races. Some of our members raced in all (4) events that we had. If you want to see how everyone did you can look it up on our website.

Upcoming SIRs and Regattas
(Remember, It will be a rule of thumb that we won’t have races unless the wind is over 5 MPH and under 20 MPH.)  I would like to see more participation in these races, and for starters, we need think about how we can get more of our Shell Lake boats to join in. With the lower water level we should be able to get a little more sailing in. This year, the SIR’s will be held on the following dates:

June 12th
July 10th
August 14th

Our two Regattas will be on the following dates:
July 3rd
September 5th

Sailing Tactics Classes
Dennis Wagner did a great job of presenting our Sailing Tactics class before each of our SIR’s. He had a two-page handout (copies are still available) that covered Course Layouts, General Rules, Starting Sequencing, Pre-start Tactics, Starting Tactics and General Sailing Tactics. He put a lot of work into this and we are ever thankful for his effort. We will continue with this type of class and also add a class for on-boat instruction, put on by our more experienced sailors for anyone that thinks they need help. There are a lot of sailors out there that need just a little more information and they will be competitive in our races. This will also be done under the Shell Lake Community Summer School Program. I need Volunteer Instructors for this class. The pay isn’t very good but a person always learns something new when they try to teach others what they know.

Club Classifieds
We have a number of sailboats for sale:
- Lyle Holm is selling his Flying Scot, which is 19’ long, Mfg. by Douglas in 1962, sail # 2076. It has a tilt trailer, (2) mail sails, (2) jib sails and a spinnaker sail. It also has a mooring cover and a motor mount. He is asking $3500.00 and he can be reached at 715-635-3302 or lyleholm@centurytel.net. His boat had (2) 1st’s and a 2nd place this year.
- Bill Gretler has an O’Day Javelin which is 14 feet long and he wants $1400.00 for it. It has a trailer and has been stored with Terry the Barber over the winters. You can contact him at 715-468-7344.
- Dennis Christopherson has a 20 ft. Texas Marine cabin cruiser. This can be seen at 1119 E. Lake Drive. I think that he wants $5000.00, and he can be reached at 715-468-7169 at the lake or in Amery at 715-268-2991.
- Ernie Zumbrunnen has a 12 foot by 5 foot wide Swiss Navy sailboat. You can see it under the trees at 1313 E. Lake Dr. and his phone number is 813-464-8612.

Other Sailing News
Chip Wood has purchased a new sail for his Sunfish so watch out for him next year. We look forward to seeing our Wine Expert with his bright new sail take part in our races. 

Lyle Holm is looking for a Catalina Capri 16.5 for next year. He does a great job getting his Flying Scot launched at Doboy but feels a 16.5 will be a little easier for the future. That will make (3) Capri’s in our sailing club.

Matt Pesko has acquired another sailboat and now has two different sailboats on his shore.
Dave Swan has picked up a NACRA 5.2 and will be sailing it next year.

Friends of the Sailing Club
I want you to remember the following businesses as they have been our friends over the past year, and in most cases, years:

We had a great Banquet at The Swiss Chalet so next time you are there stop in and tell Don Bruce how much we appreciate his place.

We want to thank Diane Ericksen of Thunder Gifts Gallery for her help and support, so stop in and check out her clothing line with the Shell Lake Sailing Club embroidered on them. Her shop is our official clothing shop. She is always open for suggestions of clothing ideas for us.

All our awards are made by hand by Pattie Fox of Play Dirty Clay Studio just South of Becky’s. Stop in her shop on weekends and check out her artwork. Someday you might see a likeness of your Commodore in there. Hint, hint.

We can’t forget Doboy. They have been great giving us permission to use their beach for all our events.

You can check them out from our website which by the way is graciously maintained by our computer guru Brian Janz. Thank you Brian.