From the President

Diane Kampf, FS 5857

Dear fellow sailors,

By the time you read this, we should be back from another great Midwinter regatta in New Orleans and thinking about sailing at our own club this year.  At Massapoag Yacht Club in Sharon, MA, home of Fleet 76, we have several regattas and social events, sailing lessons co-sponsored by the Town and our Club, Race Training, a Junior Sailing program, some fun races, moonlight sails and various club social events.  I am often asked this, so I want to share the ways we make it all work at our Club.  Although we are a small club with 70 member families, we keep busy all season long.  We are an all-volunteer Club and everyone is required to sign up for various race support and social activities and our Board of Directors and Committees are all volunteer as well.

We have lots of racing starting in late April or early May and we continue through mid-October.  We have Sunday racing starting with a Spring warm-up series for 4 weeks, then 2 summer series for 6 weeks each, and a fall series for 5 weeks, as well as Wednesday night racing for 12 weeks.  For these series, our Flying Scots and other fleets participate.  Our small boat fleets also have racing on Thursdays and Saturdays.  We try to get 10 or more Flying Scots on the line for every race.  We are also holding Race Training on several Sunday mornings so those with little to no racing experience can get some tips and ideas from those with more experience.  And for our younger skippers, we are holding Junior Racing and hope they enjoy it enough to someday race with the adults.

As a totally a self-help club, in the Spring, we put out rock markers on the lake, we put the docks in, we get the motor boats ready for the season, open up the buildings, and get supplies in place, then in the Fall, we do just the opposite and button up for the winter ahead.   During the season, our members run races, run the rescue boats, organize the social events, keep the grounds clean, organize regattas, update the website and chair the various committees. 

We have many committees that help to keep the Club going and I’ll discuss a few of the core committees.  Our Race Committee has been very active and has worked very hard to keep racing interesting and competitive, and is constantly working on educating the PROs and Rescue boat crews to ensure the best on-the-water experience for all.  Our Membership Committee has worked to bring on new members who are enthusiastic and understand what it means to be members of a self-help club.  Our Engineering and Club sailboat committees ensure the Club boats are ready and available as needed.  Our Safety Committee works to keep everyone educated in on-the-water safety.  Our Regatta Committee works year round to ensure we are ready for each regatta with crews on the water and on shore.  The Social Committees ensure that our events go smoothly and are enjoyable.  Of course we have the various committees who keep up with the moorings, docks, grounds and buildings.  And we have Publicity and Web committees to keep the communications up to date.

And why does it all work?  Because sailors are great people!  And we are lucky enough to have a core group of people who are dedicated to making the Club a fun place to come and a place to come back to year after year.  But it also takes the village of people we have to help out and make it all work.  What do you have planned for your club and fleet this year?  We hope your club is ready for the season and that you enjoy day-sailing and racing in your Scot as often as possible.  I know we will.

Happy Sailing!