Commodore’s Newsletter – March 2022

Volume 2-March 2022

Greetings CRAW membership,

I trust you are all doing well as winter turns to spring. Only two more months until our first regatta of the
new season!

A few updates:

Sign up for assisting with events

A gentle reminder that, per our constitution and by-laws, all members are required to assist with the
running of at least one regatta every two years in order to remain in good standing with the club. This can
include serving as event organizer, assisting said event organizer, helping out with race committee, and
transporting support boats to and from regattas. To this end, our secretary Leah has created and will
shortly be posting a sign up sheet in our google drive for this purpose. She will also be sending copies to
event organizers to send out as a reminder 2-3 weeks before each event. A reminder that members
assisting with a regatta will receive first place points for that event. Thank you Leah for attending to this!

Race committee training

Matt Barron, Vice Commodore of the Mendota Yacht Club, will host a US Sailing Race Committee
training course at the Memorial Union on Saturday, April 9th. More details coming soon.

Change in CRAM schedule

As I mentioned in my previous email, there is a change in dates for the two CRAM events on our
schedule:

● St. Martin’s Bay moved to July 29-31
● Michigan City moved to July 16-17

Daniel Hearn has informed me that the St. Martins Bay regatta will also serve as the host venue for the
F18 Northern Area championships. My understanding is that CRAW members are welcome to participate
in these championships, but that US F18 membership is required to be considered for awards.
In my recent correspondence with Chris Tuckfield, new CRAM commodore, he indicated he would share
our schedule with his officers to determine which events they may be able to attend. It is my hope that we
will see a sizeable CRAM contingent at at least one of our regattas.

Possible pipeline to CRAW

At the most recent meeting of the Board of Captains of the Hoofers Sailing Club, I put forth a proposal to
initiate an instruction curriculum in High Performance Catamaran sailing as part of their sailing
instruction program. The HSC commodore and board seem very receptive to this idea, and if insurance
and liability issues can be worked out with risk management, I feel optimistic that this proposal will be
adopted and that I will be able to start teaching these lessons this summer. My hope is that this will attract more sailors to our sport in general, and to CRAW in particular.

Possible pre-season sailing

Brett Hulsey is looking into the possibility of doing some pre-season training/racing in Illinois in April.
More details to follow. https://carlylelake.com/boating-and-sailing/

Sail GP presentation

This Wednesday, March 16 at 6:30 p.m., I am giving a talk on Sail GP as part of the Winter Education
Series at Hoofers Sailing Club. You are all cordially invited, and I will send out a zoom link on
Wednesday afternoon so that those who wish to attend can do so.

Acknowledgements

We now have a representative on the US Formula 18 Catamaran Association national board in the person
of Daniel Hearn. Thank you Daniel for assuming this role.

Kurt and Dale are coordinating the effort to sell our current CRAW committee boat. My thanks to both of
you for attending to this.

Until next time!

Best regards,

Philip
CRAW commodore