HOOD RIVER YACHT CLUB E-UPDATE

GENERAL MEETING: SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 23 at 7:00PM

3 Rivers Grill (Upstairs)

Contact: Doug Archbald (541) 387-6564 / doug@donnunamaker.com

TRIVIA NIGHT: SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 23 at 8:00PM

Steffen Lunding (541) 436-2626 / claudsteff@yahoo.com

General Meeting & Trivia Night

Mark your calendars for February 23 -- the club will host its Winter 2008 Meeting at 7:00PM, and Trivia Night at 8:00PM at 3 Rivers Grill.

All are welcome for Trivia Night, so invite your friends, relatives and crew to join us for an evening of Pub Quiz-style trivia excitement.   The trivia game will be played in teams of 3-4 players, so either rally your team before hand or show up and we will help find you teammates.  Trivia questions will generally have a nautical theme, but will cover the entire universe of human knowledge (or at least that small portion of human knowledge that we know about).  Feel free to stop by for a few minutes or stay the whole evening -- it should be a relaxing evening of fun for all.

Food and drinks will be available no-host from 3 Rivers Grill, please no BYO.

Holiday Party Photos

In case you missed it, the HRYC Holiday Party at Divots in December was a good time for everyone. 

Doug and Meg won the trophy for the Wednesday Night Race Series (amid murmors of a ratings change :-), Josh and Marie won the coveted Twisted Spinnaker Award (funny how Marie almost slipped out the back door right as Tod went to award her the trophy) and Jim was awarded the Commodore's Trophy (awarded to the club member who sends the most e-mails per year).

Meg and Doug put together a great slide show recapping the entire year's club activities -- including a stop-action series of close-up shots from the Moore 24 regatta this summer.  The Electric Mayhem crew particularly enjoyed it!  Seriously, if you weren't there, definitely ask them to loan you a CD with the slideshow -- it really was fun to watch.

Thanks to Steff and Claudia Lunding for organizing the event, to Xani and the Divots crew for some great food and atmosphere and to all the officers and members who helped put on a great event.

For additional pictures, browse out to the 2007 Holiday Party photo page.

Junior Sailing Revisited

In 2007, the HRYC teamed up with members Andy and Jaime Mack to create a junior sailing scholarship program for local youths.  This program enabed two Hood River students to attend a week of summer sailing instruction in CGRA's junior sailing program.  

Natalie Johnson (left) and Claire Merriam (right) were the happy recipients of the scholarships.  They both agreed the instructors were great: setting reasonable goals, clearly demonstrating sailing techniques and full of enthusiasm.
 
Natalie's favorite memories were, "Being put in a boat, for the first time, all by myself and being told to sail to a buoy and back."   Further along into the program,  Natalie remarked, "I felt a real sense of accomplishment upon meeting the goals set by the instructors.  It was a fun time and the teachers made it that way."

Claire's thrill came from experiencing the power of the Gorge breeze, commenting that "the wind at times was crazy, even scary, especially when jibing."  (Note to Claire: the jibing when it's windy thing?  The scary part never completely goes away!)  However, despite the windy conditions, the sailing instructors "used humor to ease the tension, and were always nearby in a boat made us feel safe."

Claire and Natalie are both looking forward to taking their sailing skills to the next level.  Both said they would like to crew on larger boats -- including keelboats.  Hmmmm... Anyone looking for Wednesday night race crew?

Special thanks to Doug Archbald, HRYC's secretary, who raised $200.00 for the fund by cleaning the bottoms of boats over the summer, and Susan Julian for interviewing our scholarship attendees and writing up their experiences for our newsletter!

Double Damned & Fall Regatta 2008

Make sure to mark your calendars for HRYC's cool racing events coming up this summer.

First up is the Double Damned race on August 9th -- a point to point race from Cascade Locks to The Dalles.  This should be a fast and fun downwind ride through some of the most beautiful sections of the Gorge.

Hood River Yacht Club is also sponsoring the Invitational Fall Regatta on September 20 & 21, 2008.  The club is actively promoting this regatta to out-of-town boats -- we hope to have a number of small keelboat fleets participate in the event.  Stay tuned for more details!

Annual Dues

Just a reminder, membership dues for the 2008 are due.  Many of you have already paid -- thank you!

If you haven't, why not get that out of the way now?  You can either pay your dues on-line securely with a credit card,  or mail a check to the Club at:

PMB Box# 147, 2149 Cascade Ave. Suite 106A
Hood River,  OR   97031

(If you want to pay your dues on-line, simply log-in to the website -- e-mail us if you forgot your login -- and click on the payments/renew link in red on the top right corner of the screen).

Just as a refresher, the club now has two individual membership levels.  You can sign up as a "Full Member" which includes voting rights ($50), or you can sign up as an "Associate Member" which does not include voting rights ($25).  Please note that spouses, partners, etc. both need to have their own memberships for each to be considered members.  New members are always welcome, too.

Questions?  Please don't hesitate to Contact any of the club officers, or e-mail the club at info@hoodriveryachtclub.org.

Meeting Minutes

Don't forget to catch up on all the goings on at the Club -- all meeting minutes (including the January Board meeting) are posted on the website in the Documents section of the site.  (Thanks to Doug for posting all the minutes!)

If you don't have your website login, or you forgot your password, please don't hesitate to contact the club and we'll get you sorted out.

Nautical Joke of the Day