Racing and Yacht Clubs

I belong to the second oldest YC in Chicago, and one of the smallest. We have 100 plus members, own our own building, 2 story, have an ongoing lease from The Chicago Park District, we are on park land. We actually have existed before the CPD did. At any rate we run 3 major races a year for the Chicago Area Sail Racing Assn., which is made up of 5 YCs. We receive assistance from the larger YCs, and we in turn help them. Even the mighty Chicago Yacht Club, (only one older than we) finds it beneficial. Then there is MORF, a racing association with no physical location, just a lot of members, some of whom are YC members, many not. They put on a full season of racing, and have an Olympic permanent course, with fixed marks of their own design. My club uses their marks to finish 2 of our races. It wasn't always this way, but reality tells us we need to pool our resources. When CYC hosts the NOODS you'll see the JPYC Boston Whaler setting, moving marks or whatever. Maybe our short season has something to do with it. We also have a larger umbrella organization, the Chicago Yachting Assn. We let power boaters in this one. It meets monthly, includes the USCG, Chicago Police Marine Unit, Westrec Marinias, which manages the nine harbors, and most of the other yacht clubs, yacht storage facilities, and some other stakeholders. We all have our own interests, but we have a forum where things get discussed, ideas for improvements are presented, etc. It gives us a voice with government. As a commodore I attended those meetings, and they do have an influence. Strength in numbers. We have 9000 boats in the Chicago harbors, and our organization represents the majority. See, I digressed, so just hit delete if you're bored.Regards,David Dobbs, Cal29 411, Past Commodore Jackson Park Yacht Club

Bravo! When I was Vice Commodore and Fleet Captain of the St. Andrews Bay Yacht Club we were members of the Gulf Yachting Association (GYA) whose members also included the 2nd oldest yacht club in the country - Southern Yacht Club - (second only to The New York Yacht Club) which very tragically lost about 50 perennial trophies when the clubhouse burned to the ground during Katrina. Having raced there on my Flying Scot and having supported collegiate racing there with LSU and then having docked there on my way to St. Petersburg from Houston aboard my Cal 33, I find all of this information about sailing to pertain perfectly to my fellow Cal list members! I do believe that there were also many boats destroyed there by Katrina, but they did not lose a single Flying Scot!! Tough old boats that are still used for inter and intra club races throughout the GYA! The yacht clubs that are members all have loaner boats so that you can race any time you visit as long as you have affiliate membership! I also got in to see the America’s Cup trophy at San Diego Yacht Club on the strength of my membership at a GYA club! Now that was awesome! I enjoy stories about just about everything that a Cal sailor does in and around boats — keep them coming! Don Dutton 1986 Cal 33-2, “Quantum Evolution” Hayden Island, Oregon > On Mar 9, 2018, at 4:46 PM, david dobbs tm… [at] yahoo.com [Cal_Boats] <Ca… [at] yahoogroups.com> wrote: > > > I belong to the second oldest YC in Chicago, and one of the smallest. We have 100 plus members, own our own building, 2 story, have an ongoing lease from The Chicago Park District, we are on park land. We actually have existed before the CPD did. At any rate we run 3 major races a year for the Chicago Area Sail Racing Assn., which is made up of 5 YCs. We receive assistance from the larger YCs, and we in turn help them. Even the mighty Chicago Yacht Club, (only one older than we) finds it beneficial. Then there is MORF, a racing association with no physical location, just a lot of members, some of whom are YC members, many not. They put on a full season of racing, and have an Olympic permanent course, with fixed marks of their own design. My club uses their marks to finish 2 of our races. It wasn't always this way, but reality tells us we need to pool our resources. When CYC hosts the NOODS you'll see the JPYC Boston Whaler setting, moving marks or whatever. Maybe our short season has something to do with it. We also have a larger umbrella organization, the Chicago Yachting Assn. We let power boaters in this one. It meets monthly, includes the USCG, Chicago Police Marine Unit, Westrec Marinias, which manages the nine harbors, and most of the other yacht clubs, yacht storage facilities, and some other stakeholders. We all have our own interests, but we have a forum where things get discussed, ideas for improvements are presented, etc. It gives us a voice with government. As a commodore I attended those meetings, and they do have an influence. Strength in numbers. We have 9000 boats in the Chicago harbors, and our organization represents the majority. See, I digressed, so just hit delete if you're bored. > Regards, > David Dobbs, Cal29 411, Past Commodore Jackson Park Yacht Club > >