DATES TO REMEMBER

June

June 15: Newport leg of Bermuda 1-2 starts

June 24:  Bermuda 1-2 award ceremony

Greetings to all,

Commissioning Day was held on June 10,2023. From all accounts this was an incredible event with more than 300 members and guests in attendance. We changed a few things this year including relocating the tent to the west end of the parking lot giving us more room for the actual ceremony at the flagpole. The food prepared by our own Chef Tim and his staff was incredible and plentiful. I can still taste the lobster bisque, scallops in bacon, mini beef wellington and of course shrimp cocktail to name just a few. There certainly was no reason for anyone to have left hungry. Several dignitaries were in attendance including Mayor Xaykham Khamsyvoravong, third ward councilor David Carlin lll, former director of the Seaman’s Church Institute Ann Souder, Commodore Kim Lyons of Coasters Harbor Navy Yacht Club and Secretary of Ida Lewis Debra Penn. In addition, the majority of our board of directors and twelve past commodores were present.

Many thanks to Rudy, Lynn, Laura Dargan, Diane Stewart, the entertainment committee and the entire staff for their hard work and enthusiasm. By the way, the band “Timeless” was tremendous, keeping many brave souls dancing until the last song of the night.

Our club is now fully operational and is looking great. Thanks again to our entire staff.

Wishing you a safe and enjoyable summer.                                                         

Bob and Rosalie

STRATEGIC PLAN IMPLEMENTATION TEAMS – HELP NEEDED

The NYC Board of Directors has approved moving forward with the final development and implementation of the Strategic Plan. To this end, we now need your help.

Volunteers are needed to finalize the direction provided by you in a variety of areas of our club and then move forward with implementation. Many of you previously offered assistance when we got to this point, now is the time to join in. We also welcome any full or spousal member to take part. This is not a full-time commitment, your work will be focused and comprise about a half dozen meetings to share ideas, approaches and get the work rolling.

This is a great opportunity to help contribute to our Club’s future, work with other members and make a difference. Anyone who is willing to lend a hand is welcome! Many thanks and I look forward to hearing from you! Steve Dolan, vicecommodore@newportyachtclub.org

LET’S ROCK THE DOCK

The annual DOCK PARTY will be held on July 1, from 3:00 pm to 6:00 pm. Rain date is July 2.

NOMINATING COMMITTEE

The Nominating Committee is in full swing interviewing prospective candidates for the 2023/2024 slate of officers and committee members.  Response to two email blasts so far has been robust.  We appreciate all of the talented members who are willing to contribute their time and talents to help manage this Club.  

A notable area of slow response is the Young Adult committee (as of this writing, no Young Adult member has responded indicating interest in being on that committee).  As this group of young members are a vital part of the future of our Club, this burgee article is a request for Young Adult members to step up and volunteer your time and talents.  A total of three Young Adult members (age 18-35) make up that committee per our bylaws.  Your unique perspective will help shape the future of the Newport Yacht Club through your participation in its leadership.   

If you are interested in being on one of our 11 committees, please send an email with your preference to nominations@newportyachtclub.org and we will schedule an interview with the Nominating Committee.  A total of 33 committee members and five officers will complete the slate which will be posted by 15 August per our bylaws.  This new slate will take effect when approved at the October General Membership meeting.

Thank you for your support,

Tom Rowe Chair, Nominating Committee; Jack Ellis, Steve Damas, Tom Newman, Mike Warren

BERMUDA ONE-TWO UPDATE

The 2023 Bermuda One-Two single-handed leg completed 7 June after the finishing of 18 boats that started on 2 June in Newport. Twenty-four boats started in wonderful weather, but that changed by late night. Three boats returned home for various reasons and one withdrew but continued on to Bermuda. The first boat to finish was First Light, a Class 40, skipped by Cole Brauer, a 29 year old female. Cole is the first woman to finish first in the Bermuda One-Two and the race has been run since 1977. The last boat to finish was Windswept, skippered by Rick McCally from Barrington, RI. This is Rick’s  tenth Bermuda One-Two. Rick’s boat suffered a broken boom on the second day.

The wind after a calm period switched to the northeast, which isn’t a pleasant direction at the Gulf Stream; win against the current makes for short wave period and steeper. Winds were 20-30 for a lot of the leg and well over that for some of the boats. The wind died down into the teens nearing Bermuda. The boats had a fast trip. Lots of carnage. One boat split the main in two, one had its life raft swept off the deck, several boats had almost total electronics failure, one had to hand steer due to loss of the autopilot, one had both rudders delaminate (returned home), one lost a spreader (very slowly returned and was eventually towed by the Coast Guard).

The “Two” part of the Bermuda One-Two was completed with the last boat, Strummer, finishing at 6:33 pm Tuesday 20 June. This final leg had started 15 June in the St. Georges Harbour, Bermuda with two people on each boat (the Two part of the race). The boats were hit with squalls/thunderstorms and big sea state just hours after the start and suffered those conditions for several days and of course the winds went light after that. The slower boats ended up in nice southeasterly breezes in the teens and relatively flat seas into the finish.

The first boat to finish, First Light a Class 40 in Class 1, sailed by Cole Brauer and Catherine Chimney was also the first boat to finish on the single-handed leg. On corrected time First Light lost out to Young American a J/105 in Class 2 sailed by Peter Becker (Peter’s second Bermuda One-Two race) and Andrien Blanc. Both boats were were first on corrected time in their classes. First place both in elapsed and corrected times in Class 3 was Cordelia, a Valiant 42 sailed by Roy and Gail (“The Navigator”) Greenwald (their 5^th race).

Since there are two legs to this race, the times for each leg are combined for another set of trophies. Firs Light ended up first in both elapsed and corrected times in Class 1 and first in combined and corrected time in the fleet. Young American was first in both elapsed and corrected times in Class 2 and third combined corrected time in the fleet. Cordelia resulted in first for both elapsed and corrected times for Class 3 and second in the fleet for combined corrected time.

The Awards will be held on Saturday 24 June at 4:00 pm.

Complete results and a diary of the whole race can be seen at the Bermuda One-Two website www.bermuda1-2.org

Roy Guay Chair, Offshore Committee

JUNIOR SAILING

A big thanks to those of you who supported the Junior Sailing program by naming a boat.  The committee was hard at work recently putting the names on boats.  The boats will traverse the harbor and the bay all summer long, so when on the water, keep a lookout for the boats and give a wave or a toot of the horn when you see them. 

BTW, we have a few more boats available for sponsorship!

We would like to thank and recognize the members and supporters who generously sponsored a boat:           

FINANCE COMMITTEE

The May financials are outlined below. The chairs continue to manage their committees and we are ahead of budget (January thru May) by $98,394 as we move into our busy season (June-September). Good news!