Social: Ice cream sundaes on the porch between races, furnished by the Interlake Fleet.

RC: Thistles

Friday, June 1, 6:30 PM

Bring a potluck dish to share. Soda, cake and ice cream provided.

GARDENERS: We are requesting that you bring a vase of flowers from your garden (or store bought is fine too) to be used as centerpieces. They will also be used as door prizes. Vases can be purchased at the Dollar Store or the Good Will on Sawmill for $1.00. Or get creative and use some other type of container. Other similar type of centerpieces for door prizes also welcome! Please include in your RSVP that you are bringing a centerpiece so I can plan accordingly.

Come join us for an evening of food, fun and friends.

Non-members – please come visit our club and enjoy an afternoon of sailing with our members.

Got Wind?   We Do!   Come Sail With Us!!!

Thistle Fleet 21 invites you to join us on May 14th and 15th for the annual Damful Regatta. Each year this event brings together a great group of sailors for a weekend of very competitive sailing and lots of smiles. Saturday night festivities will include bountiful beer, cornhole, and music. Racing will comply with the Thistle Class Association and the 2009-2012 US Racing Rules of Sailing.

Free housing is available and camping is allowed on the club grounds. The club restrooms and showers will remain available for anyone staying on the grounds.

And remember to bring the family. The club is next door to the Zoombezi Bay water park and the Columbus Zoo, which was recently ranked number one in the country!

Please direct any questions to Paul Kreitler, (614) 507-7360.

Saturday

10:00 AM Registration

11:30 AM Lunch at the club house

12:15 PM Skippers meeting at the club house

1:00 PM Warning 1st Race

Following Races Happy Hour on the deck with beer, wine, cocktails, and hors d’oeuvres

6:30 PM Dinner!

7:30 PM Chill out with your Thistle buds

Sunday

8:00 AM Coffee & Bagels in the club house

9:30 AM Warning for Sunday racing

12:00 PM Lunch at the Club House

12:15 PM Awards on the deck

The first Thistle Day of 2012 was a beautiful spring day at LYC.  There were 4 very competitive Thistles on the starting line.   Winds were out of the east at 5-10, which made for interesting racing.  The race committee set up a Z-course that gave the fleet two weather legs and two reaches on each lap. 

Every boat held the lead during the first race. Dick and Annette Bartz built a nice lead going up-river by taking advantage of wind pressure on the right that also brought the first big backing wind shift. The fleet thought they were uncatchable, but the fleet managed to catch up as the wind backed with pressure.  Ben and Brooke France took the lead with Team Holzaepfel and Hess-Filbert hot on their transom.  The Bartzes were stuck in an O’Shaughnessy hole and would never make it back into the hunt.  Ben France sailed the boat  flat and fast to win handily.  Holzaepfel edged out Hess-Filbert by a coat of paint to get 2nd. 

In  the 2nd race every one wanted the pin end and France stole the start but tacked to soon to cross.  The tack caused them to miss a big right shift  with velocity.   Holzaepfel was first to the windward mark with the other boats in hot pursuit.  The windward mark was a classic Leatherlips cluster. Holzaepfel held out a fighting team France for the win followed by Teams Bartz and Hess-Filbert.

Everyone had fun on shore complaining about missed opportunities , but beer and appetizers  made it better.

What?: LYC Potluck and Movie Night

When?: This Friday, April 20th, 6:30 PM

Bring?: Your own beverage and a potluck dish to share.

Details?:

~~ Movie after dinner: Captain Ron (rated PG13, synopsis below)

~~ Popcorn and soda provided during movie.

~~ Movie will be projected either onto a screen or sheet on the wall so everyone

can see. Use the LYC furniture, or feel free to bring floor cushions, bean bag

chairs, quilts or whatever will make your viewing experience cozy!

Captain Ron, Rated PG13. 99 mins. Comedy

Starring: Kurt Russell, Martin Short, Mary Kay Place

The Harvey family in Chicago inherits a yacht formerly owned by Clark Gable. Wishing to sail it from the island of Ste. Pomme de Terre to Miami, but not being sailors, they hire Captain Ron (Kurt Russell) a vagabond seaman. With his dubious nautical skills, Captain Ron takes the helm and creates wave after wave of hilarity as he leads the Harvey’s on a wildly amusing oceanic voyage in their dilapidated sailing vessel—all the while driving well-meaning Martin Harvey (Martin Short) off the deep end! And their lives will never be the same again!

Expert sailor? Novice sailor? Never sailed before? Cruising Saturday is for you!

An LYC Safety Boat will be on patrol to assist you if needed, so come enjoy a couple of hours of casual sailing.

Non-members: our club members are happy to take you out on their boats, (free of charge) so please join us!

All Cruising Saturdays are 1-3 PM

Apr 14, 21, 28

May 12, 26

Jun 30

Jul 7, 14, 21, 28

Aug 11, 18

Sep 1, 8, 29

Questions?: Doc5569@aol.com

( R ) = Radial, DNF = did not finish, DNC = did not come

The first race was this past Tuesday night April 3. Janet, who was too tired to sail, ran three windward/leeward races from the East mark to one and back. The wind was light, about five and dying as the evening advanced. The races lasted about 15 minutes each. Afterward, we shared beverages in the parking lot and chatted about sailing and life.

Posted by Janet

In reflection, the 2011 sailing season was very positive for Thistle Fleet 21. For the past 3 or 4 years, we have been trying to get a critical mass of boats on the starting line once each month. We have been calling these events, Thistle Days. The idea started because of busy schedules and because many fleet members have multiple boats. As a fleet, we figured that if we could schedule the days ahead of time, fleet members could plan their sailing schedule accordingly. The number of boats on the starting line for Thistle Days has fluctuated since the beginning, but we’re seeing a steady trend of more and more boats. Last season, we had 10 Thistle Days between April and October. We had 14 different fleet members participate and 7 qualified for the season by participating in at least half the days. For the first time since we began Thistle Days, we had 10 boats on the starting line for a Sunday race. We hope to accomplish this feat on two Thistle Days this coming season. Our ultimate goal is to get back to boat numbers seen every Sunday at the club where 20 Thistles would consistently line up for races. We have a way to go to reach that goal, but we feel we can get there. With the Thistle Days, we have also been keeping a season score for all qualifying teams. Two years ago, we introduced a new Thistle Perpetual Trophy to go to the Season winner for one year. Dick and Annette Bartz won the trophy in 2010. Kit Holzaepfel, daughter Laura Holzaepfel, and friend Noel Thurber are our current Fleet Champions.

The Thistle Days and the addition of the perpetual trophy have increased the energy of the fleet, which has in turn drawn more sailors in. In 2011, we added 7 new boats to our fleet and three of them were new club members. The new fleet additions brought us recognition from the National Thistle Class Association in an award for Growth and Promotion. It was a true surprise and an honor for us to win the award. It also provided us some positive feedback that we’re heading in a good direction.

Along with increased participation at Leatherlips, we had a number of teams travel to regional and national Thistle Class regattas. We had 4 teams travel to the Lake Erie District Championships in Vermillion, Ohio; 6 teams travel to the Great Lakes Championship in Pymatuning, Pennsylvania; 3 junior teams travel to Junior Bayweek in Putin Bay, Ohio; and 2 teams travel to the Thistle National Championship in Pensacola, Florida. Traveling to away regattas is the best way to learn new tactics from other sailors and challenge your skills. Teams that travel away from the club bring their new skills back to Leatherlips and pass them to the local sailors. This cycle improves the fleet as a whole, so we encourage our fleet members to travel as often as their schedules allow. To make it easier for our fleet members to travel, if a team is racing away from the club on a Thistle Day, they get credit toward season qualification.

We hope that the season ahead of us in 2012 brings us more success as the fleet energy grows. We look forward to seeing you on the water in 2012!

Instruct the Jr. Race Team in the art of competitive sailboat racing, including rigging the boats correctly, maintaining the boat in a racing condition, proper sailing technique, proper racing technique, competitive tactical strategy, setting goals and building life skills through sail boat racing. Racing experience required. Requires some travel with the team to out of town regattas. For more information, call  614-354-2787.

LYC Learn2Sail Instructors

Sailing experience required. For more information, call  614-354-2787.

LYC Learn2Sail Grunts

Are you are youth, age 12 or older, who knows how to sail? Are you interested in someday becoming a sailing Instructor? A “grunt“ is an apprentice volunteer in the LYC Learn2Sail program. You will volunteer under the supervision of our regular instructors,  learning and gaining experience as you go along. Most of our Grunts progress to being US Sailing Certified Sailing Instructors.   For more information, call  614-354-2787.

Session 1: June 4-June 15
Session 2: June 18-June 29
Session 3: July 2 – July 13 (no class on 7/4)
Session 4: July 23 – August 3

The Adult Learn to Sail program starts June 12th and will run on Tuesday and Thursday  from 6-9 PM for five weeks. The last class is July12th. If you know a student or an adult who wants to learn to sail, please contact Christie Whitt. If you would like to be considered for an instructor or an assistant position, we are looking to fill the positions now.  Please contact Christie Whitt. We are very pleased to announce the appointment of Blaise (Blaze) Pierson as the Learn to Sail Director. Blaise comes to us with a great deal of sailing experience and an impressive resume. Please look for an introductory article in this edition of the Mainsheet.

Read more here.

Please reply one of two ways:
1) Print this, mark your preferences, and mail it to me with your check.
2) Email me (pdkreitler (at) gmail.com) with your dinner choices and numbers, and then mail in your check separately.

The final places are as follows:

1 – Holzaepfel – 89.2% Cox Sprague

2 – Kreitler – 86.8%

3 – Bartz – 86.4%

4 – Ben France – 85.3%

5 – Bob France – 81.1%

6 – Harmon – 78.9%

7 – Rodgers – 69.2%

8 – Kittleson – 65.5% ]]>