Category Archives: Events

News about upcoming Events (typically not related to a specific racing event).

Events, News, Series Racing

Message from the commodore June 21, 2021

Hi Everyone! Tuesday (June 22, 2021) looks like a nice, but cool evening for sailing, with temps in the 60’s and W/NW winds around 10mph for our 6:30 start. 

After racing, PRO Dave Dunlap and myself would like to welcome members to our lake home (5061 S. Long Lake Dr., Portage) for a gathering, results, and a short discussion for fleet business.  See the attached PDF for more information.  Next, starting this week and going forward, we are including these reminders in the weekly emails to assist the race committee and scoring process:

PRIOR TO RACING:

To help committee boat, please, notify the PRO and Statistician ASAP (on the Monday before or early Tuesday), if your status differs from your membership’s registration with regards to:

  1. Skipper of your boat
  2. Sail Number
  3. Crew change or if you are solo  
  4. Boat Type
  5. If you are crewing on a new member’s boat, please include this new person’s name, sail number and boat type. 

Email or group text: (PRO and Statistician)

Dave Dunlap (PRO) 269-330-5496, dadworksmi@gmail.com

Andy Lenczycki (Statistician) 269-910-2721, Hobie480@yahoo.com

The race committee is extremely busy on the water and these changes are very difficult to handle at the last minute, so please help support their efforts by following through with this!

 ON RACE NIGHT:

  1. Please check-in with Committee Boat prior to the starting sequence for attendance.
  2. If possible, notify Committee Boat if you are not finishing a race or retiring for the night.
  3. Notify Committee Boat if you are going to protest. PRO will let you know when / where protest will be  heard.  

Thanks all!  Kathy

Events, News, Series Racing

Spring Series Week #8 – June 22, 2021

After-Sailing Get Together at Dave Dunlap & Kathy Rubino’s

  • Where: 5061 S. Long Lake Dr, Portage (on Long Lake)
  • When: Tuesday June 22nd, after sailing
  • Why: Why not? It has been over a year since we’ve gathered as a fleet.
  • Results will be announced and other fleet business will be discussed. We can’t wait to reunite with old friends and meet new ALCA members!
  • Bring: Your own adult beverage of choice. We have a few yard chairs, but not enough seating for everyone, so bring a chair if you wish. Barbeque chicken sandwiches with coleslaw and lemonade will be provided by ALCA. Snacks and desserts to share are appreciated if you are interested in bringing something.
  • Parking: Our driveway, the grass between the garden beds and the street, and well as the property across the street, which we own. Park perpendicular to the street on these.
  • Cars with boat trailers can park parallel along the street east of our property on the side opposite the lake (between our house and East R Ave).
  • If sailing is cancelled, the party will start earlier, around 7 pm.
Events, News, Series Racing

2021 OFFICERS mEETING hELD 3/12/21

Greetings ALCA and Friends!
The 2021 officers met by ZOOM last week to start planning the 2021 sailing season.  The first scheduled race is planned to be May 4th, which is the first Tuesday in May.  We still have yet to define the Spring and Summer sailing seasons, and for this we will need your input!   2020 Members, pay attention to your email which will have a survey to respond to. 

There will be no Spring kick-off this year.  Hopefully with the increase in COVID-19 vaccinations and a decline in infections, we will be able to meet sometime this summer!  At least for the Spring Series, we will not be gathering after racing, rather Andy Lenczycki, our Statistician, will have a ZOOM meeting for the results.  

Next, the officers are planning a tuning/get ready to race day – probably the weekend prior to the start of racing.  The details have not been ironed out yet, so stay tuned.  

See attached for our ALCA-membership-form-May-2016, available as a PDF or Word doc.  If you’d like to join now (highly suggested), print, complete the form and mail or drop off to Faith Akert.  Please, if you have any questions about the fee structure, do not hesitate to ask.  Ideally, the officers would appreciate all boats on the water to be active members of the fleet to streamline scoring.  

Lastly, we are in need of a fleet Secretary.  I am willing to serve as Commodore and Secretary, however, this is a lot of work!  This year is a good opportunity for someone new to step in and fill this position, taking over partial responsibilities and learn.  The duties of the secretary as written in the ALCA by-laws are: 
Secretary – The Secretary shall keep accurate minutes of meetings and take all correspondence.  The Secretary shall also be responsible for updating the by-laws and for  working with the Principle Race Officer to ensure that the racing guidelines are up to date.
Please reply to me if any of you are interested and we could get started!  
Happy Spring!Kathy RubinoCommodore ALCA Fleet 519 (& Secretary for the time being) 

Events, News

Upcoming Dates to Know

Your 2020 ALCA Officers met in January and we have some updates:

Dave D and Kathy attended Fleet 126’s (Michigan City) meeting to see what is going on with their fleet and to get information on the Hobie 16/20 North American’s this September that they are hosting in Michigan City.  We believe our own Miss D10, Gail Stiemsma, will be there too so they should bring back Division 10 updates as well.

The officers will meet again on February 26 so if you have anything to bring up, ideas or comments, please respond directly to one of us or reply to this email.
Steve Weatherford has coordinated with Dave Stiemsma for a rules seminar, Dave would like to do this on Tuesday, March 3rd from 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm.  Faith has offered to bring some snacks and the host location is still TBD.  If you would like to offer your home, please contact Steve – 269-323-7805.  Then look for an email from Steve as the date gets closer.
SAVE THE DATE – the ALCA Spring Kickoff Meeting is set for Saturday, April 18th Happy/Social Hour at 5:00pm; followed by a meeting and dinner.  Hosts: Kathy Rubino & Dave Dunlap, 5061 S. Long Lake Drive.  Please bring ideas for summer parties, dates that we need to avoid and other thoughts to share.
Everyone was sent a 2020 Membership form for you to fill out and either mail to Faith or bring to the Spring Kickoff Meeting.  I will keep your email active until the end of May, then only if you have joined will you receive further emails from me or if you do not wish to be included, message me.  We are updating the facebook page as well. 

Follow us and post on Twitter @alca_519 and remember to tag us using any social media (Facebook/Instagram/Twitter) – #fleet519  Let’s see who can get more hashtag posts than Austin Lee!!

Events, News

ALCA Year end party updates

Remember we have our year-end party on Saturday, October 19th at Lodo’s.  If you haven’t RSVP-ed your dinner choices yet to Julie and me, please do!  Thank you to those who have already.  The dinner selections are:

  • Sirloin with roasted potatoes
  • Chicken Scampi
  • Fish and Chips
  • Vegetarian Lo Do Pasta

Also, for those of you who have ordered ALCA/World’s shirts, the cost turned out to be $19 each.  Lori will have the shirts on the 19th at the party, please bring your money to pay her then. If you ordered a shirt and can’t make it to the party, please pay Lori some other way. 

Finally, when many of us are planning our ski trips, there’s still more sailing to be had.  A few of us were thinking of getting out on Austin L.  (Sunday 9/6/19) for some fun sailing – the World’s are less than a month away, and we don’t want to forget what being on the boat, at the tiller or jib sheets feels like……. IF the bug hits you, please join us!  
Just thought of something so you can remember the money for the shirts…… $19 on the 19th!  LOL! 

Year End Party Flyer
Events, News

Year End Awards Banquet – Saturday, October 19, 2019

This year’s Year End Party will be at LoDo’s starting with happy hour at 5:30 pm and we will eat about 6:30-6:45 with awards and elections to follow. Please RSVP to either Kathy or Julie with what you want to eat. The fleet will provide appetizers for the happy hour but you will be responsible for your entree and it will be a cash bar, they will do separate checks.

Here are the choices to rsvp with by October 14:
Sirloin with roasted potatoes
Chicken Scampi
Fish and Chips
Vegetarian LoDo Pasta

Events, News, Series Racing

Summer Series Week #6 – August 13, 2019

Wow, Week 6 is happening! – can’t believe the summer is just zipping along!  Andy Lenczycki is our RC for a night of partly cloudy skies, 78 degrees and NNW winds of around 9 mph. 

This week, we are starting an informal education series, in which there will be an attachment included with each weekly e-mail, followed up by discussion after sailing at Brewster’s.  This will take place even if we’re cancelled, so all you new sailors, take note, read the material, and hopefully you’ll be able to participate on Tuesdays.  It’s also a great review for all of us seasoned folks as we head to the Hobie World’s in Captiva this November.  This week’s topic is “Signals and Marks” and “Definitions & Right of Way Rules“.  This is a progressive series – so this first topic is important to know in order to fully understand the next two topics.  Thanks to Jerry Mohney for starting this up and to Julie for providing the material.  


Also, a reminder that the next one day regatta for Hobie Fleet 126 is coming up this next Saturday, August 17th at Washington Beach in Michigan City, IN.  Weather looks pleasant, so there’s fun just waiting to be had!  Hope to see you there!

Another save the date – for all of us Hobie World Competitors (gotta love the sound of that!):  Tuesday September 17th – the first Tuesday we don’t sail- Lori Mohney is gathering us together at their place for a discussion of important things we’ll need to know to compete in the event.  Please create room in your schedules to attend!

Events, News, Series Racing

Summer Series Week #5 – Aug 6, 2019

What a Pontoon Float party Sunday!  We had sun, fun, drinks, snacks, floating, and if that weren’t enough, mother nature brought us a powerful rainstorm with significant wind and some lightening.  It started as we were headed in, and increased to heavy horizontal rain as we were getting to shelter.  After the rain passed, we made our way over to Lori and Jerry’s for dinner and door prizes. 

There are significant leftovers – brats, some salads and lots of cookies – so we’ve been invited back over after sailing Tuesday night (8/6/19).  There are soft drinks, but otherwise, it’s BYO adult beverages.  Tuesday’s forecast is for temps in the 80s, partly sunny, with a 20% chance of rain, west winds around 7mph.  Race chair is Dave Dunlap on Julie and Andy’s pontoon. 

Next, there has been some discussion about two topics, so for clarification, I’m quoting from the by-laws, 1) Minimum weight:  Hobie class rules state that minimum weight for skipper and crew is 285 lbs.  Therefore to be scored as a 2 person boat, you need to meet this weight requirement, or carry weight.  

(A)           Rules – All races and regattas shall be conducted in accordance with the IYRU, US Sailing and the Hobie Class Association Rules as published by the International Hobie Class Association.  Questions concerning minimum weight and whether a person or persons meet the requirements as prescribed in the Hobie Class Rules will be settled by the use of a Fleet scale calibrated by a known weight.

2)  The start finish line – can you go through it as you sail the course (not starting or finishing) and does it depend on what course is being sailed (upwind vs downwind finish)?  No and no.  Amendment (III) Amendments

(I)              ALCA, by the majority vote of total votes cast, can amend IYRU, US Sailing, and the Hobie Class Association Rules as published by the International Hobie Class Association

(II)            The Barging Buoy is an extension of the Committee Boat

(III)         The Start/Finish line is an obstruction at all times and cannot be crossed unless starting or finishing.

(IV)         Shorten course will be determined by the Committee Boat personnel.  Boats will sail designated course until passing between Committee Boat and Finishing Mark, or between gates as designated.

Hope this clears up any confusion – there’s lots more racing rules that need to be followed on our Tuesday nights, please show up after racing and ask questions.  Rule book summaries have been provided to some of the new sailors in the past few years, good idea if we all review them from time to time!