Tue, 02/06/2018 - 1:30pm

Andrew Holmes

Weather seems to be influencing many events in our area and we are in the midst of a very active storm pattern with snow, sleet, rain, and ice all components of many of the forecasts.

The new Sailing Center modules started arriving on Tuesday and the power lines and telephone wires were dropped during that afternoon. In order to keep things going on an emergency basis, a temporary generator was installed so that Charles could function but Donna was working from home. Three mod boxes arrived on Monday and two more on Tuesday.

Here is where the waters get muddied by Jupiter Pluvious and at this writing it looked like no work, power, or communications were possible! The calendar meeting was being re-scheduled and Donna was not available. Thursday (publication day) the crane is supposed to be here and the boxes were being placed on the foundation after snow clearing. Friday is mop up day with the last of the boxes being set, power, telephone and internet reconnected and by 5 p.m., all things being equal, we are back in operation! Thanks Charles for coordinating all of this.

The West Harbor Pond Bonfire and gathering has been postponed to Sunday, Feb. 11 - another victim of the elements. Thanks to our own Jon Dunsford for his role on the pond committee. New members Sarah and Russ are also pond frontage owners and active in the association.

BHYC has a major stake in the pond with substantial frontage and drive up access through our parking lot. From the memory lane book , BHYC did use the pond “beach” as the site of the Junior Programs swimming program. Yes, we did have a full swimming program including instruction, racing, and it was a pre-requisite to many elements of the Junior Sailing program. Your author’s own children participated when the whole junior program was headed by Patsy West. Speaking of West (PC John West, that is) he once proposed a “floating” fresh water pool that would have been immersed in the harbor waters by the main docks. It was Italian made and the concept still exists overseas. Our whole swimming pattern was scrapped when the Boothbay Region YMCA built its first pool and activities were moved there.

July 8-13 will be a busy one for BHYC folks what with three major events being scheduled. It starts off with the C420 State Championship event which we will host. Following that is the Junior Olympic sailing event with sailors from every corner of Maine participating. And the week will be capped off with a visit from the U.S. Naval Academy’s offshore sailing team and its spectacular Transpacific 52 sailboat. We will need lots of help running these events and that means both on water and off water manpower including parking and other logistics.

Speaking of logistics , a committee headed by Carl Morin spent a lot of last summer studying our whole “electronic” systems pattern , including but not limited to telephone, internet, TV, and club management computer programs. One of the top selected systems was the Club Essentials program which covers membership matters, dining room, and other accounting functions. Manager Charles recently visited the Duxbury Yacht Club to get a first hand example as to how the system works in the YC environment.

Hristo has been working from his home on establishing the core wait staff people and even some backup staff for the kitchen. We are entering a busy season for hiring and this is a critical area for every business in the Boothbay region;“help” is hard to find and keep. Fortunately, due to foresight many years ago, we have the pond house to house staff, something most area businesses do not have.

Last item for everybody to remember is that we have the February cocktail gathering on the 15th at Dale and Ida Lancaster’s home on Atlantic Ave. If you need directions contact them or the club office ( when it is open).