Pentwater Yacht Club


Updated February 5, 2010

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Table of Contents




Ensign race start, July 25, 2009
Photo by Don VanZile

"Room at the Mark"
By Tom Sturr
"The PYC Turning Mark"
By Tom Sturr




Complete summary and pictures






Harken provided support and gifts for the Little Point Sable Race.
Thanks, Harken!



January 16, 2010 A Norwegian company named Scandia has proposed a very large windfarm just off our lakeshore. An opposition group, POWER, has formed. Their website is very informative, and allows individual to register and donate.

There is also another website that is intended to provide questions and answers, and reference information.

December 21, 2009 Kathy Ribbens sent the October and November Board minutes a couple of weeks ago, and they are finally posted.

November 11, 2009 The Bylaws Committee has recommended changes in the Standing Rules for 2010. These include:
  1. Removal of Standing Committee references; these were moved to the Bylaws at the 2009 Annual Meeting.
  2. Update of "I.C Guest Priviledges Defined" to conform to the wording passed at 2009 Board meetings, including the addition of "Non-member Race Crews."
  3. Changes in "II. Marina Fees and Dock Regulations." These were approved at the 10/11/2008 Board meeting, but not included in the 2009 Directory.
The DRAFT is here.

October 7, 2009 Kathy Ribbens has sent the August and September Board meeting minutes.

September 11, 2009 More than 50 people, aboard about 16 boats of all flavors, enjoyed teh Labor Day rafting party. Mike LaHaye's pictures are here.

September 5, 2009 The September Newsletter has been posted.

September 4, 2009 The PYC weather station information is now available online. The links are available using the "Weather links" listing in the Table of Contents. Links have also been added to the top of this home page.

September 4, 2009 The Wooden Boat Show was a great success, in spite of the less-than-perfect weather. Sue Squire has a full writeup here.

September 4, 2009 Will Wright has sent a photo of the sunset down the channel on September 10 (see the links to his other photos below). As he says, "not bad if you'd never seen Wedneday."

August 27, 2009 Mike LaHaye has sent some photos of the Flag Officer's Dinner Dance.

August 25, 2009 Those of you whom have been following this website for awhile will recall that Will Wright was a professional photographer whose career included using celestial events in photos. His picture of the sun setting behind the Empire State Building is here. Will's pictures of the August 2009 sunset down the channel are here and here.. They were taken with a Leica R5 with a 280mm lens. The film (!!!) was Fuji superia extra 400 exposed about 1/250th at f8 and scanned with a Nikon Coolscan to a 55mb file. Quoting Will, the second photo has "...some deft photoshop work by my son."

Thanks, Will.

August 18, 2009 Kathy Ribbens has sent the July Board meeting minutes and Annual Meeting minutes

. August 10, 2009 David Bluhm has placed his SeaRay on the market. Check out the classified ads.

August 10, 2009 Last Friday's Annual Meeting was excellent. Your new Flag Officers and Directors are:
  • Commodore: Bill Bullard
  • Vice Commodore: David Nobles
  • Rear Commodore: Kathy Ribbens
  • Directors
    • Paulette DeHommel
    • John Grant
    • Dyanne Mullen
    • Mike LaHaye (as most recent past Commodore)
Congratulations and thanks to all.

August 10, 2009 The accepted version of the 2008 Annual Meeting minutes have been posted

August 7, 2009 Bill Bluhm sent a couple of Sunset in the channel pictures, taken August 5.

August 5, 2009 Mike LaHaye's pictures of last Sunday's Rafting Party are now available.

August 3, 2009 The August Newsletter has been posted.

July 28, 2009 John Sturr sent more than 50 outstanding photos of the Ensigns and Pentwater Lake. You will also enjoy his website. Thanks, John.

July 28, 2009 Don VanZile sent an excellent photo of the start of last Saturday's Ensign race. Here are his slightly abridged comments:
I have attached a JPEG of the Saturday, July 25, 2009 Ensign race start, after the boats had spread out a little. [The]... .tif file grew to over 11 megabytes in Photoshop. This photo was taken using my Fuji S 5200 camera which has a 10x optical zoom lense and is 5.1 megapixel. I also used a filter to enhance the blue because it was a gray cloudy day which affected the water color.

July 26, 2009 Friday's Back From The Mac party was a great success, thanks to the efforts of Bill Bluhm, event chair, and all of the volunteers. Bill's photos are here.

July 24, 2009 The June Board minutes have been posted.

July 23, 2009 Thunderbolt finishes third

Nearly all of the Mac racers came up the West Michigan coast, and last weekend we were treated to a steady (if slow) parade of boats just offshore.

Jim Burch and Thunderbolt represented the PYC very well, finishing third of 18 boats in section 6. The crew included:

Jim Burch Farmington Hills, MI
Tom Blackburn Grand Rapids, MI
Dave Nobles New Era, MI
Tom Keenan Madison, WI
Tom Awalt Annapolis, MD
Chris Hardin Annapolis, MD

Congratulations!!

Completer Section 6 results are here.

July 21, 2009 The women's Sunfish Fleet had a very enjoyable sail today, joined by a couple of future world-class sailors. Pictures are here.

July 14, 2009 Peter Blacklock's seminar was, as usual, very enjoyable and informative. Pictures of the event are here.

July 14, 2009 Today, the Women's Sunfish Fleet is hosting a seminar by Peter and Mhairi Blacklock of Muskegon. This entertaining and informative event will start at 11:30 AM, and will be followed by lunch at the PYC. The Sunfishers will sail after lunch. All PYC members and guests are welcome.

A handout from Peter is here. He refers to the Sunfish rigging site, which is here.

July 7, 2009 You now have a great opportunity to buy a chair. The form is here.

July 7, 2009 Kathy Ribbens has sent the draft copy of the June Board meeting minutes.

July 2, 2009 The very informative July Newsletter is now available.

July 1, 2009 Here is a summary of the PYC finishes for the 2009 Queen's Cup. THE THREE PENTWATER BOATS THAT FINISHED ALL TOOK FLAGS!! Thunderbolt, skippered by Jim Burch, finished 2nd in Division 5, Condor, skippered by Bill Bluhm, was 2nd in Division 6, and Bailout, skippered by Rick Williams, has been awarded 3rd place in Division 11.

More than 200 boats competed in the 14 divisions of this overnight race from Milwaukee to Muskegon. Only the Muskegon, South Shore, and Milwaukee Yacht Clubs brought home more trophies than the PYC. For a small-town club like the PYC to bring home three flags is an amazing accomplishment.

The PYC was also represented by Sojourn, skippered by Art Haan. The light airs of this year's race prevented Sojourn from finishing.

Crew members included:
Thunderbolt Jim Burch, David Nobles, Tom Blackburn, Ken Davis, Micky Stejskal, and Mark Rowe
Condor Bill Bluhm, David Bluhm, Steve Bluhm, Patrick Bluhm, Courtney Bluhm, Lex Urick, Frank Leinbach, Jason Leinbach
Bailout Rick Williams, Rob Williams, Steve McMahon and Ryan Cardneau
Sojurn Art Haan, Russ Murphy and Bill Walker

Bill Bluhm adds: "This is the 5th flag we have won in the last 7 years. (including one year we did not race) (two firsts, one second, one third, and one fourth) I am very proud of my crew and it"s a tribute to Condor, a very fast old boat." Jill Williams points out that this is the first time that Rick has placed in the Queen's Cup. Also, this is the first year that they have owned this boat. Regarding Thunderbolt, Jim Burch says "We've been pretty fortunate in the Queen's Cup. This is our 14th flag." Jim also has four flags in the Chicago-Mackinac race.

Pictures from Art Haan are here.

CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL.

July 1, 2009 Kathy Ribbens has sent the May Board meeting minutes.

June 29, 2009 Mike LaHaye sent pictures of yesterday's Flag Officers' Fleet Review.

June 28, 2009 Two PYC boats finished high in the 2009 Queen's Cup Race. Thunderbolt, skippered by Jim Burch, finished 2nd in Division 5, and Condor, skippered by Bill Bluhm, was 2nd in Division 6. More than 200 boats competed in the 14 divisions of this overnight race from Milwaukee to Muskegon. Only the Muskegon, South Shore, and Milwaukee Yacht Clubs brought home more trophies than the PYC--pretty amazing.

June 28, 2009 The Spring Series for the Ensign Fleet is finished. The winners are
1st Wings Leonard Hilton
2nd Joan!!! David Roseman
3rd Evenstar Tony Sisson

The complete results are here. Congratulations to all.

June 12, 2009 The Bylaws Committee has made additional proposals for approval at the Annual Meeting. Please read them and the document describing the rationale for the changes. Suggestions and comments are welcomed.

June 6, 2009 Kathy Ribbens has sent the draft copy of the May Board meeting minutes.

June 2, 2009 Last Tuesday, Peter Blacklock gave his customarily excellent seminar. The following are documents from that: Thanks, Peter and Mhairi

June 2, 2009 The 2009 menus are now posted. Follow the Menu link in the left column. To paraphrase the Chicago election slogan, Eat early and eat often.

May 28, 2009 The June Newsletter has been posted.

May 14, 2009 The Don't Miss the Boat party is Saturday, May 23.

May 13, 2009 Preliminary menu information is here.

May 10, 2009 From House Committee chairman Don VanZile:

Those of you who have been to dinner at the PYC on the opening Friday or Saturday are aware that we have a regular menu with entre' items ranging from an expensive steak dinner to a bowl of Salmon Chowder for those who prefer something lighter. The regular menu is not simplified or a partial menu. Be sure to check every page of the regular menu, there are a couple of lighter fare items on the last page. The regular menu is posted on this internet site. [Real Soon Now]

In addition to that regular menu we have specials which you should discuss with your server. This gives you a chance to interact with staff and provides a personal touch that is not always present when the specials are posted on a bulletin board. For appetizers last week we had Deep Fried Asparagus as an unlisted special. There will usually also be one unlisted entre' available as a special. Last week it was a Bow Tie Pasta dish. On Friday and Saturday, May15 and 16 there will be a special Grilled Chicken Breast/Vegetable Medley that will be very appealing to eye, taste and wallet.

If you are on a special diet please discuss with your waiter what your needs are and Chef Helenhouse will make proposals and then come up with a special dish for you. That individual attention will set us apart from many of the restaurants in the area.

For those not on diets, the desserts have been memorable with a selection to choose from, and every one of the choices was excellent.

We look forward to seeing you at the club.

May 10, 2009 Bill Bluhm has passed along his photos of the 2008 Queen's Cup and Wooden Boat Show. Thanks, Bill.

May 8, 2009 A draft of the April Board meeting minutes was sent by Kathy Ribbens.

May 8, 2009 Marilyn Steiner has written an interesting history of the PYC from 1976 to the present. Some other history information may be accessed here.

May 7, 2009 Here is the full Sailing Seminar schedule

From Bill Bluhm:

Our first Sailing Seminar will held at the Yacht Club on Tuesday, May 12, 6:00 pm

The Topic will be:

Race Starts, and protecting your lead on the race course.

Jack Patterson will present the seminar and will be discussing various pre-start tactics to cross the line on time and in the lead. Methods to keep your lead over other boats by course selection, covering, observing wind shifts, and positioning yourself on the course will be covered.

We have all watched Jack's transom ahead of us, come to the seminar to learn his "tricks of the trade" to get ahead of him.

Plans are to gather at the Brown Bear after the seminar. .

May 4, 2009 April 26, 2009 April 13, 2009 The Bylaws Committee is developing several recommended amendments to be presented for approval at the Annual Meeting. They are requesting Membership review of the proposals. Follow the "Bylaws and standing rules" link in the lefthand column

April 13, 2009 The Apparel Committee has stablished a relationship with a web-based company that allows online purchase of a variety of items with the PYC logo. Follow the Apparel online" link in the lefthand column.

April 2, 2009 Current weather conditions for Mears, and the PYC (Real Soon Now) are available. Click the Weather link in the left hand column.

April 2, 2009 Kathy Ribbens has sent the draft of the March Board minutes.

February 5, 2009 Milt Pugsley recently visited Puerto Rico, and sent nice photos of the Club Nautico de San Juan, and his burgee exchange.

February 5, 2009 Barry Miller has agreed to put the interesting sialing links that he finds on a page. Thanks, Barry.

January 3, 2009 Barry Miller sent a link to an excellent PowerPoint presentation regarding the 2009 Racing Rules changes. This was cited on the C&C website, and is highly recommended. The changes in Section C are especially important.




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