Text Box: person learns to sail with the Washington Yacht Club, an excellent sign that we’re doing a great job trying to fulfill our mission – to promote sailing. It’s important to remember that our sailing experiences don’t move forward without challenge. I remember one of my first students who moved up the ranks to chief status faster than I. Down the road one day when the wind was blowing I asked him to give me a skipper practical test; he did, but rightfully so didn’t give me the rating (and yes, I still love that guy!). I remember a time when two of the club’s nicest lasers went crashing against the 520 bridge. Eventually on that same night during a rescue operation, so did our largest whaler, only to be towed back by the harbor patrol! I remember an Instructor’s clinic with 6 teachers and one instructor candidate; only one of those instructors wanted to show up again for the next clinic which had 18 candidates! Overcoming these challenges pushes us forward as individuals and as an organization. Can you say you really know how much the WYC has to offer? Not only do we have an array of fleets, we have an incredible array of personalities and knowledge. Have you taken a class from more than one instructor? Have you sailed a boat with a different club member who you didn’t know very well? Have you had dinner with a fellow sailor, or bought a chief a beer? Anytime you get Text Box: ‘Perhaps I cannot control the wind, but I can adjust my sails.’ Ah, the story of the Washington Yacht Club. While our modest Union Bay might not always be stocked with the strongest breeze and our boats not always in the most pristine condition, we learn and experience the fantasy world of sailing at the mercy of the wind. We constantly adjust our lifestyles to accommodate the sailing bug we’ve acquired by moving around work schedules, study Text Box: groups, and even eating routines so that we can spend that extra time on the water teaching lessons, maintaining our fleets, or just getting our fix of wind for the day, week, or month. We do what we can with what Mother Nature gives us, a lesson that doesn’t stop at just an extracurricular. As student run organization serving the UW and surrounding community, we are in a great position to learn from other members our own age, much younger, or much Text Box: older! While we might not be able to control the ultimate fate of the club, we can sure try. Take a look back at all the year’s events. We’ve held regattas (sometimes known as a ‘Regobble’ in honor of one of our favorite autumn holidays), Instructor’s Clinics, Orientation Sessions, Open Houses, Renaming Ceremonies, Fundraisers, Snooze ‘N Cruises, endless BBQ’s, Friday Night Racings, Opening Day parties, Boat on the Lawns, Duck Dodge showings, and not to mention the 70+ sailing lessons of the 2005-2006 academic-year. It seems almost every day a new Text Box: Commodore’s Report Text Box: Rib Tickling Hobie Sailing Text Box: My father always use to say, that the best way to learn, is to learn from your mistakes. In my worldly experience I would add the caveat, or the mistakes of others. This being my first advice/rant/gossip columns of the Telltale, I’ll start by recounting one of my recent run-ins with the Hobies. John Courter as we all know, or should know, is one of the old Text Box: salts that has been part of the club for so long, and has so many ratings, that you couldn’t put them all on the back of the membership card. He took me out as a newbie in a Hobie 16 to show me the ropes. Now at first glance a Hobie looks more like a floating trampoline than it does a boat. It has two hulls that look like bananas, a mail sail and a jib.

~Goran Zivkovic

~Josh Rusk
Text Box: Inside this Issue:

Continued on pg.2

such an opportunity, I urge you to take it!  All it takes is a little initiative.

Looking to get involved?  The WYC will fill as much of your time as you dare to give.   The club can use anything from officers to fleet captains, instructors to volunteers at work parties, class mentors to people just showing up to club regattas, clinics, and other social functions.  If you just want to make it your goal to do more sailing, get out there and do it.  Whether it is our beloved Union Bay or the playground of Puget Sound, the Pacific Northwest begs us to sail and explore it.
Text Box: Summer 2006

Commodore’s Report

1

WAC-2-Kirk Challenge

5

Sailing Paparazzi

7

Rib Tickling Hobie Sailing

1

Fresh Members Take

5

Interview w/ a Captain

8

Officers and Chiefs List

2

Clew-less

6

Pearson Ensign & Hobie 21

9

Sailing Snapshots

3

Dismasting Hobies

6

Calandar

10

Duck Dodge Overview

4

WYC Renaming Ceremony

7