Events (Click on Link for details)
Women's Regatta - September 6, 2003
Potluck Dinner and Music - September 6, 2003
Canadian Nationals Regatta (Toronto) - September 12, 13, 14, 2003
Klingers Around the Island Race - September 20, 2003
Commodores Ball and Party - October 4, 2003

Annual General Meeting and New Executive
September 20, 2003 - After Klingers Race
The Commodore - Mary Neumann
Every member has a vote. Meet all the members. Get an update on what is happening at the club. Vote in a new Executive. Find out what Executive members do besides sail a lot ... details below.

Articles, reports, updates and whatever ..
The Fridge, Wet-Suites and Thank You - Paul Chandler

J-town Buys a Hobie 16

Ed Young and Esmeralda Win a Friday Night Race

Private Boat Policy - What do you think? - Paul Chandler

The Albacore Internationals - Marek Balinski

Ahoy Members - Winston Lau

Winter Work Space Wanted


Thank you to all who contributed articles and content as well as Rebecca Eagen, Robert MacDonald (photos), Ann White who helped publish this issue of the Whisper Pole.

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On Sept. 20th, after Klinger’s Round the Island Race, Jtown will hold its Annual General Meeting of the sailing club and a election of a new Executive Committee. Please come out and fulfil your duty as a member to cast your ballot or step up as a candidate to serve on the executive committee.

Whether you are interested in an executive role or just want to offer assistance to any of the portfolios, here's a quick rundown of the positions at J-Town. Each position is voluntary and limited to two consecutive years of service. While there has been interest in most positions, we desperately need a Treasurer. The interested individual should possess some basic accounting experience. If you are at all curious, please speak to the current treasurer Ed Young about duties and responsibilities.

COMMODORE
* Oversees general management and supervision of Club operations.
* Chairs monthly meeting of the executive.
* Signs all by-laws and membership certificates.
* Represents the Club in dealings with outside organizations.
* Initiates, develops and guides Club policies.
* Ensures that all Executive members fulfill their functions.

VICE-COMMODORE
* Assists the Commodore in administration of Club activities, and may become acting Commodore during any temporary absence of the Commodore.
* Oversees J-Town's educational programs, before and during the sailing season, to benefit both novice and experienced sailors.
* Analyses the needs of the Club for qualified helmsmen, crew, racing skippers, and race committee personnel, and tailors the education program to provide for these needs.

PAST COMMODORE
* A resource person advising other Executive members in the execution of their duties. May also take on other responsibilities as decided by the Executive and helps with safety.

FLEET CAPTAIN
* Responsible for the purchase, care and disposal of sailing equipment and power boats.
* Coordinates a maintenance program during the sailing season, as well as a winter maintenance program leading up to boat launching in the spring.
* Assigns responsibility for maintenance of specific boats to select boat captains.

RACE CHAIR
* Administers all race-related activities of the Club, including coordination of these activities with other sailing clubs and associations. These may include a weekly series of evening races, race-related training programs, an invitational Club regatta, as well as other sailing club or association regattas.
* Organizes the posting of results, and determines members deserving of racing awards.

SOCIAL CHAIRS
* This portfolio is shared by two co-chairs, responsible for organizing social events at J-Town during sailing season and in the off-season.
* Events can follow educational or racing events, or can be of a purely social nature.
* Liaises with Social Chairs of neighbouring sailing clubs, and enlists the help of volunteers to organize events.

COMMUNICATIONS CHAIR
* Organizes production of all member communications, including an events calendar, a handbook of Club policies, rules and regulations, a membership directory and the Club newsletter.
* Oversees the website at www.sailtoronto.com.

MEMBERSHIP CHAIR
* Plans a recruiting program to re-enlist former members and attract new members to the Club and its Whitesail program.
* Helps produce a membership directory in conjunction with the Communications Chair.

TREASURER
* Keeps full accounts of all receipts and disbursements of the Club.
* Deposits all revenue or valuable effects in the name and to the credit of the Club in the financial institutions designated by the Executive.
* Disburses Club funds under the direction of the Executive, accounted for with proper receipts.
* Provides the Executive with regular reports of all transactions as Treasurer, and of the financial position of the Club.
* Responsible for keeping proper records of the Club's assets.

SECRETARY
* As clerk of the executive, the secretary attends all executive meetings and records all facts and minutes of proceedings.
* Acts as custodian of the seal of the Club and of all records, contracts and other documents belonging to the Club.

HOUSE CHAIR
* Responsible for the improvement and maintenance of the Clubhouse and surrounding grounds.
* Responsible for the coordination, development and maintenance of mooring and storage site and facilities in cooperation with other sailing clubs and the appropriate authorities.

SITE CHAIR
* This is not a permanent position, but filled as required from time to time to oversee issues and lobbies relating to the relocation of the Club and/or site development issues (such as the current City of Toronto Waterfront Redevelopment Plan).

Hi all

The sailing season is at its peak, with the lake now at bath water temperature who cares if you dump, unfortunately the winds have not been quite so kind with only the odd day offering anything over 15 knots so far this July and August, but September’s waiting around the corner and can usually be relied on for better stuff!

On to House…

Little happening there I am pleased to report with the odd few repairs here and there, such as the spring to the door on the women's change room (God! Sandra M. called me day and night on that one!) moving the telephone line, new safe other bits and bobs but all in all a huge difference from the amount of repairs made to the club last year, and this of course will translate into savings.

I have two items to bring up in this issue which have to addressed :-

THE FRIDGE !! Please! -- If you see something fermenting there, going furry, smelling, those sort of signals to please clear it out. If after a meal there is food left over often the best thing is to just take it home or at least put a label with a date on it. With best intentions stuff gets put in the fridge because at the time it seems too good to dump, but it gets forgotten and goes bad, so please take the initiative to tidy the fridge or I'm afraid I will have to simply come down and empty the entire contents into the garbage, something I do not want to do.

WET-SUITS - Secondly there is a growing custom of storing or leaving your wet-gear in the change rooms. This is not allowed. These rooms are small enough as they are and there is simply not the space for this. There is also the smell issue which can be ripe enough after a FNR or bronze class without people leaving musty neoprene around,so please take your sailing gear home with you, don't leave it at the club.
We have been on the look out for lockers but as yet the only ones we have are designated for cyclists or people who walk

Thank You! All in all I want to thank the membership for doing an all round great job of keeping the clubhouse and grounds looking great. There are always the odd problems but I have seen many of you take the time to do that little extra to keep our club comfortable. Many thanks to Mark and Eugenia, Robert Mc'D. and many others for that little extra.

Paul Chandler House Chair
P J Chandler 416-467-5004
fridaystreet@sympatico.ca

On Monday, August 25 Jtown took possession of a used Hobie 16 with trailor.

At publication only Ed Young and Paul Chandler had seen our latest addition to the fleet however they report that for it's age and stage it is in fine condition. It comes with trapeze harnesses, extra sails, bits and pieces and a trailor. For a grand total of $2,500 it is not only a bargain but will no doubt bring many summers of sailing joy to our club members.

Many thanks to Paul Chandler who tracked down the boat and Ed Young who put the Hobbie purchase on the club agenda.

Location: Outer Harbour
Date: August 8, 2003 Club: St. James Town
Course: 6-8-0 – 4 legs

Q. Describe the conditions of the race?

Ed - The conditions were light to medium light and then as the race went on it turned to almost zero and light. No wind more than 5 knots. Zero to 2 knots near the end of the race.

Q. How was your boat setup?

Ed - 90% of the time pre-bend on to the maximum, lots of outhaul, no cunningham and never any vang. At one time when it went up to 4 to 5 knots I let off the pre-bend but still no vang. I just used the main sheet to create leech tension.

Q. How did you decide when to adjust the pre-bend?

Ed - Just feel. If it is light enough that you have to heel the boat to leeward you have full pre-bend. As you are able to sit up and flatten the boat you can start to take the pre-bend off.

Q. Do you watch the main leech when you adjust the pre-bend?

Ed - Even with the pre-bend on, you can get leech curl. There is pre-bend plus not sheeting to the centre. I watch the leech to make sure it is never pointing to windward, always straight back.

Q. What was your pre-race strategy?

Esmeralda – We had differing opinion. I wanted to go up the centre and play the shifts. I was worried about the wind dying leaving us in a corner.

Ed – I contributed local knowledge. Usually on a Friday night one side or the other pays. The wind fills in from one side or the other. It won’t fill in from the west, It will fill in from the south or the north, typically from the north at night.

We actually did sail up the middle. We started left, sailed out that way a little bit. Once we could tack and cross the boat that was closest to us we flipped onto port and headed right and stayed on that tack for a very long time.

Q. What was your starting strategy?

Ed – Clear air. It wasn’t looking for one end or the other. It seemed like the wind was going left and there was lots of wind down there so we started on the left.

Q. How did Tin Htoo win the first windward leg?

Ed – When we crossed him on our first port tack I passed his transom (on starboard) by only a foot. We were basically tied. He came back (on port) and we were still not ahead of him (on starboard) so I tacked to maintain the right advantage. When he tacked he laid the mark while we were over stood. He had a two or three boat length lead at the windward mark.

Q. What happened on the second and third leg?

Ed – Tin Htoo stayed even with us (ahead). Marty Cameron was catching us by sailing lower. So I sailed lower to maintain inside position. He was not going to make the overlap. We both had our poles up at this point (near the mark) so I sailed even lower to maintain inside position.

After the (gybe) mark rounding we sailed higher (than Tin). They (the leeward boat) have the option to take you up, so I passed well above him. I passed Tin a couple of boat widths (to windward) from him. That took us both fairly high off the rumb line so we both put up our poles and drifted down to the mark.

Q. What happened at the leeward mark?

Ed – We were coming in slow because we were dead down wind. We made a great mark rounding. Came in tight and left tight and had great speed. We came in tight and wrapped ourselves around the mark.

What really did it (the mark rounding) was good planning. We were already tuned for upwind. We had rig tension on and the board down a couple of boat lengths from the mark. Had lots of leeward heel (rounding the mark) and maintained leeward heel until we came onto a close hauled course, flattened then squirted out of there. Even though Tin was right beside us at that point we were a couple of boat lengths ahead of him after the rounding.

Q. What happened on the last windward leg?

Ed – Sailed low and fast. We were always being out pointed (by Tin). I am sure we were sailing one to two degrees lower than Tin but considerably faster and with less leech tension. Generally we distanced ourselves a lot.

Q. Do you have any advise to others?

Ed – Be lucky.

Esmeralda – Good jib trim.

When you read this text the season will be coming to a close. So, it seems it may be time to pat ourselves on the shoulders and say: “good job!” In fact, this season began very slowly for our club. We had a hard time getting eight boats out to Friday Night races. Quite a few of our established racers did not sail much this year and their absence was painfully obvious to me when I drew Friday Night teams.

Still, this was the year when the Internationals were to be sailed in Kingston. For this reason, most of the club regattas were held before July. So, in order to prepare for the big event, there quickly appeared a core group of sailors participating in most races.

The regatta itself was awesome. Thirteen races were run over six days (with one day of not sailing due to lack of wind). The event started with measuring all the boats to ensure that all sailors conformed to class rules. One of the interesting things that came to light was that the newer boats built by Ontario Yachts (the builder of our boats) have become significantly heavier than they should be. The measurers told me that they have noticed a consistent pattern of this year’s boats gaining weight already. This does not sound good for our future boat replacement.

A practice race was run before the actual regatta started. It gave us a bit of a feel for the size and the competitiveness of the fleet. The races were very professional. So was the rule jury. The race committee knew exactly when not to send us out because there would be no wind. Stat line and mark changes did not take more than five minutes. We were not left waiting long between races. This culminated in the start of the last race. Just after we finished the second last race, a powerboat instructed us to go back to the start line right away since the last starting sequence could be initiated only before two ‘clock. In fact, the starting sequence commenced at about three minutes to two. The race committee flew a “z” flag indicating that anyone over early would have to take a penalty equal to 20% of the fleet. This scared more aggressive sailors enough not to result in a general recall and the race went off.

The results of some of our club teams were quite impressive. Ann White and Jean-Paul Bureaud finished ninth overall while Kirk McGregor and Fran Stacey finished sixteenth. Congratulations!

This year we still have a few regattas. On September 6, our club will run Women’s Helm Regatta. As the name goes, a woman has to be at the helm and the regatta is usually a lot of fun.

On September 12, 13, and 14 Albacore Canadian Championships will take place in Toronto. You can go to a three day regatta without having to tow the boat. The A fleet will race out on the lake and the B fleet will race in the Outer Harbour. To sail in the B fleet, you do not have to be very experienced. You need just a bit of knowledge of racing and racing rules.

Finally, on September 20 David Matthews will run his famous Klinger’s Round the Island race. You can sail either a Laser or an Albacore.

Ahoy J-town members, Thank you for joining the best sailing community!

Beginning the season, my goal was 188 members. We're now up to 185 members! Now a wee bit more about you. 94 are brand-new members! 71 are May to July white sailors. 20 have continued sailing instruction with Bronze IV. 12 registered for Bronze V (August session now in progress). 26 can day sail (email/call me for the list)! Plus, we have 10 fantastic social members. In addition to our early bird special, J-town offered a mid-season $295 special (as of July 21) that attracted 8 experienced sailors.

Numbers aside, the most rewarding aspect of being your membership person has been meeting and sailing with you. Again thanks for joining! Sail with you soon...promise.

Cheers,

Winston Lau
2003 Volunteer Membership Director t.

416-466-3421 t. 416-841-2216 e.
membership@sailtoronto.com

ps, call/email me for the most recent j-town contact list

Some boats in the Fleet will require maintenance over the winter and Jtown is looking for a heated space large enough to house at least a couple of Albacore’s.

If you know of a garage or space in a warehouse, etc that would be suitable for our needs, please contact

Rebecca Eagen
416-875-1414
rebecca_eagen@hotmail.com.