PRSA Commodore's Report 2/24/05

Believe it or not the spring sailing season is not too far off.  I have too much PRSA news to report in a single email, so I’ll start with the oldest news and work up to the present. 

 Last November, we had a great annual party hosted by Lebanese Taverna and about 60 PRSA’ers came.  We gave out the Spring and Fall series awards in all the fleets and two special awards:

 The Founder’s Trophy, which is something like the PRSA MVP award, went again to Craig Huzway.   He rebuilt the transmission on the Bayliner after rebuilding the engine the previous year.  He continues to focus his talent and energy on that boat which would just be a hunk of worthless junk if it were not for him.  Thanks, Craig. 

 The Fleet Captain’s Award, which is our way of way of rewarding a team that takes their Race Committee Duty very seriously and does a notworthy job, went to Bill Kleysteuber and his team at the Spring Regatta.  Bill worked for days to get all the equipment ready for that regatta and the results showed. 

 Perhaps, most importantly, we anointed a new board for 2005.  In fact that board has already met 3 times and is busily preparing for the coming year.

 Commodore – Nabeel Alsalam That’s me.  I’m coming back for my 3rd and last year.  What will be my legacy??

Vice Commodore – Bill Kleysteuber We are lucky to have this master shade tree mechanic on the board to take on what is probably the toughest job on the board.  He is determined to upgrade the reliability and suitability of our RC boat fleet and I, for one, will support him in that effort.  I hope you will also.    By the way, Bill is an Albacore and occasional Laser sailor.  His sailing resume goes something like, “Boy meets boat.  Boy likes boat.  Boy and boat live happily ever after.” 

 Steve Kistler did 3 years in this tough position and got the ball rolling with the addition of the Bayliner and 15-foot whaler.  However, his family has grown and it is time for him to refocus his priorities (a little).

 Rear Commodore – Tom Ballantine As we have expanded the number of racing events we have at PRSA, this job has become tougher and tougher.  That racing program started with the Hangover Regatta on New Year’s Day and will continue through next November.  Tom created the first official Notice of Race for that event which is not only necessary to attract visitors from other clubs, but is the right way to launch a racing event.  He’ll need your support again and again this year in running regattas (RC chair, registration table, etc.) and running races (Principal Race Officer, Mark Boat Captain, etc.)  Please support him.  Tom is a Hampton and occasional Laser sailor. 

 Drew Hudson did 2 years in this position and introduced sensible changes to our awards from the swan plaques with hanging plates to the etched PRSA glasses and did lots of training too.  His family also has grown.  Luckily, the whole family gets together after Laser racing at the Potowmack Landing to be with dad and the other sailors.

 Secretary – Eric Johnson Eric sails Jet-14s over at SSA and Lasers with us and big boats too.  I’m happy to have him on the board because he loves one-design sailboat racing and is committed to improving its future here at PRSA.  He has already brought good ideas to our discussions based on his broad racing experience and membership at our sister club.

 Although, Laser sailor and last year’s Secretary, David Teale, has stepped aside for Eric, David will continue to work for the board in the background by maintaining our database. 

Treasurer – Yates Dowell The rock of the PRSA board.  Yates has done this job for us for well over a decade.   In fact, he is so steady as our Treasure that his home address might as well be PRSA’s address.  Our financial records are always up-to-date and have been consistently maintained to facilitate comparisons over time.   Yates is a Hobie 16 sailor and finds a monohull to be strange creature. 

 Newsletter Editor/Webmaster – Hap O’Brien Actually, we have dropped the Trumpeter, our newsletter, and have focused on the website and the PRSAMembers email list as our communication systems.  This is Hap’s second year as webmaster and he has some ideas for making significant improvements on that website.   Eventually, it’ll be a place to sign up for regattas, to pay dues on-line, to sign up for RC duty, and who knows what. I hope http://www.potomacsailing.org/ is on your favorites list. 

 Fleet Captains and Fleet Reps to the Board

 Albacores:  David Rennie returns for another year

Buccaneers: Bryan Lanier is the chief cook and bottle washer for this fledging fleet

Hamptons: Ian Twinn takes the helm from Bill Carnell

Hobie 16: Yates and Ben Ackerman represent them

Interlakes: Doug Savage takes over from Martin Howell

Lasers: Jennifer Parrow and Stephen Yelland are tag team captains for this fast growing fleet

Lightnings: Jeff Storck returns but Laurie Duncan will represent them at the meetings

Penguins: Tim Dickson will represent the original fleet of this historic class with Amy Krafft as a backup

Those are the cast of characters that make your club run.  Please support them when they come asking for help.   Their contact info is on that website at: http://www.potomacriversailing.org/membership/prsa_executive_committee_a.htm