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Les Cheneaux Yacht Club

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SPRING 2008
(Posted 07/28/2008)

Greetings.

Water levels will be higher in Les Cheneaux this summer.

Sunshine will be brighter.

These scientifically fact based forecasts are just a few that I have for you in my annual Spring Commodore’s letter. Want some others? (Non-scientifically based)

Our harbor will be deeper (after dredging is complete—scheduled for completion this spring).

We will be getting new carpet and re-upholstery this summer.

Cocktail parties will be longer and better attended.

The Ensign Regionals will be hosted by LCYC and Fleet 31, bringing more visitors and friends to the Club.

The Caribbean Party will be bigger and better and prizes for best outfits will be hotly contested by many. Favorite themes will be pirates, tourists, limbo dancers, bongo players, yachtsmen and beach bums.

The first bi-annual (we hope) LCYC Talent Show will feature some of our great hidden and repressed artistic personalities.

When will all the fun start?

The Club opens Tuesday, July 1st and on Wednesday, July 2nd our first activity will be women’s tennis @ 9 am, followed by men’s tennis on Thursday @ 9:30 am.

Then on Saturday, July 5th @ 9:30 am we start with Kid’s sailing. That evening we will have our traditional Brat Party @ 6:00 and dinner @ 7:00 pm.

The cost of all dinners this year will be $15.00 per person—kids free.

Remember—before each full dinner we will have a Kids’ Grill downstairs from 6:15 to 7:00 pm—free to all kids. The Kids’ Grill will be handled by Michele Royan and Jane Terrill, and they will be grilling delicious hamburgers, hotdogs and whatever.

The very next week starting on July 10th we will host the Ensign Fleet Midwest Regionals, with our Social Hour on Sunday.

The next Saturday (July 19) we’ll have a delicious fish fry from the master chefs Fritzie Schimmel and Tommy Flood.

Golf Tourney on July 21st (Monday) @ 2:30 pm. On Monday the 28th @ 9:30 am prepare for the gala tennis tournament. Far-out rumor is that Roger Federer will be making an appearance.

That same week is the LCYC Regatta, and the following Sunday (August 3rd) is the Annual Meeting and Dinner and Kids’ Grill.

Mark your calendar for the Yacht Club cruise to start August 11th, and the Caribbean Party and Dinner to be held on Saturday the 16th of August.

For all dinners, please make reservations in plenty of time so that we have enough food for everyone. You can always cancel (and plead for your money back).

NEWS

Ship’s Store
Look for an expanded Ship’s Store inventory and display. Diane Cochran has been busy all winter seeking out new items and replenishing supplies of best sellers.

Wi-Fi in Clubhouse
Yep. We will have Wi-Fi at the LCYC Clubhouse this summer. For those with laptops, Mark Clymer says that all you have to do is bring them to the Club and turn them on. You just need to be “Wi-Fi ready.”

Website
Mark Clymer is also working to make the Website more useful and interesting. If you have reports which should go on the Website, send them to Mark @uphealer@peaceofwellness.com.

Remember
Your screen name is SNOWS and your password is ENSIGN.

By-laws
The By-Laws update and revisions passed by an almost unanimous vote and will soon be on your Website.

All widows and widowers affected have been issued new LCYC stock certificates, restoring their voting rights and membership privileges.

Members
Our membership now stands at 160 regular memberships. (Most memberships include member and spouse and minor children.) These 160 members own 183 shares of stock, so we have 23 “multiple shares.” The By-Laws will eventually result in these 23 shares being redeemed and returned to the LCYC Treasury.

At the present time we have no Associate Members, as all those who were Associate Members have now been issued stock certificates.

Of our 160 memberships, 13 are held by members over 80 years old.

We only have two new membership applications turned, so if you know of any that are not completed, they need to be turned in to Gretchen by June 1st in order for them to be considered this summer.

New Members
Last year we admitted 6 new members & families. They are:
Linda Bartley, Billy & Nora Johnson, Carl & Julie (Graul) McCready, Kerri Mertaugh, Frank & Ann (Early) Morgan, and Martin Tobin. Please help to get them involved in our activities and committees.

Passing this year
We will miss several members who have passed on, and will not be joining us this summer. They are Jeanne Anderson, Dick Schmidt, Con Shoberg, and Holly Vokes. They will all be missed, and our sincere sympathies go to their families.

Finances
Three cheers! Our cash balances are the highest in recent memory. End of year cash balances totaled $67,135.00.

Coming into a recession dictates that we conserve cash and expand revenue.

Sign up for more dinners, bring new friends, and buy more burgees and tee shirts.

NEW EVENT—LCYC TALENT SHOW
Marie Gerwin, the producer of our new bi-annual Talent Show has the following report:

LCYC’s Got Talent

Can you juggle, impersonate, perform magic, sing, yodel, play an instrument, etc and are willing to entertain us? Be among the first to sign up with Barbara Taylor via regular or e-mail by June 15th. Please include your name and a brief description of your 3 or 4 minute act. In the interest of a fast-paced how to accommodate all who commit, no large groups will be allowed—a duet or trio is fine. Bonus—all performers will sit in the audience until they’re on stage—so they get to see the show. In order to have a diverse show, performers, from the hundreds to sign up by June 15th, will be chosen by a committee. With Peg Ecker as accompanist (you provide the music) a Broadway career may be in your future.

• Auditions: See Bulletin Board for details.
• Rehearsal: Sat, July 26th 10 am.
• Show: Sunday, July 27th 5 pm
• Social on Deck: LaSalle Island 6 pm.

LaSalle Island will host the cocktail party. There will be NO admission fee for the Talent Show ... What a bargain!!

Summer begins ...
... When you are ready. Karen & I are ready now for the Brat Party and to see you all there.

Happy Summer of 2008.

Dick Tobin
Commodore

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SPRING 2007
(Posted 07/17/2007)

Greetings.

Ohio had more snow than Michigan. What does that mean for this fall's U of M vs. OSU game?

Winter Rendezvous in Mt. Dora

The weather was idyllic, the sunsets stunning, and the evenings provided good sweater weather.

We had some 34 people from all over attend. Bob & Marian Cox flew the farthest distance, and Don & Ginger Schimmel drove the farthest.

The Lakeside Inn, which was built in 1883 reminded our Les Cheneaux group of the long-gone old hotels up north, like the Islington. The Lakeside front porch had rockers like the Grand, but the porch is several hundred feet shorter.

Wednesday night arrivals gave the traditional Les Cheneaux greeting "How was your winter?" The Commodore's welcome was concise and did not interfere with the happy hour 2 for 1 specials at the Bar.

Thursday Tom Flood and Bill Drier recruited nine wooden boat owners to give our group rides across the Lake and through the primeval Dora Canal to a waterside lunch spot. The ride was wonderful, the water calm, and only a few alligators made appearances. The lunch was delicious.

This boating experience gave a mid-winter reminder of the thrill of getting in and out of boats in low water. Bill Drier's 1926 Triple Upswept was stranded in his boathouse because of water too low to float it out. He recently had to have help to remove a large alligator from his boathouse.

There was a lengthy discussion about the relative merits of alligators vs mink in boathouses. Some LCYCers seemed to think they might like to try alligators instead-or in addition to, in case they would eat the mink.

Tom Flood and Bill Drier gave the guys tours of their respective wooded boat rebuilding shops. Tom's is the world-famous "Temple of Reconstruction" where he rebuilds the magnificent boats which he hauls back up to the UP to play with in the summer. Tom had two boats he is restoring, a Hacker and a Chris Craft. Nationally, Tom is known as the finest restorer of Hackercrafts, and his fleet attests to his wonderful accomplishments.

Tom shares his building with Bill Feikert, who summers in Clayton, NY (Thousand Islands) and is a reknowned builder of hot rods and also restores classic cars.

Bill is a novice rebuilder who is nearly finished restoring a Chris Craft 22' U for his wife Mary Ellen. The boat name is GRITS-Girl Raised in the South as Mary Ellen is an Ocala native. Bill's meticulous attention to detail & perfection won much praise.

Bill shares his building with Bruce Bernard, of Lake Winnipasaki, and who is a master Christ Craft restorer. He also provided a warm welcome and showed us around. He is presently restoring three Chris Crafts, and has a 42' Commuter in line for future restoration.

Thursday night we had a fun cocktail party/buffet in the Lobby by the fireplace of the Lakeside Inn. Everyone was on his best behavior, but good times abounded.

The town of Mt. Dora is a quaint village with many historic houses, and an un-updated downtown, known as the "Antique Capital of Florida." Many fun and funky antique shops, tea rooms and clothing stores line the streets. As one LCYCer put it-all the shops that AREN'T in Harbor Springs and Petoskey. Our group explored these shops with fervor and glee.

Some commented on the delicious ice cream shops featuring Key Lime ice cream instead of Jersey Mud.

Many of our group took a train ride from Mount Dora to Tavares (10 miles) and back (10 more miles) and learned there are over 2,000 alligators in Lake Dora. (Hopefully they were told other interesting facts, but that is the only one passed on...) The train had an early diesel engine and once plush cars.

There is also a trolley that goes around town and points out the sights, which many rode. Mt. Dora is on a large hill, and everywhere you see "I climbed Mt. Dora" t-shirts.

A goodly consensus of our group thought it would be a good idea to tear down the Bon Air and install a train or trolley station. Maybe the trolley could go to Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood.

Friday night was the dinner and burgee exchange with the Mt. Dora Yacht Club. There were approximately 70 MDYCers and 30 LCYCers. We were greeted like visiting royalty and welcomed wholeheartedly. The cocktail hour was noisy and convivial. At dinner the groups intermingled and I encouraged everyone to make "new best friends." That suggestion was taken to heart by many. One MDYC table of Dutch sailors requested our "best sailor" sit with them, and Frank and Peg LaBelle were given that honor.

Before, during and after the dinner the Commodore of the MDYC, Tom Stevens, thanked us for coming and pleaded with us to make this an annual affair. Most fun their group had had in many a moon, he extolled.

The formal burgee exchange symbolizes the joint invitation of each Club to extend reciprocal social privileges to the other's individual members. Both LCYC and MDYC provided tables of regalia for sale and both enjoyed brisk sales.

One MDYCer has a brother who is building an artist's studio on 3 Mile road north of Hessel, so we will be seeing her and her husband up north. Several MDYCers summer in Michigan in various "below the bridge" locales.

When it was over, not only did the MDYCers want us to come back next year, but our LCYCers are ready to go back too.

Saturday morning most packed up and bid farewell-off to other adventures. It was a memorable get-together and a perfect slogan for the group was spotted in town-"We're all here because we're not all there."

Bill and Mary Ellen Drier and Tom and Mary Flood are to be commended for the outstanding job they did of organizing and putting together this event.

Good Things To Report

Construction of our new rear deck has begun. We will have a new 30x40 deck to accommodate outdoor cooking and seating on warm days.

We have a new Committee...Fleet..to care for our growing fleet of Prams, Sunfish, Hobie Cats, Elsie, and Club boat. Joel Berkmeier is the Chairman and will be working up a maintenance, storage and inventory plan. Thanks Joel

Soon, you will be able to find the Ship's store on our Web site, www.lcyachtclub.org. Sheelagh Knapp is Chairwoman, and working with Ellen Collins, our Web Mistress, will be bringing a full color shopping opportunity to our members. We have hired Jim Hilston to assist Ellen in updating the Web Site, and they have begun a full update of all sections of the Web Site to make it a valuable tool for all members.

Remember. Your SCREEN NAME is snows, and YOUR PASSWORD is ensign.

Look for the date of each update, which will tell you if the information has changed since you last looked at each section.

Anne Phelps (Club Secretary) has completed an exhaustive update of our Corporate Stock Records, and we have found many members who have their shares held in only the husband's name. According to Michigan security law, these shares can be canceled upon the death of the shareholder. If you would like to re-title your stock to include both husband and wife, all you have to do is send your Certificate to Anne Phelps with a signed request to re-title the stock.

Be sure to include how you want it titled: Joint Tenants, Tenants in Common, Tenants by the Entireties, or Joint Tenants. If your Certificate cannot be found, ask Anne to cancel the old certificate and issue a new one. For those widows who are facing cancellation, follow the same procedure.

We have several proposals to expand the size and capacity of the Clubhouse.
Nothing has been decided, as we have to think about this a great deal more. Each proposal has merits, and costs. We have to study the basic needs of the Club, establish priorities and budgets, and do accurate cash flow planning before we can address the proposals for Club expansion.

Next summer, we will have a new and wonderful Extravaganza produced by Marie Gerwin and written by Peg Ecker. I have heard some previews and this may be the best ever. Who will be our performers?

Also next summer, we will have our Caribbean Theme dress up party. Probably we'll see pirates, limbo dancers, elite cruise vacationers, and maybe a beach bum.
What will you wear? The menu will feature Caribbean dishes. Bring your blender if you want to have daiquiris and margaritas.

I'm glad to report that Dick Speidel is recovering nicely from his fall surgery, and Mary Ellen Drier has new cataract corrections. Gwen Phillips' eye surgery was also successful. The Rusks are enjoying their new Florida home. Jim and Marnie Haines and Trey and Sarah Thomas and others have enjoyed great Caribbean vacations.

Water level predictions for 2007...you might want to see Ed Terrill or Kent Howadel about investing in dredging and dock extension companies.

The Club will open officially on June 30 with the Brat party that starts at 6:00 pm. Look for Tom Flood and Fritzie to do their culinary magic. Look forward to seeing you all there and asking "How was your winter".

Dick Tobin
Commodore