We have had a great start to the new year at Sequoia Yacht Club!  Thank you to our members for their support.

Sequoia’s last Drop In Dinner and General Meeting had a Chinese New Year theme and was well attended.  Lina did a fantastic job in the kitchen and Cathy Harris coordinated a great decorating effort. 

But, there is much more coming up in February and March! And we have an especially busy weekend coming up in 2 weeks:

Highlighting the weekend of the 22nd is Sequoia’s Birthday Bash.  Winston and Carole Bumpus have planned an elegant sit down dinner and with a band and dancing.  (see the invitation below)  Sign up is available online and at the club.   Cost is $ 35.00 (Special pricing for those with 20+ years of membership).

But there is much more!  We have a cruise-in from the Bay View Boat Club as well as a Redwood Cup race.  The bar, dining room and deck will be jumping and I encourage you to come down, meet some new people and join the party!

On Wednesday, February 26th we have our Bus Trip to Graton Casino.  We will meet around 8:30 AM and return between 5:00 and 6:00 PM.  Cost is $ 22.00 or less depending on bus occupancy.  This promises to be a very fun event – certainly worthy of skipping work!  There is a sign-up sheet at the club.

March kicks off with a Drop In Dinner and a General Meeting.  We will have a Mardi Gras theme for this evening!  Please plan to attend.

On March 9th Sue Lockwood has arranged a very special Military Vehicle Technology Tour.  Sign ups are at the club and the list is filling up.   We only have room for 30 for this opportunity. 

March will be further enlivened with a visit from the Tall Ships and their crews! 

Our Drop In Dinner on March 28 will feature belly dancers!  You heard that right – not just one -- but a veritable passel of performers! 

And this is not even the racing/cruising side of Sequoia!  You belong to a busy club with many opportunities to eat, drink, laugh, dance, learn, and develop a new vice.  So I encourage you to bring your partner, invite your friends and come join us!

Dan Lockwood, Vice Commodore

To join them for a very special party on Saturday, February 22 to kick off our 75th year! 

Featuring special music,a special menu (click here to enlarge image) and all our special friends.  A sign-up sheet has been posted at the club or you can click here to sign up on the website!

Spinnaker Division: 1st place - Tim Anto's Daredevil, 2nd - Peter Weigt's Head Rush, and 3rd - Mark Bettis' Smokin J.

Non-spinnaker Division: 1st - Nick Weber's Web Tide, 2nd - Dan Lockwood's Ohana, and 3rd - Dan Doud's Pole Cat.

See all race results and play-by-play review here.

Only one more race to go in both Winter and Redwood Cup Series! Come out and join us.

Rich Butts, Winter Series Fleet Captain

Another good general meeting Friday.  One first reading and three second readings for new members.

A first reading was held for Kenyon & Esma Stewart from Redwood City.  They have the Passport 47 Outbound  berthed at Westpoint  Harbor.  They also have an Open 5.7 that they race.  Nominated by Kathleen Vander Spek and Peter Blackmore.

The membership approved  three second readings for membership:

David Jackson & Lillian Hom  from Palo Alto.  They have the 22-foot Glas Ply Weekender Cardinal kept in the marina dry storage lot.  Nominated by Larry Mayne & Tod Klingler.

Bruce Prickett & Norene Sun from Fremont.  They have a Lido 14 kept in the Fremont Boat Yard, and have been active in our Junior training program.  Nominated by Fadi Maamari & Peter McCormick.

Tom & Nancy McHugh from Redwood City.  They have the Beneteau Ocean 32  Mauru's Myst  berthed at Westpoint Harbor.  Nominated by Byron Jacobs & Winston Bumpus.

Jerry Jones, Membership Chair

Ahoy Sequoia,

Last Friday night at a special meeting of the members the updated bylaws were approved by the members. Thanks to Tim Petersen the new Bylaws are now available on our website at http://www.sequoiayc.org/Bylaws.

We also have a new set of proposed House Rules changes that will be voted on by the Board at the next board meeting. House rules only require a vote of the Board, but the Board thought it best to allow members review them and provide any feedback they have before the vote next month.

I have posted both a redlined version of the proposed changes along with a document created to describe the changes and the rational for the changes. These documents can also be found on our website at:  http://www.sequoiayc.org/HouseRules

If you have any questions or concerns about these changes please let me know so that we can consider all of the perspectives.

I want to again personally thank Past Commodore Kate Humphreys and her committee which consisted of Dan Doud, George Carr, Robin Weber, Sidney Morris, Grace Lowe, Joanne Wright, Richard Butts, Past Commodore Steve Holmstrom, Staff Commodore Peter Blackmore and Vice Commodore Dan Lockwood for their many months of service in discussing, editing, revising and developing the upgrades to our bylaws and developing the proposed updated House Rules.

Winston Bumpus, Commodore

Wednesday, Feb. 26, at 6:30 PM there will be a meeting to discuss the adult use of the dinghy fleet.  This will be a problem solving session.  Hopefully we'll be able to address most of the users concerns so that they can have easy access to the boats.

If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions, contact  me at fredgillam@sbcglobal.net.

Fred Gillam, Dinghy Fleet Captain

Do you know something (anything) about accounting and are interested in getting more involved in the Club?   Do you want to spend two weekend mornings with me (your charming Treasurer) and a few other SYC members down at the Club to do your part and ensure that our Club finances are all in good working order? 

If YES - Then please join our Audit Committee!  I am now forming a Committee for the Audit of the 2013 Club Finances. 

Basic agenda (to be confirmed in coordination with our fellow Audit Committee participants)

- Identify two weekend mornings where we come into the Club and go through the books to validate actual vs expected documentation and entries in Quickbooks.  (approximately four hours each morning x two sessions)
- Once we complete agenda for the morning – retreat to the deck for lunch and socializing
- With the Audit Committee input, I write up the findings and the Audit Committee reviews/confirms that everything looks okay
- The Audit Committee comes to the next Board Meeting to answer any questions that may arise.  (exact month of Board Meeting to present audit findings to be determined based upon our schedule.)

Preference will be given to new/recent members who are looking to get more involved in the Club.  Good to have a fresh set of eyes on our books.  Plus a good way for you to pull back the covers and see what is really going on at our Club! 

Please contact me directly at phaedra@pobox.com for further details.

Phaedra Fisher, Treasurer
 

OK, we fibbed. You get another chance. But the clock IS ticking and as soon as the new House Rules are approved, the new printed  2014 Membership Directory will be coming out in March.  Please let us know of any changes to names, address, phone numbers, email addresses, boat name and make.  Send information to sjustjones@gmail.com.

Sheila Jones, Club Directory Editor

Please give our supporters your first consideration.  Note that most listings will have the ability to click through for further information. Also note the advertisers will change the sequence of listing so we will have a new advertiser at the top of the list each week.

If you have feedback on this advertising section or would like to have your business listing included in future editions of “The Weekly Blast”, please contact Larry Mayne at lrmayne@aol.com