YOUTH 2024 WEEKLY UPDATES
10 April 2024
Welcome to the 2024 sailing season! We have a great group of families and kids this summer and plans are underway to make it a VERY memorable one!
YOUTH 2023 WEEKLY UPDATES
18 Aug 2023 Update: 3 More Fridays for Youth Sailing.
18 Aug. Forecast looks good for practicing kites and trapeze work.
25 Aug. we have a Glow Party on the water on by the shed!
1 Sep. Our Annual Fruit Race is not to be missed and a tradition since the 50's.
30 June 2023 Recap: It's the 250th Anniversary of the Boston Tea Party (Dec 1773) so in honor of our great history of going overboard - we went a bit nutty last Friday. 14 kids showed up for another record attendance. I attempted to make them work for money, tax them without representation and then race out to my barge with the bounty before they could revolt however, as usual, the chaos started pretty quickly and the lesson plan went in the drink with the Tea. Hopefully there aren't too many pictures of the mischief. Welcome to Dahlia, Sam & Jeremy, Evan & Ellie and Nico! We really look forward to seeing you all again! Special Thanks to Nick & Theo for helping with rigging and stepping up as mentors to help the youngest when needed. It's great seeing all the kids: Isla, Hayes, Charlie, Zuzu, Anders and Callie, my partner in Youth Directing Jennifer and the parents joining in the evening fun (especially Aron & Chris).
3 July House Keeping:
SMUGMUG PHOTOS: If you take photos at the dock or on the water, please upload them to our SmugMug page. We use these for photo trophies, the yearbook, and other fun sharing. When you upload them, place them in the "youth" folder. http://www.smugmug.com username: lhycsailing password: has been sent via emails.
Knot Knowledge: We will be focusing on kids learning how to tie the bowline knot and tying off a painter to a horn cleat these upcoming weeks.
Please don't hesitate to take out the LHYC Youth boats during the week! Optis and Prams are there and a Sunfish is great parent/child boat which is super easy to rig, launch, sail and recover. For the older kids there's a C420 w/ a spinnaker rigged and Vector. Call/text me anytime if you have questions. I will be sailing for fun Tuesday July 4th 12 to 3:30 if you want to come take out a boat and join us!
Not every Friday night has a theme but we will have a few more if that helps motivate your kids? Pirate night; Top Gun and the Annual Fruit Races season finale.
I will be out of town Fri July 21st so if a parent has a serious idea or silly one for that evening you are welcome to lead the night!
23 June 2023 Recap: 10 Kids and families braved the strange weather and came down. With lightening at 5:40 & 5:55 and 220 deg wind shifts we opted to play it safe, not raise sails and stayed close to shore unitizing SUPs (stand up paddle boards). The intent was to teach kids how to start a sailboat race, keep marks to the left while not hitting them and finish. I think the real lessons learned where how to balance on the water, how to hold a paddle and how much easier it is to go down wind than upwind! Great to see some now regulars like Zuzu, Leighton, Piper, Samantha, Tyler, Lucas and Cece and welcome rookies: Brighton, Nick and Josh. Huge thanks to Joe Fricton, Chad and ALL the parents helping out!
Friday 30 June 2023 UPDATE: We’ll be honoring some 4th of July history. With an over taxing King, the Boston Tea Party conducted by our sneaky kids, Rockets, some Naval blockades and battles and the kids can sail maybe they will take down the British flag and replace it with the Stars and Stripes. ! It should be a fun and we hope you can make it! (I’ll be looking for some parents to defend the tea with water guns, launch rockets from shore and operate a safety boat or play the King if you prefer to be the tyrant?)
Securing boats after sailing: Sunday the lake experienced crazy gusts reaching 61.5mph. Our boats survived the storm but as a reminder if you have any questions while putting a boat away, don’t hesitate to ask for help OR text me a note saying (“I put the C420 away but am not sure I secured it properly - would you double check it?”). We had 1 C420 that had a loose bow line and no line amid ships (aft of the sidesteps) so it was destine for trouble had the storm been longer. Here’s a picture of some boats in bad places from Saturday.
BOAT COUNT: We have 4 Prams, 5 Optis, 4 C420’s (2 with trapeze wires), 1 Sunfish and 1 Vector waiting to be sailed!
LHYC SLACK APP: LHYC Youth will continue to use email and the Website for its primary communication. If you find yourself really enjoying the sailing banter and want more information we also use a SLACK application you are welcome to follow and use. It is 1000% optional but if you or your teenage kids are not app adverse just send me a note and I can send you an invitation from the app.
June 18th HAPPY FATHER'S DAY! You’ve done a great job and your kids are great! We had 13 last Friday (June 16th) which broke the 3 yr. record since I’ve been onboard. The winds were light and fluky but the kids rolled with the Moana theme, ventured ‘way beyond the reef’ and collected all the items we threw at them (literally – Thanks again to Bill). Jamie and Mickey tied HeyHey and Pua up an anchored C420 mast and it was great hearing the kids plans to how to retrieve them. Leighton was the brave one who collected Maui’s weird looking hook while the others sailed for coconuts or rode the Turtle in. Quincy & Ely mastered -MASTERED- tipping and righting the C420 - 7 times.
It looks like a hot week ahead so please don’t hesitate to take out the LHYC Youth boats to stay cool on or IN the water. I’m around so just call me if you have any questions or need a refresher on something. Depending on the winds we’ll try and make next Friday another great one. Since so many have a firm grip on sailing the boats in the light winds the plan is to get 2 of the C420’s rigged for spinnakers and the skiff out so everyone will be challenged as much as they want to be.
June 16th Our number are growing and at this pace, July is going to be crazy fun! Last week we had Amelia, Anders and Callie with new to the program Quincy, Tyler and Zuzu. We were also joined by Leighton, Piper and Samantha. Amelia was both the helper and ‘Hero of the Night’ taking Zuzu out on a Pram, playing with the many kids on the swim platform, recovering a Pram after its “knot” failed and then sailing with Tyler in. Quincy was the performer of the day whipping the Sunfish around and showing he was ready for more wind and sail area. Both Tyler and Zuzu were brave souls venturing out on boats with new friends and Leighton/Piper/Samantha came to check out our program. We hope they’ll join!
June 16th 6-8pm is a “Moana Day” which means the team will work on going ‘outside the reef’ and capsizing on purpose, finding items (Turtles/Hook/HeyHey/Kakamoara, Pua) and sailing though the course to restore the heart. Hopefully we’ll get lucky with some wind and John Getsinger will come out again with his M15 for more sail area.
Thanks in advance for giving me a heads up whether you plan to attend tonight via my text 612.991.5157.
IN: Quincy, Anders, Callie
YOUTH ALUM. FRI. NIGHT HELPER- If any LHYC Youth Alumni would be interested in coming down Friday nights 5 to 8pm to help out with setup, safety and sailing please have them contact me. Pretty easy gig for some spending money.
SMUGMUG PHOTOS: If you take photos at the dock or on the water, please upload them to our SmugMug page. We use these for photo trophies, the yearbook, and other fun sharing. When you upload them, place them in the "youth" folder. http://www.smugmug.com username: lhycsailing password: has been sent via emails.
