Lake Harriet YC - YOUTH WEEKLY UPDATES

YOUTH 2025 WEEKLY UPDATES

8 April 2025

The 2025 Calendar has been posted!

Buoy Draw is tonight and all are welcome to my house afterward for drinks, pizza and two welcome some new families 7pm on.

The following letter is going out to all Youth Families for their input:

Dear LHYC Youth Families,

Thanks for a great 2024! For those of you that missed the Banquets, special congratulations to our 2024 Award Winners: Amelia C. – Youth Sailor the Year and Tyler Furuseth – Most Improved. Special thanks to Nick Grimm & Chad Furuseth – 2024 Youth Service Award recipients for their continue hard work and support at the club!

We are working on 2025. We really missed some key ‘23 family that couldn’t join us on Tuesdays in ‘24 so we are switching back to Friday nights and have the highest hopes you can join us again! This year is a “Friday Night at the Movies” theme, so we’ll have some Mission Impossible, The Rescuers, Jaws, Phineas and Ferb games to blend in with sailing.

To make the season the best possible, please take a minute to answer the following questions and return it to me via email, text, snail mail, phone call, VM…

1. We have 4 spots for boats on the 2 floating buoy lifts. What boats would your family most want to have available? Choose any mix of 4 and make comments if needed: For example 2 C420’s & 2 Sunfish OR 1 M15, 1 420 & 2 Sunfish.

Club420 1, 2, 3, or all 4

Sunfish 1, 2, 3, or all 4

ILCA (4.7) 1, 2, 3, or all 4

ILCA (Radial) 1, 2, 3, or all 4

M15 1, 2

Skiff 1, 2

Comments______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

2. What would be your 1^st choice and 2^nd choice for how to receive communications from LHYC Youth Sailing? This would include: Friday afternoon confirmation of that evening’s sailing, End of year banquet, Working party request.

a. Website 1^st choice, 2^nd choice

b. Slack App 1^st choice, 2^nd choice

c. Email 1^st choice, 2^nd choice

d. Text 1^st choice, 2^nd choice

e. Facebook 1^st choice, 2^nd choice

f. Mail 1^st choice, 2^nd choice

g. What’s App or New app 1^st choice, 2^nd choice

Comments _________________________________________________________________________

3. Please let me know on a scale from 0 (bad, don’t like) to 10 (good idea, don’t mind) if you are ok with LHYC Youth posting a random picture of your kids on our website page?

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Comments: _______________________________________________________________

4. Please let me know on a scale from 0 (Bad, don’t ever do it) to 10 (Good idea, Like) if you are in favor of LHYC Youth creating a social media page on Instagram or FB and from time to time posting a picture of the kids sailing and playing?

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Comments: _________________________________________________________________

5. Please share on a scale from 0 (Zero instruction) to 10 (Lots of Instruction) which you think is best for the LHYC Youth program:

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6. There are lots of ways to help out! Please let us know if you would be willing to help with any of the following:

[ ] Lead and coordinate the SPRING BOAT/ LIFT TRANSPORT from 45 mins. south and Assembly and Launch in May? Also coordinate returning the trailers south for summer storage.

[ ] Be the LEAD ONE FRIDAY night to arrive a little early, Welcome sailors, organize boats assignments and leave a late.

[ ] Lead the coordinate the FALL BOAT and LIFT PULL and transport down South.

[ ] LHYC Youth Sailing COMMUNICATIONS LEAD. Discuss with Jennifer/ Jake whether sailing is a go for Friday and send out a reminder by 1pm. Send out a quick recap of the night over the weekend.

[ ] Volunteer as LHYC Youth Sailing Director or assistant for 2026!

THANKS for your input!

Looking forward to the Summer!

Jake Skala 612.991.5157

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!

Here are a few bullets:

1. LHYC Youth Sailing will be TUESDAY NIGHTS 6PM to Dusk this summer! Many racing parents requested we shift Youth nights from Friday’s back to Tuesday's as it had been. That’s the plan. Hopefully some cabin going families can join us more often and weekend racers can enjoy a Fri. night "date night”.

2. 2024 Youth Sailing dates: Tuesdays June 4, 11, 18, 24, July 2, 9, 16, 23, 30, August 6, 13, 20, 27.

3. We are working on plans to challenge the older kids and keep them involved. For the younger kids and less race oriented, I have some Naval Traditions I really look forward to sharing! (e.g., Don’t give up the Ship, Crossing the Line, Walk the Plank, Top Gun call signs, Navy SEALs -Sugar Cookies)

4. If you plan to join us this year please go on the LHYC website to register. Dues are $65 a family for LHYC fee +$50 for one child or +$95 for 2 or more for the Youth portion. That’s just $8.84 for each Tuesday night or $12.30 for multiple kids and you’ll have access to our Youth boats anytime all summer. https://lhycsailing.com/membership If it won’t work out for you this season, you are encourage to send me a note so we can open it up to new families.

5. We will have a Kayak on canoe rack #46 this summer so parents have access to a “Safety Kayak” anytime.

6. We will have a few opportunities to help prep for the season if you and your kids are up for it?

1. Looking for a volunteer to paint the Youth Shed Blue/Grey to match renovations.

2. Opti clean/buff/wax week in my driveway (dates TBD).

3. C420 lift/boat launch plans (date TBD).

7. Please don’t hesitate to contact Jennifer Bowers or myself if you have any questions, suggestions or can volunteer as the lead for one of our Tuesday nights.

Jennifer and I look forward to seeing you all soon!

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!

030821 Vector Natl's0070.jpeg

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 16^th) 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 16^th 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.