Blog: What's New at Y-Knot Sailing

Accessible Sailing on Lake George and elsewhere...

Join us for Boat Work Day Sat, April 28

Y-Knot annual Boat Work Day is scheduled for 9am through 4pm at YMCA Camp Chingachgook on Saturday, April 28. You provide a little elbow grease, we'll provide lunch. We need to get our fleet of Martin 16s ready for the 2012 sailing season. Help us scrub, wax and repair. We'll check rigging and sails, and in general make sure the boats are shipshape. This is a great opportunity to rReconnect with old friends after the long winter, spend the day at the lake, and help out Y-Knot. Hope you see you there!

posted by Spencer Raggio @ 4/14/2012 11:19:00 AM 0 comments

Minutes from Feb. 28, 2012, Y-Knot Board Meeting

Minutes from the Feb. 28, 2012, Y-Knot Board of Managers’ meeting at the Southern Saratoga YMCA, Clifton Park, NY, are submitted for consideration as follows:

In attendance were Mark Carnevale (President), Keith Edwards (YMCA Camp Chingachgook liaison), Dan Kennedy, Spencer Raggio, Don Miller (Vice President), and Dan Byrnes (Secretary).

This meeting was originally scheduled to be held Feb. 21 but was rescheduled from last week because of a winter storm and illnesses.

The Board welcomed long-time volunteer Dan Kennedy to his first Y-Knot Board meeting.

Minutes from the Jan. 17 meeting were read and approved.

The Capital Area Model Boat Association gave a presentation by Peter Meixner, who was kind enough to come by and tell us about his Soling One Meter radio controlled model racing sailboat fleet (Web site http://www.orgsites.com/ny/camba/). They race Tuesday and Friday afternoons 2:00-4:00 P.M. at the Crossings, Clifton Park. Mark Carnevale agreed to talk with Peter off-line to pick a date when he would lead a Y-Knot delegation to attend one of their sessions.

North Country Access will be Friday, July 13. We like to take boats and attend this semi-annual event because it’s a good showcase to show people what the Martin 16 can do. Plus, it’s near Fort Drum so there are Wounded Warriors in the crowd. Don Miller and Dan Kennedy are planning to go and Keith Edwards will be taking two sailboats. Mark Carnevale says he would like to attend if he can find accommodations suitable for his needs with the wheelchair. He will be bringing a friend of his, Dan Mueller, along also to participate.

Regarding the 2011 budget, Keith reorganized the income categories to reflect the reality that there are no membership dues as we operate presently. Spencer Raggio said that it appears that the monies from the Moon and Whalen Memorial Funds have not been reflected yet in the operating budget. When those are applied to the income sheet, then we would expect these monies to go to the Designated Fund along with the $107 surplus recorded from 2011 activities.

The next meeting will be held Tues., Mar. 20, at the Clifton Park YMCA.

Submitted by Dan Byrnes, March 20, 2012.

posted by Friends of the Penguin @ 3/19/2012 11:42:00 PM 0 comments

Minutes from Jan. 17, 2012, Y-Knot Board Meeting

Minutes from the Jan. 17, 2012, Y-Knot Board of Managers’ meeting at the Clifton Park Library are submitted for consideration as follows: In attendance were Mark Carnevale (President), Spencer Raggio, Don Miller (Vice President), Scott Stewart (Vice President), Keith Edwards (YMCA Camp Chingachgook liaison) and Dan Byrnes (Secretary).

Minutes from the Nov. 12 meeting were read and approved.

The Y-Knot Sailabration Annual Dinner netted $1,117 in November. On other financial matters, the 2011 budget was reviewed and the Board noted that other income from Memorial Funds (Moon and Whalen) are not reflected under income. Some donations are also still miscategorized from errors we identified last meeting. The Board estimated that anywhere from $4,000 to $6,000 may need to be moved around. Keith Edwards agreed to look into these matters, review the budget and bring a resolution back to our February meeting.

Regarding boat covers, Keith said we are on track to get 3 more tarps so all 6 Martins will have one to help keep water out between sail days. We are also getting No Limit’s roller furling jib out for repairs. Keith said we are scheduled as discussed last meeting to get one new set of Martin sails for about $1,900. The purchase of the Guzzler bilge pumps are in progress also, so we will have some boat work to do in the spring.

The topic was raised of whether we should change the date of our Regatta (Sept. 8-9, 2012) to increase participation from sailors who have conflicts and would otherwise be able to attend our Regatta. There’s a bicycling event for example in Burlington, VT, where monies are raised for a disabled association (Northeast Disabled Athletic Association). Keith said we cannot do Sept. 17 because it is a women’s weekend at the Camp. The two weekends following are J/24 events on Lake George, which won’t work because we depend on J/24 crew for volunteer staff to run the Regatta. We can’t move the Regatta up to an earlier date because Camp is in session. The Board agreed it makes sense to keep the current date for the Y-Knot Regatta.

Regarding radios for the Martins, Keith said the Camp is going to try to get 6 more radios on the Camp frequency for use at the waterfront. The Board agreed that Y-Knot would be willing to help underwrite some of the cost of the radios which Keith estimated would be about $200 each.

The Board discussed a proposal to conduct frostbite racing in the spring and/or the fall using the Capri 14s in Camp. Keith said that the boats are in such poor repair, that we would need all new boats before the Camp could let them out to charter for a spring or fall series. In addition, the Camp’s motorboat insurance policy doesn’t cover anything after Oct. 30. We agreed to discuss with Camp Director George Painter whether Y-Knot can be involved with a frostbite program. The Board sees this as more of a Camp issue than a question for Y-Knot.

Keith reported that either July 13 or July 20 (both are Fridays) would be the date for the North Country Access event in Clayton, NY. We are committed to taking two boats up for the event. Don Miller has committed to volunteering and Spencer Raggio said he thinks he can make it. Keith said he plans to go and will tow the two boats. North Country Access has promised to offset some of our expenses for the event.

The next meeting will be held Tues., Feb. 21, at the Clifton Park Library.

Submitted by Dan Byrnes, January 26, 2012.

posted by Friends of the Penguin @ 2/21/2012 08:00:00 PM 0 comments

"AssistiveTouch" Helps Disabled to Use iPhone

David Pogue in the NY Times takes a look at Apple's AssistiveTouch technology which helps make the iPhone more accessible to those with disabilities.

"One new feature, called AssistiveTouch, is Apple’s accessibility team at its most creative. When you turn on this feature in Settings >> General >> Accessibility, a new, white circle appears at the bottom of the screen. It stays there all the time. When you tap it, you get a floating on-screen palette. Its buttons trigger motions and gestures on the iPhone screen without requiring hand or multiple-finger movement. All you have to be able to do is tap with a single finger — even a stylus you’re holding in your teeth or fist."

Read the entire article

Apple's Accessbility page

posted by Spencer Raggio @ 11/14/2011 12:26:00 PM 0 comments

Minutes from Nov. 12, 2011, Annual Meeting

Minutes from the Nov. 12, 2011, Y-Knot Board of Managers’ annual meeting at YMCA Camp Chingachgook, Pilot Knob, NY, are submitted for consideration as follows: In attendance were Mark Carnevale (President), Spencer Raggio, Becky Bonn, Don Miller (Vice President), Dave Whalen, Scott Stewart (Vice President), Rick Irvine (Treasurer), Keith Edwards (YMCA Camp Chingachgook liaison), Billy Rankin (YMCA Camp Chingachgook) and Dan Byrnes (Secretary).

Minutes from the June 14 and August 18 meetings were read and approved.

Rick Irvine provided the Treasurer’s report and said the program ended up on the positive side by $2,508. Rick pointed out that some donations (Stewart’s Shops, for example) were listed under Member Dues. We agreed that those monies would need to be re-categorized.

We discussed one matter that at the Regatta, the program was charged $35.00 for each volunteer, for example, whether or not a person actually ate at the camp during the two-day Regatta. After discussion we agreed that this was a convenient way to account for the terrific food the Camp provides. This method of compensating the Camp for the food was better than trying to hand out and collect tickets or check names off of lists. Any difference in funds would be negligible.

Regarding boat maintenance, Keith said that on Oct. 4 when Mark Carnevale came up to the Camp to charter one of the Martin 16s, another pintel failed in a gudgeon disabling the boat’s rudder. We may be looking at a situation where we’ve reached the fatigue limit on that particular part for all of the boats, because we had the same failure during the Regatta. (Keith, by the way, had that gudgeon repaired and the boat back on the water in about an hour.) We agreed to pick up the topic of preventative maintenance at future meetings.

As to sailing operations, right now Y-Knot uses radios provided by the Camp. They work fine and are waterproof, but they use the same system as local fire and police departments use, not the frequency shared by the Camp’s operations. Spencer suggested we should just use ordinary Marine Radios and use Channel 16, which is what the nearby marinas monitor. We discussed the matter and decided to ask the Camp to commit to new water proof radios for Y-Knot to use that share the private frequency that the rest of the Camp staff listens to.

Keith proposed installing a new, larger bilge pump in each Martin 16, but placing it within reach of the companion in the rear seat. If the companion can pump without having to lean over into the front seat, then it would be possible to handle water coming in over the cuddy or gunwales more readily. Keith has his eye on a Guzzler 500 gpm pump that costs about $30 each. He said they have a very short stroke. We agreed that this is a great idea.

We have to replace one of the slings we use to lift sailors into and out of the boats, because it is torn. Keith would like to propose we get 3 new slings to enhance our ability to get all the boats out racing at the same time. Right now we have 6 slings, 3 mediums and 3 larges. Keith quoted a price of $250 each from Bruce Jackson, at a company called Barrier Free. The Board gave Keith the go ahead to spend $750 on three slings, two large and one medium.

The Board discussed a field trip to Piers Park Community Sailing Center in Boston, which also has an adaptive sailing program run by Maureen McKinnon-Tucker. We would like to charter a bus as it may be worth an overnight trip. Everyone agreed this is something we may try to schedule for next summer.

Do we need new sails? There were complaints about the sails used during the Regattas. The problem is that we bought three new sails two years ago, but there was still one boat at the Regatta that had a poor set of sails. We would like to buy at least one new set of sails, which would cost roughly $1,300. We also need to replace the roller furling jib on No Limit, and some of that cost can be shared by the Camp from its waterfront boat repair budget.

Dave Whalen brought up the Freedom auto helm with its battery motor that mounts on the tiller. It was made by BJ, a friend and volunteer of Y-Knot’s and allows joy stick control of the Freedom. Dave said want to tell more people about it and he’d like to see more people use it. It needs a 12 volt marine battery, and Keith said we have a couple of extra ones lying around. Dave asked that we arrange to have some photography or video taken so we can promote the use of it. The Board thanks BJ for his initiative and work and agreed the use of the auto helm should be promoted.

We also discussed getting the sip and puff controller into greater use. There’s a trick to zero-ing out the settings for the job and main sheets. Jennifer Davies sent a video on how to do that.
Keith presented a schedule of sailing days for 2012. We will host regular sailing days on Sat., May 19; Sun., May 27; Sat., June 9; Sat., June 16; Sun., July 1; Tues., July 3; Sat., July 7; Sun., July 15; Tues., July 31; Sat., Aug. 11, and Sun., Sept. 16.

The Board agreed to the following eight dates for its 2012 meetings: Tues, Jan. 17; Tues., Feb. 21; Tues., Mar. 20; Tues., April 17; Tues., May 15; Tues., June 19; Tues., Aug. 21; Sat., Nov. 10.
Our next meeting will be Tuesday, Jan. 17, at the Clifton Park Library, at 6:00 PM.

Submitted by Dan Byrnes, January 17, 2012.

Note: http://piersparksailing.org/adaptive-sailing is the URL for the Adaptive Sailing program at the Piers Park Sailing Center, Boston.

posted by Friends of the Penguin @ 11/12/2011 08:00:00 PM 0 comments

Y-Knot Sailors in Flight

A report from Steve Mintz on a recent adventure for some Y-Knot sailors:

"On Oct. 8, Fritz Smith, Dave Whalen, Mark Carnevale and myself took advantage of the opportunity to ride and, indeed, pilot a real SAILplane. This opportunity was made possible by an organization, Freedom's Wings International. The fact that all four of us are still alive speaks for itself! For me, and I assume for the other "pilots", it was an exhilarating experience, to say the least! There was no charge for the experience. The actual glider is pictured with Mark at the "stick" (helm). What struck me as absolutely amazing, a SAILplane is very happy in light or dead air. WOW! Something to do on calm days too. The organization might consider basing a sailplane here at the Saratoga County Airport. An expression of interest might help the cause. There was no problem boarding. A Hoyer Lift was available, but passengers were lifted aboard. Also, the glider was adapted for the disabled. An experienced instructor is aboard to handle any controls that might be difficult. It was a relaxing activity for me."

Mark Carnevale is pictured above, and you can check out additional photos on the Adirondack Soaring Site.

posted by Spencer Raggio @ 11/02/2011 03:25:00 PM 0 comments

Previous Posts