Blog: What's New at Y-Knot Sailing

Accessible Sailing on Lake George and elsewhere...

Feb. 16, 2010, Board of Managers Meeting Minutes

In attendance were Scott Stewart and Don Miller (co-Vice-Presidents), Keith Edwards (Camp Chingachgook liaison), John Kershko, Rick Irvine, Spencer Raggio and Dan Byrnes (Secretary). Dave Whalen participated part via Skype.

January's minutes were approved, unanimously except for Rick abstaining.

Treasurer's report: We had two $50 donations.

This year, for Nyack, the organizers talked about having 2.4 and SCUDs for demo purposes.

Keith will take the program role on this year, assisted by any other staff that we need. Steve is coming back, but Mark is not. Mike is returning and he will spend more time with the waterfront, Keith said. Spencer will handle volunteer training day.

Re: Membership, can we make out business cards or something to hand out when you see somebody. We have the flyer, too, but it's easier with a card. Dave said we've had cards before. We gave Rick input and he will print them up for next meeting.

Don said at Burlington a couple of years ago, there were extra boats and some able bodied sailors came out and raced. (They kept scores separately.) "We talked about the physical limitations, but getting to the venue is hard. It's a 60-mile trip for me. Some people come from down near Kingston and it's even farther. If you have an event in a large city, it's probably not that hard to get to the dock. But here it's hard.

We discussed having more events where it's an overnight. Have people drive up, stay overnight, and then sail the next day and go back home. If we can draw people from New York or Boston or the rehab centers, what about offering wheel chair accessible spots to people from out of town.

Rockwell Lodge has been great for disabled sailors, and it would probably be available in June.

Let's promote the June 12 weekend as a special out-of-town welcome weekend. Make that a 2-dayer. Dave volunteered to put together some communications, if we put together some support for visitors, he'll do the contacts. We can hit New Mobility magazine and other newsletters. Dave is going to find out what kind of interest there is in it, we can have people stay overnight Friday and/or Saturday nights June 11 and 12.

Scott suggests adding Living Resources to this distribution. Promotion: Can we get the hats and shirts on the web site? There isn't any way to collect the money electronically. Can we invite people to send checks? Carole Izyk handles this for the store, and Spencer is going to contact her about how we can get involved.

Rick is going to look at uploading photos to Flickr.

Fishing without Boundaries will be back for the Y-Knot Regatta, and Yankee is contributing 3 boats again--two for fishing and one for sail racing spectators, family and friends.

Old business

Keith found the correct length bunk brackets. They're only $11.00 each so supplies all told is only about $200.

We discussed the travelling regatta policy and agreed that there should be wording that at least one approved person go along with each pair of boats. We will add wording that whoever is going will make every effort to not be so extravagant. We will review one more time and approve it next meeting. Everyone send suggestions to Spencer.

George was contacted by a group out in Watertown. North Country Access does an annual event in the Thousand Islands at the antique boat museum in Clayton. There are wounded warriors and other organizations that participate, for about 75 disabled people and 150 volunteers. Dates: July 16-18. Are we willing to bring up a Martin to show them or to use? They would pay for any transportation and lodging costs. Keith says he would volunteer to go. It's a 3 hour trip. Mark would like to go, also.

We need a vehicle to tow with.

Keith will call and say yes. The opportunity might be limited to paraplegics if we don't have a hoist there.

Re: signage on sails, Rick has been testing options since October. The adhesive seems like it's going to work fine.

Nothing new yet on the waterfront.

In Greenwich, the Methodists-Presbyterian-Catholic interfaith group has a bus we can borrow. Don will need another able bodied person to go with him in Albany. The bus only accommodates 1 wheel chair. We need to pick a date, and then recruit people.

To help promote the new sail racing dates, I'll draft a press release.

Spencer brought up using Latham Mall off of the bus route. Is it accessible to us? Panera - West Marine, Chuckee Cheese. We'll pick a date -- do it in July. Bus holds 8 people and it has a lift. Spencer proposed to do it August 3. That was a Tuesday. Rick proposed doing it July 10. We agreed to try it on July 10.

Keith proposed moving July 4 to July 3, which is okay with their schedule as long as we wait for launching boats until 11:00 A.M. and get boats off the dock by 4:00 P.M. Spencer proposed moving to the last week in June instead. Keith said that's camp opening day. We agreed to make it July 3.

Spencer is going to change out the photo on the sail calendar when he puts the dates in. Learn to sail will be May 9, 16 and 23.

Keith says George wants all the line colors on all the Martin's changed to one color. Some of the boats are done correctly. With the Y-Knot stuff--we've done all right with that. Spencer proposed getting some grey 3 or 4 mm Spectra for general purpose use on any control line (as the extension). We agreed to replace only running rigging where needed and we'll make that a volunteer weekend for somebody.

Keith handed out expense reports for us to Xerox and use as needed. We do not need to fill in the account number.

We discussed waterfront plans, which have not been approved. We discussed seat technology again, and the Strahle seat, as we did last month. Dave Whalen said, "My dream for the summer is I could take all my friends out who don’t really sail and I could sit in the middle where I could see and I could go out when it's swell and I wouldn't have to worry--I just struggle with that other seat."

Spencer ran into a woman who prints nautical charts on canvas bags. They have sail grommets and other nautical trim. Could we get one for Lake George? Rick can do that, too. The printing is done before the stitching. Check out: KnotforNavigation.com.

Scott moved to adjourn, John seconded, and it was unanimous.

posted by Friends of the Penguin @ 2/20/2010 11:13:00 AM 0 comments

Aimee Mullins on the Opportunity of Adversity

A great TEDMED talk from the amazing Aimee Mullins:

posted by Spencer Raggio @ 2/18/2010 05:56:00 PM 0 comments

2010-01-19 Board meeting minutes

Minutes from January 19th, 2010, Y-Knot Board meeting at Clifton Park YMCA, 6:00 P.M.

In attendance were Scott Stewart and Don Miller (co-Vice-Presidents), Keith Edwards (Camp Chingachgook liaison), John Kershko, Trish McCluskey, Spencer Raggio and Dan Byrnes (Secretary). Dave Whalen participated part of the time remotely.

1. Don welcomed John as a new member. He and his daughter had volunteered this summer, made terrific contributions then and we're very pleased to have John on board here.

2. Scott moved to accept the minutes from Nov. 7, 2009 and Spencer seconded, passed unanimously (new member John abstaining).

3. Treasurer's Report

Scott asked whether we were going to break "away" regatta expenses out from the miscellaneous category, so we could track them separately and possibly fund them better. Scott mentioned the Nyack and Burlington regattas and the Mobility Cup as examples. Spencer suggested that Treasurer Rick Irvine speak to Camp Director George Painter about breaking those items out a little differently.

The 2009 cash flow statement shows a loss of $632. Spencer estimated that traveling to "away" regattas cost about $4,000 for transportation and expenses. Last year, membership fees and donations were down from the prior year, but 2008 donations included an unusual $5,000 item from Nyack Yacht Club. Don and Trish raised the question of whether there wasn't anything like that last year, and Keith said he would check with Aimee, who does the books and thank you letters, and get back to us. Spencer moved the Treasurer's report be accepted, Scott seconded and it was unanimous.

4. Committee reports

Two committee chairs are still open: membership and publicity/promotion. Technically Program Director is open too, but camp staff is filling in for that and that is working fine.

Next meeting, Dan will have a hit list of transportation companies and other transportation-concerned organizations to contact about promotion this spring, including possible site visits recruiting interaction with the drivers. Dan proposed making a publicity tool (pro forma press release) out of the establishment of the 11 sailing dates and the 3 racing clinics to create a reason for contacting the organizations on that list. Keith said Aimee has resources for the distribution list, and Spencer said he does, too. We'll have this organized by next meeting.

Regarding fundraising and merchandising activities, the calendar idea has been talked about this year, but we needed winter photos a few months ago to make the deadline for this year. (Let's all go out and get winter photos.) Pens and other merchandise will be discussed more next meeting.

George has proposed fundraising to pay for the new dock area--maybe a special event. Would the board like to host a special event? He is trying to fill a gap of about $40,000 on a $180,000 budget. Would we consider: dinner and sail, silent auction and a sail? Do we want to sell boards on the dock? Do we want to setup a PayPal account to make a virtual program do-able? Spencer mentioned that a local company called Change Roundup will let people sign up so that if their charge on a credit card is, say, $18.33, the item will be rounded up to $19.00 and the change will be contributed to a not-for-profit of your choice. We could put out a call for funding that way. There's a lot to tie in. We agreed to pick it up next meeting.

Spencer said at future regattas we're going to be giving out a participant ID on a lanyard as a give away.

5. Old business

Keith said that the new single-boat boat trailer is scheduled to complete retrofit work this spring. The critical path item is 12-inch bed support and its welding requirements. It may become a work weekend project for April 24 and 25.

The autohelm won't break again — or require a sawed-off crescent wrench wrapped to the control with bicycle tire clamps to couple the piston to the steering mechanism. Since there are no clamps, chafing on the gel coat will no longer happen. Great job, Keith!! (Note that the autohelm is critical particularly for sip-n-puff steering interfaces used by high order quadriplegics, but as we saw this summer it's also really useful for sailors other than those with spinal-cord injuries. This is really cool to get this system back in service.)

An "away" regatta policy was drafted by Spencer, called the Regatta Policy for Loaning and Transporting Boats. This year, the Mobility Cup will be in Vancouver. Canadian Rail Co. would offer free shipping, but we'd have to do considerable work to load and secure our boats, and the rail company can't guarantee departure or arrival. That precludes the Mobility Cup for this year. There are plans for Burlington and Montreal. If they do something in Marlborough or Newport, now, we might be able to use the policy to decide to go. In New York City, Larchmont is also active. Y-Knot would also like to help sailors with traveling expenses for these events.

Dave Whalen said he had researched a Sonar with a gimbal seat — a Strahle seat. Dave said he'd like to look into whether using this device would help Y-Knot sailors participate at Nyack or Larchmont. Dave gave a great report about how much he enjoyed racing this summer up in Toronto, with Don Miller and Pete Hogue assisting. (He got to see a Yankees away game, too.) We need to look at getting the right harnesses. More research is available from the U.S. Sailing Web site.http://www.ussailing.org/swsn/technical-adapt.htm

We are planning to reserve 3 dates this summer for the sail racing clinic. The goal is to set aside 3 boats for racing practice. We will do brushing at all 3 sessions, and the 2nd session will also cover windward and leeward roundings. The last session will practice starts and finishes. The goal is to have a pathway for new sailors to come out over the summer and feel comfortable in the fall regatta, rather than having the sailor's first experience with starts, roundings and finishes be the regatta. If more than 3 people want to do it, we can talk about moving the session into the morning. We do not want to take away from regular sailing, so we do not plan to use more than 3 boats. Keith brought artistic renderings to show what we are planning to do. George says we are 80% approved. Bathroom facilities will still be up the hill. Dredging permit has been approved and will probably happen in the spring. This will make it lots easier to use all six Martins.

Don said we will operate at least one shuttle bus between Albany and Lake George, with a goal of operating one for all sailing dates next year. Don got a lead on a bus (ReadiVan, from a nearby senior assistance program) and they are going to lend it to our program to shuttle people from Albany up to Lake George. It has room for one wheelchair. We're going to look at shuttling from Stuyvesant, maybe the Bruegger's Bagels. Don proposed staffing it with volunteer help from the organization lending us the bus. Dan reminded the board that (he's heard) we've done it with volunteers in the past and it ran out of steam. To make a transportation work persistently, Dan said, we may need to hire drivers and get funding. For now, the Board agreed to work with a volunteer system and see how it goes.

There's a Federal initiative from the early years of the Bush administration requiring transportation organization that receive Federal funds to coordinate with other providers of transportation services for disabled citizens, so there are programs already in place in at least some public transportation organizations that could help us meet our goals. Dan found for instance a Web system in testing to coordinate transportation for disabled people — it's being tested in the Cayuga-Seneca system. I have a demo CD if anyone is interested in learning more about it. If this system ever makes its way into Albany, we would be able to benefit immediately. Dan met with Albany public transportation officials and they recommended we start with Glen Falls about interfacing with disabled programs. He's looking into getting up a contact there.

6. New business

The NY State Governor's office operates an event site. Don will take care of putting our data on their calendar.

When will this board meet for the balance of the year: 2/16, 3/16, 4/20, 5/18, 6/15, 8/17, 11/16. Nov. 16 will be the banquet.

We discussed moving the July 4 date just in light of the holiday.

We discussed having a Sailabration dinner in mid May. Spencer will contact the other organizations (Lake George Club, Corinthians) and check for interest.

The YMCA has an expense form we should start using.

We have merchandise we've made for special events such as the regatta. We can merchandise it. We may need a price list to help with this. Run this idea by Rick. (The hats especially have a lot of fashion appeal. Thank you, Rick!)

For the next meeting, we're going to try to find a location where we can wi-fi Dave in more readily.

Scott moved to adjourn, Spencer seconded and the vote was unanimous.

Submitted by Dan Byrnes, 2010-02-15.

posted by Friends of the Penguin @ 2/15/2010 12:06:00 PM 2 comments

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Blog: What's New at Y-Knot Sailing

Feb. 16, 2010, Board of Managers Meeting Minutes

Aimee Mullins on the Opportunity of Adversity

2010-01-19 Board meeting minutes