I think June's membership meeting went quite well. All three speakers did great jobs, and deserve another round of applause. Many thanks also to Larry Makowski for offering to take two "newbies" out on his boat, "Sea Hawk" for further on-the-water experience. I also shepherded new member Ted McClintic through several brisk sailing experiences over the Lake Mendota weekend.

Our only disappointment was in the small number of members who stood up to proceed with on-the-water experience. Where was everybody? Next month, I hope?

For July I won't be able to make the meeting, and the program will be turned over to Ken Butterly and John Pasch, for a lot more good stuff on sail trim, control, and maneuvering, plus a bit of good rules-of-the-road info. If you are among our many recent new members who isn't quite sure how all this stuff works:
"What's a leeward boat?"
"What's the difference between a tack and a gybe, anyway?"
You NEED to be at our July meeting, and then aboard one of our willing skippers' boats, learning and practicing the skills of wind-ship seamanship.

Confucius said:
"If I hear, I forget;
if I see, I remember;
if I do, I understand."

For June we begin our much-anticipated Themed Sail program with our first Learn-to-Sail Experience.  Our meeting program for 19 June will feature invited speaker (and NWSA member) Chas Hague from the US Coast Guard Auxiliary, who will speak on aspects of boating safety.  Following Chas’ talk, we will have sections on knot-tying by Richard Reed and sail trim by John Pasch.  Once we have covered this ground, we’ll assign interested learners to willing captains for on-the-water experience during the following several weeks.

In July we will do it all again, with the next installment – Stay tuned.

I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again—“This is the best learn-to-sail experience you will find at any price, so come on, people—let’s make it a BIG success! –John

We really loved Jay Beugly’s informative talk about the I-I SeaGrant’s weather buoy program last month.
Now we’ve got Bill Derrah from the Chicago Maritime Museum up next, with his “Meet the Museum” presentation. For anybody who hasn’t been there yet, CMM is a wonderful, nearly new addition to Chicago’s great museums. I’ve been associated with CMM for a number of years and it’s great to see it finally “open for business”. As Bill will show us on the 15th of the month, it’s a wonderful trip through Chicago’s rich maritime history. AND Bill’s talk comes just in time for interested folks to get to May’s 3rd Friday FREE evening program. See ya there? –John Morris