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November 14 2017

'The Neuse Juice'

Volumn 44 Number 11

Coming Events 

Enter Photos

Dec 8-9




Sharon Stephenson, 

Commodore


The Commodore's Log
 

Bringing the Year to a Close

Saturday night we had our annual Commodore’s Ball at Stanley Hall.  Although attendance was lower this year than usual for this event, fun was had by all in a lovely old ballroom in downtown New Bern. The food was delicious. The bar was busy. The music was once again provided by Easy Breeze. Many enjoyed the dance floor & I think most everyone danced to at least one song.

Earlier that day we had our annual membership meeting at Brantley’s which was well attended by the membership. We reviewed the year’s activities and took suggestions for next year.

We have had a fair number of new members join the club this year, many of whom have been active in cruises and other events. It was a busy cruising season for NSA, particularly with the addition of a 2nd week long cruise. Only one cruise was cancelled due to weather concerns, the Lazy Days cruise in August. However, the event was converted into a land-based social in Oriental which was still a successful event. We held our annual Anniversary Race in early May on what turned out to be a blustery day. In opposition to the roots of this club, there weren’t many racers, but the after-party was well attended. Both the Oyster Roast and Shrimperoo at the beginning of the season went well, although the Shrimperoo was somewhat wet. That, however, did not keep all our members or guests indoors!

Our club has also been active in giving back to the community. Our annual Dinghy Poker Run, while providing a fun day on the water in some vessel other than our sailboats, is the event we put on to raise funds for some local organization. The event brought in $4600 which was given to Hope Clinic. We also supported the Sailpack Intercollegiate Regatta with a donation of $500 and sponsored a sail for the race boats. The Neuse Sailing Association name and logo will be visible to all as a supporter for youth sailing as long as that sail lasts. We also continued to provide the Bloody Marys and Mimosas for the Sunday morning breakfast at the Oriental Cup Regatta, a longstanding tradition.

In addition to these activities, we teamed up with the Sailing Club of Oriental (SCOO) to put on a lot of seminars this year. The seminars have been open to the community and all were well attended. This has certainly been a good way to make non-members aware of our organization. We have also supported the Oriental Rotary Club by having a booth at the Boat Show. And we have a new more user friendly website.

Wow, that all makes for a busy year! This definitely could not have been done without all the club members who have contributed their time and talents to make these things happen. I want to recognize and thank my Bridge for 2017:

            Immediate Past Commodore – Carl Crothers

            Vice Commodore of Cruising – Carl Crothers

            Vice Commodore of Special Events – Paul & Becky Griffin

            Vice Commodore of Membership – John Phillips & Cyndy Little

            Vice Commodore of Communications – Bill & Susanne Lovelace

            Vice Commodore of Finance – Nelda Coats

            Secretary – Laurie Sampson

            Dinghy Poker Run – Amy Clifton & Wade Ellison

            Directors –    2017 – Todd Richards & Brian McLamb

                                2018 – Michael Byles & Donna Ryder

                                2019 – Jeff Kenyon & John Messer

In addition to those with formal positions, I also want to thank all of the club members who have helped out in a number of ways, participating in the organization of events, serving as a Cruise Captain for an individual cruise, helping with set ups and clean ups, hauling beer, wine and other supplies to distant locations, giving a seminar and anything else I may have failed to make note of.  It’s the pitching-in of lots of people to get things done that makes the club run!

I have enjoyed serving as Commodore for you, although family issues kept me from participating as much as I would have otherwise done. Thanks for this privilege. I’ll still be around and will continue to be an active participant.

Now, I would like to introduce the Bridge for 2018;

           Commodore – Chuck Gordon

           Vice Commodore of Cruising – Jeff & Pat Kenyon

           Vice Commodore of Special Events – Paul & Becky Griffin

           Vice Commodore of Membership – Donna Ryder

           Vice Commodore of Communications – Bill & Susanne Lovelace

           Vice Commodore of Finance – Pat Thomaier (Messer)

           Secretary – Laurie Sampson

           Dinghy Poker Run – Alice Petree

           Directors –    2018 – Michael Byles & Dave Roletter

                               2019 – John Messer & Buster Kenny

                               2020 – Tracy Vail & Kay Pratt

I challenge all of you to get more involved next year and help out the folks who will be leading the club.  Volunteering is also a great way to get to know your fellow club members better and will also make us a more cohesive club.

I wish all of you a happy holiday season. Until next time,


Sharon Stephenson
s/v Pelikan
Commodore 

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Cruising Outlook

Cruising Update for November 2017

We closed an eventful NSA cruising season with our Fall Cruise in mid-October to West Bay for a nine-boat raft-up, followed at the end of the month by a fabulous Halloween weekend sail to Ocracoke Island for Blackbeard’s Pirate Jamboree.

We overcame the usual weather challenges at West Bay by going deep inside all the way to Long Bay. With the Cedar Island National Wildlife Refuge and the Hwy 12 bridge in the distance, we enjoyed a fun and hearty social among the boats. It was great to get to know several new or prospective members. As the light began to fade, we broke off to anchor and enjoyed a quiet, peaceful night on the hook.

At the end of the month, the weather windows for going to and coming from Ocracoke were narrow, but we still ended up with 18 boats in Silver Lake. Several members also came by ferry. Thanks to Chuck Gordon, cruise captain, and Commodore Sharon Stephenson, for a planning and organizing our pirate-themed social at the gazebo. Just before our social, we had perfect seats for the re-enactment in Silver Lake of the 1718 sea battle that lead to Blackbeard’s capture and execution by the crew of the Royal Navy frigate Pearl. Very cool. Read more about the Halloween Cruise elsewhere in today’s newsletter.

We tried some different things during our 2017 cruising season, including offering two week-long cruises – one inland and one ocean – and a late season raft-up at West Bay. While the weather and other events sometimes intervened to affect our plans, we still had good participation, and we learned a lot. Sailing and cruising are about learning, and about making new friends.

I am gratified that several new members joined us on most of our cruises this year. New friendships were created. And a few of these new members have stepped up to serve on the Bridge in 2018, to “pay it forward.” That’s how it should work. 

I’d like to thank all those who participated in and helped with this year’s cruises, especially our cruise captains. They are essential to our success. I encourage everyone to volunteer as a cruise captain in 2018. You won’t regret it.

Safe sailing.

Carl Crothers
Vice Commodore/ Cruising
s/v Captiva

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Halloween

Halloween/Pirate Jamboree Cruise


Thanks to all who came to OCRACOKE for the Halloween/Pirate Jamboree Cruise. We had a great turnout of 18 boats with 39 people who attended the festivities! Our Saturday social brought out pirates and their ladies, Super Woman and Clarke Kent, Cleopatra, the King and Queen of Hearts and others..,... It was a great time! Weather was and was not our friend but all handled it with some members leaving on Sunday and others departing on Tuesday! It was a great final weekend to our cruising season! Looking forward to next year! 


Chuck Gordon, Cruise Captain
s/v Pelikan


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Membership

Membership in Review, 2017

As we get ready to close the books on 2017, Cyndy and I wanted to thank you all for your support for us and to the NSA. This is a great club and it is so exciting to see how active our membership has become over the years. Active membership is one of the attributes of a healthy and growing organization. Speaking of a growing organization, the NSA is still growing our membership: During 2017 we added 22 new memberships covering 41 new members, plus we had two former members rejoin. Today we have a total of 215 members. The following is a list of the new members added during 2017.

George & Gaynelle Abernathy, Dan Bartley, Jennifer Bell & Ricky Lee, Seth & Barbara Braunstein, John Buhrmann & April Bradley, Tom and Diane Carbone, Ski Chilton, Dottie & Will Clower, Nancy Crain & Darrell Wiard, Jim Edwards & Stephanie Carpeross, Roger & Leslie Hammer, Megan & Matthew Medeiros, Joe & Lynn Mattea, Lynn & Emily Muchmore, Buck & Deborah O’Neil, Martin Privette, John & Julie Rahm, Sheri Rettew, Dave and Becky Roletter, Rebecca Schmorr, Sheldon & Jan Shikoluk, Tracy Vail and Robert Pugh

2017 was also a big year for our NSA Seminar Series program. Once again we joined with the Sailing Club of Oriental (SCOO) to jointly plan and offer a seminar program covering a wide range of topics. Normally we only plan seminars for the winter months but due to volunteers and luck, we were able to offer seminars for most months of the year. Not only were we able to bring in speakers to give seminars but we also had many NSA members volunteer to give seminars on various topics. Thanks to those of you who volunteered to share your knowledge and expertise. We hope that you were able to attend one or more of these educational presentations. If you have a topic or topics that you would like for the club to consider for 2018, just pass this information to the commodore or me. We will make sure that your ideas are forwarded to the person who will be responsible for the 2018 NSA Seminar Series.

John and Cyndy Little
Vice commodores/Membership
s/v Chardonnay

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 Photo Contest

Open for Entries - 2017 NSA Photo Contest

As many of us winterize our boats, it’s also a nice time to reflect on the moments we’ve enjoyed sailing. Pull out your best photos and submit them to the 2017 NSA photo contest. You’ll find the NSA website, neusesailingassociation.org, is ready to receive them!

Entering a photo is easy, and here are the steps:

1. Select PHOTO CONTEST in the upper menu bar on the NSA homepage and click on the category you want to enter.
  • Sailing Action 
  • Artistic 
  • Lifestyles 
  • Scenic 
  • Fun/Wacky/Silly 
2. Click the upload button on the category page.
3. Once the photo file has uploaded, click on the photo to add a caption.
  • Give your picture a title or tell a short story about the moment.
  • If you’ve captured another sailing vessel, please include ‘SV Name’ in the photo caption.
  • Close with your name.

If you’ve added photos to the NSA website over the past year, you’ll need to upload them again to enter the photo contest.

Submissions will be accepted Nov-Dec.; the last day to enter will be January 1,  2018. In January, 2018, members will be asked to select the winners of each category. 

Lynn Scott
Coordinator, NSA Photo Contest
s/v Serenity

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Spirit of Christmas

Spirit of Christmas Parade

Oriental’s Spirit of Christmas is an annual town event held the 2nd weekend in December, December 8-9 this year. There is a parade on the 9th at 1300 and we are planning to have an NSA float. At the moment the parade theme has not been selected, but is scheduled to be announced on November 15. Volunteers are needed to get the float ready. Let me know if you are interested – commodore@neusesailingassociation.org We will decide on dates to get together and may do some of the idea exchange via e-mail.

There is also a boat flotilla to be held after sunset on the 9th. If interested in getting your boat decorated and participating, look for additional information as it becomes available on Town Dock.

Sharon Stephenson
s/v Pelikan

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Club Communications

Photos and Archives

It's been really great to see members uploading their photos to the photo galleries on the club website.  If you want to see more great photos from the fun events described above, have a look at the Commodore's Ball, Halloween, and Fall Cruise galleries. Thanks to Jeff Kenyon, Tracy Vail, Carl Crothers, Will Merriman, Laurie Sampson and Scott Westwood for posting to those last three galleries. If you still have photos on your phone or camera from 2017 events, go ahead and upload them--you'll see that it's easy to do.

As you are waiting for next year's NSA cruising season to begin again, why not enjoy pictures of all the events from this year and last year's events?  We will keep an archive of the previous year's event photos which you can access from a link at the bottom of the gallery page. Speaking of archives, we recovered all the old photos from the previous website and will figure out how to make those available in the future. 

Bill and Susanne Lovelace
VC Communications 
s/v TRiO

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