Message From 2012 Commodore
DJ Klauser
Welcome to the official web site of the Mendota Yacht Club. Founded in 1903, the Mendota Yacht Club is the oldest sailing organization on Lake Mendota as well as in Dane County. Organized club racing occurs on Wednesday and Friday evenings, Sunday mornings, as well as Sunday afternoons. With four one-design scow fleets and an ever growing population of cruising class yachts, many racing opportunities for both the novice and the experienced sailor can be found with MYC. The Mendota Yacht Club is a US Sailing organization and is highly active in the Inland Lake Yachting Association. I welcome you to explore our web site, and invite you to contact us for information on how to get involved. Our organization offers vast social opportunities, great on the water activities, and we enthusiastically welcome new members. In the coming weeks, and all through the summer, don’t forget to check back for new and exciting updates. Our membership committee is taking on new roles this season, and our social activities are ever expanding. The Bilgeboard, the MYC newsletter is a great way to keep in touch with what we have to offer. This exciting publication is being made available via email to non-members at NO COST. Long range plans include continuing and expanding the greatest racing in the area, bringing the largest regatta’s the region has to offer here to Lake Mendota, continued growth in our membership and ever expanding social and racing opportunities for us all. Special thanks to the members of the Mendota Yacht Club for making this organization the greatest sailing opportunity to be found and for the continued efforts of our tireless volunteers who make this happen for us all. To the non-members who are exploring this web site, you have found the Dane County organization that nurtures and supports your passion; sailing. I wish to extend a warm welcome and a sincere invitation to join us. You’ll be happy that you did. I look forward to being on the water with all of our sailing members, spending time with all of you at social gatherings, and to meeting the new members who join us this coming season. Never relent: You can always go faster.

DJ Klauser, Commodore Mendota Yacht Club

Tips for boats assisting Mendota Yacht Club races and regattas

Tips for spectator boats watching Mendota Yacht Club races and regattas



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Latest News

December MYC News Now Posted

January 12, 2012

2012 Burrows Park Storage Contracts Are Available for Download

Burrow Park Facility Administrator Barbie Stimpson and the MYC Board have completed and approved the 2012 rail storage contracts. This year the contract are available for download. Click on the link to download the Scow Contract, Opti Pram Contract, or
Laser, Kayak Rack Contract
.


MYC Board Has Been Hard at Work
in the Off Season

Members only may contact Secretary Barbie Stimpson at stimpson@wisc.edu for a copy of complete meeting minutes.
The new board has jumped right in and started planning for next season. In an effort to keep members in the loop on there activities they have post some update from their meetings. If you would like to read more about the Annual Meeting or the January board meeting follow the link. As always if you have questions, an idea, or want to volunteer with the club just contact any board member.


October 22, 2011

Commodore's Banquet


Just in, photos from the Commodore's Banquet.


August 10, 2011

Don's Payton Regatta Photos


Posted on the Social Photos page and the Racing Photos page.

August 1, 2011

Steve Scheck & Leigh Leonard Win I 20 Inlands


by Anita Bersie-Chabalowski

Once again, the crew from Green Lake put on a fabulous weekend of racing for the Inland20 sailors in the 2011 ILYA Championship. Although Friday started out slow due to light winds, PRO Larry Krause and his team were hard at work keeping a close watch on the conditions. Meanwhile the class took advantage of the downtime and held the fleet meeting under a nice shady tree. Just as the meeting was wrapping up the call came over the radio to rig up. Around 3:30pm the conditions were right for a great 5 leg light air race. The first bullet of the event went to past champion Steve Scheck.

Saturday morning warning was scheduled for 9:30am, but again the sailors had to wait for wind. This time the wait was much shorter with the second race of the regatta getting off around 10:30am. Two nice medium wind races were sailed back to back, and won by Aaron Lynn and Stefan Schmidt, respectively. After lunch the fleet headed out for two more races in slightly more wind and chop. Steve Scheck won the fourth race (third of the day), taking his second bullet in the event. Winds began to die off towards the end of race number five, with a slow last upwind leg. But Fond du Lac sailor Jack Boatman persevered and took the last bullet of the day.

Sunday races were down a few boats. However, the boats that raced had two excellent windy races with hiking crews and fast downwind rides. Steve Scheck won the first of the two races. Aaron Lynn won the seventh and final race of the regatta. For the third time in class history, Steve Scheck with his wife and long time crew Leigh Leonard took the Championship with an impressive 9 total points over seven races (with one drop). Fellow past champion Aaron Lynn and crew Keith Rosenbaum took second place honors. Jack Boatman and his son Eric rounded out the podium with their third place finish.

1 H652 Steve Scheck Leigh Leonard

2 J11 Aaron Lynn Keith Rosenbaum

3 FD4 Jack Boatman Eric Boatman

4 M11 Stefan Schmidt Tom Gleason


July 13 Sunset Race Photos


Photo Credit: Maurice Thaler
Photographer Maurice Thaler has posted his pictures from the July 13 sunset race on his website.


July 24 Racing Photos


See all 114 photos from Jeff Russell here.


July 15, 2011

MYC Keelboat Start


"Barging" on the Start Line

Article from Sail Victoria by Greg Chisholm, Diagrams by Paul Pascoe

What is "barging"?
Barging is approaching the starting line from a point to windward of the lay-line of the starboard or committee boat end of the line. In the diagram, the blue and red boats are on the layline to the committee boat. The green and yellow boats are windward boats and are required to keep clear.


 

 

 

 

What is wrong with "barging"?

In order to sail through the start line the barging yacht must sail at less than close hauled. Any yachts with an overlap to leeward (i. e. forward of a line projecting to leeward from the transom, hence nearly all the fleet) have right of way and can push the barging boat to windward. This will cause the barging boat have to sail to windward of the windward end of the start line and miss the start. That can be extremely dangerous if there is no barging buoy. Note the overlapped boat can push the barging boat as high as head to wind, as long as enough room and opportunity is given. The barging boat has to respond immediately.

Click here to continue reading article.



July 7, 2011

July 3rd: Perfect Day For an After Race Party!


Too bad there was not a race to have a party after, but that did not dampen the festive event hosted by Keith Kreps and Wendy Peterson. The showcase of the this event was Keith's world famous Bloody Marys made with his own special infused pepper vodka. Beer chasers, mimosas, and bagels made this a very upscale party. Great food and friends made this the best event so far this season thank you Keith, Wendy and Nikki for setting the party bar so high! Check out the photos and see what you missed or how great you looked.



June 18, 2011

Payton Regatta Steak Feed A Sizzling Success!


Around seventy people attended the Payton Regatta Saturday social. It was a new idea and a new location, a steak feed and pot luck at the Maple Bluff Beach. It was supposed to be a grill-your-own event but thanks to Steve Holtzman's master grilling skills everyone had a perfect steak.

Grant's Nesco baked potatoes and the other countless other delicious items that came out of the woodwork made this pot luck a hit. Who knew whe had such good cooks in our club?

The kids loved the jungle gym and especially the S'mores.

The webmaster would love a recount in detail of the regatta and the party if someone would write something up.

Thank you to Steve, Scotty, Martha, Bill, Jerry, Donny, Don, Grant and the MC fleet for all the help. Here are pictures from the party.


May 30, 2011

Jinxed


Ok, I knew posting about how great the spring series went was just asking for trouble. And we got it; fog so thick that Chef Scotty was cutting it up with a knife! That pirate ship Veloce quietly glided out of the fog like the Black Swan with Jack Sparrow. To make it even stranger RC1's VHF Radio was tuning in the Twilight Zone. Unfortunately the fog yielded to rain and storms causing the race to be canceled, but the party was not.

Thank you to John and Nancy Harper for hosting a fun cold and damp party. When it comes to sailing parties John Harper said, "Sailors are all wash and wear" and a little rain would not hurt so the committed partied on.

Memorial Day was a different story. We had the largest turn out of boats for a race this year. Maybe the steady 10 knot breeze, blues skies, and warm temps helped.
More photos posted here.


May 28, 2011

Six out of six!


The spring series is one of the best in recent memory. To date we have sailed all of our scheduled races, six so far, and that is unheard of for a spring series. More impressive is the close competitive racing for the series.

Peggy Elath and her team in the first light air race of the morning showed their early season preparations converted to speed with a decisive victory. Team Veloce has been fast but a bit inconsistent with third and a first today.

Division 2 action is heating up; Ralph on RnR sailed well today with two bullets after ripping their main sail in the second races last Sunday. Eldolon still leads the fleet for the series with (unofficially) 11 points, Veloce 13, Brisingaman 15. This is still anyone's series with 3 more races to go!



May 21, 2011

Team Veloce takes the 2011 first gun.


The first gun celebration aboard Veloce!
During the first race of this season Veloce was trailing 2 other J 80s for most of the race until they took advantage of a nice shift on the last down wind leg passing USA 18 and USA 540. Peggy Elath showed some great speed and led most of the first race. All of the J 80s finished within less the 30 seconds of each other which is a good indication of the quality racing that 2011 will bring. Commodore Ebert and Bruce Renwick showed their skills double handling Windhorse for 2 wins in the Division 2 keelboat fleet. Grant, Sarah and Jen set some great courses for both races and the season is off to a good start. Photos here.

May 8, 2011

Spring Fling


The spring fling kicked in the social season in style!

Memphis style, that is... Brickhouse BBQ was food was perfectly complemented buy the cold beer and tall stories. The fresh location allowed for some great banter and discussion of the days activities at both pier in and keel boat crane in. It was a busy day and night for MYC, and people were having fun. Check out the pictures. Also as a reminder the next social event will be an after race party at John & Nancy Harper on May 29th. We hope to see you there!


2011 MYC Calendar Now Posted

You can see the entire season calendar here or go to the left menu sidebar to see the individual months.



Lake Monona Sailing Club Wins!!


It was an other cold and damp night for the Sailors' Social at the Bourbon Street Grill but the weather did not dampen the spirits of optimistic sailors who know that summer is just around the corner. Sailors representing all the Madison area sailing clubs swapped stories and did what sailors do best, drink beer. Carolyn Curry did a great job putting the event together and again she hosted the Commodore' s Challenge, a game show of her own invention. This year's main contest was to untie the worst knot that was tied by the person on your right along with general knowledge questions. The winner this year representing the Lake Monona Sailing Club was Chuck Howting acting as a fill-in. Chuck, you did your club proud and they get to brag for the year. You should get free beer!




April 10, 2011

Steve Yost


Don Sanford writes, " This morning I received a message that I knew would come, I was just hoping that it wouldn't come this soon. Our good friend Steve Yost passed away this past Thursday, April 7.

Steve has been a member of MYC, since birth or at least since 1971 when he began racing an X boat with his sister Anne. Since then he's been an active, well very active, member of our club. Recapping a few things that I recall, Steve raced his M-20 for a number of years and was a founding member of the I-20 fleet. Steve was an outstanding sailor and upright citizen. How outstanding you might ask? If you happen to have a copy of the 2006 MYC directory, you'll see Steve at the tillers of his I-20 Pizazz roaring upwind. It was with that form that he and Scott Noles took home the ILYA I-20 Championship in 2001. Steve also won the very first I-20 National Championship in 1998. And, how upright? I personally know a MYC member who sent his then, 16-year-old son and hot shot junior sailor to an I-20 regatta with Steve. Both returned home safely with no incident, at least any that were reported.

Steve served our club on the Board of Directors and then as Vice Commodore, Commodore, Rear Commodore and probably a few other positions that I forgot. Steve was also our trophy chair for many years and has supported our club through his position as Manager of our local West Marine store.

Here's a link to his obit that appeared in today's Wisconsin State Journal.

Fair winds, my friend."


March 8, 2011

Bowling Was a Strike!


With beer frames, strikes, splits, and black lights how could you not have fun at the MYC bowling event? It was not about the score for me (which is good because I not sure if I even broke 100) but, Terri (Tess her bowling moniker), on my team had her best game ever- a 233!

Twenty-four people bowled, and at least 35 showed for pizza and beer; not bad considering we were competing against the Northwest Iceboat Banquet. Even the kids bowled because this was family fun.

It was great to get all our summer friends together and more then a few asked when we are going to do this again. So you missed this social event never fear, the next one is the Sailor Social on Wednesday, April 13th and we will see you there!
Click here
to see more photos.


Winter Sailing


Grant Frautschi and Don Sanford take Scotty Louther for the ride of his life on the Stern Steerer iceboat Wisconsin last weekend on Lake Mendota. Scotty says that the next time he comes to the ice, he'll wear a hat and some boots!


February 3, 2011

MYC Sailor Greg Simon
Recognized by U.S. Sailing


Greg Simon received the “Excellence in Instruction” award from US Sailing at the National Sailing Program Symposium (NSPS) at Clearwater Beach, FL, January 26 - 30, 2011. NSPS is the premier event for sailing education in the United States, bringing together the very best people and resources in instruction, program operation, equipment and more. Greg has been a leader in organizing a regular Friday night youth sailing event at Madison Sailing Center at Warner Park and serves the board of the Pewaukee Lake Sailing School.

Greg continues, “The conference was helpful in learning what other youth sailing programs are doing. Dad and I, along with two other members of the ILYA split up to cover as much of the information as possible” Greg reports one of the highlights of the conference was watching his kids Meta (8) and Fritz (5) sail demo boats on Clearwater Bay. Many company reps were there to promote small sport and training boats to the directors of sailing schools from across the country. Meta and Fritz were peppered with questions after "test driving" each boat.

More details here.

December 22, 2010

Amendments to By-Laws Approved

At a special meeting of the Mendota Yacht Club on November 13, 2010, amendments to the Bylaws of the Mendota Yacht Club were approved. See the following documents:

November 16, 2010


Photo Credit: Don Sanford
More photos from the Fall Trophy Banquet posted here.