1st Class Recap and 2nd Class Starting

• The great round of introductions on the first day. I knew it would be a memorable class just based on hearing about everybody’s interests, backgrounds, and sailing passions.
• Watching the class head gamely out into the rowdy weather after just one day of sailing instruction, and watching how well everybody handled it.
• Waking up to “pike ’n eggs” on Saturday morning compliments of Darren Black and the teen instructor fishing crew.
• As always, there lots of the magic happened after class each day, including sailing the Ensign 22 in the evening breeze, tying knots by the campfire, and indoctrinating new sailors into the “ASC Swim and Sauna Committee,” and just handing out by the campfire and getting to know all the new ASC members.
• Watching Matt Flickenger hand out the US Sailing Instructor scholarship money to Gabe, Addy, and Oliver while the whole class cheered.
• The Saturday evening pizza party in the dumping rain, powered by Nancy Black’s culinary magic and high-tech pizza oven. Also: dessert pizza with Nutella, marshmallow fluff, and orchard-fresh cherries!
• Seeing Brie and the entire kids class out ripping around in high wind on the Flounder, the ASC’s Catalina 16.5.
• Working with Clayton and Gabe to run the race start drills on the final day. Some of those starts were just remarkable! It was honestly difficult to imagine that everybody could come so far with their sailing in just three and a half days.

I also wanted to send a shout-out to the (many) volunteers who put this together, including:

• Brie, Cathy, Darren, and Addy: our fabulous instructor crew.
• Gabe, Clayton, Oliver, and Jake: our high-energy teen instructor crew.
• Nancy & Angie: our make-everything-happen super volunteers.
• Steve Ryan: the reason we have a fleet of working boats!

I also wanted to send a special shout-out to Michele and Luciana Liu. They’re the mom and sister of Kendrew, who took the class. The two of them were at the club during much of the class and jumped in to help wherever they could.

I did a terrible job getting pictures, so I’m hoping that other folks have some to share. But Brie got a great shot of the kids’ class on the Flounder (that’s our header image), and Tom Harrison got a good shot of the class rounding a mark in one of the calmer and dryer moments of the weekend.

Next Class Starts on Thursday!

Our next class starts this Thursday, and once again, we’ll have all the club boats in use from Thursday through Sunday. We’re planning on a class potluck on Saturday evening, and club members are all welcome (and encouraged) to join us. Note that we should have plenty of space for RVs this weekend since we have a permit with the Mat-Su Borough during the class that lets us use the area by the public boat launch for overflow parking.

As usual, everybody is welcome to be at the club during class, and it’s always a blast to meet all the new members.