March 2014 Beacon

Another day closer to ‘Launch’ and all that it brings. Pass the boat wax and turn up the heat! After that Polar Vortex, I for one, am ready for sunny skies and balmy breezes. Soon enough and we’ll be sippin’ a cold beverage in the shade at our Island. Me and my First Mate are making ready for the upcoming ABYA Midland rendezvous. It’s always a good time at this event and it is great to see the folks from all the different clubs in our area. As Rear Commodore of ABYA, P/C Rick and Jill Romatz are hosting this fund-raising event and you can be sure that a good time will be had by all. If you’re not attending this year, maybe consider it next year to get out and meet a bunch of fun-loving folks.

This month also brings the Blessing of the Fleet at Mariner’s Church in Detroit. Our Chaplain Art Brooks and Officers from NCYC attend this ceremony traditionally to have our NCYC club burgee, the one that is flown atop our cupola, blessed along with other burgees brought there by Merchant companies, Yacht clubs and boating groups from around the region. A very interesting event steeped in history and tradition. The business of the Club goes on and I have to admire the interest, dedication and concern that these Officers and Directors that you have elected to represent NCYC, bring to the table. The whole focus of what we do is for the betterment and success of North Channel with an eye looking forward to our progress into the future. I just want to say how proud I am of these folks and the pleasure that I have in working with every one of them. I’m hoping that getting the highlights of our Board meetings out to you is proving interesting and useful. My thoughts were to have the important points of Club business be made available to everyone right away as it happened. In the past, information was available one or two months after it occurred. Much too long if an issue was time-sensitive. I’m having Brent Malik, our Publications Director, place the 2014 Events Calendar in the March Beacon. Please take a look at it and hopefully make plans on attending the functions during the season. The calendar is by no means is complete. I’m looking forward to adding some more events as we move closer to the summer. If, by chance, you have some interest in hosting an event please let me know. To date, I’m still lacking someone interested in organizing an event or two with the Youth of our Club in mind. I feel that this is important not only to our children that we bring to the Island with us, but to the Club itself. We try to promote Youth involvement at North Channel but at the same time we have to provide them the interest to keep them returning.